Archive | November, 2012

Flour Tortillas

28 Nov

There are some food items that I have always bought at the store, with no second thought.  It never entered into my mind that you could make from scratch- flour tortillas.  One of my friends was talking about making them and it blew my mind a bit.  Of course you can make flour tortillas, right?  I mean how hard could it be?

Here is the recipe I used.  The hardest part was planning ahead a tiny bit (I usually start making dinner when my stomach starts grumbling) since you have to let the dough rise for about 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (you can get creative with your flour choices like whole wheat, spelt, soy, or a mixture of flours)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening or 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup warm water (may possibly need to add more, up to 3/4 cup) or 1/2 cup milk (may possibly need to add more, up to 3/4 cup)
Directions:

1.  Sift the flour, salt & baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
2.  Into the dry ingredients cut in the shortening, or add oil if you are using this option, & mix with your fingertips to combine.
3.  Add the milk or water, working the liquid into the dough until a sticky ball forms.
4.  Wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
5.  Divide the dough into 8-10 balls (for small tortillas) or 6-8 balls for larger ones, cover them again with the damp cloth.
6.  Lightly dust a counter or pastry board w/flour & roll out each ball of dough into a circle or oval approximately 1/4″ thick. If you want nicely rounded tortillas, trim off any ragged edges & discard. Don’t roll the dough out more than once or the tortillas will be tough.
7.  Heat a dry griddle or heavy skillet over high heat for 5 minutes. Cook the tortillas 30 seconds on each side or until the dough looks dry & slightly wrinkled & a few brown spots form on both surfaces. Do not over cook or they will be hard. Butter and roll up and wrap in damp tea towel to keep warm as you cook the other tortillas.


The girls LOVE cheese and homemade flour tortillas are a healthy vessel for them to be able to eat some more cheese.

pardon my husband, he never wears shirts

You gotta give it a try, they were delicious, easy and about a million times better than the store bought version.

Birthday Boating

24 Nov

Jared’s birthday was the 19th of November and for his special day he wanted to go on a family canoe ride on the river behind our house.  (first we went to a delicious breakfast at the famous Montana Cafe) I threw the paddles and lifejackets down the hill, then the girls and I crept down.  Jared had the tricky job of carrying the canoe down while the girls cheered him on.

It was a much different canoe ride then the ones we took during the summer months.  Everything was a dull shade of brown, green or black.  The brightest thing we saw were two blue jays that darted across the river on our way back home.

We tried to scope out our future Christmas tree (we REALLY need to start getting ready for Christmas).

I tried to continue our travels above a beaver dam but unfortunately the water was frozen.  Instead we had fun throwing ice around and stirring up the freezing water.

Happy (late) Birthday Jared, we love you to pieces.

Late on the Garlic

15 Nov

If you live south of Minnesota you aren’t even thinking about snow yet.  These pictures were taken on October ___. Yup, pretty crazy.

Needless to say we should have planted our garlic a bit sooner.

The snow did not stop Jared, he was bound and determined to get the job done so we would have some delicious garlic next summer.

We are always learning difficult lessons around our house, hopefully we can learn from them and plant a bit earlier next fall.

Happy Birthdays to Us

12 Nov

My birthday is November 12th and Jared’s birthday is on November 19th.  The benefit of this is we will never forget one another’s birthday AND we get a full week of fun birthday stuff.

here we are 5 years ago, yup he had earrings!

Yes, yes he married an older woman =)

Love that we get to celebrate birthdays and life together.

celebrating our birthdays together 7 years ago

A Late Halloween

9 Nov

Okay, so I just downloaded my pictures from the last few weeks and realized I have not yet shown you our awesome Halloween costumes.

We were invited to a great Halloween Party the Saturday before the big day.

I thought it might be fun if Jared and I put on a costume as well as the kids.  I was looking around to see what we had around the house and made a few calls to friends to make it work.

can you see Aleah’s red shoes?

We went to the party as the Wizard of Oz!

Sophi was the cowardly lion, Aleah was Dorothy, I was the scarecrow and Jared was the best sport when he dressed up like the Tinman.  Poor guy.  =)

I had to cut Aleah’s Dorothy costume that she got for Christmas a few years ago so it would fit over her snowsuit.  Sophi’s lion costume we borrowed from some family friends.  My costume was one of Jared’s flannel shirts, some brown pants and rain boots- all with some tall dead grass from the edge of our yard shoved everywhere.   And I made the hat out of brown felt, it looked too much like a witch hat until I pushed the top in a bit.

She had Toto and a vintage kids picnic basket

For Jared’s tinman costume I spray painted some rain boots and a box silver.  He wore a grey sweatshirt and sweatpants.  The best part of his costume was his funnel hat.  I tried to make it out of felt but it did not look quite right.  So I “borrowed” one from his workbench spray painted it silver and hot glued it to a headband.  Oh yeah- it looks pretty darn awesome.

Last Cookout

5 Nov

We had some delicious potatoes, garden tomatoes, delicious venison franks and Jared enjoyed some peppers all roasted over the campfire.

We had to wear jackets to keep some freezing our pants off, but the sun and fire helped too =)

this girl cannot eat enough tomatoes

I love my family and the fun little treats we get to enjoy with one another.