Homemade Masa and Corn Tortillas--An Adventure

*See link at end of post for the update on my tortilla making adventures. (I'll give you a hint: Success at last!)

For years I've made my own homemade corn tortillas. I buy masa harina--which is corn flour and slaked lime (called "cal")--and then add hot water and let the dough sit for about 20 minutes before forming into tortillas and cooking them on a hot cast iron griddle. These corn tortillas are definitely better than store bought. They are sturdier, tastier, and fill a person up better than the boughten ones.

Still, I've always felt that I was semi-cheating even then because I had never actually made the masa that is the beginning of corn tortilla making. Lately it's been on my mind, I think because it's winter and I generally cook more beans in the winter. And what could be tastier than slow cooked rancho beans made from pintos on a freshly made-from-scratch corn tortilla--with maybe some chopped onions, tomatoes, and chipotle spiced pork roast to go along with it? I'm thinking not much.

Yesterday I was racing around town doing chores and shopping and discovered a Mexican market. I made the split-second decision to turn into the parking lot and go inside the market. The folks there were so helpful, and they smiled alot (there was a bit of a language barrier with the people who helped me!) when they understood that I was looking for cal in order to teach myself how to make from-scratch tortillas. I got the slaked lime, and they hollered for a young man from the back of the store to come talk to me. He gave me some much appreciated tips and off I went, cal in hand and my confidence in place.

Last evening I took about 2 quarts of water and measured in a good tablespoon of cal. I placed it all in a stainless steel pot (you want to use a nonreactive container) and turned the heat to high. I stirred with a wooden spoon to make sure the lime dissolved and then dumped in about 2 cups of organic popcorn. Any popcorn that floated to the top got yarded out of the pot. I didn't use dent corn because I didn't have any and I was a bit nervous about the outcome. But keep reading!

I brought the corn and water mixture to a boil and then turned down the heat a bit and boiled the corn for about 5 minutes, stirring pretty much continually although I don't think that's really necessary. (Next time, by the way, I'm going to try boiling the corn for longer, say about 15 minutes, because I understand it will make the corn fix more niacin and also make it easier to digest--not that I have a problem.)Then I took the pot off the heat, covered it with a lid, and let it set on my stove until it was cool. Next, I placed the pot of corn and water into the fridge overnight to continue soaking. You could also pour the corn and water into a large glass mixing bowl and cover that and put in the fridge. I might try that next time too, because I'm not sure what the long-term effects are of slaked lime on the surface of my good stainless steel pot.

This morning I took the pot out of the fridge and peeked inside. Not very promising: I had read that the corn skins were supposed to peel off, but there were no skins floating. But then I remembered reading that popcorn already has the papery skin off and I think the answer may have to do with my use of the popcorn instead of field corn. I mean, if popcorn supposedly already has the skins off, it would stand to reason that I wouldn't see any floating in the water.

Next, I drained the corn into a colander and began rinsing the corn and moving it around through my fingers. I rinsed it very, very well. Next, I spread the drained corn on some paper towels and let it sit for about an hour while I decided how to tackle the next step: grinding.

I don't have a corn grinder but the beautiful Country Living Mill I own came with a corn and bean auger, so in theory I could use that.

Country Living Grain Mill

But I worried that I would gum up the blades because the corn was damp. So I hauled out my Vitamix and used that instead. I used the variable speed and only did about a half to one cup of corn at a time. I ended up turning the variable speed to about 8 and it worked well. I had to grind for a bit longer than I thought I would in order to get the corn flour to a coarse but cornmealy consistency. And even though the cooked corn looked really, really yellow, my cornmeal/masa looked like it ought to, and I was cheered.

Next I made my masa dough. I simply put in hot water and mixed it up with my hands.  I don't measure, but in my mind's eye, it seems as though I used about 2 cups masa flour/meal and somethinhg like 1/4 cup hot water. Bear in mind that a little hot water goes a long way so go sparingly. I like my masa dough to be wet but not too wet, and the mass needs to be able to hold together in a ball once it's kneaded. You also don't want your dough to be sticky--a sure indication that it's too wet. This is one area where you'll need to practice and to have patience because it's kind of like baking bread: you need to get a feel for it, and the only way to do that is to keep trying until you get the consistency you like. I laid a towel over the bowl of masa and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

Then I formed bits of the masa dough (about the size of biggish apricots) into tortillas and cooked them on my cast iron tortilla griddle. I found the dough had really sucked up the water as it rested, so as I made each tortilla I first ran my hands under hot water from the faucet and that seemed to work pretty well.

I don't have a tortilla press so I had to make my tortillas by hand, which is what I've always done. I simply put a ball of dough between two pieces of wax paper and then roll it out by either using a rolling pin or, when I'm feeling extra slothful, my hands. I push and pat and make it as thin as I can without breaking the tortilla. I cook the tortilla on my heavy cast iron griddle using a medium-high heat.

They say that a perfect tortilla will puff up when you turn it over, but I can't tell you how often that hasn't happened for me. My tortillas usually cook without puffing but no one ever complains because they taste divine. I cook up my entire batch of masa because it doesn't keep well. The upside, of course, is that I have plenty of leftovers for another meal. The tortillas will keep in my fridge for several days--and possibly longer, but they've never stuck around long enough to test that theory. They get eaten in a hurry!

I think about the women in Central and South America who every evening soak their corn and every morning make their tortillas and I think two things: 1) they must be an awful lot better at this than I am, and 2) they are to be much admired for caring so diligently for their families because this is not a quick answer to feeding hungry people. It takes time and patience and planning. And they do this day in and day out!

My chipotle-pepper seasoned pork roast is in the oven slow baking since early morning and I have a couple of jars of pinto beans that I previously canned waiting to be opened up and heated. I've got a fresh tomato, onion, and the luxury of an avacado that I will add to my meal. It smells heavenly and I'm looking forward to this good food--which will taste all the better because I've successfully taught myself another handy skill and have produced and prepared everything except for the pork myself.

It just doesn't get better than that!

God's riches blessings to you and yours,

Georgia

* Click here (Corn tortillas update--It's all in the tools you use.) to read how I solved all my problems and now effortlessly make my corn tortillas!



What the Amish Can Teach Us About the Simple Life

I have a new book coming out February 1. It's called What the Amish Can Teach Us About the Simple Life. Here's a picture of the book cover:

Chapters include Family First; Building Community; Housekeeping Tips; Backyard Gardening; Raising Backyard Livestock; Keeping Technology Where You Want It; Waste Not, Want Not; and Coming Home.

It's chock full of useful information, including recipes for lots of different products you can make instead of buy.

So in the spirit of do-it-yourself, here's a recipe for inexpensive homemade laundry soap:

1 bar Fels-Naptha or Ivory soap, finely grated (I whir mine in my Vitamix; you could try a blender or food processor)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda (this is caustic so handle with care)

Mix everything together and store in an airtight container. I find that canning jars work great. Use about 2 tablespoons per load of laundry. When I use this soap I always add vinegar to the rinse water as it helps to remove all traces of soap residue and makes my clothes soft.

I'd love to hear what you and your family do to enjoy a plain and simple life--tips and pointers would be great!

Blessings to you and yours,
Georgia

The Quinoa Diaries

I don't know about you, but quinoa (pronounced "keen-wa") has been one of those rare foods that I've struggled to like. Every so often I'll give it a try...and it's always been disappointing. Until recently, that is.

First of all, a bit of quinoa history, because it's interesting:

Quinoa was first domesticated about 4,000 years ago so it's an ancient grain. It is grown at high altitudes in the Andes mountains of Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, and the plants remind me somewhat of amaranth or sorghum. With their long flower stalks, they are quite lovely in a frousy sort of way when in bloom. Although quinoa is considered a whole grain it's actually the seeds that are harvested. It's possible to eat the leaves like you would any greens, but it's the seeds that make it commercially viable. Quinoa is closely related to beets, spinach, and...tumbleweeds! (Fascinating piece of semi-useless information!)

Using Quinoa

The easiest and tastiest ways I've found for using quinoa is to cook the grains thusly:
1) Rinse the quinoa well; drain.
2) Combine 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water or broth in a pot.
3) Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
4) Let cool for 5 minutes and then fluff with a fork.

I use cooked quinoa as a salad ingredient (sort of like pasta salad). I cool the quinoa and then add chopped onion, celery, tomato, cucumbers, olives...whatever I have and whatever sounds good. Next, I "dress" it. My favorites are malt vinegar and olive oil, rice wine vinegar and olive oil, or balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I add a bit of salt and pepper to taste, and sometimes I throw in feta cheese chunks. It's good!

Another way to use quinoa is as stuffing for zucchini or bell peppers. Mix together cooked quinoa, cooked hamburger meat, tomato sauce, and spices of your own imagining. (I like to use minced jalapenos, cumin, garlic, oregano, and chili powder.) Stuff parboiled bell peppers or hollowed out zucchinis that have been cut lengthwise, top with cheese, and bake until heated through and the cheese is bubbly.

I haven't tried this idea yet, but I want to mix together cooked quinoa, chopped onions, chopped celery, chopped spinach, a couple of eggs, and maybe a half cup of milk or cream. Then I'll bake it like a quiche (you could use a crust or go crustless) until it's set.

I've been sitting here thinking about using quinoa, and I had to ask myself why I keep trying to like the stuff. There are so many other grains that I'm used to and I like, so why go through this struggle? I think it's because I get such great satisfaction from experimenting and trying new things. Granted, it's nothing earth shattering, but I take great joy in learning, and spending time in my kitchen blesses me as it (hopefully) blesses others.

Experiment! Try something new! Who knows but that it could become a new family favorite.

Pork Chops and White Bean Casserole

Winter greetings! When the cold days of winter set in, I love to put on a pot of beans to simmer for hours. Beans are definitely perfect winter fare--their rich, rib sticking goodness is just right for keeping the cold at bay. Make a batch of cornbread to go with them and you have a well balanced and tasty meal.
The recipe I'm going to share with you today comes from my mother's kitchen from many years ago. It's not a fancy recipe, but the combination of spices makes this bean stew a real standout. I hope you give it a try!

Pork Chops and White Bean Casserole

2 cups (1 lb.) white beans (I usually used Great Northerns or the smaller navy beans)
2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp. pepper
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 T. butter
2 cups finely chopped onion
2 cans tomatoes (the size of soup cans), chopped, including liquid (Instead of store-bought cans of tomatoes, I use a quart jar of my home canned tomatoes including liquid.) or, use 5 large tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
6 thin pork chops

Early in the morning: Cover beans with cold water, cover, and refrigerate all day. (You could always let the beans set overnight instead if you want to cook them in the morning for a midday meal.) Drain. Put the beans in a large pot; add 5 cups water and the salt, pepper, bay leaf, and garlic. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Drain again. Place beans in a large ovenproof casserole dish or dutch oven.

Meanwhile, saute in butter the onion, tomatoes, oregano, and thyme and cook the mixture for several minutes until heated through. Stir this mixture into the beans that are in the ovenproof container.

Next, brown pork chops in a skillet and then tuck them into the beans, covering them. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, then uncovered for 15 minutes.

This is how the recipe is written, but what I do in actual fact is, I brown my pork chops in the cast iron pot I plan on using to bake the beans. That way, I get all the tasty bits from browning the meat incorporated into the stew. I think it makes a difference.

These beans reheat well, and I always hope there's enough left over for lunch the next day. Comfort food at it's tastiest best!.
Enjoy!





Preserving the Harvest--A Hundred Years Ago!

I'm rereading a book that was written by a woman who was born in 1899, and lived in my area. At the time, it was extremely rural, and they would go into town several times a year to buy the things they couldn't grow or otherwise produce on their farm. The annual trip to town was a several-day affair, and because the road into town was so dusty, they would bring a change of clothes, stop at the Rest Cottage at the edge of town, and change into their Sunday best before doing their shopping. Because the trip was arduous, and because money was tight, they grew or raised most of the food and grains they and their animals would need throughout the year.

The name of the book is True Story of a Mountain Girl and Pioneer Happenings by Pearl E. Montgomery. My  copy says "Fourth Edition Printing, August, 1986."

Here is a section (found on page 13 in the book) that has the heading "Preserving Fruits, Vegetables and Meats":

"Mother canned lots of fruit. She also made big stone jars of pickles and sauerkraut. We baked light bread two or three times a week. We grew our wheat and took it to the mill most of the time. From our orchard we harvested apples, pears, four kinds of plums, prunes and cherries. Then there were strawberries, raspberries, loganberries and grapes.

"We had about two hundred and fifty gooseberry bushes and my job was to do most of the picking. We would run the berries through the grain cleaner to get the leaves out and then ready for market. I delivered all the orders around within five miles on horseback.

"In the fall we had potatoes to dig. We filled fifty to seventy-five 100-pound sacks which were stored in the cellar. There were carrots, parsnips and turnips. Dad sold turnips and fed turnips to our dairy cows.

"We dried fruit, usually around fifty pounds of pears, one hundred of prunes, twenty-five of plums, one hundred pounds of apples. After drying, Dad made apple cider in fifty gallon barrels. Ten barrels were taken to Eugene for sale. He took a load of farm products. The wagon load included two or three veal weighing three or four hundred pounds each. The veal were dressed out and the hide left on.

"It took a day to go to town, a day to trade, and a day to return home."

Interesting! I love to read true stories of local settlers, and I'm often reminded of just how little they had, and how content they were anyway. It's a good lesson for me to practice contentment in my own particular circumstances.

As my nod to days gone by, I'm canning. Yesterday I canned 7 jars of diced ham that was left over from a birthday dinner for two of my kids, and tonight I'm canning 6 jars of chicken. Since this summer, when my garden was producing it's annual bounty, I've canned more than 300 jars of food. Granted, that's not as much as in years gone by when 600 jars were more the norm for me, but I'm content.

Let the winter storms come--I can feed my family, and that's a great feeling!

Pride Goeth Before a Fall

About a week ago I bought a new toothbrush. My choice wasn't very scientific--I bought a green one because green is my favorite color, and the particular green toothbrush I ended up with was on sale, so into my cart it went.

I'm also in the throes of writing another book. My new book, due out next January, will be called What the Amish Can Teach Us About the Simple Life, and it's a practical guide chock full of homespun hints and lots of usable ideas for being more self-sufficient, even if you live in town, which 80% of North Americans now do. Did you know that most of us can keep at least a few chickens in our backyard? And in major cities like San Francisco and Chicago, it's even legal to keep a couple of milk goats. Who knew.

This week I've been working on the chapter dealing with technology, and I must admit that, being something of a Luddite, I was enjoying this chapter very much as I dispensed great ideas for lessening our use of and dependence on electronic gadgets. Obviously I'm not averse to technology like a true Luddite, but I've always been wary of getting caught up in the virtual world more than is healthy for me. Writing this entire book on simple, low-on-the-hog living has got me pretty smug, I'll admit it...

Now back to my toothbrush. All week long I've been using my new toothbrush, and it's sure been nice to have nice new bristles. Well, this morning I was brushing my teeth while contemplating my don't-use-so-much-technology-in-your-daily-life chapter. All of a sudden, my toothbrush started vibrating. Yikes! I jumped a country mile from the surprise of it all and then scrambled to find my glasses and get them on so I could see clearly what on earth was going on. Why was my toothbrush vibrating? And more to the point, how could I get it to stop?

You guessed it--my new toothbrush is battery powered. BATTERY POWERED! I had no idea. Good heavens, what will they think of next? Anyway, I figured out how to turn it off and, shaken though I was, I managed to finish my morning ablutions and get to work dressed and in my right mind. But I learned a powerful lesson this morning: before buying something, read the label carefully and make sure it's really what you're after.

A Homemade Life

I enjoy living low on the hog. I was thinking about why this is recently, and I think that even though there were always glimmers, my conscious desire to live simply really kicked in when I was in high school. And as is so often the case with me, it wasn't a perfect slide into simplicity.

My oldest sister found out that she was expecting. This baby was going to be the first grandchild/niece or nephew of the next generation. Really a big deal for our family.

I wanted to commemorate this occasion in a big way, and because I was going to be an auntie for the first time, it seemed only natural that I should do something extravagant for the wee one. Plus there were so many months yet before the babe made its appearance that doing something big was totally within reason. I had the time, so now I just needed to come up with the perfect gift.

I thought and thought and then it hit me. I would make this new little niece or nephew an heirloom to treasure for a lifetime.

I would make a quilt.

Even as a young person I admired the hardy pioneer women who had given up luxury and comfort to follow the dusty Oregon Trail to a new and (hopefully) better life--a life they fashioned with their own hands and determination. I often thought about how these pioneer ladies grew the food that fed their families, chopped the wood that heated their homes and cooked their meals, and spun the fleece that would be turned into the knitted and woven fabric used to clothe and cover their loved ones and I figured these pioneer women wouldn't be intimidated by something as easy as making a quilt surely must be, so I set about my own project.

This was before the internet was a fact of daily life, before you could Google and find out everything you ever wanted to know about, say, quilt making. Oh, I had read The Whole Earth Catalog, and books with titles like Living the Good Life and Five Acres and Independence. But I don't recall ever studying up on how to make a quilt. Still, I'd read the Little House on the Prairie series and I felt confident that I could pull this off.

I decided that I would hand piece this heirloom quilt and then--of course--hand quilt it in minute and glorious designs. I'd seen plenty of pictures of quilts and so I began.

I went to a fabric store and had the presence of mind to buy cotton fabrics, but then undid all the good that came from that decision by failing to preshrink the pieces before cutting out my design, which consisted of a bunch of 4- or 5-inch squares that were quartered into triangles. Tiny pieces.

I chose some soft greens, yellows, and light browns (this was also in the days before ultrasounds) because I thought they looked nice together and would be fitting for both a girl or a boy.

For some reason, I thought that an heirloom quality quilt absolutely had to be pieced by hand and that using a sewing machine for any part of the process would somehow make the quilt less special. So I gathered my pieces of fabric, my needles, pins, and thread and got started.

I stitched and I stitched and I stitched some more. It seemed like no matter how many hours I put into the project I was woefully short of done. Nowhere near. Not even close. The months seemed to fly by and well before I was ready, my niece was born. Thoroughly demoralized, I didn't mention the quilt-in-process I had going. I honored the birth of my sister's baby another way and then pondered what to do with this unfinished quilt.

I thought and I thought and then it hit me. I would make a miniature quilt for my little niece to use with her dollies when she was a bit older. Now I was in business--I had the quilt top done thanks to the new size requirements.

This tale is a sad one. I persevered to the end, hand quilting it, although not nearly as heavily as I had at first envisioned. And the minute, even, and perfect stitches I had dreamed about didn't materialize because the sizing was still in the fabrics since I hadn't prewashed them and sticking the needle through the layers was difficult. When it was bound and completely done, I threw the sweet little doll quilt into the washer to get it clean before I sent it off. I envisioned the look of stunned delight and joy on my sister's face when she first set eyes on the beautiful gift I'd spent hours making for her daughter. But when I pulled the quilt out of the dryer, it had shrunk up so much that the pieced squares were puckered beyond redemption.

But even though my first quilt was a disaster--and even though I've had plenty of disasters since then--I was hooked. I loved the notion of starting "from scratch" and producing something useful for my family. And that philosophy for living a homemade life is still with me.

It's what causes me to hand grind my grain to make homemade bread, to plant a vegetable garden each year and can hundreds of jars of food from the harvest. It's why I sew and wear aprons and dresses and knit warm sweaters, socks, and mittens, why I love to hang the laundry outside and let the soft breeze and warm sunshine dry my clothes for free. It's what moves me to love wood heat above all other heat--even though the wood needs to be split and the wood pile and hearth constantly need sweeping. It's why you can find me hunched near an oil lamp on long winter evenings, knitting or reading by the dim but soothing light.

The joys of learning to make do and be content with the work of my hands have brought me untold satisfaction through the years. And because I choose to live this homemade life, I'm more content (at least I like to think so) than those who believe in what the advertisers are selling, which, in a nutshell, is discontent. We don't need the latest, biggest, or "best." What we need instead is the product of the work of our hands and an attitude of thankfulness for what we do have and the philosophy of "enough."

I further believe that God instilled this self-reliant streak in me. When He plunked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He gave them everything they could ever want, and then He told them to tend the Garden. And because we can trace our roots back to these two folks, our DNA must include that same imperative.

And so we work and we toil. We take care of those we love and try our best to fashion--with our hearts and hands and determination--a simple life of joy for ourselves and our families. And for those of us who take the time to stop and listen, we hear God whisper in each of our hearts: tend the Garden.

May God richly bless the work of your hands!
Georgia