Culinary Adventures - Flour Tortillas & Creamy Homemade Taco Sauce

I LOVE having the house to myself. It gives me the opportunity to experiment and cook different things undisturbed. I've made homemade tahini, coconut butter, and taco sauce and I've experimented with various dishes as well.

Today's experiment was for homemade flour tortillas. I've been playing with the idea of making my own tortillas for a while now. I actually wanted to make tortillas as a precursor to making pita bread from scratch. They use basically the same ingredients, except pita bread requires yeast to make them more thick and bread-y. 

The tortillas actually turned out pretty well. They were a bit thicker than I wanted but that can easily be remedied by rolling them out thinner. We had them with shredded rotisserie chicken, refried beans, cabbage, shredded cheese, and some of my homemade taco sauce. Yum!

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Made-from-scratch Flour Tortillas

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour plus 1/4 cup flour for rolling

1 heaping tsp salt

6 tbsp softened butter

3/4 to 1 cup hot/warm water

Directions:

Mix butter into flour until fully incorporated. Dissolve salt into hot/warm water and slowly add to flour mixture until soft ball forms. Knead for two to three minutes. Roll dough into 2" thick log, cut into twelve equal pieces (for 6 to 8 inch tortillas), and roll into balls. Cover with plastic wrap or slightly damp towel and let rest for 20 minutes to one hour. On lightly floured surface, roll each dough ball into thin circles. Cook tortillas on pre-heated, ungreased griddle or non-stick pan for 30-60 seconds on each side or until bubbles form. Stack tortillas in dish towel to keep warm and pliable. Unused tortillas can be stored in a sealed plastic bag for two days at room temperature or up to one week refrigerated.

Creamy Homemade Taco Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

2-3 tbsp lime juice, to taste

1/4 tsp vinegar

1/4 tsp ground sumac*

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp dried dill weed

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in one pint jar. Refrigerate for at least 30 mins before use for all flavors to blend together. Keeps up to one week in the refrigerator.

*Sumac is a spice made from ground sumac berries. It has a tart, berry-lemony taste and is traditionally used in Middle Eastern dishes. Sumac can be used as a substitute to lemon when the flavor, and not the acidity, of a lemon is needed. 

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas...

The words bring to mind images of childhood on those rare occasions when my mom used to cook for us, back when she didn't really care much about processed and fatty foods. It was a treat for me and my sisters when our mom cooked because she'd usually work afternoons/evenings four days a week including every other weekend (she was a nurse, now retired) and we rarely got to see her or spend much time with her as we were growing up. One of the dishes I remember her making most often was chicken enchiladas. Her chicken enchiladas were pretty basic, shredded chicken mixed with olives and sometimes corn, sour cream and mayo, no cream cheese, no chilies, and corn tortillas instead of flour, but they were smothered in cheese and they were delicious.

I randomly decided to make enchiladas for dinner one day when I was bored and wanting something "different" to eat. I scoured Pinterest for "easy" chicken enchilada recipes and combined a few different ones to come up with my own version. Because I decided to cook them last minute, I didn't have any chilies or olives on hand but they still turned out great. James, who usually has some complaint about what I cook (usually that everything I cook is Italian-ish and all tastes the same) said it was the best dish I've ever made. To prove that, he had enchiladas for dinner AND breakfast AND lunch the next day.

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Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Salt and pepper (to taste)

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (equal to ~2 cups shredded)

1 8oz pkg cream cheese or neufchatel cheese, softened or 1 cup sour cream

1 small can black olives, diced

1 small can green chilies, diced*

12 10-inch flour tortillas

1 large can enchilada sauce

3 cups Mexican blend shredded cheese

2 Tbs olive oil (or as needed)

Directions: 

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, saute chicken in olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Add 1/2-inch water to pan. Cover and simmer for additional 5 minutes. Take off heat and let steam in covered pan for 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer chicken to large bowl and shred. Add cream cheese, diced olives, and diced green chilies and mix until well blended.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a separate skillet, warm tortillas to prevent cracking when rolling. Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce into bottom of 9 x 13 baking dish. Spoon mixture into tortillas, roll and place in baking dish, seam side down. Cover with remaining enchilada sauce and top with shredded cheese. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbling. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

**green chilies have very little heat and will add depth and flavor to the dish

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To make the dish healthier, neufchatel cheese or 1 cup Greek yogurt can be substituted for the cream cheese and whole wheat tortillas, instead of flour. I would say use less cheese but what's an enchilada if it isn't smothered in cheese??

100 Books to Read Before You Die

In 2003, the BBC came out with a list of 100 books that everyone should read before they die. Apparently, the average person has only read or will only read six of these books in their lifetime. 

Sadly, in this day and age, that is not a surprising conclusion. The internet, video games, and social media have taken the place of reading, among many other things. Sitting still and reading a book is no longer exciting. With a large number of books becoming adapted into major motion pictures, it has become much easier for someone to "watch" a book than it is to read one. Hours or days of reading are condensed into three hours or less. 

Personally, reading is my passion and my hobby. I read to learn new things, to gain a better understanding of the things I already know, to lose myself, to separate myself from reality. I have always loved to read and I hope to someday pass that love on to my children.

I have read 35 of the books on this list (bolded) and plan to read or re-read many more (underlined). How many have you read?

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible - I've endeavored, multiple times, to read the Bible in its entirety. That has yet to happen (I keep getting stuck in Leviticus!,) but that doesn't mean I'm not going to keep trying!
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell - Funnily enough, I have multiple copies of this book and have yet to read it!
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens - I read the abridged version made for children and really liked it. I'd love to read the unabridged version 
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller - Another book I have a copy of and have yet to read...
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen - My favorite Jane Austen book.
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan - Loved the movie..until it got to the twist..then I hated it. I wonder if the written version is any better. At least I know what to expect this time and won't be disappointed..
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel - Loved the book, loved the movie, would love to re-read.
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens - Again, read the abridged children's version and would love to read the unabridged version as well.
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

To New Beginnings?

I recently rediscovered this blog after almost three years in hiatus and, after much debate and consideration, have decided to revive it...for the fourth time.This time, instead of reiterating my oft repeated "this time it WILL be different," I've decided to go into this with zero expectations. I will not resolve to blog every day, every other day, or once a week. I will not make any commitments. I will let things flow as they will. I feel that, without any expectations attached, I may actually do better this time around. However, as usual, only time will tell.