Tortillas, Wheat Flour and Corn Flour

DAY 7: Go-To Recipes 

I think I may have mentioned before how much I admire versatility, but that doesn’t mean I can’t say it again. I admire versatility. To that end, many of my recipes are for things that I can use to make other recipes, or at least adapt into slightly different variations of itself. Two recipes came to mind when I was given today’s topic. Okay, essentially it’s 3. I’m going to make these into 2 posts (the other will come tomorrow; it’s getting late.) so that it’s a little easier to check back and use this recipes if you’re so inclined. Another user-friendly thing I’m going to do, is put all my comments and variations after the recipe instead of before since my blog is not set up in the normal “skip to the recipe” format most recipe blogs use.   This is not a recipe blog. Okay. It is sort of a recipe blog right now.

Tortillas, Wheat Flour

(recipe from my mother from her friend)

MIX:

unbleached all purpose flour, 2 CUPS (whole wheat flour OR masa corn flour can be subbed for half the amount)

baking powder, 1 TSP 

salt, 1 TSP

ADD:

oil, 1/4-3/8 CUP

warm water, 2/3 CUP

 

• Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula or fork until dough comes together.
• Knead using your hands a couple times to form a soft dough. Work in more water if the dough is a m hard; if it’s sticky sprinkle a little flour over the dough and knead it in. The final product should be a very soft dough, a little springy but NOT STICKY. BTW you can use a mixer and dough hook to make the dough. I use this method when I’m mixing several recipes at once.
• Divide dough into 9-12 pieces and roll each one into a ball.
• Leave the dough alone for a while and go do something fun. Or just work your butt off doing something else. Dough should sit for 15-30 minutes minimum, and can be left up to 5 or 8 hours, although after a couple hours the quality of the dough starts to deteriorate.
• Roll tortillas on floured surface, or use tortilla press to Create perfect rounds.
• Fry on hot cast iron pans or griddle, flipping to lightly brown both sides. (Should look similar to above pic)

Tortillas, Corn

corn masa flour, 1 CUP 

warm water, approximately 1 CUP

• Pour warm water over flour, stirring constantly 
• Keep stirring until dough comes together 
• Keep adding water slowly to form a very soft dough. 
• This dough can be tricky. Warm water seems to be key, as is adding a little more water than seems necessary. 
• Work the dough with your hands. If it feels firm, then it won’t make good tortillas.  The dough should be very soft and squishy. If you are familiar with Co-op’s Hey Clay, compare your dough to that. It should feel like the clay feels before it starts to dry.  If you feel a little bit of a dry skin On your dough, you need to work in more water. I’ve had a very hard time pinpointing the measurement for water on this recipe.  Next time I make it, I’ll try to use my scale; maybe that will work better. 
• Now divide your dough into balls, approximately the size of ping pong balls
• Press tortillas between two pieces of parchment paper, using either a cold tortilla press of a rolling pin. Do not make the tortillas too thin or they will be difficult to pull from the parchment paper. If the tortillas crack as you press them, your dough isn’t wet enough.  When that happens to me I usually lump my dough back together and work in a little more water.
• Fry tortillas on hot cast iron pan, flipping to lightly brown both sides. 

Don’t be Daunted 

If you’re not in the habit, making tortillas can seem slightly daunting. I’ve been making the first recipe for over 10 years, so I think I could safely and easily do it in my sleep. For most  of those 10 years I made the tortillas using a rolling pin, rolling each one to paperthinnes. This admittedly is an art form and it takes practice to become proficient and fast. For my wedding I received an electric tortilla press from some friends, and,  since then, I only use a rolling pin if a. I’m making less than a full recipe of tortillas or b. I want big tortillas for making something like wraps. To me, tortillas is an easy and quite fast meal. Living away from stores and fast food, i can’t run buy tortillas if I need them. But to be honest I don’t think I have ever bought tortillas. Becos i grew up eating homemade tortillas, I will never be able to properly enjoy a grocery store tortilla. *Adding tortilla snob to my list of flaws. This recipe is simple. Uncomplicated. Not too many steps. And Once you’ve done it a couple of times, it’s even easy. 

Variations, Wheat Tortillas

Flour. I mentioned in the recipe that whole wheat or corn flour work well in this recipe. 

Although the original recipe calls for white flour and really tastes the purest made that way, I rarely do. For a slightly healthier version I like to use whole wheat flour instead of half the unbleached flour. This seems to make the dough a little dryer so a drop more water might be needed. 

Another version: I’ve started subbing 1 cup of masa corn flour instead of 1 cup of the unbleached flour. This makes a very beautiful springy dough that is easy to work with. It also gives the tortillas a vague corn-tortilla flavour without the difficulty of making full-corn tortillas. This version in my favourite. 

Add-ins: throughout the years I’ve added all sorts of things to my tortillas, wanting to enhance their perfection even more. Paprika, cumin, taco seasoning, cilantro, tomato sauce, salsa, beets, etc. All of them have been fine. None have been spectacular, except the red beets, which I cooked and added to my norm’a recipe. Without affecting the flavour, the beets made the most beautiful pink tortillas, absolutely perfect for a princess party, baby or bridal shower, or just, like I did, for the fun of it. 

Versatility, More Go-tos

*Stuffed with cheese and beans or a bit of leftover meat , fried in a little butter, these make the fastest quesadilla lunches, suppers, or snacks. Add sautéed onions and peppers to take them up a level. 

*A half piece of blackened or deep fried chicken and a few lettuce leaves tossed with Caesar dressing, and you have a wrap

*any kind of meat can be made into tacos with minimal time and effort 

*warmed in the microwave with cheese and salsa in a fast breakfast or snack BTT likes

*fried in a little oil, they can be crumbled into soup

*fresh, serve them with Chili to use as spoons 

*enchiladas. The enchiladas options are vast. 

*can be used as crust for personal pizzas, although this is not my favourite 

*make into chips by cutting into triangles and baking or frying 

Independent Dependent

Day 5: Single Alone and Happy 

Some of these topics are things I would never choose or even imagine to write about. I guess that’s a good thing? It’s definitely bringing my blog some random topics. Due to posting every single day, I have been doing less editing than ever, and becos usually most of my editing is focused on my wording and thoughts (as opposed to spelling, grammar and punctuation), you’re getting my thoughts uncensored. This is terrifying for me.

Some Dictionary Definitions of Single

1. an individual person 
2. only one

A Saying as a Springboard for my own Thoughts

There’s a saying that goes something like this:

To have a good relationship, you need to know how to be alone first. 

There is some truth to that, although it may not it’s not universally true. Basically, I can only speak from my experiences so I might be biased on this topic. 

And before I go any further, I want to make this clear. I speak from the perspective of marriage becos that’s where I am right now, building a semi-new marriage. But I think that most if not all of these musings can be applied to almost any relationship, and, in fact, most of these things are things I learned before I got married. 

Learning to be Single, my Journey

I think I’ve written some about this before, a couple years ago maybe, when I was going through it.

I grew up with varying amounts of sisters, spent time at HH surrounded by a dozen other girls and up to 4 dozen children, and then moved to Saskatchewan alone. I didn’t live alone for any amount of time, but I did spend a lot of time by myself in the first months I lived here. And I hated it, at least at first. I knew that I was not the kind of person who was meant to do anything without a big or little sister or a friend beside me. But I learned. I learned how to go shopping by myself. I learned how to get dressed without asking my sisters’ opinion, although that is something I still really miss. I learned how to make decisions alone, go to church and sit alone (surrounded by strangers), I learned to go to social events alone, to meetings alone. You get the picture. 

Since then, I’ve started to not only tolerate, but actually enjoy being alone. When I taught school, I revelled in the hour between when  I got home from school and BTT got home from work and the days I didn’t get that, I’m pretty sure I was a lot more difficult to live with. This has helped me cope with the different scenarios life has given me. Only after experiencing this stage of my life, can I understand others who need alone time. I’ve been there. 

Being Single and Married, in Practice

From the mundane evenings spent home alone after a I have to go on a tow so I’ll only be home at 10pm call from my husband, to leaving my husband for the mundane evening at home to clean up supper while I rush off to school board meetings, to going to visit my family solo and many other things, life sometimes gives me things I have to do without my husband. Alone. Singly. On the other hand, I do still need people around me every day. I feel like me, I’ll never struggle with being too single; that’s just not who I am. When in a crowd, I’m always going to be scanning faces for that one familiar face, I’m always going to feel better when I’m sitting, if not beside my lifeline or in view of him, then at least by some familiar face. Through the adjustments of joining a new family and community, at times my husband almost despaired at my clinginess. Little did he know that if he had met me even a year earlier I would’ve been a lot worse. 

A Few Last Musings on Variants of Depend 

Like in everything else in life, there’s  a fine line of independence, in marriage and in any relationship. I absolutely know that I’m still learning where that line is. I need to know how to be single/ alone/ independent, but I also need to know how to collaborate. The words dependent (not single)  and independent (single) share a root word, depend. Is this a coincidence, or not? Today, I think not. I think it’s symbolic: I need to be both.

Led by Example

DAY 5: my parents

Mom, I’m sorry. I know you don’t like it when I write about you. I’ll try to be as careful and short winded as possible. 

I’m going to focus this on things my parents taught me, because to me, my parents epitomize those values.

Some Things My parents taught me (verbally, but maybe more by example):

The work you’re supposed to do isn’t usually glamorous; sometimes it’s even thankless. And that’s okay. You don’t need a tangible reward for everything you do. 

Do whatever you find to do. If you notice something that needs doing, do it. This is one thing I think I’m not as good at as I used to be.

Give everything you have. And I’m not talking about money, or even things. Give your life. Give yourself. And if you don’t get enough sleep or get to do all the things you want to do for yourself, that’s okay.

My parents showed me how to be unselfish. BTT’s parents embody this trait too, and BTT and I feel like we can never live up to both our parents’ high standards of giving and unselfishness. 

My parents made sure we weren’t stuck in any boxes in our growing up years. They immersed us in another culture and lifestyle for 5 years. They  took us travelling through different cities in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and a few Canadian and US ones as well. This way, My parents encouraged us to expand our worldview and look beyond our culture to understand the world and its people.

Then, once we’d moved back to Canada for good, they became foster parents. This is one of the greatest gifts my parents have ever given me. I would not have become the person I am today if I had never known and loved the children who came to us. S and K would not be part of our family today if we hadn’t had the privilege of caring for S through the foster care system when she was tiny. My parents taught me to love without restraint, even when it breaks your heart.

Oh, the Places You (Won’t) Go

 

Day 4: Places I Want to Visit

This is both a difficult and an easy topic to write about. Me being me, I always have a lot of  places on my list. That’s the easy part. Writing about them is harder, because of course I’ve never been to them so I don’t know what they’re really like. 

Morocco and Dubai and Saudi Arabia have been at the top of that list for as long as that list has been in existence, since I was 12 or so maybe. Ironically, their allure has not diminished. In fact, the trip to Egypt I referenced yesterday and time spent in Israel on that same trip, only made me want to visit these nearby countries more. By now everyone’s bucket list has at some point or another included Marrakesh, but just so you know, I wanted to go there first. 

Nahanni National Park. I would love to paddle the untamed Nahanni River, cower in the shadows of massive granite, laugh at the antics of mountain goats and sheep, strike see a real live caribou off my bucket list, relax in wild Kraus Hot Springs, fight with a grizzly bear. Kidding about the last one. 

Palau. I’m kind of obsessed with this country right now, have been for a while actually. While reading a book about Oceans -which, by the way, I found to be a fascinating topic I hadn’t realized I was interested in (4th grade science books don’t do a great job in portraying the vastness and mystery of the oceans)- I learned so much about this country and so much about the world and so much about the ocean and animals that life in it. This country, It’s so tiny and so remote, surrounded by thousands and thousands of miles of outlaw ocean. Climate- and land-wise, it is the polar opposite of Canada, but that’s not the only reason I’m interested in it. It has ethical and climate issues that, while not unique to Palau alone, are compounded by its tininess and remoteness. Many of this tiny beautiful country’s residents rely on tourism to support themselves, but at the same time this tourism is starting to destroy the country itself. What do the tourists come to Palau for ? Its oceans, reefs, and beaches, mostly. One of the major problems is garbage disposal. Becos I’m an uneducated girl from Canada, this quandary had never crossed my mind. I mean, you just put your garbage at the end of the driveway and someone else takes it to a landfill and becos there’s arguably endless land to expand the landfill as it fills up, waste disposal isn’t really an issue in my country. But what happens when You live on (or visit) a tiny island? Where do the tons of generated garbage go on a teeny tiny island? Into the ocean -where else? And what does that garbage do in the ocean? It destroys reefs, clogs beaches, and kills marine life. Tourists don’t come to Palau to see dead fish and plastic-wrapped reefs and play dodge the pop bottles in the waves. Other people-menaces facing this country is poaching and illegal dumping of oil or other garbage into the remote corners of their waters.  These are issues that the people of the country have taken a firm stance on to protect their country; they have trooper stations on far flung islands to guard against these atrocities and patrols on boat as well. Other menaces can’t be so easily stopped. Changing weather patterns have created wild tropical storms that have been getting wilder every year and, along with rising water lines, have chased people from some of their small island homes to bigger more populated islands. 

Okay I’m done about Palau. Maybe. I know a lot of people scoff and climate change and protecting the environment, but I believe in a version of both, and maybe that’s why I love Palau. 

Australia. I want to learn to surf there, among deadly jelly fish, man eating sharks, and magnetic rip tides. And once I’m done there, I’ll hop across the ocean to Papua New Guinea. Did you know that native names for the country include these : Niugini or Niu Gini? I don’t know the story behind this, but unfortunately I can imagine how the name (spelling) got changed. 

Croatia. I’m not exactly sure why I had put this on my destination list becos I’m not super much of a Europe fanatic, which, I decided the other day, is maybe due in part to many hours spent in ubiquitous European airports as a kid. But about Croatia. I’m gunna keep this one on my list anyway becos if I suddenly find cheap plane tickets to Croatia I would be delighted to go there. I’m pretty sure if I would go there I would fall in love with the country cos I have a tendency to do that whenever I visit a new place. 

Indonesia. The Mediterranean. Somalia. Djibouti. China. Anywhere in South American. Nepal. Basically anywhere that’s not North America or Europe. 

Now that I’ve started, it’s hard to stop writing about destinations. But I have to. And if any readers want to leave their dream destination lists in the comments or pm them to me, I’d be delighted. I love this topic. 

Two Truths, One Lie

(DAY 3: a memory. Or two.)

I’ve ridden a camel.

I’ve ridden a donkey.

I’ve ridden an elephant.

Two Truths, One Lie 

Did anyone else play this game as a kid? You make three statements about yourself -two of them true and one a lie- and the other participants in the game have to guess which one is the lie. I used to have fun playing this with people I didn’t know very well using scenarios like the one above, becos no one ever guessed correctly what I was lying about. 

I’ve Ridden a Camel, Truth 

After living for two years in a central African desert where our thermometers measured into higher 40’s•C, I thought the Sahara would be a breeze. But on a stutter-stepping camel at Giza surrounded by ochre-red sand reflecting the brightest sunlight of all time, I experienced the hottest day of my life. When I was handed a water bottle full of warm water, I felt like desert Pete must have felt stumbling across that proverbial well. The blurry sky above me, bluer than any sky blue, reflected the light until the wavy mirages ahead looked as blue as the sky and the sky looked as wavy as the mirages and everything blurred into everything else and everything looked like everything else. And the stutter-stepping and rudely burping of my majestic desert ship were an oddly soothing lullaby.

 

In retrospect, I think I was almost delirious with heat and thirst and exhaustion and sensory overload. That camel journey feels like a blur of desert and blinding sunlight and lots of Arabic. I distinctly remember straining to focus my eyes when we approached the ancient pyramids and Sphinx and being a little bitter that tourists were not allowed to enter those sacred piles of stone, not even to escape the menacing sunlight. 

When we finally arrived back at the tarp shelter we had started from an hour or five years before, I was a little ashamed of my intolerance and tried to pretend I hadn’t been counting the camel steps back. Our guide, Akhmed, pointed to some devout women from the UAE who were dressed from head to toe in black robes. “They think this is cool,” he said in response to our complaints about the heat. “They came here for a vacation because where they come from it’s really hot.” (And becos I remember this comment and because I  remember being taught in school that the Sahara desert is the hottest desert on earth [teachers!], I did some googling tonight. According to the internet, the Arabian Desert is actually hotter than the Sahara Desert. When you hear my planning my next trip to the Middle East in the middle of summer, remind me to wait until winter.)

Don’t misunderstand me, please. This is not a bad memory. It is actually one of my favourite ones. The strangeness and fogginess of it are what makes it so real to me still. Egypt was my favourite place of all the countries I’ve ever visited (>10 last count. Can’t quite remember exactly.) and I have only the happiest memories of Cairo: welcoming friendly people, a night market with the most delicious spices, my first ever taste of falafel, the many marriage proposals, midnight shawarmas, the most beautiful scarves and dresses for sale in every shop window, luxurious mint lemonade in a strange restaurant.. I still want to move there. I haven’t told my husband that yet. 

I’ve Ridden an Elephant, Truth 

It was under a different African sun that I rode an elephant. That ride happened  a few years before the camel one so it’s not nearly as clear in my mind. The elephant was massive and we had to climb up big wooden stairs to get on its back. It walked really slowly and the elephant skin felt exactly like it looked like it would feel. Maybe if I had known that one day I’d want to write about it I would’ve paid more attention that day. But I didn’t. It was just another day in the life of a missionary kid and the next day we went to Victoria Falls, the end. Oh and once I was chased by a charging wild elephant.  

A note to my Mum. 

Mums, this is written from my perspective as a teenager. If You disagree with any of the details please post a comment with your version. Or just private message me. 😘😘

The Lie 

I never rode a donkey.

DAY 2, THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

 DAY 2: Things that Make me Happy

I wish I had something revolutionary to include in this list, but I don’t. I’ve making making lists of things that make me happy for years, so if you’ve read any of those, you’ll be bored by this one as it probably contains many of the same things. I’m going to write this in list form becos that’s what I do best. And before you start judging me or feeling unloved, let me tell you that haven’t included anything about my husband or my faith or my family and friends by choice and it’s not becos they don’t make me happy.  Disclaimer done. Go ahead and judge now. 

Things that make me happy: 

The sunset. If you don’t believe me, ask My Husbandy. Sunsets calm me, they make me stop for a second and do nothing but breathe and stare at their unequivocal beauty. 

All the children: the sibs, nieces and nephews, friends’ littles, neighbour kids, random people’s kids who do funny things like show up on our yard and tell stories about their pet turtle....

Cooking. Creating things in the kitchen. 

My watercolours, my winter-time friends. 

Visual accomplishments. And by that  mean accomplishments that I can see, not things I accomplished with my eyes. 

Long walks. Although I enjoy walking alone, the road feels a lot shorter when I’m accompanied by BTT or a child. 

Watching other people be happy. Maybe this is why I love kids, becos they are so full of contagious happiness and joy and excitement.

Spending time  outside. When I worked for my dad (doing lawn care/snow removal) I was outside all day every day in summer and a lot of days in winter. When I taught school I spent over an hour outside every day with the kids. Now it’s either a habit or else I’m spoiled. I need my daily dose of fresh air, and most days, no matter the weather, I get it. 

And some opposites to close with:

Routine. 

Chaos. 

Becos both of these genuinely bring me joy. 

As always, I’d love To hear from any and all of you about what makes you happy.

Loser or Quarter Life Crisis? Describing my personality.

DAY 1: Describe My Personality 

A friend challenged me to a 30 day writing challenge, which I’m going to try.  I’m not good at writing on demand so I’ll see how it goes; Perhaps this will help me improve. Today’s challenge: describe your personality. I feel like I failed miserably at it. 

Is personality 100% inborn, or does it change throughout your life according to the things that happen to you ? I’ve taken all the personality tests and I think they’ve all come out pretty similarly. According to those, Imma middle of the personalities person, maybe hovering closer to the brink of the inhibited melancholy than to the dramatic sanguine. I’ve changed a lot in my 20’s, which I think is what happens to a lot of people, and, right  now, I’m not sure where I am anymore.

Quarter life crisis, identity crisis, It’s a thing. I’m not making it up. And it’s a good scapegoat for me to blame my feelings or actions on, a good way to express how I’m feeling. And thanks to a conversation with C, I know I, not the only one dealing with these feelings. It’s not a big deal, but right now it sort of feels like it is.

I Took a nap yesterday. In the middle of the day. After a full night’s sleeep. Granted, I was a littttttle sick but usually a headache isn’t enough to warrant a nap for me. And I woke up feeling like a loser, a failure, a bum who doesn’t contribute anything to anyone. Who am I? What should I be doing ? Do I dare admit to my strongly conservative audience that being a housewife and only a housewife sometimes isn’t enough ? Do I have a personality, or do I just have emotions?

I’m Jobless. By choice. It’s been a good thing mostly; it’s left me with time to do things for other people: cook, drive a dozen kids to school, go with family members to take their children to appointments, move in to watch the kids when parents go away, babysit, and lots of other things. But the indecisive part of me (maybe My biggest personality trait right now) will always wonder if that was the right choice. I spend hours almost every day Listening to other people’s children’s secrets. And the mother in me always wishes I could hug them tight, and never let the big bad world hurt them again. (I guess nurturing is another personality trait.) I’m Left dizzy when the little girls go home after 1 or 2 or 3.5 hours, leaving behind accidental pink watercolour splashes on the walls (and these are old-house painted-over wallpaper walls, next to impossible to clean) and pepper seeds on the floor. And about that pepper: I’m mourning that red pepper. It was my last red pepper, meant to tide my (almost) daily pepper eating habit over til I go shopping in two weeks. I can’t believe that I’m at a place in my life where I care this much about a red pepper. (Pettiness, selfishness, small world view: these are parts of my personality I’m mostly in denial about.) Vulnerable.  That’s my personality. I love easily. Too easily maybe. I give everyone I know the chance to hurt me. And sometimes they really do. Chaotic. If you ever come To my house you’ll totally believe that one. 

I don’t know what else to write. I think I got the wrong day to write about my personality. Feeling slightly depressed does not lend itself of objectiveness or positivity. 

The next topic is Things that Make me Happy. So you can look forward to more cheerful words tomorrow.