Quesadillas

Just a simple dinner tonight - fill a tortilla with shredded cheddar and fry it in olive oil. A couple of those. Instant quesadillas!

Burritos: Rainy Day Comfort Food

Potato & pepper & onion burritos are my idea of a rainy-day comfort food. A tropical storm is wending its way into Southern New England and I stared at the rain whilst clicking my little City of Wonder buildings, I thought of tortillas and cheese.

Perfect for lunch or dinner.

This is precisely how I made it because I used what I had on-hand, but you can modify it however you need: just eyeball the food you have and do what you can!

Ingredients:
- 1 16oz bag of sliced green, yellow and red peppers (still frozen)
- 1 12oz bag of diced onions (still frozen)
- 10 fingerling potatoes
- tortillas
- cheddar cheese, shredded
- olive oil
- 2 tbsp chipotle spice powder from Tupperware
- sour cream

1) I turned the burner to somewhat high heat (7 of 10) and put some olive oil in the pan, just enough to coat.
2) I poured the frozen veggies in, broke them up a bit with a spoon and left them to cook.
3) I washed and poked the potatoes and put them into the microwave to cook.
4) I stirred the peppers & onions, added the chipotle spice powder and played City of Wonder, because I'm completely addicted to this latest Disney Facebook game.
5) After about ten minutes the peppers & onions were starting to caramelize and were hitting the edge of what I'd call burnt-on-the-bottom. Love it, because that reminds me of what it's like when you get fajitas at a restaurant.
6) I cut up the cooked potatoes into bite-size pieces and stirred them into the pepper mixture.
7) I put a cast iron pan onto another burner, turned the heat to 5 (of 10) and when it was warm, I laid a tortilla in it.
8) When the tortilla was warm, I turned it over and liberally spread the cheese over it.
9) I waited until the cheese was mostly melted and took the tortilla out of the pan and put it into a plate.
10) I then spooned the pepper & potato mixture into the center of the tortilla and spooned sour cream over the top. I folded the tortilla simply (both sides up over each other into a roll) and it was done.

And it was SOOO good.

Baked Potatoes with Stilton and Cheddar

Wow.

I hadn't realized how much cooking a meal down here in my basement apartment would cheer my spirits. Wow. Now I see why my brother put up a sign that said "Mongo's Place."

I put six mini potatoes into my new toaster oven, set it to 400F and timed it to 40 minutes.

-- The potatoes smelled SO good while they were baking that my stomach started seriously growling. That was hilarious.

The timer dinged, I headed over and the tiny taters were done perfectly. Crunchy skins. Wow.

I took them into the kitchen, sliced them in half and put bits of stilton-and-cheddar over them. This place smells Amazing.

Today, today is the One Year Anniversary of my being back in Connecticut. On this morning, very early, Dad and I left Fredericksburg and drove north, through DC, through the Palisades, up the Merritt and on home.

So I figure that cooking my first meal down here is a fantastic way to celebrate.