Pioneer Woman's Homemade Flour Tortillas

Do you have a cooking/baking bucket list? One of the things on my cooking bucket list was to make homemade tortillas.

You can find the original recipe online on Pioneer Womans blog. Feel free to check out her blog post because her pictures are way better than mine.

Homemade Flour Tortillas



The Players ... All Purpose flour, baking powder, salt, crisco, and warm water

 

Ingredients
2-1/2 cups All-purpose Flour
2-1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 cup Lard Or Vegetable Shortening
2 Tablespoons (additional) Lard Or Vegetable Shortening
1 cup Hot Water

 

Mix dry ingredients

 

Add Crisco

 

mix together

 

and cut some more

 

until it finally looks like this!

 

Add the warm water, mix, and form into a ball

 

Cover and let it sit

 

 

Form into ping pong size balls

 

Roll out dough to desired thickness

 

 

Place in skillet or griddle on medium - med/high heat around 20-30 seconds on each side

Till you get a nice light brown. This is my first homemade flour tortilla... I got the hang of it the more I made so the later ones turned out way better.

 

And I had enough dough for another meal.

 

 

Preparation Instructions

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large wooden bowl. Stir together.

Add spoonfuls of lard or shortening (use 1/2 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons), then use a pastry cutter to combine the ingredients. Cut mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Slowly pour in hot water, stirring to bring mixture together. Lightly knead dough 30 to 40 times, or until it becomes a cohesive ball of dough and is less sticky. Cover with a tea towel and allow dough to rest for at least an hour. 

Roll into ping pong size balls, place on a tray, cover with a tea towel, and allow to rest for another 20 to 30 minutes.

When you're ready to make the tortillas, head a dark or cast iron griddle to medium/medium-high heat. One by one, roll out balls of dough until very, very thin. Throw tortillas (one by one) onto the griddle. Cook on each side for 20 to 30 seconds, removing while tortillas are still soft but slightly brown in spots. Remove and stack tortillas, and cover with a towel to keep warm. Serve immediately or allow to cool before storing tortillas in a container. To warm, nuke tortillas in the microwave, or wrap in foil and warm in the oven.

Crockin Girls Pizza - from Crockin Girls Slow Cookin Companion Cookbook

Crockin Girls Pizza

This recipe can be found in the Crockin Girls Slow Cookin Companion Cookbook (pg 316-317).

Did you know you could make pizza in the crockpot?!?! Yep, you can... and it's good!

I didn't follow the all the ingredients listed in the recipe because I didn't have all of them but I followed the general concept.

The players... Can of pizza dough, pizza sauce, pepperoni, cheese (pizza blend) and of course the Crockpot! And don't worry I didn't use all that sauce and pepperoni, it will be split up and put into the freezer to have quick meals at hand.

I used half of the pizza dough (I don't like huge thick crust) and a cup of pizza sauce.

Completely layered with Pepperoni

And the cheese!

Cook on HIGH for 2 hours!

Forgotten Chicken

Forgotten Chicken. 

The original recipe can be found on this blog post.

 

The Players... Chicken (I only used two chicken breast), two "cream of" soups (I used one chicken and one celery), 2 cups uncooked minute rice, 1 can of water, and one pack of Lipton onion soup mix

Mix soups, rice, and water together, place chicken on top, and sprinkle on the soup mix. Cover with foil.

You can bake on a lower heat of 250 degrees for 3 hours or so (note this is where the name comes from) or on a higher heat of 350 degrees for around 1 1/2 hours.

Southern Skillet Corn

Southern Skillet Corn

I found this recipe from a blog post here.  



The players...



6 ears corn
3 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons butter

The fun begins with shucking the corn.

Isn't that beautiful

Cut the corn off the cob

This is a trick I learned from Food Network. If you put a bowl upside down in another bowl it will keep your corn cob away from all that is being cut off while keeping all the corn together in a bowl and not all over the counter. 

All the corn cut off

Once the corn is all cut off, take a spoon and scrape the cob. This will give you all the yummy juices and corn milk

See the well cleaned out cob

Once the corn is all clean, you will melt the butter is a skillet. Also, mix the flour, sugar, salt, pepper, and water together in a separate bowl.

Add Corn and flour mix to the buttered skillet.

Cook on Med-low heat for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally

Southern Skillet Corn

Instructions: Shuck corn and pull off silks, then rinse under cool running water. In a large bowl, cut the corn from the cob with a sharp knife. Scrap up the cob with a spoon to get the milk. Combine flour, sugar, salt and pepper in a small bowl, then add to 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir with a fork or whisk or combine. Melt butter over medium-low heat in a large, heavy bottomed skillet. Add corn and flour mixture and cook over medium-low heat for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Makes 6 servings.

Baked Potato Soup

This recipe came from a search when we had some leftover baked potatoes!

Baked Potato Soup

You can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients

12 slices bacon

2/3 cup margarine

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

7 cups milk

4 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 green onions, chopped

1 1/4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions                    

Cook bacon, crumble and set aside. I used precooked bacon for my soup.

In a stock pot or Dutch oven, melt the margarine over medium heat.

 Whisk in flour until smooth.

  Gradually stir in milk, whisking constantly until thickened.

 Cut up the onions and potatoes.

   Stir in potatoes and onions. 

  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.              

  Mix in bacon, cheese, sour cream, salt, and pepper.

 Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.               

You can also add corn to this to make it into a potato and corn chowder!

Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast

This recipe is from my Pioneer Woman Cooks Cookbook.

Perfect Pot Roast pg. 120

You can see PW's post of this recipe on her blog with delicious photos!

Ingredients

1 whole (4 To 5 Pounds) Chuck Roast

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 whole Onions

6 whole Carrots (Up To 8 Carrots) - I cheated and used baby carrots

Salt To Taste

Pepper To Taste

1 cup Red Wine (optional, You Can Use Beef Broth Instead) - I didn't use wine

2 cups To 3 Cups Beef Stock

3 sprigs Fresh Thyme, or more to taste

3 sprigs Fresh Rosemary, or more to taste

Preparation Instructions

(check out the bargain for this roast... Original price 12.24, I paid 5.11... Lucked out on mark down day!)

First and foremost, choose a nicely marbled piece of meat. This will enhance the flavor of your pot roast like nothing else. Generously salt and pepper your chuck roast.

Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Then add 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or you can do a butter/olive oil split).

Cut two onions in half and cut 6 to 8 carrots into 2-inch slices (I cheated and used baby carrots!). When the oil in the pot is very hot (but not smoking), add in the halved onions, browning them on one side and then the other. Remove the onions to a plate.

Throw the carrots into the same very hot pan and toss them around a bit until slightly browned, about a minute or so.

If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the very hot pan. Place the meat in the pan and sear it for about a minute on all sides until it is nice and brown all over. Remove the roast to a plate.

With the burner still on high, use either red wine or beef broth (about 1 cup) to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom with a whisk to get all of that wonderful flavor up. (I used broth and didn't use wine)

When the bottom of the pan is sufficiently deglazed, place the roast back into the pan and add enough beef stock to cover the meat halfway (about 2 to 3 cups). Add in the onion and the carrots, as well as 3 or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary and about 3 sprigs of fresh thyme.

Put the lid on, then roast in a 275F oven for 3 hours (for a 3-pound roast). For a 4 to 5-pound roast, plan on 4 hours.

Here is my roast before going into the oven (above) and when it came out of the oven (below). 

The roast just fell to pieces (above), this is what was left in the pot once I pulled out the roast (below) my first thought was the leftovers will make great soup!

This roast was so good!!! I also made PW's Creamy Mashed potatoes to go with the roast. (see previous post)

Pioneer Woman's Cream Mashed Potatoes

This recipe came from my Pioneer Woman Cooks Cookbook.

PW's Creamy Mashed Potatoes pg. 146

You can see PW post on her blog with the recipe.

Ingredients

5 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes

12 tablespoons Butter

1 package (8 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened

1/2 cup (to 3/4 Cups) Half-and-Half (I used Heavy Cream because that's all I had on hand)

1/2 teaspoon (to 1 Teaspoon) Lawry's Seasoned Salt

Salt to taste

Black Pepper to taste

 Preparation Instructions

Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces that are generally the same size. Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 to 35 minutes. When they’re cooked through, the fork should easily slide into the potatoes with no resistance, and the potatoes should almost, but not totally, fall apart.

Drain the potatoes in a large colander. When the potatoes have finished draining, place them back into the dry pot and put the pot on the stove. Mash the potatoes over low heat, allowing all the steam to escape, before adding in all the other ingredients.

Turn off the stove and add 1 ½ sticks of butter, an 8-ounce package of cream cheese and about ½ cup of half-and-half. Mash, mash, mash! Next, add about ½ teaspoon of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt and ½ a teaspoon of black pepper.

 Note: I made half of this recipe. Let's face it, 5 pounds of potatoes is ALOT of potatoes for two people! I also used Heavy Cream instead of half and half because that's what I had on hand. These mashed potatoes were delicious! I made them to go along with PW's Perfect Pot Roast! (recipe coming next week!)