alexandra’s kitchen: Quesadilla Trouble

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Quesadilla Trouble

I realized today that I don't know how to make a quesadilla. This is what I did: I briefly warmed two soft, corn tortillas in a dry nonstick pan. Then, I took them both out of the pan and covered one with grated cheese and one half of an avocado thinly sliced. I put a little oil in the pan. I covered the cheese and avocado with the remaining tortilla, and placed the whole thing in the frying pan. I weighed down the tortillas with a nonstick pan and ate the remaining half of the avocado sprinkled with salt — best snack ever — while I waited for my quesadilla to finish cooking.

Now, it wasn't that my quesadilla didn't taste good, it was just that it tasted different. Maybe it was because I used corn tortillas (from Trader Joe's, which are delicious ... thanks for the tip Aunt Vicki) instead of flour? Maybe it was because the cheese I bought, a pre-grated mix called Quatro Frommagio, didn't melt very well? Maybe it was because I got impatient and took the quesadilla out of the pan as soon as I finished eating my avocado? I don't know, I can't figure it out. I have not supplied a recipe since you likely know how to make a quesadilla better than I.

The Eggmobile

The eggmobile houses laying hens. It follows the herd of cattle, arriving to grass they've grazed on four days earlier.The hens peck at the four-day-old cow pies, eating various insects, larvae and parasites - rich sources of protein - and accomplishing a whole lot more along the way: By eating the fly larvae and parasites, they rid the land of potential pathogens and disease; by scratching through the droppings and spreading them across the grass, they enable the manure to sink into the ground and fertilize the soil; and by eating the pesky insects, they reduce the presence of one of the cows' biggest irritants.

The Barn

Joel Salatin stands in the open-sided shelter where his cows spends a portion of the winter. During the winter, the cows eat hay (dried grass accumulated throughout the growing season), and live on a bedding consisting of woodchips, sawdust and old hay to absorb the cows' excrement. When the heavy cows tread on their nitrogen-rich manure and on the carbon-rich bedding, packing it together, they allow the mixture to ferment (anaerobic composting). By adding corn to the bedding, Salatin entices his pigs to turn the bedding into compost: When the cows return to pasture in March, the pigs dig through the densely packed bedding, searching for the tasty fermented corn, aerating the pile and turning it into compost for the spring.

Corn Pudding