J's Chicken Quesadillas

I know Jeremiah because I know his wife Cassidy. And I know first hand, Jeremiah loves good food. So much so, that he raided my fridge when he arrived late to a party, hopeful to find a few more pieces of cheesy garlic bread. Cassidy was horrified -- mostly because this was Jeremiah's first visit to my house, and generally a person doesn't pillage the hostess's fridge for snacks until he really gets to know her.

A while back (a long while back, if you ask Jeremiah), he came to me for a chicken quesadilla recipe. I make quesadillas for a quick lunch regularly, but I haven't ever given much thought to the process. I've done it so many times, I flip a quesadilla based on intuition, and I have no idea how long it takes or what the best combination of ingredients might be.

Tortillas are a blank canvas -- you can try any number of ingredients on them until you get the flavor profile you desire. Without having tasted the epic chicken quesadilla that prompted this specific recipe request, I am offering up my favorite combo of ingredients. Once you know the process, you can swap ingredients and invent all kinds of delicious meals.

Here's what you need to get started:

8 medium-sized flour tortillas (getting good tortillas is vital to making good quesadillas. Don't waste your money on a supermarket brand. If you're lucky enough enough to live near a Mexican market, get your tortillas there, especially if they make them in-house. While you're there, get yourself some freshly made pico unless you have intentions of chopping tomatoes, onions, and cilantro when you get home.)

1 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese (my favorite for it's melty factor, plus it isn't as overpowering as cheddar or pepper Jack. It blends nicely with the other flavors instead of trying to steal the show.)

2 scallions, sliced (optional -- I prefer my crunch to come from the pico, not the quesadilla itself)

1 cooked chicken breast, chopped into bite-sized pieces (I generally use leftovers. See below if you plan to cook chicken specifically for your quesadillas.)*

Pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, etc., for dipping

Set a large skillet on a stove with medium heat. Let it get hot. In the meantime, build your quesadillas. Lay out 4 tortillas, and top each with 1/4 cup cooked chicken, 1/4 cup cheese, and scallions if you like that extra crunch. Make sure to spread the ingredients evenly, creating a nice flat layer of chicken and cheese. Top each one with another flour tortilla.

Gently transfer the first quesadilla to the hot skillet, and allow it to brown until you can smell the tortilla. I make mine using scent as my timer, because the skillet gets progressively warmer with each quesadilla, so the cook time becomes progressively shorter. The first one can take as long as 3 or 4 minutes before it's ready to flip. Once you get a whiff of tortilla, flip the quesadilla to brown the other side. This requires a bit of grace, much like flipping an omelet or a pancake. Slide the spatula under the center of the quesadilla with your right hand (reverse this if you're a lefty), hold the skillet handle with your left hand, and gently turn the quesadilla upside-down, lifting and angling the skillet to catch the tortilla so you don't lose any chicken or cheese out the side.

Brown the other side, about 2 minutes (again you're really waiting for the smell to change). Gently lift the edge of the top tortilla -- if the cheese is melty and sticky, it's probably ready. Remove from skillet, and flip the quesadilla so the side you cooked last it facing up. If you put the hotter side down, the tortilla will sweat and create damp spots (and no one wants that). Repeat for the remaining quesadillas, remembering that each one will brown a little faster than the one before it.

Use a pizza slicer to cut the quesadilla into quarters, and serve with pico, sour cream, guacamole, and/or salsa for dipping. Pico is my favorite, but your really can't go wrong with any of these dippers.

*For the chicken:

3 uncooked chicken breasts (serve 2 for dinner today, use the remainder for your quesadillas tomorrow!)

2 cups orange juice

1 tbsp lemon pepper seasoning

Sprinkle chicken with lemon pepper, and place in a resealable plastic bag. Pour the orange juice over the chicken, and seal the bag. Allow chicken to marinate in the fridge for 2 hours before grilling. When you're through marinating, set the grill to medium heat, and grill chicken 7-10 minutes on each side (depending on their size). Beware of any hot spots on the grill, and move the chicken around as needed to prevent a burnt exterior. Cook until juices run clear. If you've grilled the chicken expressly to make quesadillas, allow it to stand for 5 minutes before you chop it into bite-sized pieces, so you don't lose all the juices to the cutting board.

Minnesota Chicken & Rice Casserole

When it's finally cold enough for comfort food in the great state of Arizona, I go on a soup, stew, and casserole diet. I first had this casserole at a friend's house about 15 years ago, and I still look forward to its stick-to-your-ribs deliciousness each year when the chilly autumn nights finally arrive. Even better, it's about as simple as it gets to assemble.

Here's what you need:

1 can of chicken (shoot for the 12-15oz size)
1 can cream of chicken soup (the standard issue soup can size)
1 can cream of celery soup
2 cups milk
1 cup rice

A word about the cream soups -- this is the original combo, but in a pinch, cream of mushroom, cream of onion, or a second can of cream of chicken will do just fine. I wouldn't recommend two cream of celery soups, but otherwise, you really can't mess this part up.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Put the rice on the bottom of a 2qt casserole dish. Don't bother greasing it -- it doesn't help with the after dinner scrubbing. Ideally, someone else will do the dishes for you since you made dinner!

In a separate bowl, mix both cans of soup and the milk. Pour half of this on the rice. No need to get technical here. Just eyeball it.

Add the chicken and it's broth to the casserole, then pour the remainder of the soupy milk mixture over the top. If you really want to get fancy, you can sprinkle a small amount of Lipton's onion soup mix (the kind that comes in a little pouch) on top.

Cover and bake for 1 hour, 45 minutes. After one hour, check in on things, and give it a stir. In the meantime, watch a movie, read a book, or do anything else but slave over a hot meal. Remove the lid for the last 15 minutes, then serve with fresh crusty bread and homemade applesauce.

Sweet Katie Ray's Sweet Puh-Taters

This concoction was born out of frustration -- do you know how challenging it is to find a decent sweet potato recipe? No, I don't want them mashed. No, I don't want to reinvent a classic. Of course I want mini marshmallows on top! This doesn't seem like too much to ask, but apparently, it is. There isn't a sweet potato tradition in my family, so I turned to my dear sister-in-law, the woman responsible for my all-out sweet potato lust each November. A known chatter, I expected more information about sweet potatoes that I could possibly use; instead, I got "lots of butter and lots of brown sugar." Hmmm. I'm pretty clever in the kitchen, but really?

At this point, my unbridled desire for sweet potatoes took over. Not to mention, this was the year of my first ever solo Thanksgiving endeavor. In case you ever find yourself in a similar bind, here's how to make a super-traditional, extra gooey, melt-in-your-mouth sweet potatoes... Katie Ray style.

To serve 6 for dinner (and still have some leftovers for yourself the next day), you'll need:
2 1/2 lbs yams
1 cup packed brown sugar
5 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup hot water
3 cups mini marshmallows (don't even bother wasting your money on marshmallows not made by Kraft. You'll be disappointed.)

Place the yams, whole and unpeeled, in a large stock pot and cover with water. Put a lid on it, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook for about 30 minutes, or until mostly cooked. Remove yams, and set aside to cool. Now would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Once the yams are almost cool, get a small saucepan. Before you ever set that saucepan on a burner, add the brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Add the hot water (it shouldn't be boiling, but hot enough to hurt a little when you touch it), and stir. Set the saucepan on the stove on low, and continue to stir occasionally. The heat should help this mix create a thick liquid, about the consistency of good maple syrup.

Your yams should be plenty cool by now. I won't lie, this is the most pain-in-the-you-know-what part of this dish. But it's so worth it. Anyhow, carefully, gently, peel those cooked yams. Then dice them in to nice little bite-sized chunks. Evenly spread your yams into a greased 9x13 glass baking dish. Remove your brown sugar sauce from the stove, and pour over the top of your yams. Top with mini marshmallows. Bake until bubbly, about 25-30 minutes. You'll know it's ready when your mini marshmallows are toasty.

Meatless Monday Penne with Roasted Zucchini

Meatless Monday caught my attention earlier this year; however, as skilled as I am in the kitchen, my experience with meatless menus is essentially non-existent. I'm married to a man who grew up on a dairy farm, and as the daughter of a hog farmer myself, vegetarianism isn't exactly on my radar. But the idea of dedicating one meal a week to food that doesn't involve meat seemed like an interesting challenge.

I've crafted a few meatless meals in the past year, mostly by modifying old standbys. Honestly, once the excitement ebbed after the first couple week, I've been a half-hearted participant in the movement. Some weeks it just seemed like too much trouble to think of something new, other times I just wanted to enjoy the original recipe, but one way or another, Meatless Monday became Meatless Monthly in the Ray household.

Slay Energy Vampires! has recently rekindled my interest in Meatless Monday. I've read posts about Baba Ganoush, Eggplant Parmesan, and an ad-libbed stir fry, all complete with enticing photos and detailed instructions. Justin inspired me to give it another chance, and remarkably, I actually enjoyed Meatless Monday this week. Instead of modifying one of my favorites, I invented my own vegetarian meal, which turned out to be a much better plan. And while I still can't promise I'll make it happen every week, I think I might have discovered my first standby for Meatless Mondays yet to come.

Here's what you need to enjoy a delicious meat-free meal:

2 healthy zucchinis (together they should weigh close to 2 lbs)

12 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

3 shallots, halved and sliced

1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 lb uncooked penne pasta

1 cup chopped fresh basil

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and bring a large stock pot filled with water to a boil (in preparation for your pasta). Trim the ends of the zucchini, then slice into thin rounds -- no more than 1/4 inch thick. Place zucchini, smashed garlic, shallots slice, crushed red pepper flakes and about 4 tbsps of olive oil into a large bowl and toss. Then pour everything onto a heavy rimmed baking sheet and roast for 10-12 minutes. Zucchini should be tender and literally fall off a fork when it's ready.

Hopefully your water is at a full boil at this point, and you can cook the penne (according to package directions) while the veggies roast. Just before you remove the penne from the stove to drain, reserve 1 ladle-full of pasta water in a separate dish.

If everything runs smoothly, your zucchini should be ready about the same time the penne comes off the stove. Return the penne to the stock pot (over low heat), then add the roasted zucchini, garlic, and shallots to the pot as well,, making sure to pour any remaining olive oil from the baking sheet into the pot. Add the reserved pasta water, fresh basil, and shredded parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste (as usual, I go easy with the salt and heavy-handed with the pepper, which is freshly ground, of course). Toss in the stock pot, then transfer to a large, warm dish. You should be able to serve 4-6, depending on their appetites. This dish tastes great with garlic bread and a Caesar salad (but skip the anchovies so you don't ruin Meatless Monday!).

Date Night Shrimp Scampi

The first time your significant other comes over for a dinner you're preparing, you want it to be culinarily sophisticated. Or at least super special. As a co-ed in my educational homestretch, struggling to finish an honor's thesis while working 40 hours a week, I typically survived on hot dogs and blue-box mac & cheese. But I definitely didn't want to serve Mike anything that resembled college food the first time he ate in my kitchen. So I created a menu so fancy, so beyond college food (or bachelor food, in his case), that I was sure to wow him. And I did.

I prepared a veritable feast that night: Strawberry Spinach Salad, Garlic Bread, Classic Alfredo, and Shrimp Scampi. What he didn't know at the time was how deceptively easy it is to pull off this meal. Shrimp Scampi looks and sounds like a restaurant-worthy indulgence, but it's reasonably easy to make on the cheap (buy the frozen shrimp -- it's actually fresher than the "fresh" stuff, unless you've got beachfront property). And it's only labor-intensive for a few minutes, so you can spend more time chatting up your date.

Six years later Mike knows this isn't the most challenging dish,but it's still one of his favorites.

Here's what you need:

1-1&1/2 lbs shelled and deveined shrimp (just buy it that way -- it's totally worth it)
4 large garlic cloves, smashed (don't worry about the garlic -- as long as you both eat it, neither of you has bad breath!)
1/2 cup butter (use the real stuff)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/8 tsp pepper (or several vigorous cranks of the pepper grinder)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Lemon wedges

Melt the butter in a large skillet, then add the garlic, salt, oregano, and pepper. Add the shrimp and lemon juice. Cook 10-15 minutes, until the shrimp is opaque and the liquid is reduced. Serve on a warm platter (shrimp gets cold like a chihuahua in 70 degree weather, so this really makes a difference). Garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.

Red Wine Beef Stew

While the calendar asserts that fall arrived last month, it typically takes a little longer for it to feel like fall in Arizona. Which is probably why this is my favorite time of year; I love watching the temperature begin to drop after a long, hot summer, and I enjoy cooking more when it's chilly out and the oven keeps the house nice and roasty-toasty. We haven't quite reached chilly yet in Arizona, but with last day of hundred degree heat behind us, I can't help but get excited about all of my fall favorites, especially beef stew.

I grew up eating this midwestern staple on cold winter nights, and honestly, it wasn't one of my favorites back then. My family's stew has all the classic ingredients: meat, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions... you get the idea. But I could never get excited about it. Like a lot of other folks, I got caught up in Julia Child mania and only recently discovered Bouef Bourguignon. Now, I don't want to prepare a dish that labor intensive most days, but Mrs. Child did inspire me to try a reworking of my family's beef stew that included red wine. Turns out, I love beef stew! I just needed a little wine (okay, a lot of wine) to transform this ho-hum classic into a meal I crave on chilly (or at least not so hot) evenings.

If you think I'm being a little over-the-top about stew, just ask my cousin Jason about this meal. I debuted this recipe on him, after he sat down at my kitchen table and announced, "I'm not really a stew kind of guy." Jason has since learned that the moment your hostess pulls a bubbly Dutch of deliciousness out of her oven is not the appropriate time to make such assertions. And we both learned that Jason is a stew kind of guy -- it just took the right stuff to turn him around.

Here's what you need to get started:

1 1/2 lbs beef roast, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup flour (in a large ziploc bag)

6 carrots, chopped into 1 inch chunks

4 stalks of celery, cut into 1 inch chunks

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

2 onions, sliced into 1 inch pieces

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

2 tbsps fresh thyme leaves, plus 6-8 whole springs

2 cups red wine (try a Cab -- that's my favorite for this dish)

1 cup beef broth

1 small can tomato paste

3 tbsps olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees, and start chopping. I almost always cut up the beef first, but then get overly excited to get it cooking and toss it into the pot. Unfortunately, this means I end up speed chopping of everything else in a panic to have it all ready for the next step. Do yourself a favor, and just chop everything all at once before you even turn on the stovetop.

Once everything is sliced and diced, heat a large Dutch oven with 2 tbsps olive oil over medium heat. Place the chunks of beef and the flour into a ziploc bag, and shake to coat the meat. Add the meat to pot, and cook until brown on all sides. Remove the meat to a plate, then add the remaining tbsp of olive oil, as well as your veggies and thyme leaves to the Dutch oven. Cook about 10 minutes, or until they have softened up a bit. Return the beef to the pot, then add wine, broth, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Don't go crazy with the salt, but be generous with the pepper. Top with fresh sprigs of thyme.

Put the lid on, and slide the whole thing into to oven. Cook for two hours, removing the lid for the last 20 minutes so it can thicken up a bit. Serve with some kind of crusty bread. This supper is most satisfying when there is a chill in the air, but it still tastes pretty darn good if you simply turn the AC down an extra couple degrees.

Scottsdale-Style Spinach Dip

I've wanted to share this recipe for a while, but couldn't quite seem to put my finger on the back story. I finally realized that one of my favorite recipes came from one of the not-so favorite parts of my life.

My first encounter with spinach dip came at Houston's restaurant in Scottsdale. For those who know me best, Scottsdale isn't exactly home to my kind of people; that being said, once upon a time I foolishly dated a guy who was Scottsdale through and through. That's right, a Corvette driving, James Bond wannabe, with champagne taste and a credit card with a large enough limit to accommodate his preferred lifestyle. While the relationship itself was a total bust, I did get plenty of opportunities to enjoy some truly delicious food at restaurants that wouldn't have otherwise been on my radar.

One of my favorites was Houston's, home of the overpriced cheeseburger and some seriously tasty spinach dip. After the break-up, I never missed the showy manual transmission Corvette, the fighting, the Hugo Boss wardrobe, the jealousy, or the company of those snobby folks enjoying fine dining just a few miles north of me. But there was a hole in my heart where our Friday night trip to Houston's used to be. I longed for spinach dip, pining away for a bit of that warm cheesy goodness on piece of freshly baked french bread. Sadly, my single girl's budget couldn't handle a night out to Houston's, and ten years ago spinach had yet to reach the immensely popular, easy-to-come-by status it enjoys today. So after a few disappointing attempts at recipes that simply couldn't compete with my memories of Houston's, I crafted my own dip.

Here's what you need to make a batch yourself:

8 oz. package of cream cheese (softened, to make your life easier)

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus a little more for sprinkling on top (the stuff in the green container is fine for this dish)

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Dash freshly ground black pepper

Dash garlic salt

2 cups finely chopped fresh spinach

1 loaf french bread, cubed (pita chips, tortilla chips, or some other bread will taste good too, but french is my favorite)

This is a great make and take recipe, but if you're going to indulge now, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If your going to take it to a get together, keep covered and refrigerated until about 20 minutes before you want to put it in the oven.

Open the cream cheese, and pinch off one inch sized chunks into a large bowl. This speeds up the mixing process since cream cheese tends to get stuck in the beaters. Add mozzarella, sour cream, parmesan, mustard, pepper, and garlic salt. Using a hand mixer, beat until all ingredients are combined. Dip should be a bit lumpy.

Add the spinach, and stir in with a spoon (do not use the mixer). Once combined, pour your dip into a 9-inch glass pie plate coated with cooking spray. Make sure the dip is spread evenly across the bottom of the dish, but don't press it down flat or it won't have the desired fluffy texture after baking. Top with a dusting of parmesan cheese before baking, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes. You'll know it's ready when a golden crust forms across the top and the cheese is bubbling gently.

To enjoy the complete Houston's experience, serve hot from the oven with cubes of french bread.