Homemade Tortillas (homesicktexan.blogspot.com)

I have been looking for a tortilla recipe that was good, but also uses the stuff I have on hand. Most of the recipes use lard (which I don't have on hand). But after lots of searching I found one!!!!

Check out http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/
Texas Flour Tortillas (adapted from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison)
Ingredients:
Two cups of all-purpose flour (can make them whole wheat by substituting one cup of whole-wheat flour for white flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Method:
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and oil.

Slowly add the warm milk.

Stir until a loose, sticky ball is formed.

Knead for two minutes on a floured surface. Dough should be firm and soft.

Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
After the dough has rested, break off eight sections, roll them into balls in your hands, place on a plate (make sure they aren’t touching) and then cover balls with damp cloth or plastic wrap for 10 minutes. (It’s very important to let the dough rest, otherwise it will be like elastic and won’t roll out to a proper thickness and shape.)

After dough has rested, one at a time place a dough ball on a floured surface, pat it out into a four-inch circle, and then roll with a rolling pin from the center until it’s thin and about eight inches in diameter. (If you roll out pie crusts you’ll have no problem with this.) Don’t over work the dough, or it’ll be stiff. Keep rolled-out tortillas covered until ready to cook.
In a dry skillet heated on high, cook the tortilla about thirty seconds on each side. It should start to puff a bit when it’s done.

Keep cooked tortillas covered wrapped in a napkin until ready to eat.

Can be reheated in a dry iron skillet, over your gas-burner flame or in the oven wrapped in foil.

While you probably won’t have any leftovers, you can store in the fridge tightly wrapped in foil or plastic for a day or so.
Makes eight tortillas.

I made these for a family taco night with some of my sisters and there families. I made some plain ones and some I flavored with a little bit of garlic powder about 1/4 tsp. My hubs ate at least 4 taco shells before dinner and then had tacos at dinner. They are thicker than most shells but sooooo good!!!!

Sour Cream & Chive Potatoes

6-8 Lg Potatoes

1 8oz Cream Cheese 3/4 C. Milk or Buttermilk

1 1/2 TBS (fresh is best) Chives

1 tsp Pepper

1/2 tsp Salt

After scrubbing potatoes wrap with tinfoil & place in oven for 1(+)hrs @ 400* til potatoes are soft enough. Take out potatoes & after slightly cooling (but still warm enough you will need a hot pad) cut in half & scrape potato out of peeling into a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients & blend until smooth. You can also cheat when in a hurry and make potato flakes as directed but cut the wet ingredients in half then add the cream cheese & chives. Shredded cheddar cheese is also a great additive when desired. Dont forget to share your comments & suggestions on this recipe & enjoy.

- Pictured with Stuffed Pork Chops & my special Green Beans

Soft N Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

I LOVE LOVE LOVE oatmeal cookies!!! My hubs loves cookies!!! So I was going through my pantry trying to see what needed to be used that could go in these cookies and this is what I come up with:

chocolate chips
toffee bits
crushed pecans

Sound tasty ??? Oh it sooooo was!!!!

I found this recipe on this website (therepressedpastrychef.com) and just did a little bit of adding to make these great cookies!!! If you don't like the things I added just take them out and have a soft and chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!!!

1/2 c. butter softened
1/2 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. quick cooking oats
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips ( she used semi sweet but I used milk whatever you prefer)
1/2 c. chopped nuts ( I used pecans but walnuts would be great too)*
1/2 c. heath toffee bits*
* my additions

Preheat oven to 325. Cream together butter & sugars. Beat in egg stir in vanilla. Combine flour, soda, and salt, stir into creamed mixture until blended. Mix in oats, chocolate chips, nuts, and toffee bits. Drop by heaping spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until almost done. Remove from oven and allow to finish baking on pan for 5 more minutes. Finish cooling on cookie racks.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did!!! Now on a side note...Please deal with me during the summer I have 3 boys in baseball right now so not much time for playing with new recipes. I may have to post some of my favorite recipes without a picture also. I will try my best!!! Thanks for allll your support with this blog!!!!

Smores Bars

I don't know about the rest of you but I am sick of this snow, rain, cold weather etc. I am ready for summer and what comes with summer...CAMP FIRES. And what comes with camp fires...SMORES!!! These taste exactly like smores!!!

6 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 c. melted butter
2/3 c. sugar
3 cups mini marshmallows (I used the big ones and cut them in half)
2 c. milk chocolate chips

Mix graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Press half into a greased 9x13 pan. cover with half of the chocolate chips then the marshmallows then the rest of the chocolate. Top with the rest of the graham cracker crust. Press firmly. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until the marshmallows are melted. Let cool then cut into bars and serve.

You can mix it up a little and add 1 cup peanut butter chips and 1 cup chocolate chips OR try it with chocolate chips & butterscotch chips etc.

Stuffed Pork Chops

There is many ways to do stuffed pork chops but i had a little fun with these and did them in my own little way!

Ingredients:

• Thick pork chops
• Stuffing or Croutons
• 1 can sliced pineapple
• Teriyaki sauce or marinade

Turn oven on to 350* and cut slot into each pork chop big enough to fit slice(s) pineapple in. Place stuffing/finely crushed croutons ( I made the homemade recipe from Nikki's previous post) into a small deep dish. Empty pineapple juice into a bowl then dip pork chop into pineapple juice or marinade for a few hours. Cover outside of pork chop with breading and place standing up on cookie sheet. Then fill pork chops with desired amount of pineapple and pour teriyaki sauce/marinade inside the pocket on top of pineapple. Cook for 45mins -1hr depending on thickness of pork chops. Don't forget to check the temp of meat before eating and then alas my favorite part, devour!

Bits n pieces

I'm very pleased to be joining my sisters on this blog especially where it involves one of my closest friends. . . food! Any of you that know me well enough know that I love to cook, I am not so good with following directions and I tend to do things the hard way (when it comes to cooking that's no different) but, I guess that is the beauty of us blogging recipes so you can all learn from our mistakes right!?! Although Nikki & Rhonda are far better cooks than I am I think we each add a little something different to the life of cooking. So I hope you can bare with me through my attempts of blogging and please feel free to add your comments and help me learn a thing or two. So without boring you any longer I am going to share a few of the meals we've had at our household this week I hope you enjoy them as much as we have or can make them your own & share anything that might be able to help us (me especially [photo appropriate] ) all out!

Crepes (food.com)

Growing up we had many foreign exchange students. My favorite ones ( well the ones I can remember) were from France. Mom was always trying to make them feel at home so we made food they liked. The one food I remember making with the exchange students were Crepes. I still love them all these years later.

There is sooo many things you can do with crepes. There is the basic crepe with butter and powdered sugar, crepes with maple syrup, fruit covered crepes my favorite, you can spread nutella on them, put sausage and eggs on them etc.

2 large eggs

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1 cup flour

3 tablespoons melted butter

Butter, for coating the pan

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.

Heat a small non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 1 ounce of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay them out flat so they can cool. Continue until all batter is gone. After they have cooled you can stack them and store into sealable plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for up to two months. When using frozen crepes, thaw on a rack before gently peeling apart.

When I make crepes I set everything out and just let the kids pick there own toppings they think that's pretty cool. I hope your family can enjoy this meal together too!