Homemade Tortillas

I'm not really into Mexican food. I've lived in Wisconsin all my life. And I'm allergic to peppers. 

Because of this culinary loss I have never experienced a homemade tortilla. Some day this year I saw Robert Rodriguez's Meals in 10 Minutes. One of them included homemade flour tortillas and it looked so easy I tried it and have been fooling with it since then. 

This recipe from Joe Pastry brought it all up again. 

My usual: 

2c flour

1tsp salt

1c water

1/3-1/2c butter or vegetable oil (you can use shortening but I never have any)

Roll into balls and let rest under a towel.

Love my French rolling pin. 

Preheat the pan. It should be hot when you throw the tortilla in.

Sometimes you need a little help to get them up when they're rolled thin. 

They start to bubble up when they're ready to turn over.

I usually just pick it up with my fingers and flip it. Of course a tongs would work too.

That's it. The boys eat them as fast as I can make them. They also reheat (30 sec in the microwave) great the next day. Great with lettuce, spinach, olive oil, and a dash of real basalmic vinegar. Yum. Once you have homemade it's hard to go back. 

Using Short Term Goals for Motivation

L. is in Kindergarten this year. He's not always happy about that fact.

September he would get the urge to leave in the middle of coloring and would quietly walk out. 

October he mostly stayed in the class but set up shop in the Reading Tent and would not come out. 

November and the teacher and I are both running motivational charts for him. Ways he can make his own choices in certain situations if he learns how to focus and work with people.

While getting out my stickers I realized that I need some short term goals laid out for me, so I feel motivated to learn new things and keep moving forward this chilly season. 

So big stickers for me this winter if I: 

*learn how to use a pressure cooker

*learn how to cook beans from scratch

*make soup once a week

*try the soup I make once a week (I hate soup)

I'm already started on the soups. I've made butternut squash soup (only I really seemed to like it), vegetable beef, and roasted tomato. I pair it with fresh bread or roasted potatoes. So far, so good. 

Now I just need to lose the fear that the pressure cooker is going to explode. 

Halloween in the North Country

We celebrated Halloween on the Chippewa Flowage. 

Packets

aluminum foil squares

hamburger (or other meat)

diced potatoes

diced vegetables

pat of butter

seasonings

The important thing is to double fold the aluminum so the butter doesn't escape too much and make the fire flare up. You can either cook these on a grill over the fire or on/under the coals.