Flour Tortillas

I've been trying to do most, if not all of my cooking at home lately and on a budget. I typically feed 3 adults and 2 kids dinner for $5-$8. $10 dinners has nothing on me! I try to make sure my dinners are at least semi healthy also. I mean a person could feed a family of five Ramen noodles for dinner for under $1 but that wouldn't be very healthy! I also use my crock-pot a LOT since it means dinner is pretty much ready and waiting when I get home from work. Last night I made a Mexican chicken and beans in the crock-pot, it's sort of like an enchilada filling yum!

Crockpot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese:

Ingredients
2-3 boneless chicken breasts (mine are still frozen)
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black beans
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes (or 1 large fresh tomato diced)
1/2 cup water
1 packet taco seasoning
1 (15 ounce) can corn
1/2 package cream cheese (most cream cheese comes in 8 oz bricks, you want to use 4 oz)

Directions
-Put frozen, yes, frozen, boneless chicken breasts into crock pot.
-Add 1 packet of taco seasoning, 1 can of black beans drained, 1 can of corn drained, 1 can diced tomatoes (or your fresh diced tomato) and 1/2 cup water
-Cook in crock pot on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 8-9 hours
-Break up the chicken, it basically falls apart into shredded chicken if you just poke at it with a spoon a bit
-Add 1/2 package cream cheese (just throw it on top!) and let sit for about 1/2 hour
- Stir it up and serve over rice or with tortilla chips or better yet with home made flour tortillas!


And so we get to the "bread baking" part of this post. I wanted to serve my Chicken and Black beans with flour tortillas, I was going to the grocery store so I could have picked up a package but I thought, hey I bet they aren't that hard to make; so I looked up some recipes and you know, they aren't hard to make at all!

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com submitted by LaDonna

Flour Tortillas

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons lard
1 1/2 cups water

Directions

-Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the lard with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.

-Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Place the cooked tortilla in a tortilla warmer; continue rolling and cooking the remaining dough.

It took a little time but it was pretty easy. I think cooking them until they are "golden" is not a great idea because they get kind of crispy which wasn't what I was looking for. My second time around I cooked them covered and on a lower heat and I was happier with the result. I did use lard because I happened to pass right by it in the grocery store but from the reviews I read you can totally sub in shortening. Then you won't have a package of lard hanging around your house. I need to hide it somewhere I hate opening up my cabinet and seeing it there, it just feels wrong! Anyhow the tortillas are great and I will totally be making these again.

My perfect bread

I have been baking but haven't done much posting since all my bread seems to be coming out pretty much the same every time, and not all that great. Until the other night, when it came out absolutly perfect, and then I was able to recreate my success. So I have finally a recipe that works for me, and for my schedule. I make the dough late at night, leave it covered overnight in my cold kitchen (50-60 degrees) perform the 2nd mix in the morning before work, leave it covered in the fridge until I get home form work. When I get home at 5:30 I take it out and place it near my pellet stove for 2 hours, then I shape it, let it rise and bake bread at 10 at night! This recipe makes two medium size bread loaves.

Ingredients

¾ cup of a starter

1 tsp dry active yeast

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups bread flour

1 cup warm water (plus possibly a few more tablespoons)

3 tbsp olive oil (plus 2 more tbsp. for the outside before baking)

1 & 1/2 tbsp kosher salt

Directions-

Step 1- Make the dough

Combine the starter, 1 cup warm water, 1 tsp yeast, 2 tbsp olive oil and 2 cups of bread flour, mix in a Kitchen Aid (KA) mixer with a dough hook on low speed and slowly add in the 2 cups of all-purpose flour. Increase your mixer speed to medium and let it continue to run and watch to see if dough is forming into one large clump or if it is still staying crumbly and in pieces. If it hasn't come together begin adding 1 tbsp of water at a time and letting the mixer run a bit after each addition. When the dough comes together you have added enough water. Now add the 1 & 1/2 tbsp kosher salt to the dough, continue running the mixer for 8 minutes. Remove the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Rise in a warm place for 3 hours or in a cool place overnight. Your dough should triple in bulk.

Step 2- 2^nd mix

Put your risen dough back to mix on your KA mixer fitted with a dough hook. (I let mine rise right in the mixing bowl and then do this stage still in the same bowl) Mix your dough for 5 minutes. It will return to it's original small size since you are letting out of it (that's okay it's supposed to) Remove the bowl and cover again to let rise for 3 hours in a warm place. Alternately you can refrigerate it now and then take it out of the refrigerator and let it sit in a warm place for 2 hours. Ultimately you are looking for it to rise back to about 3 times its deflated size.

Step 3- shape and rise

Turn your risen dough out onto a floured work surface, fold and stretch your dough onto itself 4 or 5 times before cutting in half and shaping into loafs. Place on a floured cutting board and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 1 ½-2 ½ hours, no longer! Any longer and your bread will be overproofed, it results in really disappointing bread!

Step 4- bake

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. Transfer your bread to a corn meal dusted peel or easy to maneuver cutting board. Rub each of your loaves with a tbps of olive oil (don't try to oil the bottoms just tops and sides) Slash the tops of your loaves with a razor blade. Steam your oven. (Skip this step if you have an oven with electronic/digital controls, you could ruin it) Slide your loaves into the oven. Bake at 500 degrees for 8 minutes, then reduce temperature to 400 degrees F and bake an additional 8 minutes. Remove loafs and let cool on a wire rack. Try not to cut into it until it is cool. Pretty much an impossible feat one you smell this bread baking! Here is what mine look like

Crunchy and crusty on the outside, soft and filled with big stretchy holes on the inside. I ate one whole loaf by myself, toasted with butter. This is NOT good for Weight Watchers!

In some of my posts coming up I will talk about how to make different kinds of starters, how to steam an oven, and how to slash your loafs.