Jack-o-Lantern Quesadillas for Halloween!

There's something you should probably know about me: I like to get things done.  It's not just that I like to be able to check things off my to-do list (although I do really like doing that), it's that while I'm trying to get something done, I'm focused solely on getting it done as quickly as possible.  No dawdling.  I do this even with things I like doing.  I just want to get it done and move on.  (This is also why I seem to always forget to take photos of things I wanted to share here on the blog.)

For this reason, I really stink at making mealtime fun.  Pretty much every time Norman fixes lunch for Lucy, he makes a funny face out of the food.  I never do, unless she asks me to.

[Like this. Actually I can't remember if this was me or Norman.]

So, it's a small miracle, and in all actuality, a coincidence, that I decided to make these for dinner the other night.

The coincidence part: I was already planning on making quesadillas for dinner.  Bean and veggie.  Sooo good.  I had called my mom the day before to wish her and my dad a happy wedding anniversary.  While we were chatting, she mentioned that she has read this book called Snacktivities, about making fun food for kids to eat.  She mentioned that one of the things was turning a tortilla into a snowflake with scissors, the way you do with round pieces of paper in the winter.  Which reminded me of this, in which "Recipe Laura" makes quesadillas by doing exactly that.  The next day when it came time for me to make my quesadillas, in a flash, I thought, "Jack-o'-lanterns!"  The orangeness of the cheddar cheese, the snowflakes, October -- it all came together.

 

I have absolutely no artistic ability when it comes to 2-dimensional renderings (i.e., drawing).  None.  So these faces are... basic, shall we say.  But it was still fun! 

Method: I took a sharp knife to a tortilla on my cutting board.  Total freehanding (obviously).  I happen to have made these tortillas from scratch, but whatever.  (Oh, but if you want to make whole wheat tortillas, you have got to get yourself some King Arthur Unbleached White Whole Wheat flour. It is light and fine. It has revolutionized my baking.)  I mixed cooked beans, frozen corn (defrosted under running water in a strainer), chopped onion, bell pepper, some fresh parsley I had on hand, salt, cumin, and paprika in a bowl.  I shredded some cheese.  Then I just layered it all up in a hot skillet.

Now, as you can see, if you put the cheese on top, it makes the faces hard to see.  But if you put the cheese on the bottom, all the beans and things fall out easier.  I recommend putting cheese, then filling, then cheese in between the tortillas, just to glue everything together, even though it obscures the face somewhat. 

Lucy was very tired (it was a no-nap day), but she still enjoyed them. I think.

[It's a face!]

Sooo... Are you someone who stops to smell the roses, or do you just want to get it done already?  (As a child I was in the first category. I really don't know what happened.)