Homemade Tortillas and Decadent Desserts

I've been a little ambitious lately. Especially since I've been kicking around a couple of kitchen gadgets like the pasta machine that I'm finally putting to use. Another gadget is a little tortilla press that's put ideas of making my own tortillas into my head. I found a recipe for flour tortillas that had ingredients that I already own, and I saw something recently with Bobby Flay or Rick Bayless using one of those presses, so I was inspired! Now this isn't something I looked in to extensively (for instance, I didn't even look at that link to see that flour tortillas are typically made with a rolling pin!). The recipe itself is a basic dough:

Flour Tortillas

3 c. flour

2 ts. baking powder

1 ts. salt

cut 4-6 Tb. vegetable shortening (I used about 5 Tb.)

1 1/4 c. warm water

The instructions I jotted down said to combine the dry ingredients, mix in the shortening until it's like a meal, and then to dump the water in all at once and mix it into a dough quickly. Then to knead the dough until it's no longer sticky, cover it, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Then pinch off 1" balls of dough and roll it in your hands into fat disks. Let the dough disks rest another 10 minutes, then with a wooden pin, roll them out into tortillas on a floured surface until they're pretty thin (the thinner and more circular, the better. But don't fret. It all tastes the same!). While you're rolling these out, heat a dry pan or skillet and cook your tortilla about 30 seconds on each side. You'll see the tortilla starting to puff up and blister. This is a good thing.

When you flip it over, you'll see it looks like a charmingly rustic version of what you get in a store!

Of course, I'm leaving out how sticky my dough was. And how, like the gringa I am, I tried to press out my tortillas with the tortilladora. I mean I've had it for years without ever using it! I even used plastic so the dough wouldn't stick to the press! Then Zips came into the kitchen, told me to lighten up, and grabbed a dough ball and a rolling pin and said I wanna try.

As you can see, the little round ones are a bit too thick to pass as tortillas (as one of my dear friends cautioned me, "don't make them too thick and end up with fry bread!")-- but brushed with a little butter and drizzled with honey or cinnamon sugar, they're JUST FINE!

The tortillas were destined for greater things. I've never made fajitas, but I have to say this worked out great! I just sauteed some green and red peppers with onion, and then added some "beef-less strips" (Trader Joe's has good ones, Morningstar has some too) with just some fajita seasoning and cumin. Everyone loved it and we'll be adding it to the menu more often. I didn't even want to add the guacamole, sour cream, or cheese. It was that good.

And the latest on the decadent dessert front is that tonight I decided to make Bananas Foster. If your household is anything like mine, there comes a time when your fruit bowl only has one thing left: bananas. Sure they were light greenish yellow when you bought them. They had a nice bite in your cereal, but yesterday or the day before, they reached that point when no one is going to want to eat them. They're not black yet. But the only one in the house going for them is that damn fly you can't get rid of. Just a one-way train to banana bread. So since I had 3 that were speckled with brown and soft to the touch, I decided to look for a recipe to use them in. This one is a blend of 3 recipes and the fancy restaurant around here that does a whole floor show (table-side preparation with flambe) and charges you per person when you order. Even though bananas cost less than sixty cents a pound. Oh, and you don't have to light the sauce on fire with this. Your eyebrows are safe.

Bananas Foster

2 Tb. butter (I use Earth Balance margarine)

3 Tb. brown sugar

healthy dash of cinnamon-- you can always add more

2 Tb. rum

1-2 Tb. fresh squeezed orange juice (I had half an orange and gave it a squeeze)

(When I make it again, I think I'll do that with a lemon too)

3 bananas, sliced (not too thin)

Melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, rum, orange juice. Let these mingle and begin to bubble. Once it looks nice and saucy, add the bananas. Cook until bananas are heated through. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Pass out from endorphins and sugar high. Enjoy!