My Sweet Things

As a child, most Sunday’s for me were spent at my Grandma T’s house. My father comes from a large catholic family. He has eight brothers and sisters. I can’t imagine raising nine children! My grandparent’s house was always filled with family, food, and love. My memories of my Grandma are all so sweet. She did not speak English and I did not speak Spanish but we had no trouble communicating. We both understood each other perfectly!

I remember my brother and I walking home from school to stay with Grandma. We would drop our school bags and settle in. She would ask if we were hungry and we could always count on a bean and cheese taco as an afternoon snack. She would cook them on the comal and they were toasty and oh so tasty. (For those who have not heard of a comal, it is a griddle or grill typically used in Mexican cooking to cook tortillas, toast spices, sear meat, and generally prepare food.) My Grandma would make fresh tortillas daily. Looking back I really appreciate all the hard work, effort and love she put into feeding her family.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas I was spoiled by delicious mexican food. I have not been able to find the same flavors in Georgia. When we visit home  we always stock up our on tortillas, tamales and barbacoa. When my family comes to visit they always bring us the taste of home.

I have in the past attempted making flour tortillas. I have tried to channel my Grandma and sadly have not succeeded. There is not a written recipe for her flour tortillas. She took pinches of ingredients and created  warm goodness. My attempt was tough, and pancake like with no flavor. I decided to once again attempt the flour  tortilla. I searched for recipes and came across a blog named Homesick Texan Perfect! I myself am a Homesick Texan and only a Texan would know the flavors I was looking for. I read through the recipe which you can find here. Skimming the ingredients list I noticed there was no lard involved. What? No lard. My Grandma had that lard out on her counter. Everything tastes better with lard right?! I put my trust into Lisa and her recipe and guess what? They were amazing! The right color and texture and taste…oh my!! Thanks again to Lisa the Homesick Texan. Thank you. Thank you.

List of Ingredients used for this recipe.

Two cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Mixing it up.

Nice ball of dough.

Letting the dough rest.

Rolling it out.

Not so perfect but look at how it’s forming bubbles. Bubbles mean it will have dark spots when you flip.

This is one case where dark spots are a good thing!

Big bubbles. This is a good thing.

Yes! Brown Spots! Not so perfect circle but brown spots I am happy to see you!

All done. Notice that nice bokeh (small white circles) in the background. Not planned but I like it!

Hello Lovelies. I am soooo happy to see you!

Dinner is served! So wonderful and so like home! My husband and kids were smiling,

I was smiling. It’s the little pleasures in life! This recipe is a true Texas Tortilla Recipe.

My taste test was eating it with just plain butter and it was heaven. The recipe made nine tortillas

and throughout the process of making the dough balls, rolling, and flipping, I kept thinking of my

Grandma who used to make dozens of flour tortillas daily. What a woman!

Thanks again to the Homesick Texan for posting this delicious recipe. We are happy to have homemade

flour tortillas in our home!

It’s all good.

~Donna

I love to bake. I love the entire process from picking out the recipe, mixing, measuring and the taste testing! A friend of mine had a birthday this week which called for cake. I have lot’s of yummy cake recipes but this cake would have to be dairy free. Lactose intolerant friend = NO BUTTER. What?? is that possible? No milk, no sour cream?! Nope. Sorry butter but I will save you for another day. I began my search for dairy free recipes and came across a chocolate cake on allrecipes that had many great reviews. I was hopeful so I began gathering all the ingredients. I decided on cupcakes instead of cake so that way I could taste test to make sure it was truly as good as I had read it was. Let me say it was delicious! Really. I am serious about chocolate cake and if you don’t tell anyone what’s missing, they would never know. I did make a few changes to the recipe. I saw it called for distilled white vinegar. What? I am not a fan of that smell. Turns out I did not have white vinegar so I substituted apple-cider vinegar and hoped for the best. It calls for two cups sugar but I used 1 cup sugar and 1 cup brown sugar. I wanted to make sure it was chocolately so I heaped those tablespoons of cocoa and added 1/2 teaspoon more vanilla.  It’s delish and super moist!

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