Cheese Quesadillas and Saints Salsa

I love making homemade salsa and Mrs. Nancy's recipe for Saints Salsa is one of my favorites! She likes to use fire-roasted tomatoes and chipotle peppers, which bring so much additional flavor to the salsa. But, I love that all of the ingredients are whirled up in the food processor. The flavors are completely united and it makes for a super simple recipe. Moreover, I love talking about fresh ingredients with the kids-- there is just so much to learn-- and this recipe was a great opportunity for that, with its fresh cilantro, lime, garlic, onion and japaleno.

Making quesadillas was a great way to utilize so many different cooks tools: the food processor, the chef's knife, the garlic peeler, the chopper, the citrus juicer, the can opener, and the pizza wheel.

We used the garlic peeler to roll the very fine skins off of the garlic. We also discussed the difference between a garlic bulb and a garlic clove. Then, we whirled the fresh garlic in the food processor.

We chopped 1/2 of an onion (mostly just for fun) with the food chopper before we placed it in the food processor.

We discussed the jalapeno pepper and examined the inside. I explained how all the heat of the pepper lives in the ribs and seeds. So, we scraped the ribs and seeds out and placed half of the pepper into the food processor.

We also used the citrus juicer to squeeze fresh lime juice. We had to use ALL of our muscles for this. Then, we examined the concave shape of the lime after we squeezed it!

We also had to use ALL of our muscles to open the can of fire roasted tomatoes! These are some hard working kids!

We also learned about different measurements like "a dash" and "a pinch"!

Finally, we added our fresh cilantro. (Some additional comments about cilantro are featured at the end of the post.)

Our salsa was made darker by all of the fresh cilantro and fire-roasted tomatoes! Delicious!

We made the quesadillas by placing a tortilla in a hot pan, sprinkling it with cheese and waiting for the cheese to melt.

Once the cheese was melted, we folded the tortilla in half and let it cook for a minute longer before we brought it to the cutting board for slicing.

It is fun to see a semi-circle transform into 4 triangles with the help of a pizza wheel!

We had lots of requests for seconds. The kids really impressed me with their enthusiasm for the salsa. So many vegetables...so little time!!!

Quotes of the Day:
"Miss Diana, this is so yummy. My mom and dad are NOT gonna make this."

Me: Does everyone know what Cinco de Mayo means?
Class: Silence.
Me: It means the "5th of May" and it also happens to be my husband's birthday. He getting kind of old, so I'm not even going to tell you how old he is...but we're celebrating his birthday this weekend! Isn't that exciting?
Thoughtful Child: Miss Diana, maybe you could get a new husband.
Me: Hmm. Well, I really like the one I have.
Same Thoughtful Child: Oh. Maybe you could just get an extra husband, then.

Me: (holding up a bunch of cilantro) What does this herb remind you of?
Answers: "grass and pollen", "salad", "leaves and sticks", "kiwi", "parsley"

Cheese Quesadillas and Saints Salsa 

Grated cheese

Flour tortillas

3-4 smashed cloves of garlic

1 14.5-oz can fire-roasted tomatoes

1 medium chopped onion
1 tablespoon of chipotle peppers, chopped (from a jar or can)***

Coarsely chopped ½ bunch of cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

Dash of cumin
½ chopped jalapeno

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp oil

Quesadillas:

Heat a large pan to medium high heat. Take one large flour tortilla and place it in the pan. Flip the tortilla over a few times, 10 seconds between flips. Air pockets should begin to form within the tortilla

                            

When pockets of air begin to form, take a handful of grated cheese, sprinkle over the top of the tortilla.

Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. The pan should be hot enough by now to have plenty of residual heat to melt the cheese and brown the tortilla. When the cheese is sufficiently melted, use a spatula to lift up one side of the quesadilla and flip over the other side. The tortilla should by now be browned slightly. If it is not browned, turn the heat up to high and flip the quesadilla over every 10 seconds or so until it gets browned. Remove from pan and cut into wedges.

Salsa:

Place garlic in a food processor and whirl until chopped. Add remaining ingredients and pulse on and off until the salsa reaches the consistency you like.
**We did not use the chipotle peppers in cooking class, but I wanted to include the recipe in its original form.

Thank you so much to Jessica Skerritt (Elena's mom) for volunteering in Cooking Class! We got some great pictures with two more "hands on deck", in addition to a smoother running classroom! (For those of you looking for rhubarb, Jessica advised me that Whole Foods is fully stocked.) Thanks, Jessica, for all your help!