Butternut Squash Quesadilla Birthday Dinner!

First, I gotta say something super important:

Happy Birthday to my dear brother, Bryan! 

I really do hope you had a great birthday today and wish that I was there to celebrate with you. 

Welp, we made it through the holiday and now just have New Year's to get through.  Maybe I'm alone in this thought, but I'll sure be glad when life is a little more back to normal.  I'm such a scrooge sometimes!   

We spent Christmas with Tommy's family.  It was really nice.  His sister went ALL out and made a fabulous Christmas dinner.  If you're reading this, Thank You, Ann!! - for cooking, for being a gracious host and for making it a-okay for us to roll around in our pajamas all day long!! 

We had a Mexican feast one night and "someone" had a few too many margaritas!  The next evening, we went to a family holiday party and "someone" had a few too many margaritas, again!  OK...maybe not too many - just the right number!  Ole!

I am totally hooked up with baking things now!  I got some new bundt pans, new mini-bundt pans, new cupcake pans, a new apron, as well as a new cookbook, "I Like Big Bundts" that I have been wanting and almost bought for myself about 2 months ago!  I have so many thank yous to dole out!

It was great seeing everyone and just having a chance to enjoy family time (although I really miss my Oklahoma family!), but I do have to say that it is nice to be home in my own living room, the dog sleeping at my feet, the cats curled up together on a blanket and the TV remote control 100% under my influence.  Ah. 

Tonight's dinner was inspired by my brother's birthday and a recent visit to a local Portland restaurant, The Casa Del Matador, where I had a splendid Butternut Squash Quesadilla.  I loved it so much that I wanted to try my hand at making it myself.  Butternut squash has such a nice, slightly sweet flavor.  Together with caramelized onions and goat cheese...  Uhmmm uhmmm good. 

Here's what you need:

For the Caramelized Onions:
2 Tablespoons butter
A drizzle of olive oil
2 large yellow onions
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon sugar

1 Butternut Squash
2 Tablespoons butter
salt and pepper

Flour tortillas
Goat cheese
Monterey Jack cheese

First, in large skillet, melt butter over medium high heat; add oil.  Chop onions like so:

and put them in the skillet, add salt, pepper and sugar.  Toss, put lid on the skillet and stir periodically. Once the onions start to brown, stir them more frequently so as to avoid burning.  It'll take about 20 minutes or so for them to fully caramelize. 

While the onions are cooking, heat your butternut squash in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes to soften it slightly and make it easier to handle.  Cut off each end of the squash and then peel the skin off.  If you have a good, sharp vegetable peeler, you can use that.  Mine was dull, so I used a knife. Cut the neck off from the round bottom, then split the bottom part and remove the seeds.

Cube the squash into about 1" pieces. 

Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat; add squash, salt and pepper.  Cook the squash as if you were frying potatoes.  Flip them every once in a while, cooking them until slightly browned and softened. 

Now we're ready to start building our quesadilla.  First, heat a griddle or skillet.  Place flour tortilla down and put as much or as little as you prefer of each ingredient.  I started with a lot (you might want a little less) of caramelized onions.  See how nice and browned they are? 

Then I added the squash and some crumbled goat cheese.  This is my favorite picture of the whole meal. 

Next, sprinkle just a little bit of monterey jack cheese, then fold over the tortilla and brown on both sides while letting the cheese melt.  Serve with avocado slices and sour cream. 

I tried several times to take a picture of what it looks like inside and just couldn't get a good one, so what see is what you get. 

I loved this, but I also love butternut squash.  Actually, I just love squash, period.  When I make it next time, I'm going to maybe use a little teeny tiny bit of nutmeg while cooking the squash, and just maybe even a pinch of ground cayenne pepper.  Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing. 

At the time of this post, I've not yet made dessert.  I'm thinking to try a new recipe, and I'm still figuring out the details of the recipe itself.  I'm leaning towards miniature chocolate bundt cakes with a vanilla bean glaze.  Once I get that figured out, I'll be sure and let you know!

Until then, Enjoy!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child