Whole Wheat Tortillas

I HAD to do it! I couldn't get last night's dinner out of my mind, so I made more this morning! I have a dear friend that I see once a week for cleaning. We take turns cleaning at each others house. Who wouldn't rather clean at someone elses house than your own, and isn't it more fun to clean with someone else anyway! The person coming to the other person's house brings something for lunch. This gives us a chance to catch up on the most recent goings on and gives us energy for whatever project we are tackling that week. Both of us love to try new dishes and we are both notorious for tweaking recipes... were always on the search for a healthier way to make something. Unfortunately my friend has been dealing with gastric problems. She had some allergy testing done and has found out she is allergic to wheat, milk, soy, eggs, and CHOCOLATE! Unfortunately she heard from her Dr. after eating these burritos. Hopefully she won't have a problem with Kamut or Spelt. I can sub that for wheat, but no chocolate makes me so sad for her! Carob just isn't as good! ANYWAY... I'm rambling. I made a double batch of the Brown Rice and Black Beans this morning, because I couldn't wait to share my newest yummy recipe! I decided to make some tortillas to go with them. Just as I suspected, these make a divine burrito. We came to the conclusion these would probably freeze well also, so I may try that with any leftovers after tonight. The tortillas are fairly simple, just don't cook them too long or you will get brittle tortillas. I am the Queen of Kitchen Gadgets. I have a tortilla maker that flattens and cooks the tortillas. I tried to use the tortilla maker. It was only the second time I have used it, and I would NOT recommend anyone buy this. If you press too hard, the steam blows apart your tortilla, but if you don't press hard enough, you get a pita thick tortilla. I tried pressing the tortillas without any heat thinking I could get it thin enough.... no go. The best route for making tortillas is your good ole, handy dandy, rolling pin. Roll them out as thin as you can. They do puff a tiny bit while cooking, so you want them thin to start with. Let me repeat.... do not overcook these tortillas. Since they are so thin, it doesn't take more than 20-30 seconds per side to cook. I use soft white wheat in this recipe. Soon I will do a little tutorial about the differences between the types of wheat. Once again my kitchen scale came in handy to divide dough. My dough balls came out to be 60 g each.

Whole Wheat Tortillas

6 C whole wheat pastry flour (soft white wheat)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C olive oil

2 C cold water

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in mixer. With mixer running, slowly drizzle in oil. Then slowly drizzle water just until a ball forms. You may have some water left over. Knead at least two minutes. Divide dough into 24 even portions. Roll into balls and roll out with a rolling pin into paper thin rounds. Cook on a hot (350*) dry griddle for 20-30 seconds per side. Keep covered to avoid drying out.

Brown Rice and Black Beans

I LOVE Cooks Illustrated magazines. They really put a lot of time and research into their recipes to get them right. Sometimes the recipes they come up with have too many steps to make the recipe feasible for everyday dishes, but this method of cooking brown rice made me a believer in brown rice. I have wanted to incorporate more brown rice in my diet for the health benefits over white rice, but have never been happy with the end results. It seems like I never got it cooked enough. It always had too much bite in it. Kind of takes away from the pleasure of eating rice! This recipe starts on the stove and finishes in the oven. So make sure you start it in an ovenproof pan. My stainless steel cook set has no rubber or plastic handles on it, so I cooked it in my stockpot. I must say, I wish I had doubled this recipe. There was enough for my family of 5 to get stuffed off of it, but I want leftovers! I'm already envisioning homemade wheat tortillas filled with this.... hmmmm might have to make a batch of it again in the morning! When I told hubby I was making beans and rice for dinner, he was a tad disappointed. He is NOT a great fan of rice. He wanted to know what the meat was going to be. (Doesn't matter to him that a combination of beans and rice make a complete protein!) I cooked up some mozzarella chicken sausages and he (and the littles) had that sliced over their portions. Hubby was picturing in his head rice you would get at a Mexican restaurant (you know the instant rice with a hint of tomato flavor.... blah!... but that is one of his favorite parts of eating at Mexican restaurants), so he might have been a touch unsatisfied with this dinner (although it didn't stop him from having two heaping portions) Me... I can see this becoming a regular meal for us... doubled of course ;-) This is my slightly tweaked version from Cooks Illustrated. I stirred in the still frozen corn with the beans and it turned out fine! Don't pass up on the lime wedges.... mmmm fresh lime!

Brown Rice and Black Beans

1 T olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 (14 oz) can chicken broth

1 3/4 C water

1 1/2 c long grain brown rice

1 tsp salt

2 (15.5 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 C frozen corn

1/2 C cilantro leaves

1/4 tsp black pepper

lime wedges and avocado to garnish

Saute onion and pepper in olive oil in an ovenproof pot until tender and onion is translucent. Add garlic and cook stirring for about 30 seconds. Pour in water and broth and bring to a boil. Stir in salt and rice and cover with a tight fitting lid and place in a 375* oven. Bake for 65 minutes or until rice is tender. Remove from oven and stir in black beans and corn. Place lid back on pot and let sit on counter for 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro and pepper. Serve with lime wedges and avocado.

Buttermilk Waffles

One of my pantry staples is buttermilk powder. I don't always have fresh buttermilk on hand, but if you have the powder, you don't have to make an unexpected trip to the store when the urge hits you to make something that calls for buttermilk. We had one of those nights recently where breakfast for dinner sounded good. With my buttermilk powder, I was able to whip these up in no time. I of course had to top them off with the leftovers of my buttermilk syrup. Hubby had his topped with fried eggs and syrup. This recipe made enough batter for 9 Belgian waffles (perfect for our dinner and leftovers for the littles before school the next day!) I used ground soft white wheat and they weren't too heavy. Of course if you'd rather, use all purpose flour. The flax seed is optional, but adds extra nutrition!

Buttermilk Waffles

4 eggs
4 C buttermilk (I used 58 g (1/2 C) buttermilk powder and 3 1/2 C water)
2/3 C vegetable oil
4 C (1 lb 3 oz) soft white wheat flour
4 T (40 g) flax seeds, ground
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Beat eggs and combine with buttermilk and oil. Combine remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour liquid ingredients in the dry and stir just until blended. Pour about 3/4 cup into a hot Belgian waffle iron and bake according to manufacturers instructions.

More uses for Honey Whole Wheat and Flax bread

This isn't a recipe per se, but a showing of how you can use the Honey Whole Wheat and Flax dough! Hubby has been craving hamburgers since he isn't eating lunch out every day (the only upside to him not working... dang slow down in construction!) We were out of bread anyway, so I made my 4 loaf batch. I made two loaves of bread, a dozen hot dog buns and a dozen hamburger buns. My kitchen scale came in handy to portion the dough out evenly. Each of the buns weighed in at 58 g before cooking. Make sure you keep any dough covered that you are not working with. This is where my stockpot that I used for the first rise came in extra handy. After I weighed the dough ball out, I just dropped it back in the pot and put the lid back on. This keeps the dough from forming any sort of a crust. You wouldn't think that a few minutes would make much of a difference, but it really does. For the hamburger buns, I rolled the dough into balls and pressed them flat with the palm of my hand. Transfer them onto a lined jelly roll pan and cover with sprayed saran wrap. For the hot dog buns, after rolling them into a ball, I rolled them out into ropes. Cover those the same way and leave on the counter to raise. I had formed the bread loaves first, set them in my slightly warm oven, and by the time they were raised and cooked, the buns were ready for their turn in the oven. I cooked them at 350* for 25 minutes. If cooking two sheet pans at the same time, be sure to switch position of the pans halfway through cooking so they get evenly browned. I got sidetracked when they came out of the oven, so I don't have an after pic of them out of the oven. Instead I'll let you drool over the pic of our "Daddy Burgers"... I think I'm off to have them again for dinner!

Mmmmmmm chewy, gooey, sticky caramels! These might just be the reason my pants aren't as loose as I'd like them to be! I swiped this recipe from My Kitchen Cafe I LOVE that they don't need babysitting at the stove. After adding the second half of the sweetened condensed milk in, just walk away... I mean it... don't touch that stirring spoon (but don't walk away too far, you still need to keep an eye on the thermometer!). I used a non stick saucepan and everything slipped out nicely. If you like caramels soft, cook them to 234*, if you like them a bit firmer, cook them up to 248*. (I recommend the lower end of the scale). I've had these wrappers on hand for some time now. I picked them up at a kitchen supply store, but you could easily use wax paper cut into squares. My kitchen shears made quick work of cutting the caramels. Next time I make these, I am going to substitute 1 tsp of vanilla with 1 tsp of rum extract. You can add 1 1/2 C chopped toasted pecans to this recipe when you add in the vanilla, but I like how they just melt away on your tongue and didn't want nuts interfering with that! These kept well for a month at room temperature. They did start to get a bit firmer towards the end of the month.

Homemade Caramels

2 C sugar
1 1/2 C light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk, divided
1/4 tsp salt
1 C butter
2 tsp vanilla

In a medium sized, heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk, salt and butter. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Once it comes to a boil, add the rest of the sweetened condensed milk, stirring just until it reaches a boil again. Boil the mixture still at medium-low heat, without stirring until the mixture reaches 234*(soft) to 248* (firmer). When the caramel reaches your desired temperature, immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla . Carefully pour the hot mixture into a buttered 9X13 pan without scraping the bottom and sides of the pan. Let the caramel cool completely before cutting into squares and wrapping in waxed paper.

Poultry Dressing

My hubby was on a Thanksgiving dinner kick if you couldn't tell from these last few posts! We had Thanksgiving dinner at his sister's house this year, so we didn't have too many leftovers to enjoy for days ;-) He wanted the whole she-bang, but since I was the only one home cooking, he didn't get the full blown Thanksgiving dinner! This dressing is my second favorite one. My all time favorite is a cornbread dressing, but that requires making cornbread first... something I didn't have time for with everything else. This is jazzed up with apples, craisins and... (my mom will be so proud of me!) the cooked gizzards. This is the first time I have ever actually cooked the gizzards and incorporated them in a dish. Usually the whole packet gets tossed in the garbage. I just tossed all the gizzards and the neck and covered all with water. Then I boiled it for probably about an hour. I knew it was done when a fork was able to pierce everything easily with a fork. I saved the broth and used that in my gravy, since I didn't have turkey drippings due to the unusual method of cooking my turkey. I used my handy dandy food chopper to chop the gizzards into small pieces. The littles didn't even know they were in there!

Poultry Dressing

1/2 C butter
1 medium onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 bag dried bread cubes (specifically for stuffing, found in bakery section...it was probably around a pound of dried cubes)
1 lb sage sausage, browned
1 C pecans, toasted and chopped
1 granny smith apple, chopped
1 C Craisins
Gizzards and neck from turkey, cooked until tender and chopped (absolutely optional!)
2 Cans chicken broth (or use broth from cooking gizzards, or use turkey drippings)

Saute onion and celery in the butter until tender. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except chicken broth. Stir to evenly distribute everything and add chicken broth to moisten dried bread cubes. You don't want the mixture to be swimming in liquid. Spoon into a lightly greased 9X13 pan and bake covered at 375* for 25-35 minutes or until heated through.

Italian Flair Turkey

This turkey is not your usual turkey! My husband's niece has been making this turkey for Thanksgiving for several years now. Since this side of the family is quite large, there are typically two turkeys made each Thanksgiving. Her turkey is always the preferred one (not to bash the other turkeys that have been served along side it, by any means) It is just that this turkey is always so moist and the flavor unique. When I pegged Eliza down to share her recipe, she said she wings it every time she makes it, based on what spices she has in her cupboard. So this can be changed to suit your herb tastes.

This is how I made it: Mix your mustard and spices and slather it over the turkey

Bake for 1 hour and pour spaghetti sauce over turkey. Baste at least once an hour, until turkey timer pops out.

Italian Flair Turkey

1 onion, flowered

1 C mustard

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp seasoned salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp sage

2 (26 oz)cans Spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts garlic and herb)

1/2 spaghetti sauce can of water

Wash and pat turkey dry with paper towels. Insert onion into cavity. Combine mustard and all seasonings. Coat turkey all over with mustard paste. Bake uncovered at 325* for 1 hour.*** Pour spaghetti sauce all over turkey and add the water to the pan (this prevents it from drying out and makes basting easier). Cover and cook until turkey is done (this varies depending on the weight of your bird), basting at least every hour. The turkey takes a little longer to cook due to losing heat every time you open the oven door to baste. After turkey is done, remove from oven and tent with foil. Let rest for 20-30 minutes. Carve turkey and pour pan juices over the meat. (You will want to use your baster to get below the layer of grease in the bottom of your pan, or use a fat separator)*** I use a counter top roasting oven to free up my oven space. In my case I cooked it with the lid on the whole time, so I didn't need to worry about cover or uncover.