Tortillas 6 Lisa 0

I have tried to make tortillas about 5 or 6 times, I'm guessing.  A few times just "soaked" whole wheat, and a few times with sourdough starter.  I have never been really successful at it.  Sometimes, like the last batch I had, the dough is so sticky or fragile that if I try to roll it thin enough it ends up falling apart on the way to the pan.  Sometimes the dough was great, but the end product was not pliable at all.  And every time, whether I've fried them in oil or used a dry pan, the oil that ends up in the air while I'm cooking them gives me a headache.

This picture really does not do justice to the disaster that was my latest attempt at making tortillas.  The batch on the left was thin enough, however, they were falling apart in the pan & had holes.  I was getting so frustrated with them that I decided I had to leave them thicker & that is the batch on the right.  They actually ended up reminding me of the flat bread eaten in Rwanda, called chapati.

What do you do when you end up with strange fat tortillas?  You go ahead & make easy chicken enchiladas from the Musings of a Housewife blog anyway!  We actually make enchiladas in Rwanda using chapati & it's one of our favorite meals.

They don't look pretty but they taste just fine!  This is a great recipe to use some of the chicken meat after you've roasted a chicken & pulled the meat off before (or after) making your bone broth.  (By the way, the nice thing about making the crock pot roast chicken I told you about last week is that the meat is already falling off the bones, so I got most of the meat off the bird before I boiled it.)  I didn't have any cream for this recipe, so I used some creme fraiche instead.

All's you have to do is just mix the meat with some salsa (and I like to add sour cream or creme fraiche and this time I threw in some black beans too), dip your tortilla in the cream, roll it up around some of the meat mixture, throw a bunch of shredded cheese on top & bake.  Super easy & good (even with crazy tortillas)!

What else can you do with crazy too thick tortillas?  Make them into individual pizzas & warm in a 425 oven til cheese melts.  It's a soft "pizza" but it works & is especially great in a pinch for another quick dinner.

So, at least for a while now, I am done with my attempts at making homemade tortillas.  I bought some sprouted tortillas from the Ezekiel bread company & we'll have to see how those are.  My husband also really likes the sprouted bread I bought from Nature Bake bakery (their bakery store is only about 30 minutes away & you can buy frozen bread in bulk for about $2.50 a loaf).  I still have my sourdough starter going though, so I have not completely thrown the towel in...  stay tuned!

Here's hoping all your kitchen adventures today are successful!
Enjoy-
Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

Tuesday Twister

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

If you've read the side bar of this blog you know I have a thing about recipes.  I like to try new things & keep recipes that I might try for later.  This week I decided it was time to go through my collection of recipes that I have been clipping and saving from newspapers and magazines.  Some of these are as old as my marriage (18 years!).

Do you see that large file box?  That is where I stored all my recipes (sorted by category).  And the large pile of papers in front of it is all the recipes I got to recycle!  Wow- lots and lots of recipes that require processed food, or unsoaked grains, or refined sugar.  I still have quite a few recipes left in there- but my collection is infinitely smaller now.  Of course now I'm collecting recipes online too- so my collection grows in different ways...

This week we tried out The Nourishing Cook's Pizza Soup recipe.  My chicken stock was thick so our "soup" turned out more like a sauce over homemade croutons.  I also used 1 1/2 c. of jarred pasta sauce instead of canned tomato sauce.

With a generous sprinkling of parmesan on top it was nice.  But I think what would really make this fantastic would be to include mushrooms with the sauteing of the onion, and then add in sliced olives & organic pepperoni at the end.  That would also make it more of a main course than an appetizer/side.  Don't keep any leftovers- the bread gets too soggy.  Another great way to use up any "failed" sourdough bread you have too!

I also made Passionate Homemaking's Dutch Baby Pancakes.  I have made Dutch Babies/Oven Pancakes using the recipe in Nourishing Traditions, but what I liked about this recipe is that it all cooks in one big pan & her recipe doesn't add water which may be why it gets more of a "puff".  Great protein breakfast because it has a lot of eggs!

One day we were having roast chicken & I decided to loosen the skin all over the chicken & place Spinach Basil Pesto  in between the meat and the skin.  I didn't add anything else to the pot & just let it cook on low all day.  The chicken was fall-apart-tender by dinner time & very tasty!  Plus, it even made some of it's own chicken broth in the bottom of the pot.  Serve it with some rice & veggie - dinner is done!  Did you know you can use the time bake on your oven to cook rice?  I put my soaked rice along with another cup of water & a pat of butter in a covered casserole in the oven.  I set the delay bake on the oven so it would cook at 350 for 45 minutes before we were going to have dinner- it worked great!

The other thing I wanted to share with you was that I used Nourishing Traditions Recipe for Yogurt Dough to make a chicken pot pie.  I used half of the dough & divided it into half again.  Rolled out each of those very thin & used them for the crusts.

I pre-baked the bottom crust (I don't want soggy crust) while I worked on the filling.  For the filling I just combined some cooked chicken (from our roasted chicken above) thawed frozen vegetables, about 1/4 c. pasta sauce, 1/4 c. chicken stock (again from roast chicken), and 1/4 c. yogurt.  I added some italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic.  I forgot how much this dough shrinks- I should have stretched it out further maybe?

 this is funny- that crust is seriously unhappy!  I should have poked it with a fork to keep it from puffing up...

I added the filling, put the crust over the top, and continued baking at 350.  It tasted just as good as other pot pies I've made using store bought pastry crust- so cool!  I rolled out the other half of the dough into two more flat sheets (between parchment paper), rolled it all up like a newspaper and froze it so I can use it for other sweet or savory dishes later.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing with you about some butternut squash recipes!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Spinach Basil Pesto

This post is a part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

Do you like pesto?  I love pesto!  The produce buying group I belong to had some basil last week & I decided it was time to make some homemade pesto.  I found this great recipe for Spinach Basil Pesto, which was perfect because I also had some baby spinach in my fridge too.  I love this because you just mix it up in your blender (ok, not my blender- it's too wimpy!) or your food processor & it's done.

You start with 1 1/2 cups baby spinach, 3/4 cup fresh basil (I used more), 1/2 cup pine nuts, 1/2 cup grated parmesan, 4 cloves garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons olive oil.  The recipe also calls for lemon zest, but I'm not a fan of "zest" so I left it out.  You blend it together (it was at this point I realized my blender could not handle this & I transferred it to the food processor), then drizzle in remaining olive oil (about 3/8 cup).  OK, it's ready!

What a yummy way to get your greens!  We had ours on.... (true confessions time) store bought ravioli.  Well, it was organic, but a little too processed for me.  But it was my daughter's night to choose what we were eating.  Several years ago I got tired of my daughter always complaining about what I was making for dinner (complaining because she wanted what *she* wanted), so we came up with a compromise: one night a week she gets to choose what we have for dinner (no take-out) & the other nights I choose & no complaints!

She does love to cook & wanted to make pizza for lunch a few days later.  I made Sarah's Sourdough Pizza Crust and my daughter made all the pizzas- she decided to make an assortment of mini pizzas.  We came up with the idea of having pesto chicken pizza (she cut up the leftover Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme).  She also made a cheese pizza for her brother and a couple nitrate-free organic pepperoni ones!   We put the extra mini pizzas in the freezer so she has meal options for a different day.  Since I believe in giving credit where credit is due, I told her she could be in the picture of these awesome pizzas.  She jumped at the chance...

)

And, I have one other great way to use pesto that I have to share- it's so good.  You take a whole cut up chicken with skin on.  Loosen the skin on each piece of chicken and spoon pesto under the skin.  Bake in a pan as usual.  You will get wonderfully flavored chicken pieces!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme & "Soaked" Biscuits

When I cut up the chicken I found I had quite a bit of boneless chicken breast meat.  I decided to pull out a recipe that has been one of the "regulars" in my kitchen.  The marinade makes the chicken very moist- you just have to make sure you plan ahead because it marinates overnight (for best results).

Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme

 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt or sour cream (I prefer sour cream)

1/4 c. lemon juice 

**original recipe calls for Worcestershire- which has corn syrup & other nasties- any suggestions?** 

1/2 teaspoon celery seed*

1/2 t. salt *I had celery salt, not seed, so I used 1 t. of celery salt instead of 1/2 t. seed & 1/2 t. salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon pepper

8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

2 cups fine dry bread crumbs (make your own by tearing bread, toasting in oven, and pulsing in food processor)

   optional: garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, basil leaves

The night before: In a large bowl combine first 8 ingredients (everything except chicken).  Place chicken in mixture & turn to coat.  Cover & marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Meal night: Pre-heat oven to 350.  Remove chicken from marinade & coat each piece with crumbs 

(I wanted to add some spice to my bread crumbs, so I mixed in a pinch of garlic powder, onion powder, organo, and I had some fresh basil leaves so I snipped some in there too, parmesan cheese would also be good in there).  

Arrange in oiled baking pan & bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until juices run clear.

  I believe this recipe was originally in "Taste of Home" magazine

Simple as that!  Our dinner included salad and a "soaked" biscuit.  When she tasted the biscuits my 11 year old daughter said, "These taste like Pillsbury.  I know coming from you that wouldn't be a compliment, but it is coming from me."  She is so funny!  I used this recipe from Heavenly Homemakers.

First you combine 3 cups flour with 1 cup buttermilk.  You will probably want to use a fork to mix, because the mixture is fairly dry/tough to mix- at least mine was, it's in the bowl up front:

The bowl in the back was a steel-cut oats pancake experiment & that failed- but I'm sparing you the gory details on that!

 I let this "soak" for about 16 hours, then added the 2 t. baking powder and 1 t. sea salt, plus 1/2 cup melted butter.  After mixing all that in I got a nice dough that looked like this:

The great thing about this dough is with plenty of fat it was very easy to work with, not sticky at all.  I put it directly onto my counter (no added flour), patted it to about 3/4 inch thick, cut out biscuits, and put them all onto a piece of parchment paper directly on the oven rack for my toaster oven!

After baking at 400 for 20 minutes they were done.  They seemed a little dry so I spread more butter on top while they were hot.  They were very tasty & I am going to have the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow with some eggs and sausage too!  Yum!

Enjoy!

Lisa

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen the Kop

Honey Dijon Chicken

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival at GNOWFGLINS

It used to be that boneless skinless chicken breasts were the majority of our chicken meals.  Since I  started insisting on humanely farmed chickens I have been buying whole chickens & roasting them.  This month I felt like something besides the same old roast chicken.  I decided to try my hand at cutting up the chicken, and I also happened to see a couple of different blog posts recently about cutting up your own chicken.

However, when I went to cut up my chicken, I did not have any of that information in front of me.  I can't exactly cut up a chicken on my desk.  (Has anyone invented a laptop computer that installs under your kitchen cabinets?  I think they really should- and make sure I get credit for the idea!)  Plus my son was using the computer, and I decided to let him stay occupied while I hacked my way into this chicken!  I got the wings and drumsticks off, that was easy enough.  But after that I kept flipping the bird over & over- everything looked the same.  I also got off - what are those?  thighs?  drumettes?  And I cut the breast meat off (quite a bit there).  I am not sure what all I did to this poor chicken, but I think it may be a crime somewhere...

What you see in the glass jar there in a honey Dijon marinade/cooking sauce.  Last time I made Honey Baked Chicken* for dinner there was plenty of sauce left in the pan, so I froze it & reused it one more time for this dinner.  I've had this recipe for a long time- it is so good & so easy.  A great company dish as well because it fills your home with yummy smells!  (My daughter actually asked, "Who's coming over?" when she smelled it baking.) 

Honey Baked Chicken
4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup honey
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 whole bone-in chicken breasts, halved (OK, this is funny- how many chickens have 3 breasts?  HA!) OR
    one 3 1/2 lb fryer (cut) OR boneless skinless chicken breasts

1. Turn on oven to 350.  In a 9x13 dish, melt butter in oven (while it is pre-heating).  Remove dish & mix in honey, mustard, curry, & salt.
2. Coat chicken pieces in butter mixture.  Bake skin side down 30 minutes.  Flip pieces & bake for 20 to 30 minutes more until browned (optional: basting occasionally- I never do though).  Reduce cooking time if using boneless chicken breasts.

*I think this recipe may have originally come from menu mailer @ Saving Dinner...

This is all I have to show you, because my family dug into it before I could get the camera out.  Some suggested go-alongs for this are green beans & cornbread (with honey butter) or salad & scalloped potatoes.  There is a super easy recipe for Cream Scalloped Potatoes at Heavenly Homemakers.  You will not believe how easy they are- just cream & potatoes- and my husband said they are "delectable"!  You could cook them at the same time/temp as the chicken & they should all be ready at the same time.

That same night I started marinating the chicken breasts for dinner the next night.  First I pounded them down (thinner pieces cook faster & also makes for more servings).  The recipe for Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme is another favorite of our family & great for company because the marinade makes the chicken really moist.  And making your own bread crumbs is another great use for failed (sourdough) bread!  I will share that recipe with you in my next post!

Enjoy,
Lisa