sweet potato / black bean quesadilla (minus the queso)!

i was all set to make sweet potato and black bean quesadillas a couple nights ago for dinner, but then the cold set in during the prep work and i felt like cooking nothing....but the good news is that lunch today was a snap since the sweet potatoes were ready to go and there was just me to please.

i put a handful of chopped onions and some garlic on to saute with a bit of cumin...

and added some mooshed up sweet potato, black beans, and a bit of salsa.

and corn. remembered the corn right after i took this picture. we love frozen, organic corn. yes we do.

and, lastly, a bit of this: tabasco brand chipotle sauce. i was introduced to this a few years ago, and i love it so much, that i would marry it if it were legal. we would have beautiful, fiery, red-headed children:

put the mixture in a tortilla, and cover with cilantro before folding and grilling lightly in a pan on both sides.

i like to eat mine with a little salsa and avocado on the side. it was a tasty and delicious lunch - well worth the wait.

p.s. the cold is finally on its way out. kleenexes everywhere can relax.

p.p.s. the neko case concert last night was awesome - we were in the front row and, once, she totally looked at me. this means we are now BFF!

butternut squash enchiladas!

i was on the vegetarian times website, and i found a recipe for butternut squash tacos that was apparently formulated by a theatre student and modeled after a dish served at (seva), a vegetarian restaurant in ann arbor. being as i'm a theatre student and seva is by far my favorite restaurant within a two hour driving radius (went there for my birthday dinner last year), i was sure that something divine was at work. and after eating this recipe, i'm convinced of the divine.

here is the link to the v-times website and the recipe for: (butternut squash enchiladas!)

the process, you may be surprised to learn, begins with roasting the squash. it is hard to cut. i may have enlisted help. pre-roasting:

post-roasting:

and mashed:

in the meantime, we have our usual base player, the onion:

something very, very bad happened during chopping. it involved the knife thinking my thumb was an onion. bad knife. it was punished later on.

the onions that were not my thumb cooked with some garlic.

meanwhile, i chopped the canned chipotles in adobo sauce, which i made the mistake of tasting. and touching. dang, that suff is hot.

and red!

the secret ingredient here is reduced fat cream cheese. who knew?

and green onions - but you must add them after the rest of the filling has initially been cooked.

and now comes the arranging of the casserole dish. yes, i used canned enchilada sauce, and i liked it:

here i am putting filling in a tortilla:

i'd like to point out that, after i filled the casserole dish, i was informed there's an actual technique to assembling the enchiladas. *they say nothing is more expensive than regret!*

pre-oven:

post-oven:

you need to make this. you can serve it with lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado slices. and you can imagine you are at seva, or you that you are on TOP CHEF. you can give yourself five stars - i promise padma will not shame you before the crowd and ask you to pack your knives and go.