Homemade Flour Tortillas

Yesterday I decided that for dinner I'd surprise my husband with a picnic after work.  He normally works too late to do it this time of year, but on one day of the week he is home early.  I decided on chicken salad as its something he loves and we have not fixed in a long time.  He just likes it plain with maybe a little cheese in it while I prefer something crunchy in it as well.  My ideal would be to add almonds, but celery is cheaper and better for me so i went with that addition to mine.  Even though it was bread day and thus I would have fresh bread to put it on, I decided to try my hand at making flour tortillas as wraps.

I found several types of recipes but they basically boiled down to adding either lard/shortening or oil.  I had read a couple places that the lard ones have the best texture, but I wanted to be a little more on the healthy side.  I decided to split it in half and use both.  I might try one other the other sometime, but I think these turned out really well.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 shortening

I just dumped the flour on the counter and then made a hole in the top and kept adding little bits of water and the other ingredients until it was all combined and worked it until it was smooth.  I then divided it up into 8 little balls and let it rest for a couple minutes.  I then rolled them out until they were about 8 inches around.  Okay, who am I kidding, they were not exactly round, but they were very thin.  I then heated up a large cast iron skillet until it was quite hot and then dumped one on and let it cook for a couple seconds until you get a couple brown spots.  I just made sure I did not cook it too long.  A couple got a little crunchy on the outside cause I left them on too long.  Then flip it for a couple more seconds and take off the pan.  Repeat with the others. 

I don't think I got them quite thin enough as they were a little thicker then store bought, but the taste was good and they were still thin enough to use as a wrap.

Of Smooth Hands And Baked Potatoes

I love going into someplace like Bath and Body Works or something similar when I'm at the mall to smell all the wonderful lotions and to try things out.  I can also remember two ways my mom would bake potatoes growing up.  One was to wrap them in aluminum foil with a little butter, and the other was to rub them with olive oil and then sprinkle course kosher salt all over them.  I've tried making baked potatoes a couple other ways, but these are still my old stand by way of baking them.  

These may seem like very different memories and they would be, if not for the fact that a couple years ago I wanted to see if I could make my own scrub for my hands to make them smoother.  I tried looking up a couple things online (this was before pinterest made finding things like this so so so so much easier) and while most called for essentual oils to make them smell good I did not have any at the time.  So, now I still use a simple mixture of a small nickel to quarter amount of olive oil poured out onto my hand, a little bit of sugar or salt, and sometimes if I'm not feeling lazy, a drop of vanilla.  I just rub this all over my hands and wash it off with water and a little soap.

Making baked potatoes is now a good excuse to scrub my hands as it uses up the oil already on my hands and the salt being used.  I usually pour out the salt into a separate small bowl as my hands get too dirty to be dipping into the bag of salt, but most times there is extra sticking to the sides of the bowl.

I just love feeling my hands afterwards!  

Simple Sourdough

So, I've been wanting to try a sourdough type bread for awhile as I LOVE sourdough, but have not been able to get a normal starter to work right.  I don't know if its just to cold in the apartment or maybe I forget about it too much.  The other day though my husband picked p at the library an Alton Brown cookbook and in it was a recipe for a sourdough without a starter.  Well, actually it did call for like a little bit of yeast so I don't know if its a true sourdough, or just a hybrid, but I decided to make it hoping it would taste a little sour like I love.

It was a little weird just leaving raw dough out overnight in a bowl, but this afternoon when I went to take it out it was all fluffy and pretty and super soft to the touch while punching it down.  The hardest part about all this was planning as the second rise took almost four hours.in my apartment.  

We ate it last night while the bread was still warmish with leftover corn chowder.  As it was not fully cooled it was a little hard to cut so we ended up just tearing some off.  I'll definitely be making it again sometime.  

My Taco Concoction

Basic burritos are one of those things that my husband and I tend to disagree on in the world of cooking.  I'm perfectly fine with, and prefer, a flour tortila, refried beans, cheese, sour cream, and salsa.  To me this type of burrito is pure tex-mex comfort food.  For my husband though he must have ground beef in it for it to be good enough to eat.  So, this evening I mixed up some ground beef with taco seasoning in it for his burrito.  I had tried one homemade recipe for taco seasoning but it fell a little flat, so I was gonna mix up some from a cookbook I'm borrowing from the library, but it called for coriander which is a spice I did not have.  I finally found one via pinterest that looked promising to give a try.  About the only changes I made was to decrease the salt and pepper a little and to leave out the cayenne pepper.  As much as I've tried I just cannot seem to like the taste of cayenne.  I don't know why this is, and its not like I totally hate the stuff, but I'm just not loving the taste of it in anything I've tried it in so far.  As I already own some I may keep trying it in things, but for now I'm leaving it out of this mixture.      

2 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp paprika

1 tbsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp pepper

(Yes, I know nothing in the recipe is 1/8 tsp but I needed to use it as I could not find the 1/4 tsp )

I only tried a little of it, but my husband said it turned out pretty well.  I added 3 - 3 1/2 tbsp to a pound of ground beef along with a little water to make the spices easier to distribute to all the meat.  It was not super spicy, so I may add a little more red pepper flakes next time or up how much mix I put in, but it was still really good.  

Fettuccine in Creamy (errr Milk) Tomato Sauce

Here is a recipe I've made this a couple times in the past couple months I've been married. I used other pastas and its always turned out well. My husband says he likes it with penne best, but fettuccine is what I used tonight.  As I keep tomato sause stocked normally this is something I usually always have the ingredients on hand. Yes, its not the healthiest thing in the world, but it is simple and not the worst thing as far as pasta dishes go.

Fettuccine in Creamy Tomato Sauce
1 Package (12oz) Fettuccine
½ cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (yes, whole garlic would be good, but this is what I have)
½ cup chicken broth
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 tablespoon butter/margarine
1 cup Milk (I used 2% as thats what I had in the house)
Pepper (to taste)
A pinch or two of flour and dried mustard
A bunch of dried parsley and basil
In a large pot, boil some water with a bunch of salt. Add the noodles and boil according to package directions.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a dutch oven (You could use something else, but I like any excuse to use this as mine is blue) until it melts. I personally use a whisk for this. Turn up the heat a little and add the garlic, flour, dried mustard, and chicken broth to this and cook it down to half. (This will take a little bit of time) Afterward, stir in the tomato sauce and then the milk. Season with the pepper to taste. Turn heat down to low. Add your basil and parsley (no such thing as too much in my book, but whatever you want)to sauce and mix it up well. Drain your pasta and add it to the sauce. Then let it sit for a couple minutes to soak up some of the sauce.

P.S. - This is my first time trying to write out what I do in recipe format. I tend to get an idea for a dish, take a couple recipes that may have some part of what I think will make the dish work, tweak them all together, and then add more of my own depending on what I have to use at the time.