Santa brought me something very practical this year. Okay. Mom. Mom bought me something very practical. Something that lets my creativity run wild through the kitchen…
She’s knows I love Mexican food. She knows I love running for the border. So, she bought me a Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker by Salton, and boy have I used the heck out of it.
Priced at around $30, the Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker is not only a flashy looking appliance to brighten up your kitchen counter, but it is also a durable one. The top and bottom metal cooking plates are coated with non-stick Teflon, which makes for easy removal of your finished and piping hot quesadilla concoction. This also makes cleaning up effortless, something I am extremely happy about.
The Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker also has a built-in, as well as a removable drip tray for anything that may leak out. However, I have yet to have anything drip! For added safety, the maker’s handle stays cool-but I still use a mitt when opening since I am accident-prone.
The Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker fits tortillas up to 12-inches in diameter, and that size really works the best. This would be the burrito size as opposed to the soft taco size. The smaller tortilla shells do work, as that is what I used the first few times.
Appliances like this probably aren’t used every day, so this unit locks for vertical storage. I’ve been using mine so much that I just leave it out, however.
The Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker is super-easy to use. And, depending upon what type of quesadilla you are creating, there could be very little preparation time or clean up. You simply plug it in and wait for the ready light. That’s it. There is only one setting- the one it is on when you plug it in. You lightly spray the surface with a cooking spray. Then, you place your bottom tortilla shell, spread on your filling, place the second shell on top, close the unit and wait 3-5 minutes. That’s it! You can even reheat in the machine-which is much crispier than the microwave.
The Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker comes with a recipe book with some pretty cool ideas. There are quesadilla ideas I never would have thought of, such as peanut butter and jelly. In all, there are 13 ideas ranging from traditional Mexica flair, to Italian to dessert.
I have not used a recipe from the book yet. The first time I made beef and cheese quesadillas, where I just browned meat as if I were making tacos, added green chilies and the taco seasoning and then placed on the shell. I smothered it with shredded cheddar and Voila! We had some gooey, yet crunchy quesadillas. We topped them with sour cream and salsa.
The second time, I was going to make grilled cheese sandwiches for us. Then I remembered I still had tortilla shells left! I put one round slice of Colby- an excellent melting cheese down first. Then, three or four slices of ham. Then, another Colby slice on top. They were fantastic, and a lot healthier than the grilled cheese as it was sans all that butter! We dipped them in honey mustard. This was the easy preparation I mentioned above-no cooking to get ready for it, just took the ingredients out of the deli bag!
The third time, I put minute steak, onions and American cheese for a cheesesteak-a-dilla, which showed my Philly roots. We dipped it ketchup, and also A1 steak sauce.
And, the fourth time I made tuna melt quesadillas.
You get the idea! You can be creative as you want with this nifty little appliance. I highlight recommend it!
