Pumpkin Blossom Quesadillas

A couple weeks ago I was so thrilled to see that Peter's Pumpkins was selling pumpkin blossoms at the farmers market.

Typically you hear of people stuffing these & frying them but we'd been wanting to use them in quesadillas. We'd never had blossoms served this way & were interested to see what kind of flavor they added to the filling.

These were really good quesadillas though I'm not sure the blossoms added a ton of flavor. I think maybe we were expecting a stronger squash flavor then we got. Perhaps we needed to use more than one bunch. Anyway, it was fun to play with an ingredient that was new for us & it did make for a pretty filling.

Pumpkin Blossom Quesadillas

1/2 T olive oil + extra for brushing on the tortillas
1/2 c chopped red onion
1 pepper chopped (we used a red gypsy pepper but a poblano would be great too or something spicy if you like spicy)
1 clove garlic, minced
12 - 14 pumpkin (or other squash blossom), stems & stamens removed
2 T water
4 oz quesadilla cheese or monterey jack, grated
4 flour tortillas

Heat the 1/2 Tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper & garlic. Sauté until the onion is translucent & the pepper is starting to get tender. Add the blossoms & water & cook while stirring until the blossoms are wilted.

Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-high heat. Top one tortilla with half of the cheese & half of the blossom mixture. Top with another tortilla. Brush with a little oil. Put oiled side down on the hot griddle. Cook until brown & crisp. Brush the top with more oil & flip. Cook until that side is brown & crisp & the center is melted.

Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Cut into wedges & serve with sour cream & salsa.

Makes 2 quesadillas.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

Weekly Menu 8/30 - 9/1/10 and the State Fair

It's the time of summer we look forward to every year, the Minnesota State Fair time. We're lucky as MN has arguably one of the best State Fairs in the country & it's just over the Mississippi in St. Paul. We love to go try out try out new foods, eat some old favorites, visit all the animal barns & just enjoy the people watching. It's also one of my favorite places to take photos.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
It was 4-H Day at the Fair so we spent a lot of time watching animal judging & all the hard work these kids have done. We also spent time at one of the most popular places, The Miracle Birth Building. Eighteen piglets had been born just 1/2 hour before we got there. As food food, we tried a couple of new things. Everyone said we had to have the Peaches & Cream Parfait from the Salty Tart; it was the perfect fresh, cool treat on a hot day. We also tried another new highly rated dish, the zeppoles, which were messy with their creamy filling & powdered sugar but oh, so tasty. I was interested in the chicken fried bacon & pigs ear fries but after all the the bad reviews we decided to skip them & went for La Loma Tamales & The Original Cheese Curds (where they truck the curds in fresh from WI everyday!), things we knew would be good.

No farmers market finds this week as we are leaving on vacation in a couple days & didn't need too much. We picked up some bread & a few greens for side dishes. We did though try the new Chef Shack Charcuterie Plate.

How's that for a breakfast. Hey, Chef Shack has been nominated as one of America's Favorite Food Trucks on Food Network. You can vote here.

On to Menu Planning Monday...

As I said we are leaving on vacation this week so we are having sort of easy what we have on hand meals.

Brats with Potato Salad & Broccoli

Grilled Chicken with Tomatillo Salsa

Mustard Glazed Salmon with Green Beans

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photogr
aphs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

Oven Dried Tomatoes

I made my own oven dried tomatoes this week! It's time consuming but not much work at all. I started with a bunch of San Marzano & Roma tomatoes which I sliced in half & put cut side up on baking sheets with a silpad on them. I salt the tomatoes with a little kosher salt.

Then they went into a 200 F oven until they were leather pieces of sweet tomato. You want them to be pliable but not juicy anymore.

The San Marzanos tended to be smaller with less of a juicy inside, they dried in about 8 hours. The Romas were larger plus quite full & juicy. They took a lot longer to dry, closer to 12 hours. I found I had to keep checking after 7 or so hours & remove the tomatoes as each one was done because of the different sizes.

I've frozen them to add to pizzas & such through out the winter. Seems a little sad that all those tomatoes now only fill a quart size freezer bag but they really pack a lot of flavor.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

Potato & Leek Soup

Two weeks ago I picked up some leeks at the farmers market & decided I wanted some potato leek soup. When I mentioned it on my weekly menu, a few people wrote to say they had not had good luck with this soup. So, I was a little worried the recipe I was trying wasn't going to be good either.

I had nothing to worry about, this was a fantastic soup. Creamy, tasty & not to heavy plus it came together so quickly. I stuck pretty close to the recipe except for adding a little sour cream which I think just gave it that little something extra in flavor.

Potato & Leek Soup
(adapted from The Big Book of Soups and Stews. I have to say this is the best of the soup cookbooks I have, we've yet to have a bad soup from it.)

2 T unsalted butter
2 1/2 c chopped leeks, white & green parts only (I used 4 small leeks)
1/2 c chopped yellow onion
1 1/2 lbs new white potatoes, peeled & chopped
2 c chicken or vegetable stock
1 c milk
1/4 c sour cream
salt & pepper
chives for garnish (though crispy bacon would be good too)

In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the leeks, onions & potatoes then sauté for 3 minutes. Add the stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat heat, cover & simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Pureé the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender. Add the milk and sour cream. Season with salt & pepper. Simmer for 5 - 10 more minutes. Pureé again is you want it even creamier. Serve sprinkled with chives.

Makes 4 servings.

The book says this can be served cold or hot. I really preferred it hot.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

The Great Fig Winner

Before we get to the winner of The Great Fig Giveaway let's talk about how we used the rest of the fresh figs.

We made a grilled pizza topped with blue cheese, fontina, sliced figs & prosciutto. Once the pizza was cooked I drizzled a little honey over it, so good!

I tried a cocktail called The Flying Fig which I found on Chow. It wasn't bad though the seeds were a little interesting in a drink. I also made Matt a Fig Rickey from lime juice, whisky, muddled figs & club soda, which he thought was pretty good.

We also made another batch of fig jam using the Kadota figs. We used the same recipe as before but this time we added 5 seeded & chopped jalapenos & left out the cinnamon. I think it might be my favorite batch. It made for a great snack with some sharp cheddar on crackers.

Finally, we ended up freezing two bags of figs to use in baking later. I read that figs should be dipped in a citrus solution before freezing to prevent the color from changing but since I was only going to back with them I didn't worry about this. I froze the figs on a baking sheet until solid & then put them in freezer bags for longer storage.

Ok, without further ado the winner to the fig package from the CA Fig Advisory Board according to the Random Number Generator is #22 Lindsay. Lindsay I'll be emailing you for your address.

*Disclaimer: I was given free figs by the CA Fig Advisory Board & also a set of figs to giveaway. I was not paid in any way or required to write about the figs or host the giveaway.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski