I must be having a whip cream kinda day myself - it's only 10:30 in the morning and I'm ready to tear someone's head off. Some of it seems to do with the fact that, unbeknownst to me, there are apparently four different receptacles for dirty laundry in our house. Silly me, I thought laundry went only in the one laundry basket...
So far, none of my usual self-soothing rituals have worked out. I'm going to wait until noon (it seems too decadent to have whipped cream before noon on a working day) to make some of that whipped cream for a bowlful of blueberries, and maybe that will calm me down enough to allow me to continue working on my Fulbright application. How many more times can I say "Fulbright application" before you are completely sick of it?
At least dinner last night was satisfying. After reading your letter, I was visited by a rush of homesickness so swift and so lethal, I went scrounging around to see if I had anything to make some comfort food. Though we're scraping the bottom of our weekly groceries, we had everything I needed to make us a temporary antidote for the Tex-Mex blues: flour tortillas, pepper jack cheese, a can of Ro-Tel, and of course, cow, in ground form.
While it's no Polvo's, the modest table at Casa F looked pretty good to two homesick Texans. J took one bite and closed his eyes before saying, "Somehow, you managed to make chile con quesadilla."
Chile Con Quesadilla
1 lb. ground beef
lots of shredded pepper jack cheese
cumin, ancho chile powder, cayenne pepper
1 can of Ro-Tel tomatoes, drained
flour tortillas
Brown the beef over medium heat until no longer pink. Add two minced cloves of garlic and up to a whole chopped onion to the beef, and cook until soft. Add a drained can of Ro-Tel tomatoes and a glug of red wine (R, there is a magical relationship between wine and tomatoes, there is!), and cook for a few minutes longer. Then add the spices. You could add anything, but I added a few thumbfuls each of cumin, ancho chile powder, and cayenne pepper. Continue cooking until juices from tomatoes are mostly gone.
Put the meat to one side, then warm a skillet, preferably iron-cast, over medium heat. Add a little butter to the pan. When the butter is melted, place a tortilla in the pan. Cover the surface of the tortilla with ground beef and as much shredded cheese as you wish. Place another tortilla on top, then wait a minute or two. Flip the quesadilla, then pull of the top tortilla and add more cheese. Cook until cheese is melty and tortillas are slightly browned.
Repeat to make as many as you want. I took a can of black beans and cooked it with some butter, onions, garlic, and spices, then mashed all of it up to make refried beans.
While there was little to no nutritional value in last night's dinner, it did hit the spot, and made me feel a little less lonely out here on the East Coast. What do you like to eat when you're feeling sad or homesick?
Oh, also, the most interesting ingredient: I'd have to say whole fennel. I wanted to try to recreate this salad I'd had once in San Francisco, but it was a major fail. The fennel overpowered the rest of the ingredients, unfortunately, and I haven't tried to use it again. Oh well.
Alright, lady - I'm going to try to muddle through my day and hope I don't freak out and snap at someone. Hope you and B have a terrific weekend - can't wait to hear all about it!
L,
TF
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