Crispy Flor de Calabaza Quesadillas: A couple of years ago I spent my summer in Italy. Where I enjoyed a lightly crisp battered squash blossoms swimming in simple tomato sauce stuffed with ricotta cheese. I had never had flor de calabaza (squash blossom) Italian style but I was certainly in love one bite in.

I have heard every last story there is to hear about the days when Los Angeles had a proper football team.  My fiancé relives the one event of him (he was 8 years old at the time) actually meeting John Madden (Raider’s Head Coach) while on a family vacation in Vegas right after The Raiders had won the super bowl and has the picture to prove it, as it now hangs proudly in our home.  He reminisces the days when he was a young man going to see his beloved Raiders at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and getting there two hours ahead of game time to tailgate in the parking lot with his Dad and friends.  He says they had a small portable bar-b-q and used to make carne asada quesadillas right on the grill before the kickoff, and always finished the story with the how great taste the charcoal gave the meat.  If you live in Los Angeles, then you know the grief many football fans face with no team to represent the massive metropolis that is The City of Angels. Football fans call it a travesty.

With the Fall season brings football season back on the tube every Sunday and Monday night, we have been inviting people over to watch the games.  This past weekend I was at Walmart shopping for snacks to entertain our guests when I came across an entire aisle of small portable bar-b-ques ($21.00) and piles of Kingsford charcoal (twin pack $13.38)  I quickly thought about my fiance’s stories of tailgating and how it would be fun to recreate those moments at home with a small charcoal bar-b-q.  When I saw how reasonably priced the charcoal and the BBQ pit were I grabbed them and hurried over to the meat section in search of some thin cut steak to make carne asada quesadillas.  Of course I found exactly  what I was looking for, high quality 100% beef that’s 100% guaranteed.

The home tailgate was such a welcomed surprise by my fiancé and of course all our guests loved the steak (carne asada) quesadillas.  It was the next best thing to actually being in the parking lot.

Now that I got my portable grill and lots of Kingsford charcoal I found a bunch of additional recipes and tips on how to up my game on Walmart.com.

What you’ll need for steak quesadillas:

• a small portable grill
• a bag of Kingsford charcoal
• thinly sliced sirloin tip steak
• salt, pepper, garlic powder, and /or chile powder
• flour tortillas
• grated jack, queso quesadilla or Oaxaca cheese
• chiles – red peppers or jalapenos

Directions:

1. Fill grill with charcoal. 
2. Then follow lighting directions on the bag of charcoal.
3. Allow charcoal to turn white (hot) and ready to grill. 
4. Lightly season meat with spices.
5. Place grilling rack on top of hot charcoals using a thong.
6. Place meat on grill and cook on one side until the blood rises on top of the meat (about 4 to 5 minutes). 
7. Now is a good time to add the chiles to the grill as well and cook on each side until charred.
8. Flip the meat over and cook until cooked all the way through (about 2 to 3 minutes). 
9. Remove meat from grill and cut into long strips. Remove chiles from the grill and place to the side.
10. Fold a flour tortilla in half and stuff with grated cheese.
11. Place directly on the grill and cook on each side until cheese melts. 
12. Remove from grill and stuff with strips of meat. Cut in half.
13. Serve with charred chile and a bowl of guacamole!
14. Up your game and enjoy.

Set the alarm clock, it’s back to school time. Time to get all our ducks in a row and let the freedom of Summer go. I’ve been looking forward to my son going to his new school (he started Kindergarten) and feel like I’ve been preparing since spring when we found out he was excepted to one of the best schools in the entire city. Since the school was new to me and I wasn’t sure how they went about serving lunch, I starred to mentally prepare how I would approach my son’s lunchbox. I know you may find this hard to believe, but my son is a very picky eater. He likes what he likes and will not venture too far off that menu.

When I was a little girl I used to get bussed out to a school in Brentwood. Most of my peers were Jewish kids (I’d say 85%), and if I remember correctly there was a small handful of other nationalities that were driven in from the inner city (that would be me). My Mom use to pack me a lunch of quesadillas which was the complete opposite of what my friends at school used to have for lunch.  It was like a trading stock market everyday at noon for me, my fellow students would beg to trade me their cream cheese bagel or pita sandwich for my quesadillas. I did sometimes, but most of the time I had to decline their offer. I guess I was a little like my son is in the sense that I adored the melted cheese quesadilla served hot or cold. My Mom knew that was something I would definitely eat and didn’t have to worry that I would pass the day starving. I’m cut from the same cloth, and know this lunch is one my son will eat no matter what.

He started school last week, and is learning math, hand coordination for writing, simple reading, and the introduction to the 50 states. That’s a lot for a little kid (he’s still four, soon to be five), so keeping him well balanced and fueled with a nutritious lunch is key.  I found the perfect little lunch kit at Walmart. The lunch blox kit by Rubbermaid has a blue ice stand included that all the blox snap into so this keeps the lunch cold. I also happened upon The Picnic Lunch Box by Neat-Oh that carries the lunch kit perfectly inside, then transforms into a place mat when ready to eat. I knew my son was set for lunch. Plus Walmart has everything I need to pack my son a healthy yummy lunch.

Ingredients for quesadilla lunchbox:

• flour or wheat tortilla
• colby jack cheese
• turkey slice

Optional:

• pistachios (I used sweet chili flavor)
• cherries
• strawberries
• cherry tomatoes
• baby carrots
• goldfish

Directions:

1. In a pan or on a comal over a medium heat place the tortilla.
2. Break up two slices of colby jack cheese and place on half of the tortilla.
3. Then place a slice of turkey or any other sandwich meat and top with a few little pieces of cheese. 
4. Fold tortilla over to make quesadilla. 
5. Cook on each side until cheese melts and the outside is golden crisp.
6. Cut into triangles (easy for little hands to eat).
7. Fill the rest of the lunchbox with anything your kid likes. I gave a few options of what I used.
8. Enjoy!