Happy New Year, mmmmmm good!

For such a chatty mouth, I've been relatively blog mute... here's to my second degree and graduation in December, hopefully I'll be able to devote more time to lots of things I have missed and enjoy.

It seems there's so much to say, and yet, I can't shake the sheer brilliance of a situation facing me tonight. Back story: I'm from a large Italian family from the Owens Valley, California, a family that at any given time in the last 100 years has owned a majority of the share of the commerce property in our small hometown in the High Sierra (Big Pine, if your curiosity has you reeling). Resisting further tangent, my story leads us to a group project of sorts taken on by the women of our family in the early 1980's, a 100 year family reunion warranted such a project, such an heirloom for which we could all be proud... the proverbial small-town family cookbook, complete with 3 rings and card stock Pip printed covers. In 1984 I was 11-years-old and deemed old enough to be granted the opportunity to submit my favorite recipe to the book. At eleven I was unaware of the subtle plagiarism rampant in cookbook production. I thought a recipe was original and unique to the writer... a pure concoction! Little did I know that recipe simply means a way of preparation, a list of instructions... and apparently anyone is free to sign their name, or was the case in our families cookbook. Excepting that of the 11-year-old me, who thought a recipe must be achieved after several failed attempts over a hot stove, or, as was my experience in inventing my own recipe. I am happy and proud to report that I did concoct a recipe that was, if not completely original, unique to my house, and I was certain that I was its inventor: the pizza quesadilla. Before Boboli, in fact, before I enjoyed a microwave (VCR, dishwasher or washer/dryer) I enjoyed cheese quesadillas adorned with pepperoni's and pizza sauce, a recipe I thought I invented.

Which brings me to tonight, after approaching my refrigerator with the fervor of someone about to embark on a 3 day cleansing fast (as I am). Tonight, although based loosely on a meal I remember my stepfather (a Basque/Italian) making, I invented a meal, unique to me, delicious in every way (as is, I assure you, the pizza quesadilla).