My girl friends and I had an absolutely awesome dinner at this place in Saugatuck, Michigan called Phil's...nothing fancy about the name or the look of the place, but the food was really amazing.  My favorite part of our dinner was a black bean quesadilla (which was our first course, followed by some incredible fish tacos!).  Here is my not-too-shabby attempt at making something just as tasty at home.

For the quesadilla:
Flour or corn tortillas (I used flour)
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed, drained
2 cloves garlic, minced/pressed
1 lime, juiced
2 cups sweet potatoes, cubed 
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped jalapenos (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
S & Pepper
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Shredded cheese (jack, colby, chedder, whichever you prefer - I used a combo of jack and sharp cheddar)
Butter or oil for grilling

Optional garnish:
Sour cream
Cilantro
Salsa

To make:
Pre-heat your oven to 350F.  Mix together the black beans, garlic, lime juice, sweet potatoes, onions,  and jalapenos (if using) along with the cumin, chili powder and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Toss in a bowl with the olive oil and then spread along a baking pan in an even layer.  

Cook, mixing and tossing every once in a while for about 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender (stick with a fork and taste).   

Heat up a pan or skillet for making your dillas.  Melt butter or spread a thin layer of oil on the pan.  Arrange your quesadilla by layering a tortilla, black bean/potato mix, a sprinkle of cilantro, and finally layer of shredded cheese.

Top with another tortilla and cooked on both sides until lightly browned and perfectly crispy.  You might need two spatulas to turn these puppies over if you use big tortillas like I did!  

Use a knife or pizza cutter to slice into wedges and serve with sour cream, salsa, and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro.  Step aside Phil...these are darn good!  

This is my attempt at recreating my brother in laws amazing pork tacos.  The pork takes a long time to cook but it is super easy considering you basically just dump it all into a crock pot and walk away!  The result is a really tender, slightly sweetened pork with a kick.  It is going to be hard to go back to chicken after this!

You will need (for the pork):
2 bottles of beer (I used lager, Dos Equis)
2 cups orange juice
2 large jalapenos, chopped big
1 large onion, chopped big
4 cloves garlic, left whole
1 habanero, left whole
1 mango, chopped big
1 peach, chopped big
Juice of one lime
4 country style ribs (about 3-4lbs)
*When I say chopped big, I mean cut up but into large enough pieces that you can pick them out later - these ingredients are for flavoring the meat, not for eating.

Combine all the above ingredients in your crock pot and set to high for 6-8 hours.  The meat should be falling off the bone when it is done.  

After the meat is done, strain the juices from the crock AND SAVE THEM!  This is what you will store the meat in (there will be leftovers unless you are making for more than 4 people).

Separate the meat from the rest of the ingredients and discard the rest of the ingredients. Pull the meat off the bone and shred with a fork or loosely chop with a knife.  Go ahead and take a bite...but be warned, if you taste it now there may not be any left for the tacos!

Taco Toppings:
Corn
Black beans
Cilantro
Cheddar
Salsa/Tomatoes
Sour Cream
Limes

You can definitely use whatever toppings you want.  I made a cilantro lime slaw the second time I made these and it was AWESOME.  I will post that recipe soon.  

For the picture above, I roasted the corn and black beans with some S&P and cumin before using as a topping.  Whatever floats your boat I say give it a try.  The real show stopper here is the meat - it's so good! 

Enjoy!

My great friend Jess and her husband came to visit and help ring in the new year this past weekend, and when I get to see her I am guaranteed to eat well, talk a LOT, and be left with a sore belly from laughing so hard.  I think you will get the picture...needless to say, we had a great time and came up with some great recipes! 

Jess really challenges my creativity when it comes to cooking because while I tend to rely on cheese and meat to make things really hit the spot, she is lactose intolerant and a vegetarian!  You would think this would ruin a meal for me, but honestly, I am shocked at how delicious our meals always are when we cook together...

The menu for New Year's Eve was Maple Glazed Salmon accompanied by Local Fixin's (which is her new project of bringing local Illinois farm products to the people of Chicago - it consists of black beans, wheat berries and an incredible seasoning mixture) sided with mixed greens tossed in a dijon vinaigrette.  If the picture doesn't cut it (mine never seem to) do yourself a favor and trust me on this one and make this for yourself sometime...DELICIOUS!

Local Fixin's take a bit longer than your average side dish to make, so we started early.  We soaked the black beans and wheat berries in water for about 6 hours.  This sounds time consuming but it's not at all...just takes some good old memory (or your phone alarm).  Seriously though, how hard is it to wake up, cover the dried stuff with water and then not think about it until 2 hours before dinner - piece of cake.

Once those suckers were good and soaked, we rinsed them off and put them into a 6 quart pot with 3.5 cups of water.  Jess was super smart in creating this little goodie jar because the mason jar has measurement lines on it and doubles as your measuring cup - how convenient!

Then we added the contents of the spice pack and stirred.  After bringing this mixture to a boil, we lowered the heat and simmered for about two hours, or until all the water was absorbed.  Again...cake!

While that simmered we cracked open the bottle of vino that she brought us wrapped up in this hilarious little monkey suit...the monkey got a little tipsy too. 

While sipping our monkey wine, we marinated our salmon by combining all the ingredients below and sitting the salmon skin side up in it for about an hour.  If you make this, you should marinate for at least 10 minutes but not longer than an hour or so just in case the vinegar breaks down the salmon.

Maple Salmon Marinade:1/2 cup balsamic
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup maple syrup (thank you Miranda for my New Hampshire Maple Syrup!!)
Dramatic drizzle of olive oil over top everything
S&P

Now for the mixed greens.  We made a simple vinaigrette by mixing up the ingredients below, tasting along the way until it was what we wanted.  Tossed with a bunch of mixed greens, this made a light and easy side for our dinner.

Dijon Vinaigrette:
Two heavy squirts of Dijon mustard
A large splash of apple cider vinegar
Double the amount of vinegar with olive oil
Season with S&P 
Add a dash of maple syrup 

After a few more laughs and a wine refill, we set the oven to broil and took our salmon out of the fridge.  We put the salmon skin side up in a baking dish with about a 1/4 inch of the marinade in the bottom of the pan and broiled for about 10 minutes.  Then we flipped it over and broiled until the salmon turned from shiny orange to matte peach, about 10 more minutes, depending on the size of your salmon pieces.  The top gets a little candied and is delicious! 

While that broiled, we chopped up some fresh ingredients from the fridge to mix with our Local Fixin's.  Here is what we used...   

Black Bean and Wheat Berries with Veggies:
One Jar Local Fixin's (black beans, wheat berries and seasoning)
Carrots, cut real thin for easy eating
Edamame, steamed and removed from pods
Cherry tomatoes, chopped
Sun-dried tomatoes, just a couple, chopped
Red onion, just a touch, finely chopped
A heavy sprinkle of feta cheese for on top

One bottle of wine and lot of good laughs later...everything is ready, monkey man is happy, and we are ready to dig in!  

Cheers to good friends, good food, and monkeys who hide wine bottles!

NOTE: If you aren't able to get your hands on Local Fixin's for yourself, you can try to recreate them by cooking black beans with wheat berries and a combo of dried basil, oregano, marjoram, parsley, dill, mint, onion, black pepper and mustard.   

One of my favorite things to bring to parties or weekends away is a huge batch of fresh salsa so everyone always has something to snack on...ok fine, it's so I have something to snack on! This homemade version is my go-to and since lots of people have asked for my recipe I decided to write it down.  Be warned, it makes a LOT of salsa!

You'll need:
1-15oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1-15oz can of corn, or about 1.5 cups of fresh or frozen corn
1 medium red onion, about 1.5 cups diced
2 jalapenos, ribbed and seeded, seeds saved for added spiciness
Juice of two limes
6 medium sized tomatoes
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
Cilantro - one big handful - I LOVE cilantro!
*all the measurements for the spices are just my preference, increase or decrease the amounts to your taste

All you do is chop up the onion, jalapenos (minced to avoid getting really hot bites) and tomatoes and toss them together with the rest of the ingredients - easy as pie...or salsa :)