Homemade Flour Tortillas

Tonight, my friend Alex's mom, Dianna taught us how to make tortillas from scratch. Dianna is from Corpus Christi, Texas. She used to have a family Tex-Mex Restaurant. These were flavorful and I tried my hand at making a few.

Makes 20+ 8 inch tortillas. Dough can be made ahead of time but should be used within 24 hours.

Ingredients
6 cups unbleached all purpose flour or whole wheat flour
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil (corn, sunflower, olive oil, or canola)
2 cups of very hot water (or less)

Directions
In a large mixing bowl or Bosch place flour, salt, baking powder, and mix with your hands or sifter, or in the Bosch with the wire whisk attachment until well blended. Add oil and mix with a fork, or fingers, or with the Bosch until thoroughly mixed an crumbly like pie crust.

Add hot water slowly, and mix with hands, making sure all flour mixture mixes. If using a Bosch, exchanged whisk for dough hook. Make sure you add water slowly and make sure the flour from the bottom of the bowl gets mixed into the dough. Add a little water to collect flour from bottom of the bowl. Mix until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and forms a ball. Whole wheat flour is less smooth and pulls apart easily. Place dough on un-floured board and knead until smooth, or slam on the counter about 20 times. Let dough rest about 15 minutes.

Pull the dough into approximately 20 gulf ball sized balls. Keep covered with a damp cloth. Squeeze each ball into a flatten disc shape. Then place back under the moist cloth. Remove one disc from under the towel, and roll out into a circle. Place in a medium high pan for 30 seconds, until you see small bubbles appearing on the underside. Turn tortilla for another 30 seconds.

Cool on a paper towel, serve. Fill with desired filling.

Cinnamon a Spice for Life

I have been reading about humble cinnamon and it really is a spice for life! I decided to check it out since I use it in my morning breakfast bowl.

Cinnamon is mentioned in the Bible and is one of the oldest spices known.

Cinnamon benefits:

* is anti inflammatory by inhibit the release of the fatty acid called arachidonic acid, and thereby preventing the clumping of blood platelets.
* is anti microbial and in most cases can help stop the growth of candida!
* is anti bacterial and can inhibited the growth of the food borne pathogenic Bacillus cereus.
* can cause the stomach to empty slower and therefore reduces the rise of blood sugar, thus helping regulate blood sugar levels.
* can increase the cell's ability to absorb and store glycogen.
* enhances insulin signaling.
* "not only stimulates insulin receptors, but also inhibit an enzyme that inactivates them, thus significantly increasing cells' ability to use glucose."
* can prevent insulin resistance in animals on a high fructose diet.
* Cinnamon's scent can enhance brain function.
* can bring Arthritis relief.
* can reduce the proliferation of Lymphoma and Leukemia cells.
* can fight E.coli in un-pasteurized juices.
* can be used as an effective food preservative
* can in small amounts of less than 1/2 teaspoon, help maintain a pregnancy by normalizing hormones and regulating insulin levels.
* can help with nausea

Caution:
* Cinnamon in large doses (three tablespoons a day) can cause miscarriage in early pregnancy and is a uterine stimulant.
that can promote contractions in late pregnancy and labor.
* Cinnamon can cause contact dermatitis, so use gloves when grinding it.


Some sites for more cinnamon information:
This site has the list of studies done on cinnamon: The World's Healthiest Foods
BrainReady sites other studies.
10 Health Benefits of Cinnamon
Cinnamon Health

Grapefruit Hints

My daughter received some grapefruit spoons for a wedding gift. On the back of the package we found this gem:

Fresh Hints

Grapefruit does nt ripen after picking so look for heavy, tightly skinned fruit as a sign of freshness. A greenish color late in the season may indicate a mature fruit with high sugar content. Always chill at once as grape fruit keeps better at lower temperatures.

Sherrie Goff's Salsa Bean Dip

This was the yummy bean dip that Sherrie served at Jennifer's bridal shower.

2 Cans Black Beans
2 Cans Kidney Beans
2 Cans Corn
3-4 Tomatoes
3 Avocados
1 Small Bottle of Zesty Italian Dressing, or a bottle of Zesty Italian made from the packet (I make mine with Raspberry Vinegar), or my variation of this recipe, I use Kraft's Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette.

Drain cans, cube tomatoes and avocados, combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve with chips, on a salad, or in a tortilla wrap.

Donna's Notes:

When using the Zesty Italian in recipies on this blog, I usually do not buy the bottled Zesty Italian. I but the dry Zesty Italian packets and mix it up using raspberry vinegar or red wine vinegar. For those concerned about "wine" in red wine vinegar, you need to understand that all vinegars are a result of the next stage in the fermentation process of wines, cider, beers, fermented fruit, etc. and are no longer alcoholic.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

This was the bread I made by hand, before I was married and until I bought a Bosch. I still like this recipe because it is full of flavor. I always made this with hard red winter wheat.

Ingredients:
3 cups milk or water*
3 Tablespoons oil
½ cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
6-7 ½ cups whole wheat flour

*water brings out the flavor, milk adds protein and calcium.

Directions:
Combine milk, oil, honey and molasses in a saucepan. Heat and stir until blended; remove from heat and cool until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water (if you use the cup you measured the honey and molasses in it will bubble faster. Pour liquids from the sauce pan into a large bowl and add yeast. Stir in 3 cups of flour, beating well to develop the gluten. Stir in remaining flour and turn on to a well floured board. Knead thoroughly, until dough is smooth and elastic. Turn into well oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise 1 hour. Punch down, form two loaves, place in two well greased bread tins; let rise covered, 45 minutes. Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes, or until loaf sounds hollow when thumped. Remove from pan, brush with butter or oil, cover with a cloth until cool.

This will keep for a week in the fridge if stored in a plastic bag. If it gets crumbly, just toast it.

If using for sandwiches, do not let over rise or it will have holes!

Baker's Yeast

1 cake compressed yeast= 1 package active dry yeast
1 package dry yeast= 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
active dry yeast and instant/rapid rise yeast can be used interchangeably in recipes.

What is the difference?
Instant/Rapid rise is:
* finer, so it absorbs liquid faster
* does not need to be dissolved before using, but can be added into the dry ingredients
* takes half the time to rise
* only requires one rising.

Ginger Snaps

This is the same recipe as another one on this site referred to as Molasses Sugar Cookies. The difference is that this one is made with butter instead of shortening. Jennifer Robertson made these cookies and brought them to Princess Academy December 2007. I must say I prefer the flavor of the butter over shortening. Butter is better for you too.

Ginger Snaps

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger

Cream butter and sugar together. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add egg and molasses to creamed butter and beat well. Mix in dry ingredients. Chill one hour. Roll into 1" balls; roll balls in granulated sugar. Place balls 2" apart on un-greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Be careful not to overcook.