Sunday Favorites - I show you how to make Tortillas!

It's been a while since I've participated in Sunday Favorites. Sunday Favorites is when we take a past favorite post and repost to share it with everyone. You can see mine below from November 8, 2008 where I show you how to make home made flour tortillas. There's even a video with my own two little hands rolling them out. Please be sure to go over to Happy to Design and see what else everyone is sharing from the past...and Happy Sunday Favorites!

Favorite Post from
November 8, 2008

Today I awoke to a rainy, overcast day. I LOVE days like this! But it was a bit chilly and I get cold easily. Right now it’s about 54 degrees outside, so I decided the best way to keep warm is to cook something. I thought about making Popovers using this recipe. That way my oven would be on and it would warm up the house. But then I remembered the Mexican popover…the tortilla!

I haven’t made tortillas in years, but it sounded like fun. I tried to make them from memory. When I was a girl we used to make tortillas all the time, flour and corn. Nowadays I can just drive a few blocks to our local grocery store, but growing up, we always lived on the ranches my dad worked for and they were all miles and miles away from stores. So we made stuff from scratch.

Here’s a picture of the finished product. And rolling these out does warm you up, so does cooking them.




Since I made them from scratch I kind of had to estimate what I used. The recipe below will make about 10 10-inch tortillas.

2 cups Flour (I used Pillsbury All Purpose Flour)
½ cup shortening (I used Crisco, but when I was a girl we used Lard)
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
¾ to 1 cup warm water

In a large bowl first combine the flour, shortening, salt and baking powder. Using your hands, breakup the shortening, mixing it with the other ingredients. Then add water a little at a time until the dough gets kind of sticky and comes together. Then knead it until its smooth and elastic. I like to transfer it to my the wooden board I’m going to use to actually roll out the tortillas and knead it there. Then you separate the dough into little flat balls as shown below.




Before you start rolling out the tortillas, get your comal ready by placing it directly on the stove with medium heat. A picture of my comal is shown below. This one was given to me by my mother many years ago. It’s been used so often (though not by me J) that it has started to crack. My son uses it regularly for toasting hamburger buns and making quesadillas. If you don’t happen to own a comal, you can use a non-stick frying pan.

Here's a video showing how to roll out the tortillas and then step by step pictures.

So that’s it. It’s really simple and a nice treat. Now I’ll be honest, I prefer store bought tortilla’s, but it is fun to make them and it gives you bragging rights cause not too many people make homemade tortillas.

My dad makes homemade corn tortillas. I’m going to see if next weekend he can make some for us and I’ll do a blog and a video showing his technique and his homemade corn tortilla press, you’re gonna love it!

Happy Birthday Mom aka Nana

Today was my mom's 73rd birthday! Happy Birthday mom. We celebrated by having a dinner for her at my sisters house. My sister made a great dinner. Open face roast beef sandwiches with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon and corn. Mmmm!

I baked my mom's favorite; chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting and we also had Brownie Fudge Ice Cream and Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. And of course, chips and salsa...it wouldn't be our family if we didn't have chips and homemade salsa!

My mom Tomasa is the youngest of ten children, Nicolasa, Leonor, Jesus, Eustino, Maria, Casimira, Eliza, Herminia and Elena. Of the ten children only five are still living, my mom, Eustino, Maria, Casimira and Herminia. A couple of weeks ago my mom made the trip back to Phoenix, Arizona with her sister Casimira to visit another sister, Herminia that was in the hospital. My cousin Norrie was kind enough to send some pictures of the brother and sisters that are remaining.

This is from left to right, my mother Tomasa aka Tome, her brother Eustino aka Tino; her sister Casimira aka Casi or Casey and her other sister Maria.


Here again from left to right my Uncle Tino, my mom Tomasa and my Aunt Casi and in the wheelchair the sister they all went to visit, my Aunt Herminia aka Minnie.

My Aunt Herminia unfortunately had a brief stay in the hospital but by the time my mom and her sister Casi came back Herminia was home and doing much better.

These brothers and sisters all went through so much together and now these are the only ones left.

Here's a picture of my mom surrounded by some of her grandchildren today at her birthday party.

In the blue sweatsuit is Clarissa, standing in the back is Isaac, in the Billabong sweatshirt is Freddie and the baby of the family Melissa. Melissa is pretty darned thrilled by the candles!

Here's Issac and Fred again. My mom's grandsons.


Here are my mom's sons....on the left Jaime and then Fred. What is it about fire that turns grown men into little boys?


And my mom's daughters, me and my sister Lisa. That's me on the left. Lisa, thank you so much for opening your home to us. We had a great time and you're an awesome cook!

It was a fun day for all of us as it is almost every time we get together. December birthdays are always difficult because there's already so much to do to get ready for Christmas but this year especially it was important to get together and celebrate our mothers birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom...we all love you so much!

What a week!

Is everyone starting to feel the pressure? By next week at this time Christmas will be mostly over with except for cleaning up of wrapping paper, washing of dishes and thoughts of how we will NEVER eat another bite of food again!!

I can't wait! For the food anyway. Once you become an adult the presents don't seem as important as the food do they?

This past week has been a rush of trying to get things done. I've been doing Christmas shopping on my lunch hour and after work. Work itself has been hectic because we know next week is just a three-day work week. The bosses are coming down from Corporate on the 22nd to take us to lunch for Christmas and we're all a little on edge about that hoping that's all they're coming down here to do!

I've got a car trunk full of unwrapped presents and I haven't even remembered to buy wrapping paper, ribbon or even scotch tape! This is going to be a busy weekend. I'm finally feeling better though. I seem to have kicked whatever it was I had last weekend when my daughter was here.

I hope everyone is having fun getting ready for the big day. In our family we get together on Christmas Eve and open gifts and eat, and eat and did I mention we eat? Then Christmas Day we spend with our immediate families and eat some more.

I was hoping to have some pictures to post of Christmas decorations but it seems the only time I'm home is in the evening after dark and my camera doesn't do the greatest job of taking pictures without daylight. So tomorrow I'll try to get some nice pictures.

Good luck tomorrow for all of those last minute shoppers, maybe you'll see me out there!

Rainbows and Puppies

Rainbows

The Smiling Daughter of the Storm ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Born of the shower and colored by the sun ~ Jean Charles Prince


God's glowing covenant ~ Hosea Ballou


God's illumined promise ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears ~ John Vance Cheney


When you reduce life to black and white, you never see rainbows ~ Rachel Houston

I took these photos this weekend when I had lunch with my son Jim and my daughter April at a truck stop restaurant just outside of Shafter. My daughter was heading home in her Uhaul with her puppy Chorizo. That's the puppy sticking his tongue out at my camera in the photo above.

Just as we got to the truck stop and stepped out of the car there was this incredible rainbow. Thankfully I had my camera with me! Be sure to click on the photos above to enlarge.

Please stop by A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday.

There's HOPE for me!

"She who has HOPE has everything"

I won a giveaway hosted by Jeanette at Sweet Jeanette.
I won the sweet little Hope Angel shown above in the photo. Isn't she lovely? And you know what? She's made by hand by sweet little Jeanette herself!

I can't wait to receive her in the mail. Looks like Christmas came early to my household!

And even better, in the spirit of the Season and in the spirit of "paying it forward" I'm not the only winner. Jeanette is making 7 people who commented and were already following her their very own angels! And that's why she's SWEET JEANETTE!

Thank you Jeanette...I'll cherish her and hold HOPE close to my heart forever :-)

Christmas Chorizo Underneath the Christmas Tree

It was such a hectic weekend. My daughter came down with a big UHaul to pick up some of the things she had stored at my house and at her grandfather's house since she now has her own place...and of course I had to go and get sick.

The plan had been for my sister and me to help her load everything up on Saturday morning and head back to Turlock and help her unload and set up her new place. Then my sister and I would ride the Amtrak back home. But since I got sick it was decided that she would just stay here until Sunday and then head back by herself.

It was still a nice weekend except for me being more than a little grumpy and grouchy. I don't do being sick very well :-(

The best part after seeing my daughter was seeing Chorizo/Precious...her new puppy. So for Mosaic Monday I wanted to share this mosaic of Precious wanting to get her little paws and teeth on the Christmas Tree.

She's such a sweetheart! I can't wait to see her again at Christmas. She's stolen all our hearts!

Please visit Mary at Little Red House to see what everyone else is sharing for Mosaic Monday and everyone have a great week!

Lemon Blossoms for Thanksgiving

I can't believe it's almost Christmas and I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving! It was a great Thanksgiving. Lots to eat and lots of time spent with family. My daughter came home for four days for Thanksgiving. Those of you who visit me regularly know that she brought home this sweet little angel.

This little cutie is Chorizo. I call her Precious. Precious is coming back tonight and will be here until Saturday, so I may not get a lot of blogging done as I'll be doing a lot of puppy playing.

But the real point of my post today is to share with you what I did on the last day my daughter was home at Thanksgiving. It was just the two of us and it started out with us sharing a bottle of the bubbly.

I absolutely adore Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante Sparkling Wine Champagne. My daughter bought a couple of bottles as we love to share Mimosas in the morning with French Toast, but due to Black Friday shopping (her) and puppy sitting (me) we never got around to a leisurely morning of Mimosas and French Toast.

So instead we baked. Ok, well I baked she played with the puppy, watched Cake Boss, hung out with me and drank Bubbly. It was fun and it kept the house warm and cozy. I'm not sure if that was due to the bubbly or the oven being on. But it was fun.

We baked Lemon Blossoms. My daughter had made these last Christmas and everyone fell in love with them. She left her mini muffin pan with me so that I could make them and it's almost Christmas again and I had never yet made them...so I did at Thanksgiving.

Voila! Lemon Blossoms...in all their glory.

Lemon Blossoms up close and personal!

These little gems are so easy to make and taste sooooooo delicious. I tweaked the recipe a little bit because I love the taste of lemon, so they were so lemony that people's lips puckered when they first bit through the crispy, crunchity, lemony glaze covering.

But they got over it soon enough and everyone loved them. I didn't take step by step photos cause there was a puppy to play with and a daughter to visit with and Bubbly to drink...but here's some photos of a few stages.

Hot out of the oven!

Popped out of the pan...PERFECTION!

A close up of PERFECTION!

Mmmm, the lemony glaze. Pardon the bits and pieces of previously dipped blossoms.
Loving the color of my lime colored bowl with lemon glaze in it!

Voila yet again...Lemon Blossoms!

One minor mistake I made that my daughter didn't point out until I had completely finished is that I didn't dip the whole mini cupcake in the glaze. I just dipped the top and let it run down the side. When she made them, she dipped the whole cake in there.

The recipe for these Lemon Blossoms are from Paula Deen from the Food Network website. Here's a picture of Paula Deen's Lemon Blossoms.


Recipe for Lemon Blossoms

Ingredients

• 18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
• 3 1/2-ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

I'm linking up with Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday.


The great thing is that Michael, our hostess for Foodie Friday also features a pretty pet in her Foodie Friday post... go see...hurry! WAIT, before you go, please feel free to comment and again if you like what you see and read, please sign up to follow. Have a great weekend all!

Iwanna Wednesday - I'm in the Closet

Welcome to Iwanna Wednesday. My sister and my mom call me Iwanna because it doesn't matter where we are; a store, someones house, driving by someones house, driving by a store, whatever...I can always find something I want. So my sister said they shouldn't have named me Alicia they should have named me Iwanna, because Iwanna almost everything I see.

I guess I do Wanna everything, but it's not like I know I'm going to get everything, it's just that I'm easily pleased :-)

I love pretty things, practical thing, impractical thing...just things.

But when Iwanna so many cool things I sometimes have trouble finding enough storage space for them. Especially clothes. Iwanna a lot of clothes and shoes...OMGosh! I love shoes! And purses! And scarves! But I have to limit myself because I have a pretty small closet.

So what Iwanna today is a custom closet! Yep, one that will let me store and display all my little pretties!

Have you all seen Mariah Carey's shoe closet? And mind you...this is just for shoes. Take a look.

Ok, that may be a bit much. I have a few shoes, but I don't think my whole family put together has enough shoes to fill that closet.

Now I could show you closets that would work in my house, but that wouldn't be any fun and it wouldn't be what Iwanna. Iwanna show you the closets of my dreams...the closets I would have if I could have anything Iwanna.

C'mon, lets see!

First up is this pretty little gem. Don't you love the colors. So calm and soothing! I don't know that I'm all into this persons clothes though. She seems to like to wear a lot of white



I really love the storage space in the closet island on this one (kinda like a kitchen island only I don't think it would be a good idea to slice onions so near to my clothes. Onion breath is bad enough!


This next one is pretty adorable. I think I could actually make this one work in my bedroom. There's no island or anything, but I love how open and airy it is.



This next one is so sweet :-) I think I could just stare at it for hours!


And for the Pièce de résistance...Iwanna this one for sure. I think this is my favorite. Why would I ever even want to leave this room? I mean there's a bath, clothes, shoes, a couch for lounging. Heck if I can just get my son or my mom to bring me food in here it would be perfect. Oh wait...Iwanna be sure there's a little nook somewhere for my computer so I could blog of course.

So are you lucky enough to have the closet of your dreams? Or do you just Iwanna one like I do? Let me know.

And if you like what you've seen and read today then I would just be tickled pink if you would sign up to be a follower of my blog, cause that's another thing Iwanna...lots of lovely followers!