Rolling tortillas

I have been cooking up a storm lately!! So much so that I've been too tired to write. Well, between cooking, having a toddler and being 18wks preggo that is... :)

In the last week I've made potato, leek, and caramelized onion quiche twice, along with a potato and leek soup. I did a BBQ pizza with homemade sauce and dough, a Hawaiian pizza (again, homemade sauce and dough), brownies, cookies, a few loaves of bread, pineapple chicken curry, stirfry and a couple other things that I can't think of off the top of my head.

For D's dinner/lunch today, I whipped up some tacos. Homemade corn tortilla, some cilantro lime rice, corn, black beans, rotel tomatoes with chilie and some sharp cheddar cheese. It was simple enough. I spent a few years after HS working at Chipotle, so the rice was basically second nature. The other fillings came canned because I live in a condo and have no room for a garden. But those tortillas..... Man were those suckers hard!!!

Now homemade corn tortillas are simple enough. They're made of two ingredients (three if you add salt) and take about 60seconds to cook. See? Simple. But the tough part is that I don't have a tortilla press. So I got to create each one with a rolling pin. I probably spent an hour rolling and rerolling those suckers!!! Tortillas can't be too thick (then they're just chewy) or too thin (they'll stick to the wax paper and break apart). They have to be just right. And since I've never made tortilla before, that "just right" thickness was a little harder to achieve.

But no fear! Once you get a good rhythm going, you can start rolling them a heck of a lot faster. So finally, after all that time I got SIX whole tortillas to pack in D's lunch. I had made 8, but two of them ended up in my belly as "tests". P

Overall, I'm pretty happy about how they turned out. As you can probably guess they weren't glorious, restaurant quality beauties. But making my own tortillas for the first time was extremely satisfying! I am hoping with practice that with practice (and a tortilla press) I'll be making some seriously bomb tortillas.

 It's been a fun challenge, teaching myself different styles of cooking at the same time. So many people focus on mastering just one cuisine. There's really something to be said for that. It allows you to really get into the nitty gritties of a dish without distraction. But honestly, I'm not sure I could stomach that. Cooking is my outlet. It's where I go to burn of steam and show some creativity. I honestly think I would get bored if I made pasta every single day. Don't get me wrong, I totally love pasta, but I love so much in cooking! I really do think I would get cabin fever cooking the same cuisine day in and day out.

But that's just me. You do you!




Oh yeah! I made risotto this week too! It was pretty awesome.

Lunchables

D started a new job a couple weeks ago and today is his first real day. Or rather, tonight. For his two weeks of training he was enjoying day shifts, but was ultimately put on nights. Which makes for a peculiar lunch, dinner, midnight snack challenge. His food MUST be packed because nothing except for junk is open at midnight. Plus, he doesn't even have the time to go buy said junk. His shift starts before we would normally eat dinner, but it's not late enough to justify packing part of dinner up in his lunchbox. Maybe the previous nights dinner, if there are leftover, but definitely not that nights. But leftovers can get boring and don't always reheat well (here's looking at you last nights risotto!)
So for day (night?) one, I made D lunchables. Yes, you heard me. The lunch that traditionally is packed for your kindergartener.

Because dessert is the best part, we'll start there. I whipped up a batch of his favorite chocolate chip cookies and baked two for tonight. I took the rest of the dough and balled it up just like I would to bake it. Except instead of baking it, I threw it in the freezer. Now instead of having to eat all those yummy cookies this week, my dough will last all month and I can bake one or two at a time in the toaster oven. It's perfect for a hot CA summer because I don't have to heat the entire house. It's perfect for my waistline because I won't eat them all in one sitting. And it's perfect for D because now he'll have a fresh baked, homemade cookie in each lunch!

For a side, I attempted to pack some fresh fruit. But D wasn't having any of it! He was worried about the mess. And I can't entirely fault him for it because the fruit we have hanging out right now are papaya, mango, nectarines and peaches. All not the cleanest fruits to munch on. So I'm going to have to pick up something else less messy. Instead I threw in some Mott's Natural Fruitsnacks. Not ideal, but totally delicious. He's happy.

Finally, my main dish! Tiny pizzas! I had some flatbread dough in the fridge from the day before. I cooked the dough and then topped it with some homemade tomato sauce (full of veggies!) and cheese. I tossed the whole bit in the toaster over for a few minutes to melt the cheese, and voila! Lunchables!

I know it's not the best photo, but aren't they adorable!? This is my smallest silpat, so I would say that each pizza was probably 4-5inches across. They were the perfect size to pack in his lunch. I made an extra for L, who gobbled it up! So here's to hoping D likes them too!

Along with his water bottle, he's got a pretty well rounded lunch. Hopefully it's enough to get him through the next 10 hours!

The next couple weeks will definitely be an adventure as we navigate the world of night shifts and try to get into a good routine. I'm just grateful that D is married (to me!)! Otherwise, I think he may very well have starved working nights and packing his own food!

Hello

I am not starting this blog for the public. Though, I suppose, all bloggers say that to start with. I am starting this purely for me. This is my place to record my journey through parenthood, marriage, and me. I am wife to D, mom to L (19mo), and currently preggo with #2. We recently moved from UT to CA for work and I have found myself with the largest kitchen of my entire marriage! I have always loved to bake and cook, and I've been finding that the longer I'm married, the more interested I've become in the culinary arts. Well, that was one heck of a run on sentence. Frankly though, I'm not interested in editing it! After all, this is a place for my thoughts!

Now, a little about us. D, my hubby, is a graduate from BYU with a degree in Supply Chain (that's business management). L is our fun loving toddler who is obsessed with the outdoors and animals. #2 is currently growing in my stomach, so I don't know anything about him/her yet! As a family we're big outdoorsy people! We love hiking, fishing, camping, and travelling. L has already visited 24 states and 2 Canadian provinces! We are also proud members of the LDS (Mormon) faith. As for me, I love the kitchen. My favorite books are chef memoirs, I love pretty much everything on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. And, aside from parenting and being a wife, my greatest joy is feeding people!

Luckily for me, my husband has an adventurous appetite and will eat whatever I attempt to make. 

For instance, we were watching Iron Chef: America tonight. D is running back and forth between the kitchen and living room claiming that nothing looks good because, shocker, the stuff on Iron Chef looks amazing. Finally he looks at the clock, announces that he's got a half hour before he needs to leave to meet the missionaries and requests a good dinner. "WHAT?!?" I'm thinking, "you want a nice dinner in less than 30 mins!?" Normally in such a time rush, I would whip up some mac and cheese. But that wasn't "fancy" enough for him. So, instead, I try my hand at spätzle. Spätzle, for those who haven't had it, is a delicious German pasta that almost dumpling like. I've enjoyed it in restaurants both stateside and in Germany. Plus, one of the chefs had made a batch on the Iron Chef episode we were watching, so it was already on my mind.

Now here I am, standing over the stove, pouring over Pinterest for a spätzle recipe while my water starts to boil. Pinterest, of course, has about 7 bajillion ideas for me, so I pick a random one and go with it. It's eggs and flour, just like any good pasta. Now when you're making traditional Italian pasta, you have to let the dough rest before you roll it out in order for the gluten to hydrate. That is not the case with spätzle. You mix the dough and then push it through a colander, ricer, or if you're feeling fancy, a spätzle maker, right into the pot of boiling water. As the dough is pushed through holes of whatever device you're using, it drops into the water forming the little dumping. It cooks super fast and then it's done! I've always had it topped with some cheese, but all I have at home right now is cheddar (I used the last of my white cheeses last night making pizza!). Cheddar, while delicious, doesn't sound particularly appetizing on any pasta, expect for mac and cheese! I needed to think of something to season it with! Luckily I had just made a big batch of garlic, rosemary compound butter for fathers day and had some left over. I melted that in a sauté pan and tossed in my spätzle. Holy heck! My husband loved it! My toddler loved it! And so did I! 

Now don't get me wrong, it was super tasty. But I feel no drive to post the recipe until I've tweaked it and perfected it. Spätzle was definitely something we enjoyed and I loved how easy it was for my toddler! The little dumplings were the perfect size for her!

So I've got to say that I enjoyed my own little "Iron Chef" challenge tonight. And I am grateful for a hubby who encourages me to try new things, regardless of how simple the dish is! I am excited to see where I take this blog, and what direction it heads. Should be a fun adventure!