Updating Needed!

Finally I am getting to the stack of recipes on my desk, some of you have these, some of you don't. But this post is the homemade Mexican night I had this week. Homemade steak tacos, homemade tortillas, homemade salsa, homemade refried beans. Everything was amazing! A million times better than anything I've eaten in a restaurant or bought from a store.

First homemade tortillas are amazing! I mean completely amazing! I don't normally like corn tortillas...they've just had a bit off an off taste to me I guess, but I got yellow corn masa from the grocery store, and decided my first attempt would be with this. I have a recipe for flour, and wheat flour tortillas but I wanted to start small and work up. This was easy, masa, salt and water. Now the hardest part of this was just rolling out the tortillas, cooking them, and then trying not to eat them lol! I definitely need to look into getting tortilla press...yes another gadget for the house, but it would make this process so much easier. But I did it with a piece of saran wrap, non stick spray and a rolling pin. I sprayed the saran wrap with non stick spray, rolled out the masa dough and then plopped it into a small skillet on medium heat, 50 seconds per side. These were so good! Corn tortillas will now be my favorite. It is a little bit of work if your eating more than 4 tortillas, so I think next time I'll prep time to make a bunch and then freeze some.

Then I make my own refried beans in my slow cooker. Super easy, super good, freezable! Perfect. This time I didn't have jalapeno, so I used cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes, and then didn't use chicken stock, I used beef stock which gave it a better flavor then the chicken. This is my opinion though, so if you want to make this recipe, replace the beef stock with chicken, and you can use 1/2 a fresh jalapeno and emit cayenne pepper and the red pepper flakes.  This makes alot! I'm just warning you! Its great for a big family get together, but we end up freezing them. I got the ball canning freezer jars, they're plastic with green tops, and they are like $3 for 4 at Walmart. Then I just fill them with the beans, and put alittle scoop of the reserved liquid on top and freeze. Presto!

Refried Beans

1 onion, peeled and halved

3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed

1/4 t. cayenne pepper

dash of red pepper flakes

2 T. minced garlic

3 t. salt

1 3/4 t. black pepper

1/2 t. cumin

2 cups of beef broth

6-7 cups of water

Place the onion, rinsed beans, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, beef broth, and water in the slow cooker.

Cook on high for 8 hours, adding more water as needed.

Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.

Once the beans have cooked, strain them and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

Tips: I usually start with 2 cups of beef broth, and 3-4 cups of water and then add throughout the day, if you aren't going to be home go ahead and add it all at once. I just think that you get more of a concentrated flavor if you gradually add the water.

Now I made my own steak for tacos, and it was great with my go-to spice rub. I use this on my steak, chicken, really anything. Its got some kick thanks to the cayenne but its amazing! You can half, quater this recipe, whatever works for you. For me I just make it and put it in a little tupperware container and save it. It lasts for months. Just add all the ingredients and mix. Done. Then if I put it on meat, I usually sprinkle the meat with a little olive oil, and then rub this spice mix into the meat. Alittle goes a long way.

1/2 c. paprika

3 T. cayenne pepper

5 T. pepper

6 T. garlic powder

3 T. onion powder

6 T. salt

2 1/2 T. oregano

2 1/2 T. thyme

Cooking with Playdough!!!

Oh how I remember being glued to the kitchen table as a kid playing with playdough my mom would make. I loved playdough as a kid, my kid of course loves it, the only thing that doesn't like playdough is my floor lol! But today, with a 3 day weekend for Isabelle, and a cancelled Directv service, and nothing but rain...I decided to revisit playdough and gak. Gak being that gross slimy, but delightfully pleasing goo. I'm starting with playdough today, and tomorrow will be gak.

 But for all the mom's out there this is a go to on those rainy "I'm bored" days. I've got the standard playdough recipe, but with the suggestion of my bestie, Jaime, I add a little vanilla extract or peppermint extract so it smells yummy (caution with little kids you'll have to watch them closer than normal since its smells like a cookie LOL). So Izzy and I spent hours making playdough (took about 5 minutes for 2 batches) and then playing bakery. I let her put the playdough cookies on a tub lid, as the baking sheet, and "bake" then in the oven (which is off). Makes her love this even more.

Playdough Recipe

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 cup water

1 T. vegetable oil

2 t. cream of tarter

food coloring

1-2 t.scented extract (optional)

Mix together in medium saucepan. Heat and stir until it makes a ball shape.

Take out and let cool enough to handle, and then knead a little bit till smooth.

Ready to use!