Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween y'all! I hope this festive weekend has treated you well. This weekend has been quite an adventure for me. On Friday night, I went with my roommate to a law school party hosted at a local Austin bar. It was, to put it simply, fairly hilarious and a bit of a different crowd than I am used to as a PhD student. I believe the terminology I settled on was "all-out but well-composed"? Either way, there were some pretty hilarious costumes there. One guy was dressed as a tree, with 15 foot branches hanging off of him. He nearly took out the lights at the bar several times. For those who are curious, I went as the Tenth Doctor (yes, I am a giant nerd and I may have a slight man-crush on David Tennant) and my roommate went as Audrey Hepburn.

Last night, I held a small Halloween party at my apartment. I decided to have a bit more fun with my costume for this party, and I went to Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds to find the finishing touches. The result?

That's right. I was Dr. John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes mythology. Of course, this begs the question: where the heck was Sherlock Holmes? Well, so the story goes, Dr. Watson had just recently become engaged to a certain Mary Morstan and Sherlock was not particularly happy about it. Hence, Sherlock elected not to attend the evening party. The truth of the matter? I was originally going to go as Mr. Holmes but decided I desperately needed to wear a fake mustache.

The party turned out to be quite a lot of fun. It was a bit of a young professionals/graduate students mixer, with the usual consequences. There was plenty of food and drink, and I got to make quesedillas. Overly filled gluten-free quesedillas. Yes, they were delicious. Yes, I just might make some more tonight. So, without further delay, here is the simple (and rather non-specific) recipe.

John's Simple Quesedillas

Ingredients:

4 cups shredded Monterey Jack/Cheddar/Asadero cheese mix
12-ounces diced green chiles
1/2 cup medium chunky salsa (I use Pace)
1/4 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon chopped Cilantro leaves
Vegetable oil
16-20 corn tortillas
Salsa, guacamole, and sour cream for garnish

Steps:

1. In a large bowl, mix the cheese mix, chiles, salsa, oregano, cumin, and Cilantro leaves. Make sure to mix well.
2. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add a tortilla and spread some of the mixture even over the tortilla. Add as much of the mixture or as little as you want. I am not going to even pretend there is a correct amount. Top with a second tortilla, and cook until the cheese is melted. Flip the tortilla and cook the other side. Repeat to cook the remaining quesedillas (you will probably end up with 8-10 quesedillas, depending on how much mixture you use on each). If desired, cut each quesedilla into four, and garnish with salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.