White Flour Tortillas

I am posting this especially for Sonshine but I know others may enjoy a new tortilla recipe as well. I got this from a cook booklet my dd got me for X~mas. I was a little annoyed they didn't give any amount for the water. SO I experimented. This is a picture from the first batch.

The first batch I made with 1 cup of hot water and the tortillas were very good and then I tried 3/4 a cup for the next batch and the tortillas came out even lighter looking, the dough was more doughy and less sticky. The tortillas tasted great and dh taste tested both and liked the ones with less water better, so that is what I would recommend as well. Plus the dough was much easier to work with the 2nd batch. I used all purpose flour on these tortillas. Next time I will try half white and half wheat.

This picture is from the 2nd batch. Notice it is lighter looking than the first batch?

From the booklet, A Taste of Mexico

Makes 12

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs oil
hot water(to make dough smooth)

Combine dry ingredients; add oil. Begin adding enough hot water to make a smooth dough. Knead about 1 minute; let rest. Divide dough into small balls. Roll each ball into thin circle. Cook on a hot, dry griddle, each side about 30 seconds until bubbly. Turn and cook until done, about 1 minute.

See what I mean? Add water til the dough is smooth. Grrrr.....lol A tsp? a T? 5 cups? lol Good thing I know a teensy bit about dough. 1 cup sounded good, and worked but 3/4 cup was better. I will also add here that all flour is different and as some of you know it may need to be adjusted if you are using whole wheat. I used my cast iron skillet for these.


Do you have any awesome tortilla recipes to share with us?

5 lb Nachos!

We all went to a birthday party yesterday. Well all of us except my eldest dd. She wanted to stay home. She missed out on some awesome nachos!

These Nachos were soooo good!! Nacho cheese chips, cheese sauce, ground beef, beans, tomato, green onion, cilantro, lettuce, olives and sour cream. I told my friend that Joe and I would just split a plate. (She was making the other plates smaller and she was like no, have your own plate.) I was like no it's okay. I'd rather split a plate cause I had already hit the ruffles chips and onion dip. SO she went and made us this HUMONGOUS plate to share!! lol It doesn't look that big in the picture but that plate is FULL of food and heaping high. lol It was great though!!

Maybe these wonderful nachos are why the kids are smiling so nice? Or maybe it was the cake and ice cream. White cake from the store, 3 different kinds of ice cream, okay so it was neopolitan but still! and a chocolate sheet cake I was asked to bring with me. MMMM.....

The adults loved the chocolate cake and said it was delicious!

Well of course it is great! It is Texas Sheet Cake! If you want to try this awesome recipe that everyone I have met who tastes it loves, here it is:
Texas Sheet Cake It was so good I was even asked to bring it with me to the birthday party!

Chicken Taco Night

Okay so I still had spanish rice and beans left over after making the enchilada freezer meals. I was thinking of chicken tacos and beans and rice but then I though a dry corn tortilla frozen then warmed up would get soggy. So I thought what about putting in beans and rice and chicken, the kids could microwave that and then all that would be left is to warm up some corn tortillas , add a little cheese and some salsa and we have another quick dinner!

I made up one container each for everyone.

Sounds good to me. Now don't get me wrong I love cooking. A few times a week I am in the kitchen for 4-5 hours cooking, baking, prepping, cleaning, etc. But then there are some days I don't even want to set foot in there and having something quick and easy is a must. Or if Joey and I decide to go out for a date there is something easy my eldest can warm up for them. Yeah I know it would be less time consuming and probably even cheaper at times if bought on sale at the store to buy one of those banquet meals or something. But the only thing I think I ever have bought like that is chicken nuggets, fries, taquitos, frozen pizza. Those things I actually like. Oh and Stouffer's lasagna.

But I try to make that kind of food on my own. I was even thinking of making taquitos yesterday. I need to get some baking done today, I need bread and bb muffins and dh wants more of that awesome Texas sheet cake! I told him I would make it but I am using half/half on the flour this time. Last time I used just white flour and it was soooooo good!!!

So after reading these 4 post you all know why I was in the kitchen so long yesterday! I even made a crock pot of chile beans but didn't finish adding everything yet. I got tired. :)

Mexican Enchiladas & Home Made Sauce

I got this recipe from Recipe Zaar. I tried it about 6-9 months ago and we all loved it but I misplaced the recipe and pretty much forgot all about it. The store bought can I like is Montecito from Smart N Final. I was looking OAMC up on that site and bumped into this. I was glad I did. I wound up making up a bunch of food for the freezer these past two days and day 1 I quadrupled this recipe. I used it the next day(yesterday)to make 2.5 pans of enchiladas. It made about 112 oz of sauce(when you quadruple the recipe). That was enough for 2.5 pans plus about 10 oz left over that I tossed in with 2 15 oz cans of tomato sauce and some water into a pot of chile beans.

Normally I lay the tortillas flat but I wanted all this to go in the rubbermaid containers and into the freezer in individual servings. It still would of worked the other way but I was hoping for it to be a bit neater, two enchiladas all rolled up, instead of cut. My eldest dd was home yesterday and was actually in a helpful mood. All the other kids were at school except the youngest dd. I was in the kitchen from 7:00-2:45 I was son my feet the whole time and stopped at 12:00 to talk to dh for a few minutes and sample the enchiladas. They were great!!

As you can see by the picture they didn't turn out as cute as I had wanted. Oh well. They still tasted great! We warmed the tortillas up before rolling so they would be more flexible. They definately could of been cheesier. I usually use about 1 lb of cheese per pan. I had 2 lbs of cheese and made it stretch for 2.5 pans! I wasn't doing this to be frugal. I was trying to watch the portions. Each enchilada had 1/4 cup shredded cheese and 1/8 cup of roast beef, a little onion and olives sprinkled on top. They were really good and if I had more cheese on hand I would of made up a bunch more! I also cooked up a 2 lb pack of brown rice and made 17 cups of spanish rice to go with it. I also made a big pot of beans.

Do you like Mexican food? WHat is your favorite enchilada recipe?

Mexican Enchilada Sauce

I got this recipe from by grmil who was born and raised in Mexico City. The secret to its flavor is the cocoa

15 min 15 min prep
Change to: servings US Metric
3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cups water
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce


1. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Stirring constantly, slowly add enough of the water to make a thin paste.
3. Pour into pan and add rest of water.
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.
5. Stir in tomato sauce.
6. Use in your favorite enchilada recipe.
7. The amounts on the ingredients are very flexible.
8. For instance, if I am feeding my kids who do not like"spicy", I will halve the chili powder and double the tomato sauce.
9. Experiment to suit your taste, but don't leave out the cocoa.
10. For a quick meal, we will soften a corn tortilla in a bit of hot oil, drag it through the sauce, and lay it flat on a plate.
11. cover it with grated cheddar cheese, sprinkle with chopped onions and sliced black olives.
12. Then cover with another softened sauced tortilla and melt the cheese in the microwave for 1 minute on high.

Fresh Corn Tortillas!

Hooray! Okay so I did make some yesterday. They were pretty good. :) Joey said he wants me to make them more often. He likes the taste better than store bought. The kids ate them up also and didn't complain. Yeah. The recipe says it makes 18. I mismanaged my dough and was in a hurry so I only got 13. haha Store bought to the rescue! lol

Corn Tortillas

Ingredients:
We are all familiar with both the corn and flour tortillas, but the original ones were of the native corn only, and except in Northern Mexico, corn tortillas remain the staple.

4 cups masa harina *
1/2 tsp. Salt
21/2 cups hot but not boiling water

*Masa harina (corn flour) can be purchased in most supermarkets. Quaker and Maseca brands are both excellent. If you are fortunate to have a specialty Mexican market nearby, you can purchase the masa dough freshly made and ready to press or roll out.

Directions:
Place the masa harina and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and mix with your hands to make a dough that comes together in a soft ball. Continue mixing and kneading until the dough is elastic enough to hold together without cracking, about 3 minutes. If using right away, divide the dough into 18 equal portions and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. If making ahead for later use, wrap the whole ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 day and then divide.

To form the tortillas, place a portion of dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Press with a tortilla press or roll out with a rolling pin into a circle 6 or 7 inches in diameter. Use your fingers to smooth any raggedy edges. Continue with the remaining portions until the dough is used up.

To cook the tortillas, heat a heavy skillet, griddle or comal over high heat until it begins to smoke. Peel the plastic wrap off a tortilla and place the tortilla in the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook for 30 seconds. Turn and cook on the other side for 1 minute. Turn again, and cook until the tortilla puffs a bit but is still pliable, not crisp, about 30 seconds more. Remove and continue until all the tortillas are cooked. Serve right away as this is when they are the best. The best homemade tortillas by far!

I am using my camera phone and the pictures came out kind of blurry because...I don't know. Steam from the oven? Wait, there ws no steam. DD#3 stole the phone and breathed on it? My hands were all messy from baking and cooking and I smeared it? Ding!!! I think we have a winner!



My handy dandy tortilla press in action! If you are wondering what the plastic bag is, that is a bread bag for storing baked bread I got from Smart N Final. They said to use plastic wrap. I guess it keeps them from sticking to the press.



A corn tortilla pressed and waiting to be cooked.




In the pan and almost ready to eat. Good thing I have ONE cast iron skillet. I have never used it before. I cleaned it really good today and greased it wih oil to treat it. It was a pan of my moms. So there you have it. A very simple recipe I will definately do again. They were very tender and soft. I tried the salsa again and it was very good. Still not like the Mexican restaurant. It didn't taste tangy tonight. Maybe a day in the fridge did it some good. ;) Have you ever made corn tortillas before?

Mexican Food To Go Favorite Salsa Recipes

A little blurry but the other two were worse.

So I decided to try a new salsa recipe tonight. I will update with pictures tomorrow. It was actually pretty good. We had chicken tacos and beans with it. I am going to have to have more before I can form a real opinion. I like that it has olive oil and vinegar in it. Olive oil is one of the, "healthier, good for you", fats. Vinegar is supposed to help lower blood sugar in all people. I tried oil and vinegar on a salad before and just couldn't do it again any time soon. haha There was a bit of tang to it so maybe I should tweak it a bit, we'll see.

Normally for salsa I just chop up tomatoes, onion, garlic, and maybe some cilantro, throw in a few chili flakes. Alot of times I add some tomato sauce to it. Pretty simple.

This is the recipe we tried tonight.
Mexican Food To Go Favorite Salsa Recipes

4 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (up to 1 cup)
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper (bell pepper)
1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp finely chopped green chiles
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp cilantro (coriander) seed, crushed (or fresh cilantro leaves)
1 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients. Cover and chill, stirring occasionally. Serve with corn chips.

I doubled this and substituted apple cider vinegar and I don't believe I have any mustard seed on hand. I used the whole bunch of cilantro, not just a few tsp's. You know what I want? I want a recipe for the salsa that the local Mexican restaurant has. Maybe I will figure it out eventually. What is your favorite salsa recipe? I have some corn flour, tomorrow I just may try my hand at fresh corn tortillas as well.

Pipin' Hot Bakery Whole Wheat Tortillas

W.W. Tortillas

Pipin' Hot Bakery Whole Wheat Tortillas
Recipe #7417
14 ratings

These flavorful tortillas were used at the bakery for our breakfast burritos, which had scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa, fried potatoes, and sour cream. I also use them to make bean burritos, quesadillas, and as an accompaniment with a bowl of pinto beans.
by Troy A. Hakala

servings:8 tortillas

time to make 10 min 10 min prep

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons canola oil
2/3 cup water

1. Combine flours, baking powder, and salt.
2. Stir in the oil and water all at once, using mixer or a fork, and toss quickly.
3. When dough can be gathered into a soft mass, turn onto floured surface and knead a few times.
4. Form 8 balls of dough, dredge in flour, and store in a plastic bag to prevent drying until ready to be used.
5. Flatten first ball of dough into a disk.
6. Roll out dough on floured surface until 7 inches or larger with even strokes that do not reach to the edge, turning over frequently.
7. Place tortilla in ungreased, frying pan that has been preheated to medium-high heat.
8. Cook 30-40 seconds on one side, turn over with spatula and cook 30-40 seconds on other side., First side should be pale and sprinkled with brown spots and the other side will be blotched.
9. Repeat process with other balls of dough.
10. Stack tortillas on a plate as they are cooked and cover them with a dish towel, which will keep them soft.

Okay so I made these the first time back in January. They were really good! I have made them many times since. I substitute the white for wheat flour though and the canola for olive oil though. They looked funny the way I rolled them out and I need practice but they were really yummy! I originally made 8 for the 5 kids and I and they said that was NOT enough! They wanted more! haha

Okay so this is my normal recipe now. I would still like to tweak it a bit. They taste GREAT! But sometimes they break when folding. *taps foot* So alot of times we fold them in half like a taco. When I make the kids quick stuff to eat like scrambled eggs and cheese burritos, or chili and cheese burritos, I flash freeze them and then put in a container or freezer bag. The kids eat them up quick! I need to do another pot of chili tomorrow.

Anyhow I take two, lay one flat and put ingredients in, then lay another one on top and seal the edges with a fork, flash freeze etc.

On Sunday I even got Kass in there to help! We made 48 and had chicken breast & cheese quesadillas for lunch. We had bought an $8.00 tortilla press. They are supposed to be a press for corn tortillas but I heard women saying they have one for their flour tort. on another forum. (SO you don't have to roll out) I notice without a press they come out very poofy and one thing is there was burnt flour all over it seems. But when I used the tortilla press, no bubbles and no burnt flour! You may need to add a bit extra flour before putting on tortilla press as they do tend to stick! Oh I forgot to add earlier when we were making the food to flash freeze, instead of warming them up individually in the skillet, we took them straight from the press, filled with ingredients and sealed with a fork, put them on cookie sheets and baked in the oven. We let them cool, then flash froze, etc.

For our quesedillas, we coated them with butter and cooked in pan. The kids will microwave the frozen ones later.

Anyhow I have pics w/out tortilla press and with. Enjoy!

BRB with pics

These first two pics were as the recipe calls for 8(small)tortillas.

This second pic is when I took the 8 recipe and made them twice as big.
laug
These last two are with the tortilla press . As you can tell no huge poofy bubbles and they are shaped round like they are supposed to be! Very cute and they look like corn tortillas!

Have you ever made h.m. tortillas?

Beef & Cheese Tamale Pie, Yummy!!

Okay so I found this recipe in the local paper and tryed it Saturday Night. It was pretty good although I am thinking of using Maseca next time instead of corn meal. I had some shredded beef so we used that instead of hamburger meat. The corn meal seemed really soft and Joe was wondering next time if we should just bake the corn meal in the pan by itself first to harden it up. I used a huge rectangle pan and as you can tell by the edges it was lacking a bit in cheese. lol I will definately increase next time! Someone on another forum has an awesome enchilada recipe using maseca so next time I will probably try that and see if I like it better. Basically a glorifies enchilada with cornmeal. I like the corn tortillas better though.

The pics turned out great though!!