Experiment = Success

It's a quiet and lovely Wednesday night here in Madison. I'm just wasting time in front of the computer with headphones playing "Baby Mozart" taped to my stomach, you know, the usual (hoping that this baby will inherit her father's music ability!).

In a week of global tragedy, we have been reminded, here in our own comfortable little home, about how much we have to be grateful for. We had a great twenty week ultrasound last Friday and learned that our little one is a girl, and today I felt blissfully reminiscent of beloved college days as I strolled across a crisp campus to my first day of class. I really love the vibrancy of academia, and feel just as happy as can be to be dipping my toes in that world for just a few hours a week this spring. There is so much to be thankful for.

And before I get too cheesy, I think Paul's thankful for something else these days...my 2010 New Year's Resolution. Which is...to become a better cook. I'm not a poor cook, per se, but my recipes tend to lack a little pizazz, and the goal of the year is to see an end to the blase meal. In support of the attempt, P supplied me with some new cookbooks this year for Christmas. So far both have been home runs: the first is Global Vegetarian Cooking and the second is the I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook (introduced to me by my sister, thanks B). Both are highly recommended.

Tonight I tried out a recipe from the TJ's cookbook, and then I added my own twist to it. And I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with the results. I made the Sassy Peach Sweet Potatoes, and then instead of eating them on their own, made them into quesadillas. I've had sweet potato quesadillas at one of my favorite Madison restaurants, so gave my own variation a whirl. Try it for yourself, you won't be sorry!

Sweet Potato, Black Bean & Goat Cheese Quesadillas

Ingredients

- goat cheese (make sure it's pasteurized if you're feeding it to a pregnant lady like myself...)

- black beans (I mashed ours a bit so that they wouldn't roll right out of the quesadillas)

- tortillas (we used spinach because that's what we had on hand, and they worked well)

- sassy peach sweet potatoes

- a touch of olive oil for grilling the finished product

And here's the sweet potato recipe:

- 1 tbsp. olive oil

- 1 red onion, sliced

- crushed garlic (to taste, I use a ton)

- 4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

- 1 1/2 cups broth (the recipe calls for chicken broth, I could have made veggie but actually just used water and that worked fine)

- 1 12 oz. jar of Trader Joe's Spicy, Smoky Peach Salsa

- salt & pepper

In a large saute pan, heat the oil and saute the onion over medium high until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the sweet potato cubes and saute 3 to 4 minutes. Add the broth (water) and salsa. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the sweet potatoes are nearly tender, about 15 minutes. (After this point, I actually used my masher and mashed up the potatoes instead of leaving them chunky, which worked better for the quesa filling.) Remove cover, and if there is still a lot of liquid, increase the heat to high and boil until the liquid is reduced to a glaze. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

So that's it - once the potatoes are done, fill the tortillas with the beans, cheese and potatoes, grill and then voila. Fancy, yummy quesadillas. The potato recipe is also quite generous, so now we have leftovers of that for lunch tomorrow. All around a good deal.

Hope you enjoyed the experiment, and that you'll send your good recipes my way - I can certainly use them!