Flank Steak and Gorgonzola Quesadillas

Happy Monday! I guess? I personally could have used another day or 10 of the weekend, but time kept moving, as it so often does, and suddenly it’s Monday morning once again. Just once I’d like time to actually slow down on the weekends or to magically add an extra 24 hours in there. But all I can do is thank goodness that at the end of most every weekend, I can at least say I had a fabulous one.

File THIS under coolest thing I did this weekend:

(No, not get afflicted with a weird lazy eye). I went flying! My friend Libby recently got her pilot’s license and she took me and Chris on a little tour. I’m not going to lie– I was SUPER nervous beforehand. If you know me in real life, you know adventure and I don’t really get along. But I wanted to try it and even though Libby is a new pilot, she’s the kind of person that you just sort of trust in situations like this (though come to think of it, maybe I should have worried she’d try to get revenge for when I was allegedly mean to her in 7th grade. Luckily that didn’t happen!). Anyway, we flew around the Gloucester and Rockport area and were lucky to have a perfectly clear day.

The ride was slightly bumpy from the wind, but not too bad and definitely worth it for all those crazy awesome views. It felt kind of crazy to be thousands of feet above ground with just my friend and my husband… Who would have thought back when we met in elementary school that Libby would be flying the skies? I love it! And now I’m pretty sure Chris has caught the flying bug, so this should be interesting!

Safely back on the ground in my kitchen (phew!), I whipped up some dinner. Quesadillas! Sometimes quesadillas remind me of the after school snack I prepared pretty much every day when I was in middle school. But I’m pretty sure those ones just involved cheese and some salsa. These ones involved flank steak. And gorgonzola cheese. So I would say that equals a major life improvement.

Flank Steak and Gorgonzola Quesadillas (makes about 4 quesadillas):
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• 1 lb. flank steak, marinated and grilled (see below for preparation and marinade)
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 jalapeño, sliced
• 8 flour tortillas
• 4 oz. gorgonzola cheese
• 1 avocado

Southwestern Marinated Flank Steak:
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• 1 lb. flank steak
• 1/4 C freshly-squeezed lime juice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T chili powder
• 1 t cumin
• 1/2 t coarse salt
• 2 T olive oil

My flank steak was pretty large and I knew I wouldn’t need all of it for the quesadillas, so I cut it in half and wrapped one half in plastic wrap, put it in a freezer ziplock bag, and popped it in the freezer.

I put the lime juice, minced garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and olive oil in a large ziplock bag. Then I placed the flank steak in bag and made sure marinade was distributed evenly. I put the steak in fridge for 1-3 hours to marinade.

I heated my grill pan (you can use an outdoor grill if you have one!) until extremely hot and placed flank steak on it.

Grilled for about 1.5 minutes and then rotated for better grill marks. Grilled for another 1.5 minutes.

Now I flipped the steak and grilled for another 1.5, rotated, and grilled for 1.5 more. At this point your smoke detectors will probably start going off. Mine did. And let me tell you, the smoke detectors in this apartment are not fun. I think my head still hurts.

My steak was cooked to a nice medium-rare, so I removed from grill pan and placed it on a cutting board to cool a bit.

Then I sliced it into strips, cutting against the grain.

In the meantime, I put my onions in a sauté pan with a little bit of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

After sautéing over medium heat for about 5 minutes, I tossed in my sliced jalapeños.

I continued to sauté until onions were nice and caramelized.

I lightly brushed tortillas with olive oil and placed one on my grill pan (cleaned from the steak!) over medium heat. I sprinkled some gorgonzola cheese on the tortilla, topped with steak, onions and jalapeño, and then a little more cheese.

And placed another tortilla over the top, cooked for about one minute, and then flipped and cooked for another two minutes.

And continued with remaining tortillas and filling.

If you’re so inclined, mash up an avocado as a little condiment. Avocado is always welcome at my dinner table, especially when Mexican-style food is involved.

I cut the quesadillas with a pizza cutter and then let the feast begin! These made me really, really happy and were most definitely an upgrade from the ones I used to make in middle school. Though who knows where I’d be today if I came home from school and whipped up flank steak with gorgonzola cheese when I was 12. We’ll never know.

I’m just happy I made it to here now. Because it’s a marvelous place to be.

All of these flavors just went together so well and made me incredibly happy. If you think you don’t like gorgonzola cheese, try it like this and I think you might change your mind.

This also made me kind of crave summer when we can actually cook the steak on the grill. And then go sit in the sun. And then go for a dip in the pool. And just be amazingly happy and warm. Sans down winter coat and ridiculous fur earmuffs. Hey, at least it’s supposed to be in the 20s here in Boston today? And it might even rise above 32 tomorrow. Hallelujah!

But at the same time, this really is the kind of comfort food that 10 degree weather craves. It’s all warmth and coziness.

I keep getting crazy happy that I have another pound of flank steak in my freezer and wondering what I’m going to do with it. But if we’re being honest, I’ll probably make more of these quesadillas because I’m totally already craving them again. I’m pretty sure that’s a sign of a good meal.

My Monday would be so much happier if these could be waiting for me when I got home. With open arms. And cheesy filling. At least I know I have The Bachelor waiting for me. It’s Monday, so I’ll take what I can get.

What’s your ideal quesadilla?

[Sues]