Homemade Tortillas

Homemade Tortillas

I am completely baffled by the people who are able to make perfectly round homemade tortillas that are thin and do no break.  I would really like one of these culinary masters to teach me how they achieve such beautiful results.

Luckily enough, most people (aka my fiance) don't seem to mind if my tortillas are wonkily shaped as long as I plan on filling them with yummy things.

I found this recipe off of Stacy makes cents.

Ingredients

2+ cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water

1- Mix flour and salt.  Add the olive oil and the water.  Add flour if the dough is sticky.

2- Turn out on a well floured surface and divide into eighths.

3- Roll out each eighth into a 7 inch circle- or in my case- roll out the dough until you can not roll it out any more.

4- Cook tortillas on a nonstick skillet with a little oil until they brown over medium high heat.

This always happens to me- no matter how much flour I put on my counter.

YUM.

Chicken and Lime soup

Chicken and Lime Soup- adapted from budget bytes

This soup was the perfect solution to a busy Sunday because it take 20 minutes max to start the whole shebang and then you get to leave it on the stove for an hour while you finish all those chores that HAVE to get done before Monday morning.  Not that anyone leaves laundry and lunchmaking and cleaning and ironing to Sunday night right?  All of those things magically happen before sunday night.

The other good part?  This soup is pretty healthy- and you can customize it easily, and it is really tasty. 

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 medium/large onion

4 stalks of celery

1 med jalapeno

4 cloves of garlic

2 chicken breasts

6 cups chicken broth

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with chilies

1 tsp oregano

½ T cumin

1 med lime

½ bunch cilantro

1 med avocado

1 14.5 oz can green enchilada sauce

Directions

1- Dice onion, celery and jalapeno (scrape the seeds out of the jalapeno before dicing). Mince the garlic. Cook the onion, celery, jalapeno, and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until tender.
2- Add the chicken breast, chicken broth, canned tomatoes with chiles, oregano, green enchilada sauce, and cumin to the pot. Bring the whole pot up to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to low, place a lid on top, and let simmer for one hour.
3- After simmering for an hour with a lid on, carefully remove the chicken breast from the pot and use two forks to shred the meat. Return the meat to the pot. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the soup. Get as much juice as possible from the lime by using a spoon to scrape the inside of the lime.
4-Rinse the cilantro and then roughly chop the leaves. Add to the pot, give it a quick stir, and serve. Add toppings and Enjoy!

I like to top my soup with tortilla chips and some mexican blend shredded cheese. 

This is my new favorite soup in my favorite soup bowl.

Cous Cous Salad

So I have a problem... I have a deep rooted fear of ad libbing recipes, or making up a recipe.  I don't know where this particular phobia developed but I am coming to the realization that I should work really hard to get over this phobia.

This was my first attempt at an ad-libbed recipe and it went so-so.  It was fabulous the first two days, but after that the mushrooms were slimy, which just was not appetizing.  Also- I totally cheated on the cous cous and used a box.  Whoopsies!

Cous Cous Salad
1 box cous cous ( I used Near East brand parmesan cous cous)
Asparagus
Bell Peppers
Mushrooms
Almonds
Dried Cherries
Balsamic Vinegar
Italian dressing

I cooked the cous cous, and while it was resting, I blanched the asparagus, cut up all the other veggies, and then mixed it up.  I added the balsamic vinegar and italian dressing to give the salad a little more taste.

Hopefully I can continue to leave the recipes behind! I know my sous chef would love that, because that is how he cooks all the time!

YUMMY.

Ah... once again it has been too long since I have posted.  This is actually not a post about food that I made (sorry) but yummy food that I ate and a restaurant to recommend.

After my sisters graduation ceremony (My sister is AWESOME and is now a PA)  we went to Frontera Grill, which is one of Rick Bayless' restaurant and it was fantabulous.  Yes fantabulous.  Since it has been so long since I ate, I don't remember what this dish is called, but it was some type of mixed plate, and it was wonderful.  It was presented beautifully and super YUM.

7 things

Today/ tonight I wanted to share a couple of truly lovely things with you all.  Some of these I found 5 minutes ago, others I found long ago and continue to reread and/or re-watch many many times.

1- A post on The Curvy Carrot that is very thoughtful, and very grounding.

2- A post about the Truth about Santa that is adorable.

3- My favorite youtube video.  Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"

4- The Good Women Project.  One of my favorites is an article entitled "When it isn't a skinny day".  Great reminders of faith.

5- A post on Joy the Baker about turning 21, that is very sweet, and grounding.  It has many good tips that all women need to hear, no matter how old they are!

6-  Leading With Lollipops.  Its a 6 and 1/2 minute tedX talk that revolutionizes how to think about leadership, and the impact of one person.

7- A story corps animation that makes me cry everytime I watch it.  

Enjoy your night!  Think happy thoughts!

Sugar Cookie Bars

So I apologize, that I have been away from blogging for so very long, BUT I have a treat to share with you tonight.


I found this recipe on a food blog that I do not follow, and I am currently realizing that I have NO IDEA how I found this recipe, which I made over a month ago, which probably means that one of two things happened; either I found it off of a food blog I do follow OR I saw it on Pinterest, but I can not remember.


These were SO simple to make, it was perfect.  And they are delicious.  Who doesn't love sugar cookies?  You are going to want to make these.  And eat them.  LOTS of them.


Also- the original recipe calls for frosting with shortening, and because of a terrible baking experience that I had with shortening, I refuse to use the stuff.  Its might be a phobia, but I avoid the stuff as much as I can.  So I went to one of my favorite food blogs -Annie's Eats- and looked for a frosting recipe- sans shortening- and luckily enough I found one!


Sugar cookie bars- A little Bit Crunchy A little bit rock and roll
1 cup unsalted butter

YUM.  Butter sugar and eggs.

2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1- Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. 
2- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
3- Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. 
4- Add the vanilla to the creamed mixture and then slowly add the dry ingredients.
5- Press into a greased 13 x 18 inch pan and bake at 375F for 10-15 minutes.
6- Cool and frost (see directions below).


Frosting- adapted from Annie's Eats
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 T melted butter
2 t vanilla
roughly 4 T milk
optional- food coloring and sprinkles


1- Mix powdered sugar and butter.  Add vanilla.  Add milk until desired consistency is reached.  Add food coloring and sprinkles, and frost away!

The Final Product

YUMMY.

Soda bread

My Nana's soda bread was always a treat in my house growing up.  We had it for breakfast, for dessert, with tea for an afternoon snack, and everywhere in between.  Soda bread is a (slightly sweetened) quick sweet bread that uses baking soda and baking powder instead of yeast as the rising agent.

Many people have asked me how Irish soda bread actually is, and I always have the same slightly awkward answer.  My Nana's recipe was the one that she learned to make as a girl in Ireland from her mother with out a recipe.  This was one of those things that you eyeballed- used a pinch of this, and a handful of that.  This was how she continued to make soda bread for a very long time, until she was in the paper and had to figure out some measurements.  My mother, for years did not know the soda bread recipe, and had to go hunting for one.  The following is the recipe she found, and that she and I both use, mostly because my Nana uses buttermilk, and I never have that on hand in my dorm room.

Yes I do watch How I met your Mother while baking.

Soda Bread-
1 cup raisins
3 3/4 cups flour

I added a little too much milk for my taste,
but this is an idea of what it should look like.

1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 t salt
1 3/4 T baking powder
1 egg
1+ cup milk

1- Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 8x8 pan or a cast iron skillet.
2- Optional- But I would recommend trying it!  Pour boiling water over the raisins and let sit for a couple minutes.  Then drain the raisins.  This gets the raisins nice and tender.
3- Sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
4- Add the raisins.
5- In another bowl, mix the butter, eggs, and milk.
6- Add the wet to the dry mix and stir together.  This should be a very dry mix, but all the flour should be incorporated.  The best way to do this is mix with your hands after the initial mixing.  Add more milk if needed (The more milk you add, the more you lose the dryness of true soda bread.)
7- Put dough in pan, pressing the edges slightly down so the middle is raised.  Then make an X in the dough with a serrated knife.
7-Cook for 50-55 minutes.
Enjoy!

I like to eat mine toasted with a litte butter on top with a cup of milky tea.  I think plain tastes great too!

As I was pressing the sides down in the pan.

The finished product.