Quesadillas de Camarones from The Pioneer Woman

Ouch - it has been too long since I last posted.  I have been struggling with a dern cold for the last 10 days.  It really knocked me on my ear last week.  I was barely able to function, much less think of posting topics.  Things are looking better now, I think I almost have it kicked and I am back on the wagon!!!

The last 24 hours have brought us about 10-12 inches of the powdery white stuff and school is closed for a SNOW DAY!!!  When I was a kid we never had snow days, delays yes, but never the whole day off.  What gives?  I think the administration has gone soft.  Although, these days are so much fun I can't really complain.
Dude spent the morning shoveling the snow off of the deck, he is obsessed with shoveling.  I think he relishes the completeness that he can see so well when he has finished an area.  While he was out in the cold, silly beast, Birdie and I hung out inside where it was warm and puttered.  I just love to putter, doing nothing specific, just whatever whim flutters by.  It is quite relaxing.

While perusing my favorite blogs I stumbled upon The Pioneer Woman's Quesadillas de Camarones that she featured a couple days ago.  Thanks to the ingrained fear of being snowed in with two crazed beasts I hit the grocery store hard yesterday, along with every other mother in Castle Rock.  With the spoils from the trip and some frozen shrimp I dug out of the deep freeze we will be trying these out today.  I am not sure how the kids will feel about them, but I am super-duper excited.

So here goes, PW's Quesadillas de Camarones!

Cast of characters

All I had were frozen shrimp so I set these out to thaw for a couple hours.  Then I removed the shells and smothered them in the red sauce and set aside to marinate.

Go ahead and shred that cheese!!  Make sure to take a couple samples to make sure it is good and cheesy.

Slice up those bell peppers and onion.  I tried to keep the pieces an inch or smaller, that way they would be easier to consume without having one pull out of the steaming quesadilla and flop on your chin.  Owweee!!

Heat up a skillet, add a dollop of olive oil or butter and add the veggies.  Cook them on med-high heat until they reach the perfect consistency for you.  Mine were pretty limp and brown, but you can leave them crunchier if that is what your audience prefers.

Remove the veggies from the skillet and add the shrimp, sauce and all.  Cook on medium-high until the shrimp are opaque.  PW says to add a little water if they start to dry out, but I had plenty of sauce.

Once the shrimp are cooked, remove them and cut into bite sized pieces.

If you want you can grab a fresh skillet, or you can jut wipe out the one you were using and forge ahead.  I can't help it, I am always trying to reduce the number of dirty dishes in this house!!

M - I - C
K - E - Y

M O U S E !!!!

(Sorry, I get distracted)



Melt a little butter and toss in a tortilla.  Add some cheese, veggies and shrimp, a little more cheese and top with another tortilla.  Add butter as the skillet dries out and repeat until you have enough to feed your herd.

You can serve these with salsa, sour cream, guacamole or just by themselves.  Yummy!!!

I thought these were fabulous!  The kids developed a sudden vegetable fear and needed lots of persuasion to try them, but pronounced them good.  If you do the prep ahead of time these would be a great meal for Moms at a play-date or a girls night. So simple to throw together!

If you are avoiding carbs, just take the hot shrimp, add some veggies and a little cheese and yummo!!

I hope your snow day has been lovely!!!

PW's Quesadillas de Camarones

Flour Tortillas
24ish Shrimp
Red Sauce
16 oz Monterrey Jack cheese
Onion
Red Bell Pepper
Green Bell Pepper
Olive Oil
Butter

Thaw and peel the shrimp.  Cover them in the red sauce and set aside to marinate.
Grate your cheese and set aside.  Cut up the veggies (1" or smaller) and add a little olive oil to a skillet.  When oil is hot add the veggies and saute on medium-high until desired consistency.
REmove from skillet and add shrimp and sauce.  Cook on medium-high until opaque.  If the sauce gets really dry, add a little water.  Remove cooked shrimp from heat and cut into bite sized pieces.  Wipe out skillet and add a littel butter.  Heat butteer and add a tortilla, cheese, shrimp and veggies.  Top with another tortilla.  Repeat until complete.  Add more butter when the skillet gets dry.

Serve with salsa, sour cream or guacamole and enjoy!!