Flour Tortillas

My friend Kim posted this link to a flour tortilla recipe. I've been wanting to try making my own flour tortillas for a while. We eat at least 4 dozen flour tortillas a week, probably more.

3 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4-6 Tbsp. vegetable shortening or lard
about 1 1/4 cups warm water

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add vegetable shortening or lard. Or use a combination of half lard, half shortening.
Use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut in the shortening or just do it the old fashioned way and use your hands.

Next add warm water a little at a time until your dough is soft and not sticky. You do not need very hot water.

Knead the dough for a few minutes.

Now you will pull off pieces of dough to form about 12 small dough balls. Let them
rest for at least 10 minutes, longer if you like.
Now you can roll out the dough It is a good idea to dust each ball with a little flour just before you roll them out. roll up, center and roll down. It is good to lift the dough and turn it. Again, rolling pin in the center and roll. Roll them out fairly thin.
Lay your tortilla on the hot pan. It takes just a few seconds to cook. Flip to the other side. When they are done it should have lots of nice brown speckles. Place them in a towel. They are ready to be served!

Sweet & Sour Greenbeans

This is a family recipe. I think it may be Pennsylvania Dutch.

Ingredients
4 cans French Cut Green Beans
1/2 lb bacon cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup white or apple cider vinegar


cook 4 cans french cut green beans in the juice from the cans, add 1/2 lb crumbled cooked bacon, add 1 T bacon grease, sugar and vinegar....increase sugar or vinegar to taste to create sweet and sour flavor. Refrigerate in serving dish until just before dinner, reheat in microwave.

This will feed 15 to 20 people, it can be halved or doubled depending on how many servings are needed.

Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage, Apples & Cranberries

I have always LOVED cornbread stuffing, but until recently I didn't know how to make it. I've tried several recipes, but this year decided to develop one of my own.

Ingredients

1 package fresh cranberries (rinsed & chopped)
2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced (I used one Gala & 1 Granny Smith)
1 cup cider
1 8X8 pan of cornbread, cooled & crumbled
1 pound pork breakfast sausage
1 stick butter
3 cups water

Directions

1. Soak cranberries & apples in cider for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   
2. Cook sausage in a skillet, stirring frequently and crumbling the meat with a spoon, until it is well browned and no longer pink. Add sausage to the stuffing bowl and stir everything together. Add apples, cranberries with their liquid. Mix thoroughly. In a small saucepan, melt stick of butter. Add 3 cups water and stir. Pour this liquid into the stuffing mixture and combine thoroughly.
3. Store in the refrigerator for up to two days before cooking, or freeze up to a month in advance. I don't like to stuff my turkey. I bake the stuffing at 350, in a covered casserole dish, for 40 minutes. If you like your stuffing browned, cook it uncovered.

Doctored Macaroni & Cheese

We eat a LOT of Kraft macaroni & cheese....well, the kids do, Hubby won't touch it. Recently Morgan & I have been experimenting with adding things to make it more like baked macaroni & cheese. Today, we added extra cheddar cheese, then put it in a baking dish added Italian bread crumbs & baked it to a golden brown. It is FABULOUS....even better than the baked mac & cheese we were trying to imitate. It's so good we are considering adding it to our Thanksgiving menu.

2 boxes Kraft Mac & Cheese prepared according to package directions.
Stir in 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Add enough milk to make creamy (1/4 to 1/2 cup depending on how creamy you want it)
pour into baking dish
sprinkle with bread crumbs (Progresso Italian bread crumbs are DELICIOUS)

Bake at 400 approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown & bubbly.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies--Hubby's Favorite

I don't make these as often as Hubby would like, but now that the weather has suddenly turned very cold I'm in a baking mood. I start with the Quaker Oatmeal Vanishing Oatmeal cookies recipe and make a few modifications. Today, I did use butter, but I often substitute shortening. I am using 1 1/2 cups of Old Fashioned Kroger brand oats & 1 1/2 cups of Thick & Rough grain milled oats to make the 3 cups of Oats. I always add the salt even though it is optional & about twice as much cinnamon as the recipe calls for.

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm sure that there a LOT of different peanut butter cookie recipes out there. Skippy peanut butter is my favorite brand and their recipe is my favorite for peanut butter cookies. I do make a few modifications. First, I use whatever brand of peanut butter is on sale or cheapest...this time we used Peter Pan. I've also used Jif. The second modification I make is using shortening instead of the margarine that the recipe calls for. I don't ever buy margarine & shortening works fine as a substitute.

This is a GREAT recipe to for my Tween kids to mostly make on their own. I check to make sure they put in the right ingredients & don't forget anything. I put the cookie sheet in the oven & take it out...they can do the rest. Even the 2 & 4 yr old can help making the dough into balls & flattening them with a fork on the cookie sheet.

Ingredients 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 1 cup Skippy ® Creamy or Super Chunk ® Peanut Butter 1 cup Imperial® Spread, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl; set aside. 2. Beat Skippy® Creamy Peanut Butter with Spread in large bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in sugars, then eggs and vanilla until blended. Beat in flour mixture just until blended. (If necessary, refrigerate dough until easy to handle.) 3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Arrange balls on ungreased baking sheets 2 inches apart. Gently flatten each cookie and press crisscross pattern into tops with fork dipped in sugar. 4. Bake 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool completely on wire rack. Store in tightly covered container.

Apple Strudel Muffins

I've had two apples sitting on my counter for a couple weeks. I've been wanting to bake, but the weather wasn't cooperating, then we go SICK. Today, we still aren't feeling great, but the weather is cool & brisk & I'm in the mood for something fresh baked. I searched on All Recipes & found an Apple Strudel Muffin recipe.

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples (I peeled, cored & diced 2 apples)
  
• (I added 2 T sugar & 1 t cinnamon to the apples)
• Topping:
  
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

This yielded 18 regular size muffins....I think 2 apples is more than 1 1/2 cups, but I didn't measure.

This was Melanie's reaction.....