Tomasa's Child and Homemade Flour Tortillas

When I was a little girl, there was nothing better in the whole world than a homemade flour tortilla made by my own dear mom.

I remember that she would knead the flour, lard (because we didn’t use the much lighter shortening or oil that we use now, we used big huge blocks of lard) baking powder, salt and water in a big bowl. I loved watching her hands, strong and sure working the dough.



Little Balls of Dough



Then she would make these perfect little balls of dough. I made the ones in this photo and they are not perfect at all, but mom's were. She would then line them all up on a clean dish towel, ready to be rolled out into perfectly round tortillas.



Mom would always give my sister and me our own little ball of dough which we would pretend to knead and roll out as she did. Sometimes, depending on our mood, we wouldn’t knead or roll it out; we would instead form it into animal shapes, like it was clay.



Here's the rolling out in process



When my mom was done making the family tortillas, she would have us roll out our little ball of dough and she would place it on the “comal” which was made out of cast iron and heated over the open flame on the stove. We would watch her flip our little tortilla around until it was perfectly browned on both sides. We couldn’t wait to eat them!



This is the Cast Iron Comal



Mom would slice a pat of real butter which had been softening to room temperature and sit us down, each with our little tortilla. She taught us to rip off little pieces of the tortilla and dip them into the warm, melting, sweet butter. There was nothing better! We felt as though we had cooked these tortillas ourselves, my sister and I. Sometimes we would save them for our dad to eat so he knew his little girls had been slaving away making tortillas for him.



Comal with a Tortilla



My mom was great at including us in on her regular household chores and making it fun and like a game for us. We didn’t need fancy play-doh with all the little accessories they come with now. We just needed the plain tortilla dough, our imagination and our wonderful mother by our side. My mom's name is Tomasa and I am her child.

This post is inspired by the novel Julia's Child by Sarah Pinneo. Worried about what her kids eat, Julia Bailey starts a prepared organic toddler meals business. With names like Gentil Lentil, can Julia balance work and family and still save the world? Join From Left to Write on May 24 as we discuss Julia's Child. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

 

The Runs

Any of you that have ever worked in any type of customer service job know that many times customers say "the darnedest things!"

That happened to me today. Well it happens to me most days but today was so hilarious I had to bite my tongue to keep from busting out laughing and telling the customer, "Really? Did you really just say that?"

Ok, to preface my story, I work in insurance and in insurance many times an insurance company will ask for Loss Runs from a previous insurance company. Loss Runs are a report from the insurance company that the customer had previously. They are a report that tells us, "yes, this insured did have insurance with XYZ Insurance Company from this date to that date." The Loss Run will also show whether or not there were any claims incurred during that time. If not it will say "no claims or zero claims". If they did have a claim it will tell you a bunch of info like the date of the loss, the claims number, if the claim is still open or closed, if money was paid out and if there was money paid out how much it was and if it involved property damage or bodily injury or both. It's kind of like a report card for drivers.

I had asked this particular client for loss runs. The client had to get them from their previous carrier and it took about three weeks. So this morning, the clients wife gives me a call and says, "Hi Alicia, I was just calling to see if...did you get the RUNS?" Now mind you, she didn't identify herself to start with (they never do) so it just came out of the blue. Luckily we have caller ID and I saw who it was and I knew what she meant, but none the less it freaked me out that she asked if I got the RUNS!

I think the poor thing realized what she said but she was embarrassed so she just kinda played it off like she didn't really just say that and I, being the ultimate professional...didn't bust out laughing and embarrass her further. But when I hung up, I could not control myself.

And I love to include pictures when I share a story with you all but how do you include a picture of "the runs"? I found the one you see and thought it was pretty cute! And...I did receive the runs, I didn't get them!

Know why you haven't heard from me? Cause I'm on a deserted island...no really!

I know it's been a while since I've posted, not that any of you have missed me :-(
But thought I would let you know that I'm on a deserted island, kinda.

Here's the twist, you knew there had to be one right?

You’re on a deserted island, with no sign of rescue. You can have 10 things with you on the island. You just have to choose from this list. What will keep you company under the long, hot days in the sun? (my choices are in bold):



1. Chocolate or Potato Chips? Chips definitely. I cannot live without Chips, they are my one true passion. Surely on this island there must be something I can use and put together for some salsa? Maybe a luscious mango, papaya, pineapple, jalapeno salsa. Yeah, cause you know jalapenos grow wild on deserted isles...wow, that rhymes. This is why I'd do ok on a deserted isle, cause I can entertain myself.

2. Fiction or Non-Fiction? Fiction definitely since the choice blogs isn't listed. Cause you know I love reading everyone's blogs. 

3. The Lord of the Rings or The Godfather movies? Oh gosh, those are my only choices? I guess I would have to go with Lord of the Rings, but only because I've never seen it and at least it would be something new. 

4. Cameron Diaz or Jennifer Aniston? Cameron Diaz because I don't think she's going to look that good without makeup and neither will I but darn that Jennifer has gotta be gorgeous without makeup...who needs that pressure? Besides Cameron is sturdier and would have to be better at gathering wood and building makeshift huts than Jennifer would.

5. 70′s or 80′s music? Since I'm a child of the 70's then 70's definitely. And by child of the 70's I don't mean born in the 70's but that's when I became semi-interested in music. 

6. Jon Stewart or Daniel Craig? Daniel Craig, see the picture...need I say more? He's already dressed for the event!

7. Friday Night Lights or Downton Abbey? Downton Abbey! I just watched Season 2 again yesterday on PBS and I love it! Pure entertainment. Love the sappy storyline, the actors, the clothing. Can't wait for Season 3. 

8. Beer or Wine? Wow...this is a tough one. Well I would have to go with the beer, but only because it would go best with my pineapple, mango, papaya, jalapeno salsa and chips.

9. Pizza or Hamburgers? Burger baby! If we're deserted on an island, we're not going to worry about carbs! But wait...if I eat carbs and gain weight...then Daniel Craig is going to run off with Cameron Diaz, makeup or not! (Yeah right! Who am I kidding, like that's not going to happen anyway!) 

10. The Rolling Stones or the Beatles? I gotta say, I'm not a big fan of either, but would probably go with the Beatles. Could I trade the bands for some more books please? 

Grabbed these cute little questions from The Zadge over at  Blue Skies and Yellow Dogs, she's hilarious! A girl after my own heart!

Promise to be back soon with posts (again...not that anyone has missed me), working on a project I hope to share with everyone.

The Old Lady Was a Bathroom Hipster

I bought my house about 4 years ago. It's an older home, born the same year I was and I'm not gonna tell you how long ago that was. Suffice it to say that the old girl has a lot of class and character, just like I do!

This old girl (the house...not me) has some cool little details and some not so cool ones as well. It has a cute corner sink that I fell in love with the first time I saw the house. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that because the sink is in the corner, only one person can stand at the sink at the time thereby giving others an "out" when it comes time to help with the dishwashing!

On the plus side, there is a nice little ledge above the sink that I didn't get a picture of where I can display things. They change from time to time but right now there's a wine bottle, a fancy bottle for olive oil that is beautiful but I never use it and a candle. Because it's so handy my mom often likes to put random things up there that don't really go with my vignette, like for example my travel coffee mug or some tupperware items she needs to remember to return!

In the bathroom there is a very unique soap - toothbrush - cupholder which you can see pictured here. I know this looks like it has some pretty butterflies and flowers on it, but it's actually all silver, with a mirror surface, the butterflies are a reflection of the shower curtain across from it.

When you push on the right side of that silver square, it swings open to reveal this....

Please ignore how cruddy it looks because we never, ever use it, but it's just so cool and a neat little trick that we can show people when they come to visit. Hey! Shafter is a small town and there's not a whole lot to do with company when they do visit!

It is a cool way to hide things right?  But with the size of toothbrushes now a days, it's not very practical...but a neat little detail don't you think?







Another neato thing is this Thermador bathroom heater. Now don't worry about that pretty little plant getting scorched or over heated as this bathroom heater has never worked.

I know many people have fancy-schmancy bathrooms with heated towel holders and heated floors, but I'm just as impressed with this broken bathroom heater that I have never, ever used. I bet it was pretty cool to have back in the day when it worked!

I imagine this house was state of the art when it was first built. With all it's fancy swinging toothbrush holders and a bathroom Thermador heater and all!









So that brings me to the point of my title of this post, "The Old Lady Was a Bathroom Hipster".  In the bathroom is where one of my favorite little handy-dandy objects resides. It's this little wall-mounted Dixie Cup Dispenser.

Do you know that you cannot find that dispenser anywhere on the worldwideweb? At least I couldn't and I'm pretty good at googling and amazoning and whatever. So I was telling my son that I need him to figure out if that little dispenser can be taken off the wall so we can take it with us if and when we ever leave because I love it and now they only make these ugly plastic ones that sit on the counter and you pull the cup out from the top and I don't like a bunch of crap on my counters.

My son said, "Just find another one online." So I said, "I can't find one online, this is a vintage item!" He replied with, "The old lady was a bathroom hipster." I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm just hoping the old lady he was talking about wasn't me!


Actually, the old lady that owned this house before I did was pretty cool and very cautious and prone to pre-planning in the event of a natural disaster. For instance...the inside of this kitchen cabinet had this Earthquake preparedness plan taped to it. I don't know how old this is or how relevant to today's information, but I didn't have the heart to take it down because I'm sentimental like that. The old lady was not only a bathroom hipster, she was also one darned prepared old lady!

More Than I Ever Wanted to Know About Stuff like Medicine Cabinets...

So I'm doing some home remodeling lately and last night I realized that I am finding out way more than I ever wanted to know about stuff that I care absolutely nothing about!

For instance...medicine cabinets. Here's a picture of the really rusty, yucky medicine cabinet in the home I am remodeling.

I always assumed these types of recessed med cabinets are cemented and attached forever into the wall...but that is not the case. There are four little screws, two on each side wall that you screw out and the whole thing should just come right out.

UNLESS....unless there are several coats of paint and the paint has sealed that cabinet in there forever. Ok, well maybe not forever but at least until you get a blade and cut all the way around it and pry it loose gently with a screwdriver.

I never in my life wanted to know all of this about a medicine cabinet, or how to remove rust or how to spray on a sealer and how to spray on white paint, etc. I've been checking out blogs where others have re-done the medicine cabinet...but I think I'm just going to buy a new one as by the time I buy the rust remover and steel wool and sealer and paint plus my time it would have just been cheaper to buy one.

Ok...so here's a fun fact that I never knew about medicine cabinets and would have been ok going the rest of my life not knowing. Do you see in the photo of the rusty cabinet above there is a little slit in the metal about one quarter up from the bottom of the cabinet? Guess what that is for?? Give up? It's for depositing of razor blades. You know back in the day when men shaved using one of these?

Seriously, you would take the used up razor blade and slide it into that little slit for disposal. I haven't taken this one off the wall yet, but I hope I am not going to find this when I do. Pretty gross huh?

I showed my sister Lisa this photo and first thing she wondered was, "What about when there's a hurricane or tornado and the house gets blown away and the medicine cabinet becomes separated from the house? That means there are all these sharp razor blades blowing around and they could kill someone!" That's my sister! I would never have thought of that at all. I think I would be much more worried about a semi-truck trailer hitting me than a razor blade...but she worries about everything!

So I'm thinking of replacing that ugly, rusty one above with maybe one like this? I'm not really sure I'm loving the dark wood, but believe it or not, this one is only $39.00. I know that normally, you get what you paid for...but I have read the reviews and everyone who bought this one seems pretty darned please with it.

I'm hoping I will be able to remove the old one without too much trouble and even if the paint peels or comes off I'm planning to have that bathroom painted anyway.

I'll let you know how that all turns out.

OH...and another thing that I am finding out way more than I ever wanted to know about are kitchen sinks. But I'll cover that one another day...for now I'm off to continue the hunt for the perfect recessed medicine cabinet that will fit my budget.

If any of you have any hints or ideas on replacing that ugly medicine cabinet feel free to let me know.

CEO Chorizo

It's been a while since I did a post about my little grand-puppy Chorizo. My daughter sent me the most adorable picture of her so I thought I would share. Here Chorizo is at her new job, sitting in her desk chair hard at work being super adorable! CEO Chorizo!!

Happy Easter to everyone!

Puppy Rescue in Bakersfield

It seems that things that happen in Bakersfield never make national news! But I really thought that this story should have. I wish I could have found the original video showing the firefighters pictures while they cut through the pipe to rescue this puppy, but I could only find this follow-up.

In the original video they mention how difficult it was to protect the puppy while they cut the pipe to rescue him/her. They worried that the pipe might get too hot so another firefighter put his hands through the back side wrapping the puppy in a towel to protect it.

The gentleman who found the trapped puppy said that his wife saw the momma dog with a bunch of puppies in the area and she looked hungry so she told her husband they should take the momma dog some food. Good thing they did as that's how they found the trapped puppy!



A happy ending. Hopefully someone wonderful will adopt the rescued puppy and his brothers and sisters and especially the poor momma dog!

Bacon Don't BBQ

Remember last month on March 8th when I mentioned what a terrific adequate BBQ,er I am becoming? Remember my BBQ'd corn? Remember my telling you how I come from a long line of BBQ,ers  extraordinaire? Well since I've BBQ'd once and it turned out perfect ok...I thought I'd BBQ again yesterday. I again made burgers and hot dogs and they came out much better than last time. So feeling cocky and confident, I decided that I would BBQ strips of bacon, just like my dad and my brother Fred do perfectly all the time.

Here you see The Men in my Life. My brother Fred in the white t-shirt with the tongs...he's the King of BBQ Chicken; my brother Jaime in the red shirt with his hand in his pocket...he's the King of Assisting as he's usually the one helping Fred and while I understand from his daughter Clarissa that he's a great BBQ'er, I've never eaten anything he's BBQ'd. And of course the King of BBQ plain and simple, my dad Federico standing in the back there with his hand on the BBQ grill which was custom made for him by his brother Manuel. Dad has taught these two boys all he knows about BBQ'ing and a little, tiny bit of what he taught them kinda/sorta rubbed off on me.

So I figured with all those BBQ genes roaming around inside of me I can probably BBQ Bacon just like they do. WRONG!!! Wrong, wrong, wrong! This is what the stuff oozing out of the bottom of my little BBQ grill looked like. I kid you not! All that bacon grease caught on fire and was just oozing out looking like molten lava! It just dripped out all over the concrete slab underneath and continued to burn!

Now see...I don't have a fancy custom made BBQ grill like my dad has. One that you can lower and raise the grill if the heat gets too hot or too cold. Nope, I just have your standard Weber BBQ Grill with the grill just sitting on the coals. I tried putting the smoker lid on it but that damn Bacon wouldn't quit burning. And the smoke!!! Geesh, the smoke! It was crazy. You would have thought I was burning a forest in my backyard! And I do believe yesterday was a "no burn" day in Kern County! I'm lucky the fire department didn't respond and fine me!

I removed the few strips that didn't totally disintegrate into the river of molten lava and finished them off in the microwave, but I'm pretty sure I will never try to BBQ bacon ever again!

KONY - 2012

All week I've been hearing on the news about a video that  has people talking. Hearing that there have been over $58 million views on youtube. But because I'm busy living my busy life and running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I had not had time to view it.

Today my sister emailed me and she said, "Do you know who Kony is? Have you heard about him?" I told her that I didn't, that I had heard snippets on the news all week but I really didn't know who he was. My sister shared a video on facebook that I am about to share with you.

Not only did this video touch my heart, but it made me realize just how global our world has become. I'd never thought of it before. Never before have we all been so connected and so able to make a change just by being a part of the whole.

Please watch this video and I hope it touches your heart and your mind just as it did mine.



I'm signing the pledge. I want to make Kony as famous and as well-known as George Clooney and Angelina Jolie. I want my voice to be heard. But mostly I want Joseph Kony to be found and arrested and tried for his crimes against humanity.

My Random Week

Well...I'm still buried in paperwork at work. I think April is going to be a better month, which is good because if all goes according to plan I'm going to be really busy with a huge project in April. For now I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

Started this week by BBQ'ing on Sunday. Now that doesn't seem something important enough to blog about, but I've actually never BBQ'd by myself EVER! BBQ'ing is kind of a "man thing" in our family and my dad would BBQ every single Sunday for everyone and you always knew no matter what you would get an excellent meal on Sunday.

One thing that my dad always BBQ'd that was a real treat for us was corn on the cob.. in the husk. And I'm proud to say I'm following in my dad's footsteps by BBQ'ing some. Don't they look pretty? I also BBQ'd hamburgers and hotdogs which came out great. Next I'm going to try Chicken. My brother Fred BBQ's the best Chicken!

Also this weekend I went to J.C. Penneys. You know they changed their whole pricing plan? I was really scared that since they were going to be lowering their prices in order to be more competitive that the quality of their clothing was going to suffer...and I was right. I was not happy with anything that they had and even less with items that I tried on. But I did end up finding this beautiful black ring! I had been wanting one forever! I've worn it to work almost every day this week. It's hard to type with it, but doesn't it look good? Sorry for the blurry cell phone picture.

Oh yeah...and also this past weekend I hit the Big Lots 20% sale, and am I glad I did because I found the most beautiful patio table. I know you're probably thinking...well ummm, but it's in your kitchen. Yes...I know. But see, I gave my pretty little country kitchen table to my dad for his new apartment and we had been using my ugly round white plastic patio table and one chair in the kitchen. We only had one chair because the only one who ever sits at the table is my mom. Soon I'll be putting the table outside and I know it's going to be beautiful out on the patio!

And did you know that this week the news sweeping the world is that brooms are standing on end...by themselves? This phenomenon or hoax, depending on how gullible you are is attributed to the spring equinox and the axial alignment as a result of the equinox. Well I heard about it this morning from my local weatherman, Kevin Charette who posted a picture of his broom at home standing straight up unassisted. So I had to try it and lo and behold!!! Voila! See... I did it! I actually left it standing up just like that and later checked with my son and he said it was still standing up! Cool Beans huh?

And this week I've gone back to my low-carb diet in an attempt to lose at least 10 pounds in a couple of weeks because I'm going to a conference with my sister later in the month. So I thought that since it was a little chilly outside, I would try a new recipe that I found on a new favorite blog my sister Lisa recommended called Blue Skies and Yellow Dogs. The creator and author of this super funny blog is "The Zadge" and she posted a recipe she calls White Chicken Chili. It seemed even simple enough for me as not only am I not a big BBQ'er I'm also not a big SOUP'er. The talent for whipping up a soup just eludes me, but this recipe from The Zadge was just the ticket as I was able to make it with a minimum of trouble and it was delicious. I didn't photograph it as well as The Zadge did because by the time I remember to photograph it I already had it in a plastic container for storage, but still it doesn't look too bad...and trust me it was delicious, although I wish I had noticed that she said 2 cans of white beans...I only put one in and it could have used more.

I topped my soup with way too much Monterey Jack Cheese, but trust me...it was delicious and fairly low-carb except for the beans, but since I was short a can that wasn't too bad. My son even liked it and he doesn't like many soups. He had two helpings and I managed to get a picture of his second bowl. He loaded it up with Garlic and Butter flavored Ritz Crackers.

So that's a wrap up of my week. I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. It's going to be a long, busy day, but at least it's Friday and I have the weekend to look forward to!

So how's your week been? Balance any brooms?