the world is your acorn

I am excited about this. Ever since the baby came and school started getting crazy, we’ve been looking for more delicious, fast, close/on-the-way-home dinner-pick-up options. Pickin’s are slim for us, kids (if only the 12th South ‘hood fit those geo-requirements). The hot bar at the new gulch Turnip Truck has been a fantastic go-to. Otherwise we’re limited to some take-out options, which take way more time and the foresight of ordering (and god forbid you want to order from Watanabe, because there’s a good chance the person who answers the phone will put it down and forget about you before taking your order, so not only are you listening to her bullshit with a coworker instead of doing her job but you also can’t get her attention because if you hang up and call back the phone is off the hook and will be busy. hypothetically speaking.)

Anyway, this is exciting. Nashville Farmers’ Market isn’t exactly on our way home from work, but isn’t exactly completely out of the way either. And if it’s good, a 5 minute detour is nothing to poo poo.

WHEN WILL YOU OPEN?!?

via eat.drink.smile

Now that we’re poor (due to spending all our money on cute baby things) and we can’t manage to make it to the grocery store (due to spending all our time playing with a cute baby), I’m trying to be better about using up leftovers and the like (i.e. stuff we find in the pantry). I’m also trying to develop a bigger repertoire of simple/quick yet tasty meals, since I’m about to get crazy busy with my dissertation study.

The other night I discovered that we’re short on veggies and I hadn’t taken any meat out of the freezer that morning. However we did have some sour cream leftover from something or other, and picante that I wanted to get rid of. So I took the nice grilled strip steak that I couldn’t finish the night before, sauteed with peppers and onions, added some seasoning, and made quesadillas.

We try to always have pre-shredded “Mexican cheese blend” and flour tortillas in the fridge. Wouldn’t you know, we didn’t even have the cheese. Luckily there was a block of Monterey Jack in there which I shredded (am I the only one who takes FOREVER to shred cheese?), and some leftover canned whole chiles.

Not bad, for a quick meal. Not that we got to enjoy it, since the baby randomly freaked out that night and couldn’t get to sleep until 9:30. And, obviously, I don’t have a picture of the finished quesadillas. Because that would’ve made sense.

Relevant pantry/fridge staples:
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheese
Salsa or something similar