Tortillas

Ahh,  The new toy.

I bought this beautifully hand-crafted Tortilla press hot off the press from my brother-in-law.  He happens to be a master craftsman and I literally happened to be at the right place at the right time.  He was turning out about 10 of these little beauties and I was lucky enough to snag one the minute he was done.

It took me a while to get a chance to use it however.   I started with flour tortillas.  Here is the recipe I used.  I Think they ended up a little puffy, but good.  They were more like what I have grown up with as "fry-bread." 

Flour Tortillas

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
  
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup very hot water

Combine flours, baking powder and salt.  Cut in the shortening.  Add water a little at a time until a nice dough forms.  If it's too sticky add more flour.   I forgot to buy baking powder AGAIN and ended up using half soda and half cream of tartar.   I'm not sure if that contributed to the puffiness I had. 

Place 2 inch dough blob on plastic-wrap lined press.   Press.  lift and turn tortilla 90deg. 

Press again.  

So easy a child can do it.

Fry in pan.

We served ours like tacos.  Yum.  

Carmel Dip

Apples and Carmel Dip.   I was looking for a simple treat to take to a glutein free gathering and fruit was on my mind but I was having a hard time thinking of something not baked.   I'm not sure what prompted it, but, carmel dip seemed to be the answer.

This recipe was given to me by a past neighbor.    She always seemed to have a fun sweet treat when we had our YW meetings.

Carmel Dip

Ingredients
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup corn syrup
1/8 teas. salt

Combine all ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil.  continue to boil to soft stage.  (I like mine a little less thick)

Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp vanilla.
 Serve warm, it's easier to dip that way.  Not Hot, just warm, we don't want any burns.

Shhh, don't tell,  but when I made this last, these pictures, I accidentally left out the corn syrup.   It still turned out alright, I only let it boil about 1  minute but as soon as it cooled it sugared up or started crystlizing.   I didn't realize I had left it out until just now as I copied the recipe.  I thought something was wrong but I couldn't figure it out.  Now I know and so do you.

A View From My Table

Today I don't have any of my own creations to show.  However I wanted to share the view from my table, Another's creation.   We get awesome Sunrises out here.  One of the many benefits of where I live.  This is indeed the view from my table, only with the neighbors house chopped off the bottom. I wish my camera/photo talents could really catch the beauty.  Moments like these are truly Good-table moments.

Cinnamon Burst Bread

What am I going to do with all these little hard white wheat grains?  Well lets go on a little journey shall we?  Picture picture will you help us please?  Thank you neighbor.   First we magically get little wheat grains from the store.  (Picture picture was lacking in pre getting product home footage.)

Put the wheat in your handy hand-me-down, for which you are truly thankful, wheat grinder.  After a few minutes of loud processing you get lovely flour. 

 

A little of this, a little of that, mix it up, knead and grow. Ooh look kids, a big blob of dough!

Thank you Picture picture, wasn't that fun kids?  Bread is so yummy.  Come on, let's go into our kitchen.

Be careful.  If you make this bread it will probably not even get a chance to cool off in your kitchen.   It is good.  Very good.  My muffin top can tell you all about it.   Dip in egg mix and you've got a great french toast.  Spread a bit of cream cheese frosting and you've got a yummy desert. It makes a great neighbor gift.  Oh won't you be my neighbor.
It's also easy.  the hardest part is obtaining the special Cinnamon bites.  These are not the Cinnamon 'chocolate' chips you get in the chocolate chip aisle.  These are hard little pellets that you can obtain here or perhaps at a specialty or health food store. The orginal recipe is found here.  The only difference is I used half whole wheat flour.

Cinnamon Burst Bread - Makes 4 Loafs
3 T. yeast
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten lightly
3 3/4 cup warm water
4 1/2 tsp. salt
3 T. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups cinnamon bites
6 cups Whole wheat flour
5-6  cups  white flour

Combine in mixing bowl 4 cups flour, yeast, and sugar. Add water, eggs, and oil. Beat well to “cake batter” stage. Stir in salt, cinnamon bites, and 7 more cups flour to make bread-dough consistency. Let mixer knead it to the right texture (add up to 1 more cup flour if needed). Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour. Shape dough into 4 loaves. Let rise for another hour or until doubled. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Thank you thank you to my great Sister-in-law for her donation of cinnamon flav-r-bites.  Apparently where she got them no longer sells them.  Lets hope we find a good substitute store.  The world would be a sadder place with out this bread.  

Cream Cheese Cookies

These just beg "Pick me up and put me in your mouth."

What I like about these cookies is the tartness from the cream cheese filling that tones down the other sweet flavors.  This time I chose to top them with a mixture of white c-chips and butterscotch or semi-sweet chips.  I haven't used butterscotch on them before and really liked the flavor.   For holidays they are fun to top with whatever fun chips your store sells, such as striped green and white.  I am sure they would lend themselves well to other toppings.   While they are made in mini muffin tins, they are still more than a bite-full. 

Succulent Braised Pork

Time to try another new recipe.  This time it was Succulent Braised Pork from Melissa d'Arabian on Food Network.  It can be found here.
Mine didn't come out looking anything like hers did.  Hers was dark and mine was more orange.
It tasted alright but it wasn't anyone's favorite.  It was on the sweeter side and my boys would have liked it to be spicier.  Of course as always I did substitute a few things, although I tried to stick with it pretty good. It was easy to make and that is always good.   Sorry I don't have much more to say about this experience.  If you try it and have more to say, please leave a comment.