I'm no expert at any of this, I'm flying by the seat of my pants! The last time I wrote about the new things I'm trying around here, I mentioned home-grown food and canning/preserving. Next on my list is making more food from scratch. My luke-warm feelings about making homemade food instead of buying processed food were intensified when I watched
Food, Inc. with Steve the other night.
If you haven't seen it, you should.
I promised Steve that there was no way I'd ever make our family eat vegan (no way), but I wouldn't mind cutting out some refined flour and high-fructose corn syrup. And yesterday I forked over a few extra dollars for cage-free organic eggs and chicken. Once I look at my budget I'll let you know if it was worth it.
MAKING FOOD FROM SCRATCH:
Grace and I made some whole wheat tortillas for yesterday's lunch. The recipe was Tex-Mex, so the results were more like gorditas than tortillas, but they were really delicious. Like flatbread, almost. Definitely better than store-bought flour tortillas.
Here's the recipe, courtesy of
HomesickTexan:
2 cups flour (I used 1 cup unbleached and 1 cup whole wheat)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil
3/4 cup warm milk (I used almost 1 cup)
Combine all the ingredients except for the milk in a large bowl. Slowly add the warm milk until a sticky ball forms. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead for a couple minutes until the dough is firm and smooth. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 20 minutes. Divide the dough into 8 pieces, roll into balls, cover with the damp towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
Roll each ball into a thin 8-inch circle. Cook in a hot iron skillet on high heat; 30 seconds per side.
In the past, I've also liked making my own bread, granola, baking mix, kefir, chocolate pudding, and pasta sauces. The hard part is being consistent. I try to think like Ma Ingalls and have a certain day of the week for baking, but it doesn't always work out. What foods do you like to make for yourself?
