Breakfast Burritos and New Bike Gear

The block that I live on was having a bunch of garage sales a couple of weekends ago, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to make some breakfast burritos for the visiting crowds. It was also a chance to try out the new side containers that my father in law put together to mount on the bike frame.

First I had to gather and prepare the ingredients.

• 12" flour tortillas from the Mexican market
• cooked a few pounds of chorizo seco (dried)
• peeled, diced, and boiled a couple pounds of potatoes
• 1 lb. of mixed of shredded jack and cheddar cheese to melt on the tortillas
• 2 dozen eggs
• diced jalapenos

The side car containers now had to be filled. The great part about this devise is that the individual containers come out for easy cleaning, and you can put ice in the bottom to keep the container contents cold. You can also put a Sterno candle underneath the container with some water inside of it to create a hot water bath to keep the container contents hot.

It was about 8:30 in the morning and I was ready to ride down the street and open up shop.


I had never cooked eggs on the hot 'arriba' part of the comal, but if I laid them down gently, they mostly stayed together without sliding off.

After the eggs were cooked, I mixed in the chorizo and egg that have been kept warm on the outer ring of the comal. Jalapenos occasionally went in here.

I scraped the completed filling to a free spot on the side of the comal so that I could use the center part to heat the tortilla and melt cheese on top of. The finished result turned out pretty good. Next time I would try to get more moisture in the filling. Maybe a chipotle sauce mixed in.

Squash Blossom Quesadilla

Went on my first trip at the farmers market last weekend of the year. My problem at these events is that I keep buying more ripe fruit and vegetables than I can possibly eat before they start going bad. This year was going to be different.

While wandering through the produce, I saw something that I hadn't seen in years, zucchini blossoms. I remembered how delicious these were when I was a kid and my grandmother used to fry them up. I had to take a second look.


Now I was recalling my Oaxaca trip, enjoying a quesadilla filled with Oaxacan cheese and squash blossoms. It was one of the most wonderful things I had ever eaten. The whole thing was made in front of you on a wood burning comal. The cheese was like strands of thread with a milky texture while the blossoms were recently picked. They were spread on top of a freshly made masa tortilla until the cheese melted out of the sides.

The quality of Oaxacan cheese here isn't nearly as good as that in Oaxaca, here it is a drier, matted string cheese that doesn't melt as easily. However, the flowers were beautiful and I decided to give the squash blossom quesadilla a try.


This is a pretty easy thing to make once you acquire the flowers. I went with a flour tortilla and placed it on a dry iron comal. After a few seconds, I did my best of shredding Oaxacan cheese and putting on top of one half of the tortilla. Next, I tore up some of the flowers and put on top of the cheese.


Once the tortilla started to brown and the cheese started to melt, I folded in half and let the whole thing melt together.


It wasn't nearly as good as the one I got in Oaxaca, but it turned out pretty tasty. I will be looking for squash blossoms again at the farmers market.

Bike Cart Jamaican Barbecue

Back from Jamaica, I had to take a shot at recreating the jerk chicken and serving up some fish that I had grown accustomed to eating on the island. The perfect opportunity for firing up the barbecue on the bike cart.

First a little more fabrication was due. While on vacation, the butcher block that I custom ordered had arrived. It is an awesome cut of maple end grain, 2 inches thick and sized to fit into the leftover space next to the cooking area. My father in law planted four studs into the wood and drilled corresponding holes into the aluminum frame. It fit perfectly and is removable for cleaning. We also put some hooks on the frame for holding utensils.


Picked up some beautiful halibut at Costco trip and thawed out some banana leaves in the freezer from the tamale expedition. Seasoned with a little dill and lemon, this cooked along side of some foil wrapped corn. A pretty simple dish, but it sure turned out great.

Now that the barbecue had been initiated, it was time for something a little more complicated, slow roasting a whole chicken prepared with jerk marinade. I am so glad that I had researched the Outdoor Chef City Grill 420 ahead of time. It really lives up to its reputation and high reviews. I was amazed how I was able to control the temperature within about five degrees for long periods of time.

This chicken cooked for an hour over 275 degree heat. It really was falling off the bone. The marinated was infused in the juicy meat and the jerk sauce was spicy, sweet, and wonderful.