Homemade Quesadillas

I'm on a tortilla kick lately, I promise that's not all we're eating these days!

When Hubby and I got married, we received a quesadilla maker.  It was nice and worked fine.  But it only made one quesadilla at a time.  And as much as we love each other, it isn't SO romantic to sit at the table together and nibble a shared quesadilla as you wait for another one to be done.  Now add in three kiddos and I'd be making quesadillas for hours. 

And in the big cleaning out that is happening around here (at least with my stuff), the quesadilla maker was donated to the thrift store.

Does that mean we are now sentenced to a quesadilla-less existence??  It certainly does not.

Necessity being the mother of invention (and I'll add innovation), we now have BETTER quesadillas!!

In this particular batch, I opened a pint of canned turkey, shredded pepper jack and chipotle chedder cheese, picked some green onions and used butter.  (I know you're shocked about the butter.)

{As an aside, I recently gave a seminar on canning and someone asked, "How do you have time to can?"  I replied, "I don't have time NOT to can!"  Because I had canned turkey in my pantry, I got this hot meal on the table in less than 10 minutes.}

Put some butter in the bottom of your cast iron skillet, drain water/broth from turkey and add.  We want to heat the turkey thoroughly and if we get some nice crispy bits, that would be just fine!

 While the turkey is heating, grab some soft butter.  Go ahead, grab it!  And then spread it on one side of a tortilla.  This is wonderfully relaxing way to cook.

Flip that tortilla over and add a layer of cheese.

Then the turkey and green onions.

And then a final layer of cheese.  Why the cheese at the beginning and the end?  Because the melting cheese acts as a "glue" that hold the non-melting ingredients together and keeps your quesadilla from falling apart.

 You'll want to butter one side of another tortilla to place on top, using the same wonderfully relaxing technique.  Who says you can't have fun in the kitchen??

Slide the quesadilla onto a HOT griddle.  I can't stress that enough.  My griddle was at 400 degrees.  If the temperature is too low, the tortillas will get hard by the time the cheese is melted.  We want them crispy, not hard!

It only takes 3 or 4 minutes, so don't leave them.  When the bottom side looks like this, flip 'em!

I know I should have taken a finished shot, but we ate them just as fast as I made them.  All five of us thought they were great!  With some fruit, it made a great lunch.  With a salad or some rice, you're all set for supper.  

The filling possibilities are endless!  My niece and nephew would probably want peanut butter and jelly.  ICK!  I like peanut butter and I like jelly, but combining the two is a horrible thing to do to both peanut butter and jelly!

Go forth and make your own quesadillas!!