Quesadillas with goat cheese and potato...

The backyard was getting kinda cruddy and slippery between snow wanting to melt, then freezing into ice afterwards! We got a few inches of unexpected snow on Friday that freshened up the yard and the pups couldn't resist tearing around and chasing each other in the powdery fluff!

Max was pretty tired after running from Gus.

Gus, seen below, was still raring to go and would spend all day in the snow if he could!

With another week of 2009 behind us, we prepared 7 new recipes - our tops this time were the whimsical Rice Krispie Cake (you gotta make it!), Parmesan-Herb Focaccia and that simple Three-Cheese Pizza.

I stashed the leftover tortillas from that Turkey Con Queso Bake we made a few weeks ago into the freezer and have been waiting to come across a recipe to use them. I found these Potato, Greens, and Goat Cheese Quesadillas buried in my to-try piles and figured we would give it a go tonight.

While we have had a few unusual quesadillas, I can't think of one that was stuffed with chunky cubes of potato! Instead of boiling them, the cubes are steamed to keep them fluffy and light. When tender, we seasoned the warm pieces with smoky ancho chili powder, along with an equal amount of hot chili powder for an extra kick. While the potatoes were off cooling, we got a dipping sauce and topping going by combining prepared salsa verde (tomatillo salsa) and mustard greens for a slight bitter bite. When the potatoes were cool, we tossed them with a generous amount of hot pepper Monterey jack cheese.

After I pulled out the tortillas and got them ready for assembly by topping them with some additional mustard greens, I peered down with a raised eyebrown at my bowl of potatoes and cheese. It looked a bit too generous to me for those little tortillas! I forged ahead and divided the potato mixture between the bottom halves of the tortillas, along with adding spoonfuls of the salsa mixture over the top. Crumbles of tangy goat cheese went on top before I needed to fold the unfilled side of the tortilla over - it just barely came over to match the other side. If I had an extra tortilla, I would have split the filling between five instead of four, but alas I didn't. So, cooking them to crisp up the tortillas and heat the filling through was a bit messy with some spillage from the open side, but it wasn't as bad as I expected.

Thinking about it now, I might have been better off just dividing everything between two tortillas, topping them with the two plain ones and cooking them that way! In the end it did not matter much - messy or tidy, these grabbed a hold of our attention and didn't let go until our plates were clean! Spiked with the greens, using the citrus-y tomatillo salsa as a dipper, as well as part of the filling, acted as a pleasing cooling agent when paired with the smooth goat cheese to help keep the heat from the cheese and seasoning from becoming overwhelming. The contrast in textures from the crunch in the golden tortillas and softer potato filling just added to the gratifying nature these quesadillas brought to the table! Don't want to buy mustard greens or feel they are too bitter? Try using spinach as a milder replacement.

Recipes

Potato, Greens, and Goat Cheese Quesadillas