Flour Tortillas

These tortillas are so good, you'll give up Mi'Casa.  I promise. 

This is the original recipe I got from my friend who got it from a real Mexican Tortilla Making Lady:

Lollie’s Tortillas 

4 C. Flour

¼ tsp. baking powder

1 Tbsp. salt

1/3 C. shortening or lard (if you use shortening, be sure to use Crisco brand)

1 ¾ C. warm water.

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening. Add water and knead by hand. Pinch into 16 golf ball sizes of dough. Let sit for 10 minutes. Roll with flour and cook on stove.

Of course being my mother's daughter, I switched to whole wheat and olive oil, but Allison says Lard is really yummy.  Here's the revised recipe that I use now and it's bosh size:
16 C. flour (whole wheat)



1 tsp. baking powder


4 Tbsp. salt


1-1/3 C. olive oil


7 C. warm water.


Mix dry ingredients in bosh. Mix in oil. Pour in water all at once and mix til well combined. Dough will be extremely sticky. Dump out onto well oiled counter. Make sure your hands are well oiled. Split dough into four even parts. Split again and again until each of the original four are split into 16 balls. (64 total). Roll each ball in your well oiled hands. Place on an oiled cookie sheet or parchment paper and cover. Let rest for 10-15 minutes. Heat tortilla press for five minutes (open). Place balls one at a time just to the back of the center of press. Slowly close lid and handle with a firm but gentle pressure. Cook for about 5-10 seconds . Open press and slide tortilla off onto a towel. When all tortillas are cooked and cooled, dust with flour and freeze in Ziploc bags (you only need to dust one side and put dusted side of one to raw side of the next). When ready to use, cook tortillas on a really hot griddle just like the ones you get in the grocery store in dough form. You can cook up a bunch at one time and freeze or refrigerate them that way, but they won’t be quite as fresh.


Measure ingredients:

Dough is really sticky

Dump onto oiled counter

Split into four even sections

Keep splitting until you have 16 balls per section

Place balls on cookie sheet and cover for 10-15 minutes

Preheat press for 5 minutes

Place ball just to back of center

Press slowly

It's done, move off to towel

Let cool on towel

I made 10 dozen today

Dust with flour

Stack after dusting

Cook on hot griddle

Freeze in Ziploc bags.

If you are as talented as Camilee, try her method.  She presses while cooking up the tortillas on her stove all at the same time.  She's amazing like that, though.  I have to cook mine later.

Wheat-Black Bean Chili

Here is a very healthy recipe that is also very tasty! I know it sounds crazy, but the wheat is actually very tasty in this recipe. You can change this recipe any way you want - I looked at several different recipes on the internet and used what sounded good from different ones.

WHEAT - BLACK BEAN CHILI

2 c. wheat berries (wheat berry - meaning the whole wheat kernel)
1 onion, diced
4 or 5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
4 tsp. beef bouillon granules
3 c. water
3 cans black beans
2 tsp. garlic salt (or more)
28 oz. crushed tomatoes
2 tsp. cumin
handful of cilantro, chopped into small pieces
(and maybe more cilantro for garnish if you want)

Soak wheat berries in water overnight in fridge. The next morning, drain water off of wheat berries and put in crockpot. Saute onion, garlic, and bell pepper in a little bit of oil until tender, and add to crockpot. Stir beef bouillon granules into water and add to crockpot. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Cook on high 1 hour, and on low until dinnertime.

Hungry-Girl Nacho-rific Chicken!

Judging from the fact that I've posted most of the recent posts about food, I would almost say that I am the only one cooking, BUT I KNOW THAT'S NOT TRUE!

COUSINS, have you fallen of the face of the earth????  I want to see what you're making!

Here's what I made last night:

You can find a link to the recipe HERE!

Or, here's an image of the recipe directly from the site!

Chicken Pesto Pizza

This is more of a dinner idea than a recipe I suppose...but yummy none-the-less!

Top your favorite pizza crust (or cheat by buying one like I did) with:

Pesto (Costco--or should I say Kirkland--makes really good Pesto sauce)

Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Tomatoes

Chicken (cooked in a little olive oil with garlic salt and pepper)

and Black Beans

or add whatever else you want! I think black olives would also be a good addition! 

Mandarin Chicken--Panda Express Knock-Off!

I tried this recipe...and YUM! I should have taken pictures...didn't...oh well.

Mandarin Chicken (Panda Express Style) Sauce

2/3 C. sugar
1/4 C. soy sauce
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp minced fresh garlic (I never use "fresh" garlic. I always use the pre-minced garlic in the jar from the store)
1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1/4 C water
4 tsp arrowroot

Combine sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, oil, garlic, and ginger in a saucepan.  Combine water with arrowroot ina small bowl and stir until dissolved. The arrowroot will serve as a thickener (much like corn starch--in fact I'm sure you could thicken this recipe with some corn starch instead--just be aware that corn starch seems to thicken better than arrowroot and you would probably not need 4 tsp of corn starch).

Add the arrowroot/water combo to the saucepan and cook on high.  Bring mixture to a boil while stirring often. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until sauce thickens.


Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Salt

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and garlic salt (not too much!). Grill in a frying pan with some non-stick cooking spray OR cook them like I did...on the GRILL! YUMMY! Chicken should be browned in spots.

When the chicken is cooked thoroughly, chop into bite size pieces.

Serve the chicken over white rice (I'm a cheater and used Minute Rice).  Drizzle with Mandarin Sauce.


ENJOY!

Roast

Here's a delicious way to make a roast in the crock pot. What I did different: used beef broth instead of the water, mixed the 3 packets with the beef broth and poured over the roast, shredded the roast a few hours before turning the crock pot off so the flavor could get to more of the meat. I found it here and have used this recipe twice now.

I also made these potatoes to go with it and we all LOVED them.

Roast
3 pound chuck roast, thawed

1 package dry ranch seasoning

1 package brown gravy mix

1 package dry italian dressing mix

3/4 cup water (if using a frozen roast, only use 1/2 cup water)

Combine all 3 packages of dry seasoning and cover all sides of roast with mixture. Place in a slow cooker and pour water over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours.

Baby Back Ribs (in the Oven)

These were yummy - (sorry, no picture). Not quite as good as AC's ribs but very good.

I had a package of ribs that I needed to get cooked so I rubbed it with Rib Rub - double wrapped it in foil and stuck it in a 325 degree oven for about 3 hours. Opened it up and poured Bulls Eye BBQ sauce on it (not alot) and stuck it back in the oven for about 30 minutes. The meat just fell off the bones!

Make the rub in advance and they take about 2 minutes to prepare! (I'm sure there's a rib rub you can buy already made but I had this from Christmas!)



Kansas City-style Rib Rub: (foodnetwork)

1/3 c. light brown sugar

1/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. paprika

2 TBS. ESSENCE (recipe follows)

6 TBS. kosher salt

2 TBS. onion powder

1 TBS. garlic salt

1 TBS. fresh ground black pepper

1 TBS. chili powder

1 tsp. mustard powder

(not sure I used these next 3 things):

1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper



Emeril's Essence: (foodnetwork)

2 1/2 TBS. paprika

2 Tbs. salt

2 TBS. garlic powder

1 TBS. black pepper

1 TBS. onion powder

1 TBS. cayenne pepper

1 TBS. dried thyme

1 TBS. dried oregano (omitted)

Combine all ingreds. thoroughly.



Shara will have to post Aaron's delicious rib recipe!

Frito Burrito

This is the newest menu item for stay-at-home-mom's--to make our lunches a little more interesting.

Make a bean burrito like normal (tortilla, beans, cheese), but add some Fritos before you roll it up for a yummy crunch. (plain or the chili cheese flavored Fritos are good). You can even make it fancy with tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, etc. for an even better treat!

This was discovered by one of my sisters who chooses to remain unnamed.

It makes a yummy lunch!!!

Lemony Skillet Chicken

This recipe was called "Lemony Skillet Chicken" but every time I read the title I thought of this:



He he.

Lemony Skillet Chicken

1 T. olive oil
2 T. butter, divided
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 T. all-purpose flour
2/3 C. chicken broth (I used my powdered chicken buillion 2/3 tsp. and 2/3 C water)
3 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1 t. dried chives

Heat oil and one tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Coat chicken in flour and add to skillet. Saute for about 6 minutes on each side, turning once, until chicken juices run clear. Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm. Add broth, lemon juice, salt, and chives to skillet and bring to a boil. Remove from heat; stir in remaining butter. Return chicken to skillet and spoon sauce over chicken, turning to coat. Serves 4.

We ate this over rice, but it seemed like it needed a little more sauce. I haven't tried making more sauce and the proportions yet. So, if you figure it out before I do, let me know!



Oh...and I got this out of my Gooseberry Patch Fast Fix Meals cookbook.

It really didn't take that long to make. In fact, it probably took less time than saying Lemony Snicket Likes Lemony Skillet Chicken 10 times fast.

Pasta Salad

I don't even know how I found this website and recipe, but it was good!

There aren't too many amounts given for the ingredients, you just have to balance it how you want it -- I did use a whole package of bacon instead of just a handful of pieces and more sundried tomatoes and pesto than it said to and it was delicious. Also, the recipe says it's better served cold, but I liked it warm and even reheated a bowl of it for my lunch today.

PASTA SALAD

About 500grams spiral pasta
Olive Oil
Sundried Tomatoes
Crumbled Feta
Bacon pieces
Basil Pesto

Cook the pasta and drain (in advance if you have time, it’s better served cold), sprinkle with olive oil.

Cook about a handful of bacon pieces, so they are nice and crispy, add to pasta with any oil in pan.

Cut about a tablespoon of sundried tomato into little pieces, add to pasta with some of the oil from the sundried tomatoes jar.

Stir about 2 tablespoons of pesto into the pasta.

Sprinkle with a small handful of crumbled feta cheese.

Toss everything together, and you’re done!

Apricot Chicken

I know many of you have Apricot Chicken recipes that you love.

I love this one. It takes less than 30 minutes to make, and when I get home from work that is the type of recipe I need. I got this out of the Taste of Home: Simple & Delicious Cookbook I got for my wedding. Enjoy!

Apricot Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. butter
1 can (15 oz) apricot halves
3 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 C. apricot preserves
2 TBSP white wine vinegar
4 green onions chopped (optional: Jereld doesn't like green onions...so we don't buy them at my house)

Hot cooked rice (optional)

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, cook chicken in butter over medium heat for turning occassionally until cooked through and the juices run clear. Remove and keep warm.

Drain apricots, reserving juice. Cut apricots into 1/2 in. slices; set aside. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and reserved juice until smooth. Stir in preserves and vinegar until combined; pour into skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Add apricots and chicken; heat through. Sprinkle with onions (if you want). Serve with rice if desired.


YUMMY!

Enjoy the picture:

Swedish Cocktail Meatballs

This is grandma finally posting a recipe on the blog (okay it's not really Grandma, but Shara helping her post this). She got this recipe from her friend Sarah Beus. They are delicious - not kidding, she served me one today.

Swedish Cocktail Meatballs

1 1/2 lb. ground beed
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/2 c. minced onion
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. snipped parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 ts. Worcestershire Sauce

Mix above ingredients and shap into 1 inch balls. Brown meat balls in 1/2 cup oil in large skillet, drain well.

Sauce
1-12 ounce bottle Heinz chili sauce.
1 - 10 ounce bottle grape jelly.

In sauce pan combine chili sauce and grape jelly. Add meatballs to sauce and simmer for 30 minutes, serve hot.

Now, Sarah serves these as appetizers so there is not enough sauce for a main dish. Grandma doubled the sauce recipe, but when doubling the grape jelly she added the whole 32 ounch jar of grape jelly. It turned out perfectly. They served it over rice.

Spanish Rice (Aunt Jeanie style) and Baked Chicken Taquitos

The chicken taquitos come from My Kitchen Cafe. They are yummy. I've made them twice now. My kids love them and they are even good as leftovers. But as a side note, use a good brand of tortillas or they will crumble as you are rolling them. My mom and I started making them once with Great Value brand and she ended up making a quick run for Mi Casa's.

This Spanish Rice has always been a favorite of mine. My mom got the recipe from Aunt Jeanie a long time ago and now I make it occassionally, too. It's yummy.

The salsa is Jen's Award Winning Salsa. The guacamole is my mom's yummy yummy treat.

Aunt Jeanie’s Spanish Rice

In a 10 inch skillet cook 8 slices of bacon until crisp. Cook 1 onion (1 C.), chopped fine and ¼ C. bell pepper until tender, not brown, in drippings.
Add:
1 lb. crushed tomatoes

1 ½ c. water
¾ C. uncooked long grain rice

½ C. salsa
1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. worchestershire sauce
dash pepper

Cover and simmer 35 to 40 minutes.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

I had my first bite of Chicken Cordon Bleu about a month ago, and I liked it. I never dared tasted it because it has the word 'bleu' in it..which I figured meant bleu cheese! I never knew all that was in it was ham and cheese rolled up in a chicken breast!! I set out to make my own and came up with this recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 slices Swiss cheese
• 4 slices cooked ham
• 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 7x11 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Pound chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness.
3. Sprinkle each piece of chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Place 1 cheese slice and 1 ham slice on top of each breast. Roll up each breast, and secure with a toothpick. Place in baking dish, and sprinkle chicken evenly with bread crumbs.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove from oven, and place 1/2 cheese slice on top of each breast. Return to oven for 3 to 5 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Remove toothpicks, and serve immediately.

I also made this sauce to go on top..
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
Mix together in a saucepan until warm.

I served the chicken over some rice and had steamed veggies on the side. We loved it!

Roast Chicken

I made this a little while ago and I was seriously impressed with myself!! It looked so pretty and tasted delicious. It really is quite easy to do. Katie called and asked me for the recipe tonight, so I thought I would post it on here.

Roast Chicken

1 (3.5-4) pound whole chicken
1 small yellow onion
1 lemon thinly sliced
1/2 cup celery leaves
Salt & Pepper
Softened Butter
1 small onion chopped
1 carrot chopped (I would definitely do more)

Wash chicken in hot water and dry thoroughly. Season cavity with salt and pepper and stuff with onion, lemon and celery leaves (I put celery in there as well). Rub chicken with softened butter and season all over with salt and pepper.

Roast for 15 minutes at 425, reduce heat to 350 and baste chicken and roast for another 15 minutes. Add chopped onions and carrots to pan, baste them and chicken again. Continue roasting for 45 minutes plus an addition 7 minutes per pound.

I made gravy out of the drippings the chicken made. It was super yummy.

Corn Chowder

This is originally Marsha's recipe. My family loves it. It's especially good with bread sticks or Italian bread to dip in it. Yum!!!

1 ½ C. chopped onion

4 Tbsp. butter
2 C. frozen hash browns

2 C. diced cooked ham
20 oz. frozen corn

2 C. cream-style corn

5 C. milk
2 cans cream of Mushroom soup

salt, pepper, parsley flakes

Combine everything in crockpot and cook on high 4-5 hours, or all day on low.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

I was talking to Shara and we were both making soup for supper. She was making Chicken Noodle and I was making this. She told me to post it so here it is!

CHICKEN ENCHILADA SOUP - (Aunt Jeanie's)

2 cans chicken broth

1 -8 oz. cream cheese

2 c. cooked diced chicken

2 - Lg. cans (28 oz.) Las Palmas Green Enchilada Sauce (mild or medium)-(I would use mild if I could find it.)

3 c. 1/2 & 1/2

1 can corn - drained

1 1/2 c. uncooked rice (can use minute rice also)

Simmer altogether until rice is tender

Ham

I made this ham for dinner last Sunday, and everybody was a little worried because I was experimenting again, but it was so good!

Bake a ham as the instructions say. (It would be best to buy a spiral sliced ham, so then you don't have to cut it yourself)

Then mix the following in a bowl:

1 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground clove

1/8 tsp. paprika

dash of ground ginger

dash of ground allspice

Sprinkle the mixture onto the cooked ham all over it. Then use a blow torch with medium flame and caramelize the sugar. Wave the torch back and forth so the sugar browns and bubbles but doesn't burn. Continue all over the ham until it is well glazed. Then serve it right then or you can put it in the oven to reheat it some more.

Chicken Tikka Masala

The other day I was looking at a flyer from Trader Joe's that had come in the mail and saw a frozen dish called Chicken Tikka Masala that sounded really good. I decided to do a search on All Recipes, once again, and found a recipe for it that had 800 reviews and received 4 1/2 stars, so I figured it should be good. It was! Pioneer Woman has a recipe for it as well -- when I told Jen I had made this, she knew she had seen it somewhere on the food blogs, and sure enough she had.

What I learned from Wikipedia: The origin of this dish is disputed, but is mostly thought to have been created in England as an attempt to create a South Asian dish that would appeal to the British palate. It is served in many restaurants in England and has been voted the favorite dish in these restaurants.

Here's the recipe (one more thing, I didn't grill my chicken. I fried it in a pan)

Chicken Tikka Masala

• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 4 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 4 long skewers
• 
  
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 3 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and 4 teaspoons salt. Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat a grill for high heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Thread chicken onto skewers, and discard marinade. Grill until juices run clear, about 5 minutes on each side.
4. Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute. Season with 2 teaspoons cumin, paprika, and 3 teaspoons salt. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. Add grilled chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, and garnish with fresh cilantro.

Italian Sloppy Joes

These are EASY! And...so yummy! Jereld and I bought a book called "Fix-It and Forget-It: 5-Ingredient Favorites--Comforting Slow-Cooker Recipes." It's my new favorite book.

I'm so busy with work and paperwork for our house and stuff that I need easy recipes or it's frozen food for us. This recipe was extremely simple and so GOOD! It's a keeper!

Italian Sloppy Joes (the book calls it Italian Barbecue Sandwiches...I like my title better)

Prep time: 10 Minutes
Cooking time: 2-6 hours
Ideal slow cooker size: 3-qt.

(I doubled this and used my 5 qt. crock pot which could have held a lot more!)

1 lb. ground beef (browned in a non-stick skillet first...which by-the-way is the hardest part)
1 cup tomato sace
half an envelope dry spaghetti sauce mix
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. Velveeta or American Cheese cubed (I used Velveeta)

1. As it says above, brown ground beef in a skillet first.

2. Place meat in slow cooker. Stir in sauce and seasonings.

3. Cover and cook on Low for 2-6 hours.

4. One hour before serving (I didn't give it an hour...I gave it 20 minutes and it was delicious!), stir in cheese. I cubed the Velveeta so it would melt quickly.

5. Stir before serving.

Obviously we ate this on hamburger buns...but you can use whatever bun or bread you choose.