Broccoli Quesadillas - "Our Usual" and the "Fancypants"

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Broccoli Quesadillas - "Our Usual" and the "Fancypants"

Seth's dreams are epic dreams. A fact that can turn bleary mornings into family story hour. Seth regales me with a recitation of his most recent nocturnal tale while I greedily lap it up.

Tales of survival in a post apocalyptic world. Heroic tales of saving lives - sometimes people, sometimes kitten. Tales of living life as a whale (whether that whale was a blue or a grey yet remains unclear) and fighting to stay alive in the face of killer whale attacks. These are the dreams that Seth's subconscious produces.

I'm so eager to eat up these dreams and absorb them into my memory. Perhaps I hope my own subconscious mind will start to produce similar results through osmosis.

Mine, are well, mundane. At best. If I can even remember them. Which is a seldom occurrence in life. The ones I usually remember are those anxiety-ridden ones, the ones where you are late and despite your best attempts to get to where you are going, you are stymied every step of the way.

Once I dreamed of a loaf of bread. That's it. It was the Platonic ideal of a loaf, just floating in front of a black background. No events actually happened. Just a floating loaf. I strangely didn't even eat the bread, a surprising thing for me to do since I have a deep and abiding love for the stuff.

Seth's dreamscape couldn't be more different from mine. Our quesadilla preferences suffer from similar discrepancies. But this disparity runs the other direction - mine are the more epic quesadillas. I started adding a mango and black bean spread to add some extra levels of flavor. Our usual quesadilla involves broccoli and jalapeno with scallion, cilantro and cheese. I wanted more.

When offered the quesadilla with "more," Seth determined that he still wanted his usual and not the "fancypants." I long for more in my dreams. Seth apparently does not feel the same about his quesadilla. Somehow, we make it work.

Ingredients

Instructions

For the spice mix:

Mix all the spices together in a small bowl. Keep leftovers in an airtight container.

For the mango black bean spread:

Place all the ingredients, including the spice mix, in a medium pot over medium-low heat. Let everything cook together, and after about ten minutes, take off heat. Use an immersion blender to puree. Set aside.

For the quesadillas:

Take the flour tortilla and put spread the mango and black bean mixture on half of the tortilla. Then layer the jalapeno slices, broccoli florets, scallions, cilantro, and cheeses on top of the spread. Or if you are being Seth, then just skip the mango black bean mixture part. Once all your ingredients are in, fold the tortilla. Heat canola oil (about a tablespoon) in a cast iron skillet. Place the quesadilla in. Once a side has a nice golden brown color, flip it over. Once both sides are golden brown, take off heat and serve.