Vegetarian Quesadillas with Guacamole

Quesadillas are a great quick meal. You can mix them up with almost anything, and leftover vegetable filling can also go into another dish. This recipe takes about 20 minutes, and tastes great with fresh summer veggies. The vegetables can be sauteed more or less, depending on how crunchy you like your veggies. The times listed below should give you soft onions and mushrooms, with slightly crunchy peppers. Add peppers before mushrooms and cook for several minutes for softer peppers.

Vegetarian Quesadillas

• 1 tortilla
• 1 bell pepper, your favorite color, diced
  
• 1/2 onion, diced
  
• 1 handful mushrooms, diced
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• pinch cayenne pepper (more/less to taste)
• pinch red pepper flakes (omit to avoid spicyness)
• pinch chili powder/ground chipotle (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions and stir occasionally to keep from burning.
2. Cook until onions begin to soften, and add peppers and mushrooms. Cook until soft, another 5-8 minutes. Continue to stir occasionally.
   
3. Add spices, and let cook in, stirring, for another 1-2 minutes.
4. When vegetables are soft, remove pan from heat. While burner is still hot, toss tortilla on the burner to char lightly. Let one side sit on burner for a few seconds, then flip using tongs, a fork, or your finger (be careful not to touch the hot burner!)
5. Fill tortilla with sauteed veggies, and top with guacamole (recipe below.)

Guacamole (1-2 servings)

• 1 ripe avocado*
• 1/2 medium tomato, diced (optional)
  
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• pinch cayenne pepper
• pinch chipotle power
  
• pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• salt and pepper to taste

*A ripe avocado will be soft, but not mushy. When squeezed with the skin on, it should give a little under your fingers. It should be easy to mash with a fork.

1. Mash avocado using a fork or potato smasher. Leave chunks, or mash until smooth, depending on your preference.
2. Add spices and lime juice, and mix.
3. Add tomato and mix.

Handy trick: to keep avocado or guacamole from oxidizing, leave the avocado pit with the leftovers.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

This is really a fall recipe, but as we're having some cool summer days up here in Maine, I hope you'll forgive me. The truth is that pumpkin is great pretty much any time of the year, and pumpkin in baked goods tends to keep them from being too dry, even after a few days. Plus, they're dang pretty.


Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
via here, slightly adapted

• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (soft)
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (8 0z--not quite a whole can) pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 2 cups flour (the original recipe recommends cake flour, but they were great with all-purpose)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup buttermilk*

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1/2 cup of regular milk mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of white vinegar. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, and you have buttermilk! Check out other buttermilk substitutions here.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin papers.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light in color. If you're doing this by hand, it might take a little while.
3. Beat the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl.
4. Mix egg mixture with butter mixture a splash at a time, incorporating completely into the butter before adding more.
5. Add pumpkin and blend.
6. Whisk all dry ingredients together. (That's the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.)
7. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk alternatively to the butter mixture, mixing well after each addition.
8. Fill the liners with batter. You should be able to make 24 cupcakes with this recipe, or fewer if you want them to be larger.
9. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
10. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

Maple Cream Cheese Icing

• 7 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup of maple syrup*
• slightly less than a cup of confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)

*Depending on the kind of maple syrup you're using, you might end up with thicker or runnier icing. If your icing is too runny, you can add more confectioner's sugar. In that case, you might want to cut the sweetness with a few drops of lemon juice. Alternatively, you can call the icing a "glaze" instead, and then it is totally acceptable for it to be runny.

1. Mix butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
   
2. Add maple syrup and sugar, and mix well.

Happy baking!