We couldn’t help ourselves, we had to do a Halloween themed meal. As we brainstormed we discussed making something with pumpkin, something that just looked utterly disgusting and like guts, or something orange and black. We settled on the latter, but as we perused Weshop, we noticed how there are not that many black food items. We found a pleasingly pumpkin-y orange cheddar cheese and used that as a jumping off point. Black beans seemed to compliment that well, so we settled on a Halloween quesadilla with cumin-lime black beans, blackened corn and homemade salsa. The Jack-o-lantern part comes in when you get to play with the food and make a face on the quesadilla. Good times. And delicious times.

It wasn’t our most culinary of adventures, but when else do you get to make a face out of your quesadilla? It’s Halloween. Live a little.

This meal, besides indulging our inner-children, is also a lesson in how to spruce up frozen and canned ingredients. By simply adding lime juice and spices to canned black beans, or by throwing frozen corn into a skillet for a few minutes, these go-to ingredients become more flavorful and less boring.

And the salsa, with lots of garlic, onion and roasted corn, is a simple salsa to have in your repertoire. Due to the fact that the real tomatoes at Weshop were surrounded by a swarm of fruit flies, we had to make ours with cherry tomatoes. It was waterier than we would have liked and oddly sweet, but still good! And if you have the time and want salsa with a twist, you can roast the tomatoes before adding them to the mix.

Jack-o-lantern Quesadilla

flour tortillas

olive oil

a bag of shredded sharp yellow cheddar

a can of black beans

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

the juice from a 1/4 of a lime

a package of frozen corn

The Salsa

one tomato

1 Tablespoon cilantro

1 jalapeño, deseeded

2 cloves of garlic

2 Tablespoons of red onion, minced

2 Tablespoons of the blackened corn

salt and pepper to taste

1. Pour a desired amount of frozen corn onto into a non-stick skillet. Cook on medium, or medium low stirring occasionally until the corn is toasted, or blackened to your liking.

2. Drain and rinse the black beans and pour into a skillet set to medium heat. Add the juice of 1/4 of a lime, the cumin, cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes.

3. Drizzle some olive oil into a pan set to medium low. Place a flour tortilla into the pan and sprinkle some shredded cheddar, about 1/4 of a cup. Then MAKE A JACK-O-LANTERN FACE with black beans! Then you can add as much corn and beans into the quesadilla as you’d like. Cover the pan for a bit so the cheese can melt. Place another flour tortilla on top and flip. Each side should cook for just a couple of minutes- keep checking to make sure the tortilla doesn’t burn.

4. For the salsa, take the seeds and membrane out of the tomato, otherwise the salsa will be way watery. Just throw everything into a food processors and blend for a couple of pulses, until everything is well mixed. Alternatively, just dice and mince everything by hand for a chunkier salsa. We didn’t have jalapeño, so we just added some hot sauce for the desired heat.

THE DAY AFTER: Jenn used the same ingredients to create a salad!

Cumin-lime Black Bean and Corn Salad with Cilantro-lime mustard vinagrette

a hand full of salad greens

several slivers of red onion

cherry tomatoes

cilantro leaves

black beans and corn (from the night before)

The Vinaigrette

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons of dijon mustard

2 teaspoons of cider vinegar

1 teaspoon of lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

1. For the salad, toss everything into a big bowl and set aside.

2. For the vinaigrette, put everything into a smaller bowl and whisk together with a fork until the dressing emulsifies (the oil and acids with come together and cease to separate, how nice!).

3. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss with tongs. Serve, enjoy and be healthy!

About Jenn So

Jenn So is a senior Film Studies major who hails from a quaint town nestled among the pine trees of Maine. On campus, she is one of the head house managers of the Wesleyan Film Series. In Maine, she grew up eating her mother’s traditional Cantonese cooking and worked at her parents’ restaurant. This ignited her love for all things food and restaurant related. She has worked as a pantry chef in a French bistro and loves to travel and try exciting new dishes food from all over the world. In the recent past, she has tasted the cuisines in Australia, Thailand and China. After graduation, she hopes to roam the globe in search of even more delicious adventures.