Yo Quiero Quesidillas

I have to confess, I've had a bit of a lazy kitchen week...ok, a lot of a lazy kitchen week.  Aaron's been away sledding and it's just been me and the kids since we got home from up north.  Since it's Thursday and I haven't really cooked much of anything I thought, why start huge, how about something nice and simple.  That's where chicken quesidillas come into play.   This afternoon I poached up some chicken breasts to do shredded chicken, that recipe will make its way here one day, and for quesidillas that's the biggest time consumer so it was easy to just throw them together with some leftover tortillas I had.  The only downer was once again I had no green onions but just like last time I made do with shallots. 

Epicure Prepared Poco Picante Salsa

 

It must seem like I'm on a huge Mexican kick right now, maybe because it's been so cold and snowy I wish I was back in Mexico again:)

Family Vacation in Mexico February 2011

Chicken Quesidillas
(Adapted from A Taste of Home)

2 1/2 Cups Shredded, Cooked Chicken
2/3 Cups Salsa, I use Prepared Epicure Salsa:)
2-3 Green Onions, sliced
1/8-1/4 Tsp Cumin
1/4 Tsp Dried Oregano
3/4 Tsp Epicure Fajita Seasoning
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Dried Cilantro or 2 Tbsp Fresh
6 Flour Tortillas
2-3 Tbsp Melted Butter
2 Cups Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream & Guacamole

Preheat the oven to 375F.

In a large skillet, combine the first seven ingredients.  Cook, uncovered over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

(Depending on the mood I'm in, sometimes I'll add some diced red and green peppers to the chicken mixture too, about a half a peppers worth.)

Get everything ready to put the quesidillas together, melt the butter, have your cheese shredded and get a little assembly line ready.

Once that's done, take the tortillas and brush one side with the melted butter.

Flip the tortilla over and add about 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture to one side.

Sprinkle about a 1/3 cup of cheese over the chicken mixture.

Next, sprinkle a good pinch of the cilantro over the cheese.

Fold the quesidilla in half and place buttered side down on a lightly greased baking sheet, it will take 2 baking sheets to do them all.

 


Place baking sheets in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.  You want the edges to start to get golden and crisp up a bit.  Let them sit for about 5 minutes or so before you cut them into wedges so you don't get melted cheese everywhere.

Serve with sour cream and guacamole...mmm, mmm good:)

Feeding my Baby

As I'm sure you're aware, I have made my own sourdough starter to use for when I'm making sourdough bread, pancakes, rolls, pretzels etc.  The great thing about sourdough is that it's survived the test of time.  There's starters out there that you can actually purchase that have been passed down since before my great, great grandma was born. 

A sourdough starter is actually a living thing, pretty crazy right...it eats, it burps to release waste and it can die.  On the plus side, a starter is a pretty hearty little creature, it can be at the brink of death and brought back to life with some tender loving care, but it's best to just feed it when it needs it, kind of like your kids. 

I started my starter very simply, with just flour and water and then I waited.  That's basically the gist of it.  I made my starter in September of 2012 and have been using it since then.  Cooking with it, feeding it, sharing it with anyone who wants some.  So, long story short, I'm going to show you how I feed my baby and you can watch her grow a little bit too:)

The first thing you want to do is decide how much of her you want to keep (I know I keep calling my starter a her, I'm positive she's female because she can be temperamental from time to time...lol).  I usually keep around 125-130 grams.  The reason for this is because you're either going to throw the excess out, I actually flush mine, its supposed to be very good for your septic system, at least that's what my gramma told me, or use it to make something or give it to a friend.  If you don't do any of the above mentioned things, buy an empty swimming pool because you'll be able to very quickly fill it with sourdough starter, no joke!!



 So, this is what I've decided to keep

Once that's been decided, I feed my baby equal parts warm water and flour.  Of course, I use my trusty kitchen scale to do this.  If I'm off by a gram or two or five, I don't worry too much, like I said, a sourdough starter is a pretty strong creature. It's when the ratios get really out of whack that funky stuff starts happening.

After I've added the flour and water, I give her a really good stir to incorporate oxygen into the mix.  Hey, a girl's gotta breathe, right.

I mentioned this in my post about making sourdough bread but, just in case you haven't read that...take note that I don't use anything metal while I'm feeding my girl.  For some reason, sourdough and metal DO NOT go hand in hand.

After giving her a good stir, I cover my girl with some cheesecloth and use the screw lid for the jar to secure it on, you could just as easily use an elastic.  I've used plastic tupperware containers before too, but just to let you know, as she eats, she burps releasing "gas", it'll pop the top off.  If you're using plastic tupperware with a lid that will just pop off it's no big deal.  If you've tightly closed it with something not quite as giving, I've read stories of explosions and sourdough starter coating everything in the nearby vicinity.  Just a word to the wise on that one. 

1:45 pm

I'm sure you see the pretty purple elastic, I put that there so I can compare the original level as she grows.  So, for "scientific" purposes...I fed her at 1:45pm, that's when this picture was taken.  We'll see what she does over the next few hours.

It's only been about 40 minutes,
but my little girl is already growing up.

2:25 pm

Wow, she's on a roll today!! I think I might end up with an
overflow if she keeps going at this rate:)

3:15pm

Look at all of those bubbles, that's my little girl hard at work!!

Just in case, I've put a plate under my growing girl:) As you can see,
she's very active.  If a starter can double itself in 8-12 hours
that's considered good, looks like my girl is off the charts right now.

4:15 pm

Back to Reality

We're home, safe and sound:)  What a great time we had, it's always nice to take some time away but it's back to the grindstone now:( 

Waking up Sunday morning I wondered why I felt so crowded until I got out of bed and realized that January takes up more room in a bed then I do...take a look at how much room Mom gets...

 

 

Poor Lauren woke up feeling very under the weather which sucked because we were heading out tubing at Horseshoe:(  She was a trooper though and hung out at the fire & watched January while the rest of us hit the slopes.  I managed to get some great video...the one from when Mom and I went down is by far the best...lol. 

 

Mom and Me

 

Connor and Me 

Ty trying to pretend I'm not videoing this...lol

 

 

We all had a blast, especially Connor...he was a little daredevil on that tube:)

 

 

Even though January couldn't go down the hill with us,
she got in a little tubing action too:)

 

 

I finally got a chance to get the pics off my camera too:)

 

 

Swimming outside in the middle of winter...yes we did!!

 

 

 If you can't tell, we had a blast:) 

 





Like Mother, Like Daughter:(

I have a confession to make...January and I ended up in the big bed last night.  The reason isn't so great though...there's a beautiful electric fire place in the living room and January somehow burned her fingers.  I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree seeing as how I did a number on one of my fingers last week.  She didn't cry when it happened, she just started wringing her hands and I was wondering why and looked and noticed she had burned her fingers:(  Needless to say, once we started to make a big deal about it she started making a big deal about it...she was not a happy camper for a bit.  Anyways, her and I ended up sleeping in the big bed once we got her settled down for the night. 

 

 

My poor little girl is taking it
like a champ today, even
with blistered fingers.

 

January did end up in the big tub last night though...lol. 

We hit the pool and hot tub this morning, they actually have a pool that you can swim under a plastic wall and swim in a pool outside...in the middle of winter...how cool is that!! I have pics but they're on my regular camera so I can't download them yet:(

We headed out for lunch and ended up eating at a place called Loobies, great place to eat.  We really enjoyed our meal and the hot tubbing and swimming must've tuckered January right out because she slept through the entire meal. 

We had to hit the grocery store after to pick up what we needed for our Mexican Fiesta tonight.  I've never seen a sign like this, so Lauren and I had some fun with it:)

 



Careful Lauren, you don't want to end up on your you know what...lol



















Ya, I know we're kind of dorky:)

 

 

We just finished up our Mexican Feast...are we all stuffed!!  We had Fajitas and Tacos with both hard shell corn tortillas and flour tortillas. 

 

I have some Epicure Masa Harina, which is corn flour for corn tortillas, I'm going to try it to make my own corn tortillas at home and then try out frying them to make hard shells because those are my favorite:)













I'm happy to say that even Ty, the pickiest eater of them all, left the table happy.  Of course a Mexican Feast wouldn't be complete without some Margarita's:)

 

On the Road Again:)

So, we've finally arrived at our destination:) Mom, Connor, January and I left Mom's house at 2:30pm and arrived at 8:00pm after 1 stop for food. Of course we hit traffic, of course we ran into some snowy/icy conditions but both my kids were pretty darn good for such a long road trip. 

We're staying at the Carriage Hills Resort at Horseshoe Valley and it's pretty nice:) I can guarantee you I will be sitting in this beautiful tub at some point this weekend!!

 

I will also be lying down like a starfish in this bed, actually, the good daughter/sister that I am, my mom is staying in the one in our suite, my brother and Lauren get the other one in the attached studio and I'll be sleeping on a pullout couch with January...lol, this better get me some bonus points!!

 

We're going to be hitting the slopes tomorrow, so it's probably going to be an early night but check out this view from the front of our suite looking at the poolhouse:)

Stay tuned for tomorrow nights Mexican Fiesta...I'm super pumped for some tacos!!

A Mexican Treat for a Mountain Weekend

For Connor's 8th Birthday my mom booked for all of us to go up north this weekend and go tubing at Blue Mountain.  We're going to have a cabin to stay in and of course we, ok, mostly me, don't want to eat out every night if we have a space to cook in.  I don't plan on making any gourmet meals and I'll tell you the reason for that...my brother Ty, is one of the PICKIEST eaters you will ever meet!!  Seriously, when we were kids, if I cooked his Kraft Dinner in water from the tap (which was "town" water, chlorinated & yucky to drink) and not out of the water cooler he could tell the difference, I'm not kidding you. 

 So, mom and I were talking the other night and we decided on doing Fajitas and Tacos one night.  This is a "safe" meal when it comes to Ty and to be honest, I really like them too:)  I told mom that instead of the high sodium store bought stuff, I'd bring my Epicure Taco and Fajita Seasoning Mixes and I would make tortillas at home.  Of course her response was..."Are you sure Ty will eat them?" Being me, I assured her he would because I've cooked this "safe" meal when I've had him over for dinner here before.

Here's a quick look at my trusty Epicure Fajita and Taco Seasoning Mixes,
take note of the nutritional info and if you want, compare to
what you have in the cupboard if it isn't already Epicure.

 

 

 

 

I decided to make up the tortiallas today so that I could get them done and out of the way.  Whenever I make flour tortillas I always use a recipe I found in a book called 55 Classic Recipes: Bread from Around the World by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter, you can find it here.  The original recipe calls for lard or shortening but I wanted to change it today because I noticed some ingredients in my store bought lard that have been found to be, how should I put it...not very good for you and just leave it at that.  It's not really a big change because all I did was substitute unsalted butter for the lard. 

 

I've been making my own tortillas for awhile now, are they perfectly round like the ones you find in a grocery store...no, but, they don't have a bunch of ingredients that I can't pronounce or have on hand because I'd need a lab and a white coat to cook them up.  These tortillas are super easy to make, keep well and, in my opinion, don't feel like a chunk of cardboard in my mouth.

 

Basic ingredients that I'm betting you already have on hand!!

 

Flour Tortillas

 

225 grams (approx. 2 cups) Unbleached All Purpose Flour

1 Tsp Salt

3/4 Tsp Baking Powder, I've started using Aluminum Free, just an FYI

3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

150 mL (approx 2/3 cup) Warm Water

 

First up, mix the flour, salt and baking powder in medium bowl.  Add the butter, cut into about 1/4" thick pieces and cut in using a pastry blender or knives.

 

You want to end up with little crumbles of butter, almost the size of a pea.

 

 

Once you have the butter cut in, stir in the warm water and give it a quick knead to make a soft dough.

 

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.

My trusty timer:)

Once it's done resting, divide it into either 8, 10 or 12 equal sized balls.  I'll be honest, I usually give mine a quick weigh to keep them as equal as possible. 

 

8 Balls-Approx. 50 grams each-10"-11" Tortillas

10 Balls-Approx. 40 grams each-8"-9" Tortillas

12 Balls-Approx 35 grams each-6"-7" Tortillas

 



Once you have them all divided, roll them out on a floured surface.  I reflour my surface after each one and pat it out into a rough circle by hand, flouring both sides a little bit before rolling because the dough is somewhat sticky and for me, it's just easier that way.

 

Honestly, I use more flour then that on the
board once I get rolling...haha, get it, rolling:)

I get this shape about 1 out of every 2 or 3...lol

After they've all been rolled out, using either a griddle or cast iron pan (I had to use my griddle because my cast iron pan was in the oven getting reseasoned) heat it up to about medium, medium-high heat and add a tortilla.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes total, flipping it over after it starts to bubble a bit.

 

Bubbling while cooking

If you're going to use them right away, wrap them in a towel to keep warm while you're cooking up the rest.  If you're going to save them for later you can reheat them by wrapping them up in foil and warming them up in a 350F oven for about 5 minutes.

 

See, how easy is that...easey-peasey.  I'll have to let you know how dinner with Ty goes this weekend, maybe I'll try to sneak some veggies in somewhere and really throw him for a loop:)