Minimalist Kitchen: Quesadillas

I brought the bare necessities when I moved.  That means a camp chair, a skillet, the pressure cooker, the camp silverware and my travel mug.  And two cases of wine...

In keeping with the minimalism, all these photos are taken with my cell phone.  It just felt right.  This is a one pot meal! if you do dishes a couple times while making it.  Start with chicken.  I fried up a chicken breast, about three minutes on both sides over medium heat.  Let it rest for a few minutes, then shred it.

You might want to wash the skillet here, or maybe you want all those chicken flavors to get soaked up by the tortilla.  While the chicken is resting, prep your toppings - chop peppers, shred cheese, slice avocado.

Lightly grease the pan and add a tortilla, then a light layer of cheese.  The stove should be on medium heat.  Cheese is the glue that holds quesadillas together.

Top with veggies, chicken, and salsa. 

Then add another layer of cheese.

And finally, top with a second tortilla.  Around this time, the bottom layer of cheese should be melted and so you only want to wait another minute or so before flipping it - ideally the top layer of cheese will have started melting to hold everything together.

Then flip.

Fry for a couple minutes until the bottom tortilla is browned.  Serve it up with cilantro and avocado!  I saved this plate from free pizza day at work, because I didn't bring any plates with me.  I probably could have done a little better packing my kitchen.

And now for a bonus recipe!  Kyle calls this "cowboy coffee."  The virtue of this recipe is that is requires nothing more than a pot for making coffee.  Although I did buy a couple coffee mugs at a garage sale (can't beat 5 cents each!).

This is very similar to how I make french pressed coffee.  Heat water up in the pot until just before boiling (ideally you're aiming for ~200 degrees F, water boils at 212 F).  When the water has reached this point, take it off the burner and add your coffee.  For 16 oz, I added about three spoonfuls of coffee.

Give it a little swirl, then let it sit for 3 to 5 minutes (more time = stronger coffee).

Slowly pour the coffee into your mug.  The grounds will clump up at the bottom of the pan.  I trickled the coffee into my mug just to see if any grounds were floating, but I didn't see a single one.

Voila!  Easy coffee.

That's it for the minimalist kitchen - all my stuff is here now and I want to wash a lot of it before I use it again, but at least I have it here.  Except for all the silverware, which the movers apparently missed (so did Kyle, until I whined that I'd opened up all the boxes labeled "kitchen" and still hadn't found the silverware).