Homemade Tortillas

So my family LOVES those uncooked tortillas that you buy at Costco and then cook at home. They are SOOOO much better than normal store bought tortillas! But they are pricey, so I thought I would try to make my own at home. So far I have had moderate success but not yet made some that are to die for. So if you have tips on making homemade tortillas, post them here. In the meantime, here is the best recipe I have found, so far:

Tortilla Recipe

1 kg Flour (all purpose) + 1 cup for rolling surface
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp. Baking powder
2 tbsp. Salt
1 1/2 cup warm water

Mix dry ingredients
Make a “hole” in the middle of your “mountain” of flour.
Add oil and water and start mixing.
When the dough is firm enough, knead it a bit on a flat surface.
“break” pieces off the dough (about the size of a golf ball) by squeezing it with your thumb and index finger (like you’re choking it)
Make several round balls (called “testales”), and placed them on a floured surface (cookie sheet works great).
Let the testales rest for about 30 mins. covered with a damp towel.
Place a testal on a floured surface. Flour your rolling pin and roll. Whatever technique you use for rolling… just spread them enough so they are bout 6 inches in diameter.
Cook your tortillas on a “comal”, flat griddle or skillet at medium heat (mine was on 6 on an electric stove). You don’t need to oil the skillet (there’s enough oil in there)
Just like with pancakes, the 1st one is never good, but the rest are delicious.
You can pile up the uncooked tortillas, they won’t stick.
My process is usually: flatten, place in comal, flatten another one, turn the one in the comal, flatten another one, remove the one from the comal and repeat!
It takes about 1 minute to cook on the 1st side (you will see some bubbles appear on the surface, this is normal), then you turn and it takes about 30 seconds on the second side.

Eat them warm, but to freeze or refrigerate, make sure you cool them spread out on a flat surface before bagging them.

Experiment in Hybrid Cooking

Tonight's dinner was an experiment in hybrid cooking, and a successful one at that. I had a migraine, so naturally I needed comfort food, which for me is spelled M-A-S-H-E-D P-O-T-A-T-O-E-S. Growing up my mom used to make a simple chicken dish whenever she needed a really fast dinner, where she would just put chicken or pork chops and a can of cream of mushroom soup in a pan and heat it up and serve it over rice. As I've grown up I rarely make this dish, preferring more complex flavors like rosemary chicken, but I didn't feel up making something quite so laborious. Hence I made this "cheat" for rosemary chicken that ended up more of a hybrid than a cheat. It served FANTASTICALLY with creamy mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. And with minimal effort it was on the table in less than 30 minutes. Let me know if you enjoy it as much as we did.

Rosemary Mushroom Chicken
2 Tbls EVOO
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you could easily substitute thighs)
1 tsp dried rosemary (or 1 TBLS fresh)
salt & pepper
1/2 can cream of mushroom soup

In a large skillet heat the EVOO and garlic, about 1 minutes. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper and rosemary on both sides and add to pan. Brown chicken, about 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Add soup, turn heat down to low, cover, and let simmer about 5 minutes. Serve the extra sauce as a gravy.

Yumm!

I've been experimenting in the kitchen again and I have come up with a couple of INCREDIBLE new recipes. Here goes:

Apple Pie Pizza
1 pizza dough
4 oz cream cheese
1 TBLS sugar
1 can apple pie filling*
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, cold
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 TBLS milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out pizza crust on cookie sheet.
In a bowl combine cream cheese and sugar until well mixed. Spread on dough.
Spread pie filling on top.
In another bowl combine oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry mixture until it resembles peas. Sprinkle on top of the apple filling.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool.
Stir together powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Stir until a glaze, and then drizzle over the pizza. Eat!


Spinach and Ham Braid
1 recipe for foccacia bread or pizza dough
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained of water
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup ham or bacon, chopped
1/2 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Roll the dough out on a cookie sheet and cut slits 1 inch apart down the long sides of the cookie sheet and going into the center 1/3 the width of the pan (about 4").
In a pan sautee onion and garlic in a little bit of EVOO or butter. When the onions are transluscent add the spinach, soup and ham. Mix until the spinach is just heated through, about 2 minutes.
Spread the spinach mixture down the center of the dough and sprinkle the cheese on top, then braid the dough using the cut strips.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

2012 is going to be great!

Well, lets be totally honest. 2011 kind of kicked my butt, which is probably why I never got a Christmas letter written. It was a rough year for oh so many reasons, but instead of listing all the crap, lets see what we have to look forward to in 2012!
January- get back on top of the house. I'm getting organized this year if it kills me! And we are working on respobsibility charts with the kids, which suprisingly Alyssa LOVES. Every day we don't have to fight over chores anymore. She comes in, knows what her responsibilities are, and she knows she can't have any privleges until they are done, so she doesn't even ask. I tell you its incredible. We're saving up for the Accountable Kids program, but trying to impliment its ideas even before we officially get the kit. If this is a goal for your family this year, check their program out at
February- Already looking forward to Valentine's day and hopefully some snow. I am really starting to wonder about this global warming thing!
March- Alyssa turns 6! We're so excited for our big girl.
April-Uncle Paul will graduate from BYU-Idaho and we're going with the rest of the family. Yay, Paul!
May- It will be 10 years since we said "YES" and we plan to celebrate the best years of our life together, although we're not sure how just yet.
June- Mikayla turns 4! Carter turns 2!
July- Aunt Jenny marries Jon Rodeback in the Washington, DC temple on July 3rd so we get to spend the 4th of July in DC! And we have family reunions. We won't mention Rebecca's descent into oblivion at the end of the month, though.
August-Alyssa will start 1st grade!
September-Mikayla will begin another year of special ed preschool, and hopefully mom and Carter will take a Mom & Me class
October- Halloween at our house, is there anything more fun?
November-Christopher turns 35! And lots of gratitude for him and all he does for our family.
December- We get to celebrate the Savior's birthday as a family!
See, 2012 is shaping up to be incredible. Hopefully there will be an anniversary trip for Christopher and Rebecca and maybe even a family trip to Disneyland this year, but as long as we can continue to grow and develop as a family, 2012 will rock!

Portraits

So I finally got birthday portraits done for my kiddies. Don't they look fantastic? A huge shout to to FotoFly, totally worth the drive. I love these pics.

1st Day of School

Well, it finally happened...Alyssa started kindergarten! She is one happy little girl. She is attending Odyssey Charter School which is right off the freeway in American Fork, about 10 minutes away. She got to meet her teacher, Mrs. Anderson, at back to school night last week, and when she saw her again this morning she was grinning so big that Mrs. Anderson said, "I don't know who's more excited, you or me, Alyssa." to which Alyssa responded, "Me!" She's been waiting for today all summer and she's pretty thrilled about it finally being here. Here's to a great year!
P.S. Who else thinks there is nothing cuter than her in her little uniform?

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us. We saw the lights at temple square with Mike and MIndy and Grandmama Williams. We had fun at the neighborhood food drive. And we loved setting up the tree with the girls.