Double Dessert Recipes!

I haven't posted any recipes lately; this must be remedied immediately.

First we have an upside down cake I made for July 4th, followed by some rich Milo brownies.

For the Fourth of July, I wanted to make something that said summer to me. I remembered to a few years ago when I made an incredibly messy layered pound cake with peach filling. It was delicious but not quite right for this event. Besides the peaches I found at Super J were just about the sorriest stone fruit I've ever met. The whole ordeal made me really want some ripe, warm, perfect Hill Country peaches out of a paper bag. That'll have to wait a week, though. Nevertheless, people enjoyed the cake, especially fellow PCV Ann! This post is dedicated to her.

The spiced peach filling for the upside down cake can work as preserves on its own. You can put it in a sterilized jar for long shelf life, or put it in clean tupperware in the fridge to keep for a week or so.

Super Spiced Peach Upside Down Cake
Cake
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1-2 peaches, sliced into eighths
lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375F.

Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir butter to soften, then mix it with dry ingredients. Add milk and vanilla. Mix until all flour is dampened.

Beat batter 2 minutes medium/300 strokes by hand. Add eggs, beat 1 minute/150 strokes more.

In one greased 8" round pan, pour a little more than 1/2 of the batter.

Heat 2 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp sugar in sauce pan until bubbly, pour into second greased 8" round pan. Arrange peach slices on top of this mix, sprinkle with lemon juice. Pour the rest of the cake batter on top.

Bake for 35 minutes, you know the regular cake/toothpick stuff. Let them cool, take a lime.

Spiced Peach Filling
3-5 peaches
1-2 packets of gelatin
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water (maybe a little more)
1-2 dried cloves
1 tsp cinnamon or 1 medium stick
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
orange peel
dash (or two) cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp lemon juice

To skin the peaches, dunk them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Let them cool a bit, and the peel should come off pretty easily. Dice them into 1/2" chunks.

Place diced peaches in a saucepan, sprinkle with gelatin, stir over low heat. Add sugar and water. If you have cheese cloth or something like that, tie the clove, orange peel and cinnamon stick in it, and put it in the saucepan. If not, be prepared to fish those out. Add ground cinnamon (if using that), nutmeg, and cayenne. Stir. Let this cook down some, about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from heat, remove clove, cinnamon stick, and orange peel. Add lemon juice, stir. Let cool completely.


COMBINE FORCES!
This works best if the cakes have had plenty of time to rest--I refrigerated mine almost immediately after they came out of the oven, but that made them denser than I would have liked. But chilling or freezing them before assembly is a good idea.

Get your plain cake upside down onto the serving dish. If your pan is greased well enough and the cake has rested and chilled, just pick it out upside down. Spread your filling on top of that, then take your peach upside down cake, turn it upside down, and put it on top. How lovely.


Milo Brownies
Oh my you're missing out if you've never had Milo!
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup Milo powder
1/4 cup flour
pinch salt

Grease medium sized pan, preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, beat to combine well. In a separate bowl mix cocoa powder, Milo, flour, and salt. Slowly fold in dry ingredients to the wet. Mmm, doesn't that smell good?

Pour into your greased medium sized pan, bake 30-35 minutes, brownie/toothpick fun. I ended up having to leave it in for about 43 minutes, because my dish is deeper than I would like.

Let it cool! Oooh it smells good but let it cool. In fact, after you have some warm gooey brownie goodness, put it in the fridge, and it'll be even better the next day. Milo has vitamins and stuff, so you can pretend it's a good breakfast if you ignore all the sugar and butter in there!

Vegetarian Curry Patties!

After jerk chicken, Jamaican beef patties are one of the more well known Caribbean dishes. They're delicious savory pastries sort of like empanadas (which are kind of like turnovers), but the dough is denser. Jamaican cooking is full of strong, spicy flavors, so many different spices are usually used.

Here in St. Lucia food usually isn't hot-spicy, but we do use a lot of curries because of the East Indian population influence.

Inspired by this, limited by my choice to refrain from buying meat, I came up with my own version of a Jamaican patty. The veggies involved are onions, eggplant, and shredded cabbage, with lentils thrown in for protein. The patties aren't exactly low-fat (butter and shortening are used in the pastry, coconut milk in the filling), but they are filling and full of healthy stuff. Plus they're delicious!

Vegetarian Curry Patties

Pastry
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yellow curry powder
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter
1/2 black plantain, cooked, mashed, cooled (about 1/3 cup) (if not using plantain, make sure shortening and butter together total at least 3/4 cup)
1/2 cold water (more as needed)

Filling
1 Tbsp oil (I used soybean oil)
1 1/2 Tbsp yellow curry powder
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
salt to taste
1/2 cup white onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup dry lentils
1 cup eggplant, diced
1 cup cabbage, finely shredded and chopped
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Flour for rolling dough
1 egg, beaten for brushing patties

1. If using a black (very ripe) plantain in the pastry, cut off both ends, cut in two, boil 10 minutes. Let it cool, remove the skin from one of the halves, and mash it up with a fork. Put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
2. Sort, wash, and soak lentils. (Usually they don't need to be soaked, but with the oil and coconut milk in the filling they'll need the extra moisture to soften up.)
3. In a large bowl, start the pastry. Mix flours, salt, curry powder. Cut in shortening, butter, and plantain bit by bit. Mix thoroughly until everything clumps and breaks apart easily.
4. Add cold water bit by bit, mix until a tight ball of dough is formed. Wrap dough in plastic, refrigerate while you prepare the filling.
5. Dice eggplant to 1/4 inch cubes, toss with a pinch of salt, set aside.
6. Saute curry, cayenne, salt, and onion with oil in medium saucepan, 8 minutes over low-med heat. Add minced garlic, saute for 2 minutes, then reduce heat.
7. Add coconut milk, lentils, and eggplant (diced to 1/4" cubes). Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add cabbage, continue to cook 10-15 minutes, letting the mixture reduce until it's moist but no longer soupy (resembling cooked ground beef, actually). If lentils don't soften after about 20 minutes, add 1/4 cup water, continue to cook and reduce. Add lemon juice, stir, remove from heat.
8. Preheat oven to 350F and get out the pastry dough.
9. Sprinkle a clean, dry, even surface with flour, and flour your trusty rolling pin. Pinch off a 3 inch ball of dough, flatten it, roll it out as you would a flour tortilla, but just a little thicker. Use a bowl between 5-7 inches diameter to cut a circle in dough.
10. Spoon the filling onto half the circle, leaving at least 1/2" around edge. Fold other half of pastry over, use a fork to press the two edges together, place on greased cookie sheet, brush with egg.
11. Repeat steps 7 and 8 to make all the patties. Cookie sheet with patties goes in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
Makes 5-14, depending on size.
I found that though the patties are good while they're still warm from the oven, they are a little too dry. After they've been covered at room temperature for a day, the pastry is softer and moister, and it can be reheated easily. Refrigerate after 1 day.
The aroma from the filling cooking was one of the best I've had in my apartment since I moved in. Sometime I'll do just the filling without reducing it and eat it over noodles as a fake Thai dish.

Whoopie Pies for Carifta Volunteers

Success!

I hadn't had a whoopie pie before, but the innumerable descriptions and recipes and pictures that have bombarded the culinary creative commons of the internet gave me a pretty good idea. So, of course, I decided to make my own. And, of course, I put my own West Indian (and cheap-skate) twist on it.

:D

So I used the same recipe for my candy molasses cookies, omitting the candy and nuts, adding perhaps just a touch more sifted flour to ensure they were super soft and cakey. Several methods of portioning out the dough (two rounded tablespoons, one rounded tablespoon, using a simple cookie cutter) led me to believe that the best prep for the dough just before it goes into the oven is to round a consistent amount (either 1 or 2 tablespoons, depending on your desired size) into balls in your hands, then pat them down a little bit flat on the cookie sheet. Give them plenty of room, since they spread.

Then I used a very simple recipe for the icing, which made a much larger quantity than my one-egg batch of cookies (so definitely go with the full batch of cookies for the right amount), and added several scrapings (up to a teaspoon, by taste) of fresh nutmeg. Make sure your cookies are completely cooled before spreading and sandwiching the icing.
...that doesn't look like good icing.
...but that does!

Encase them well in plastic wrap, walk two miles to the George Odlum Stadium with whoopie pies in your ever-present blue Peace Corps tote, and deliver them to weary Carifta volunteers.


One last bit of advice: the icing starts to stiffen after a day, so make sure there are people around to gobble them up the day you make them ;)

Darling Muffins, Daring Tortilla Soup

Last week I bought some whole wheat flour, with the idea that I would make healthier foods. I think it's sort of working.

The bread that was becoming staler by the day in my refrigerator, the bread that I bought vaguely a month ago, had so little left that I salvaged what was still soft and threw the rest in the freezer to make breadcrumbs later. I wouldn't buy bread for a couple of weeks, I decided, so I made some wheat tortillas to go along with my salsa (these days I make food that I can take to work for lunch without reheating, since none of the schools I work at have functioning microwaves...quesadillas were last week's menu).

The tortillas came out pretty well. I used the same recipe as usual, except that half of the flour was whole grain wheat. They're not quite as flexible as my usual batches, but of course they have an earthier taste.

Sunday night, after I made these, I didn't want to eat a quesadilla like I would for the rest of the week, or even a taco. Over the phone my mom suggested soup. She meant just putting the soft tortillas right into the soup, but I had a different thought.

I cut the tortilla, fried it in my trusty canola oil, no extra salt, to make chips. A couple spoonfuls of salsa went into a saucepan, as did a cup or so of water, a few chopped leaves of spinach, some slices of carrot and fresh tomato, an extra dash each of cumin, cayenne, and black pepper so the water wouldn't dilute the flavour too much. Into a bowl went the soup, the whole wheat tortilla chips, and some shreds of cheese.


I didn't expect much, but it was some of the best tortilla soup I've ever had, to be completely honest. And I'm picky about my tortilla soup.

Later in the week I found a recipe on Taste Spotting for some whole wheat carrot muffins, but I didn't have all the ingredients. Oh well, time for some improv :)

Darling Muffins

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar (or just under)
1 cup milk (I used evaporated)
1 large egg (I used 2 small eggs--in the States eggs are generally the same large size though, so use that)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I have soybean oil this round)
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup finely shredded carrot
1/4 cup raisins or assorted small dried fruit
(I would have added 1/2 cup chopped nuts, if I had any)

1. Combine dry ingredients (first set above) in a large mixing bowl, make a well with it (push most of it to the edges of the bottom of the bowl, leaving empty the middle), set aside.
2. Combine wet ingredients (second set above) in a medium mixing bowl, wisking well. Pour into well in dry ingredients, mix thoroughly. Add carrot, fruit, nuts. Preheat oven to 400F.
3. Pour into greased muffin tins or paper cups in muffin tins. Bake for 17-21 minutes. They're done when a toothpick poked in comes out clean.

Because I have small muffin tins, 18 darling little muffins came out. I didn't have paper cups, so I made some from wax paper as suggested.


I meant for them to be healthy-ish, so they're not really sweet, but they're incredibly moist and have a nice round flavour. Better than bran muffins, for sure. Perfect with tea as breakfast or snack for your darlings, with a dollop of peanut butter if you don't have chopped nuts around.

Chocolate Dipped Banana Fritters

Berney sent me a food challenge in his Valentine's Day/Birthday package to me. There was a bag of sausage-flavoured croutons and some nice air-filled milk chocolate. I was instructed to make something with both of them, so here are the results.

Adapted from the PC EC Cookbook--I reduced the portions, and sort of didn't know what I was doing when it came to frying. Next time I make them, I won't have the oil so hot because many of them blackened but were still gooey on the inside. It was even more of an adventure, since I had never deep fried before.

Ingredients (scaled down for just me)
1 small ripe banana
3/4 tsp sugar
dash cinnamon
about 1/3 of 1 beaten egg
dash vanilla essence
1/8 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
oil for deep frying
2 Tbsp milk chocolate, chopped
1 Tbsp crouton crumbs

Directions


If you really want to know the specifics of directions, let me know and I'll post them. I think this should be enough for now, though.

The results were that the sausage flavoured crouton crumbs were a little overwhelming, so I'm glad I only made 3 or 4 of the fritters with them. I was inspired by a pancake breakfast the day before. I remembered how I like to sop up some of the syrup from pancakes with my sausage when I have them together (oh dining hall how I miss you), and so combining breakfasty flavours was my goal. It sort of worked, though the chocolate-only fritters were better tasting.

I think next time I make them, I might omit the sugar altogether, since bananas are pretty dang sweet by themselves. Then it'll be a breakfast-worthy concoction :)

Molasses Candy Cookies!

So I've been reading cooking forums and blogs and watching the Food Network a lot in the past few months, and one thing that everyone agrees on is that though most things cooked don't need to be measured exactly, baking does.

Well, I can't help it. I like to experiment. So I do measure...at first. Then I add something that changes the recipe and then I have to add more of this or that...well, at least other people don't have to eat my baking.

Well, except when I'm baking specifically because people are coming over.

Hmm, that sure isn't what the original recipe said....


....well, everyone keeps going back for 2nds, 3rds, 5ths of the cookies, so I guess they're alright.

Actually they're great. I love thick, soft cookies, and that's exactly what these are. The molasses means that the dough itself isn't too sweet, but the heath and white chocolate bits help to bring more sweetness into the overall cookie. It's pretty much perfectly balanced.

Molasses Candy Cookies
Ingredients
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tspn salt
1 tspn baking soda
1 tspn baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups light brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (Eight 1.4 ounce bars)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (well, I chopped squares for it, since they don't sell w.choc chips here)
1/2 chopped almonds

Directions
1. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine heath, white chocolate chips, and almonds.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream (haha, yeah right, like I have a mixer) the butter, add the sugar and molasses. Mix it up all good! Add eggs one at a time, and vanilla.
3. Add flour mix and heath/w.choc/almond mix alternately, in thirds. Make sure everything is well combined, and the flour isn't sticking to the candy-ish bits. Pop that thang in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I put it in there for almost and hour and a half.
4. Preheat oven to 375 F. Spoon 2" balls of the dough onto a greased cookie sheet, setting 2" apart. Bake cookies for 9 minutes, remove, let cool, and transfer to a plate or a cooling rack or something. Eat!

Makes about 3 dozen.

If you don't like soft light fluffy thick cookies, first of all I don't understand you, second, you should probably omit the baking powder and only use about 2 3/4 cups flour.

The original recipe I was referencing didn't have molasses, so I thought I'd substitute that for some sugar, then it was too bitter so I added enough sugar, and the 2 1/2 cups flour didn't make the dough dough-y enough, so I added more flour. So this recipe is kind of guessed at, but the measurements should be about right.

I'll add pics when Fae brings my camera back. :)

Foods! (lots of recipes!)

So I've done plenty of cooking and baking in the past month or so, and here are a few recipes that I've altered to suit my needs. Remember, I have limited baking ingredients (and accessories), so sometimes things are left out that I would like to have in, or they are adapted with another ingredient. These recipes reflect things I am able to buy--some things are available, but expensive (like chocolate chips), so I don't buy them.

Also of course many measurements are estimated.

Let's start with some recipes everyone should have their own version of, since it's so much cheaper to make these than to buy them.

Hearty Black Bean Salsa
Ingredients
1 medium green bell pepper (called sweet peppers here)
1 medium red or yellow or orange bell pepper (I only get the reds here, since they aren't as expensive. they're still more expensive than green, since they're imported.)
1/2 medium onion, chopped (yes I am cooking and eating onions now!)
1 garlic clove
1 can diced tomatoes (leave some of the water out)
1 cup cooked black beans (I cook them with a bay leaf, cumin, black pepper, salt, oregano, and basil)
1 cup corn kernels
(1 jalapeno, chopped. I didn't include this since I don't have regular access to them here, and if you don't like very spicy food you should leave it out.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp chili powder

Directions
1. Dice peppers, onion, and garlic, saute briefly with some salt.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients over med-low heat. Stir occasionally. Cook for at least 10 minutes.
3. Serve. If you want to serve it with tortilla chips, chill it a little first. It also goes great in quesadillas. For this, use my tortilla recipe and some cheese of your choice. Personally I prefer Monterrey Jack or Pepper Jack, although just about any mild cheese will work. Heat two tortillas briefly on one side over low heat in a dry skillet, turn over and add cheese to both tortillas and about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of the salsa. Put the only cheesy tortilla on top of the salsaed one, heat for 2-3 minutes, flip, heat for 1-2 minutes (the longer they cook the crispier the tortillas become). Remove from heat, let set a few minutes, then use a knife or pizza cutter to cut into quarters. Serve with

Guacamole
Ingredients
1 medium avocado pear (or most likely 2 avocados if you're in the states with wimpy avocadoes that are only the size of your fist)
1/4 cup diced onion
1/2 med green pepper, diced
1 small tomato, diced, seeds removed (the best way to remove seeds from a tomato only you will be consuming is to cut it in half lengthwise, and suck them out!)
lime juice from 1/2 a lime (or one key lime)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne

Directions
1. Get your avocado meat into your medium mixing bowl however is easiest for you, and mash it up with a fork.
2. Add everything else, mix it up real good. Be careful not to add too much lime juice, or the guac will be runny, not good for speading or dipping or ANYTHING :-[
3. Enjoy! I like to use it in tacos or as a sandwich spread. It's very good at neutralizing spicy sauces.

Now for a couple reciped that worked really really well, from a conglomeration of recipes I found online.

Awesome French Toast
Ingredients
4-6 slices of nice loaf (not sandwich) bread (depending on size)
3 eggs
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 tsp salt
a couple dashes cinnamon
a few gratings of nutmeg
2 Tbsp cooking oil

Directions
1. Combine eggs, milk, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg in a flat-bottomed dish (I used a small casserole dish). Mix everything together well.
2. Put bread slices in mix one at a time, making sure both sides are well coated, even soaked a little.
3. Heat some oil in a saucepan, medium-high heat. Cook bread w/ egg mix on each side for 1-2 minutes each, or until they are nice and crispy, nicely dark (even black in spots).
4. Transfer to plate with paper towels. When not so greasy, plate them and add toppings:

Topping 1 (savory)
Ingredients
1/2 medium bell pepper, diced
1 smallish tomato, diced,
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup shredded mild cheddar (or other mild cheese)
a little hot sauce

Directions
1. Saute pepper, tomato, garlic. Remove from heat, add cheese and hot sauce. Mix well.
2. Spoon onto half the number of french toast slices.

Topping 2 (sweet)
Ingredients
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup honey
1 fresh banana, cut into 1/2 inch slices

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients in small bowl, mixing to coat all raisins and banana.
2. Spoon onto remaining bread slices, be sure to use all the honey.

Seriously, this french toast is awesome. The nutmeg and cinnamon on the crunchy toast eaten with the warm, juicy, slightly spicy topping is an amazing experience.

And finally,

Monstar Cookies
Ingredients
4 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (or so) peanut butter (I used creamy since it's cheaper, but use crunchy if you want!)
3 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 medium bag of M&Ms
1/4 cup chopped almonds (I probably would add more if they weren't so expensive and if I didn't have to chop them myself)

Directions
1. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a medium or large mixing bowl.
2. Combine butter, sugar, and honey. Mix well. Add peanut butter, eggs, vanilla. When this is a soft, grainy, well mixed consistency, add dry ingredients a little at a time. Mix thoroughly, add M&Ms and almonds. Refridgerate at least 45 min, if not much more.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Remove cookie dough from fridge, drop rounded 2-inch diameter balls onto ungreased cookie sheet, pat them down a little, but don't flatten them completely. Bake for 10 minutes (or longer if you like them harder, you cretin). Remove, let cool for a couple minutes, then eat them up!
(the picture was sort of the mistake batch--no baking powder, not enough flour. Those were crunchy--if you want that, subtract the backing powder and 1 cup of flour)

This recipe makes about 4 dozen, so if that's not how many you want, freeze the rest. These cookies (like most) get hard after about 4 days, so don't make too many unless you only want to eat them with something to dip them in (I never understood why people would want to eat hard cookies without dipping them in milk or coffee or hot chocolate).

In addition to these recipes I also made dinner for friends a couple times. First pizza, with two kinds. One had eggplant and spinach, the other had chicken and bell peppers.
Then I made an eggplant parmesagne, with a homemade pasta sauce that included spinach and bell peppers. The bread wasn't that great with it though :( The rest was delicious!
Well that's my long overdue recipe post. I hope you enjoy the recipes if you try them! Happy eating :)

Ayer estuve una tortillería (3 Delicious recipes)

I made about 55 tortillas yesterday.

They are delicious.

Today I made a black bean dish to eat with them, and salsa roja to top. These I took to Dennery for the Peace Corps Thanksgiving dinner. Read about that above!

For now, let's focus on what will quite possibly be the best homemade flour tortillas you will ever eat.

This weekend I started making tortillas. I now consider myself an expert. I tried two different recipes, looked at about twenty, and came up with something that got all I wanted. Using just shortening gave the tortillas a very nice flexibility, but no flavor at all. Using just vegetable oil made the dough pretty unpliable. Some compromise, some addition, and I now have a flour tortilla that made a Colombian say "You're not from the States!"

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup powedered skim milk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used soybean oil because it's the cheapest here)
1Tbsp shortening
1/2 cup warm water

Instructions
1. Mix dry ingredients together completely. (Powdered milk has a tendency to clump in general, so mix it well with the flour to prevent this)
2. Add vegetable oil, mix well. Things will start clumping a little.
3. Cut in the shortening, mixing in little by little. Mixture should now pack and crumble easily.
4. Add a water a little at a time. Mix in well until it all forms one big sticky blob. It shouldn't be wet, but nice and sticky. This way it will roll out well a few steps down the line.
5. Knead the dough for at least the length of one country song. Pull the dough apart into 10-12 clumps and roll into balls. Cover them with a damp paper towel, let sit for at least twenty minutes.
6. Sprinkle some flour on an even, clean surface (counter or tabletop work well) and put flour on a rolling pin. Take one dough ball, pat it down a little, and roll it out with the pin, so that it looks like a vertical oval. Flip it and turn it 90 degrees, and roll it so that it more closely resembles a circle. Use more flour on the pin, work surface, and tortilla as necessary. Roll it very thin, maybe 1/16th of an inch. It will thicken when heated, but making it thin in the first place makes it nice and bendable.

7. To cook the tortillas, heat a skillet over low-medium heat. Place a tortilla on the skillet, let it sit for about a minute, or until it puffs a little bit in several places. Flip it (there may be some brown spots on it now, this is normal and delicious) and let it sit for about 30 seconds or until the entire tortilla is a lighter color than it started out.

8. Eat! Eat! Eat! If you will serve them in a little bit, place them on two paper towels still attached, over a large sheet of aluminum foil. After you put each cooked tortilla on the stack, cover it with the rest of the paper towel, foil, and top with a towel or dishrag. If you want, you can freeze or microwave them. Serving suggestion:

Black Bean something or other
(serves a lot, so if it's just a meal for a couple people pare it down by half or so)

Ingredients
1 cup dried black beans
dash crushed oregano
dash crushed basil
dash salt
lotsa water
2 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
1 1/2 cup corn (I thawed my frozen corn, or you can drain and rinse a can of corn)
1 cup diced tomatoes (I used canned, since fresh tomatoes are really expensive here)
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp onion powder
(I forgot to add other spices, so add some cayenne or chipotle powder or something)

Directions
1. Prepare beans according to directions on package (soak, cook over low-med heat), but add salt, oregano, and basil when it's cooking. Drain, set aside.
2a. Preheat oven 400 degrees.
2. Dice bell peppers, removing seeds.

3. Toss corn and bell peppers with oil, onion powder, and other spices.

4a. Oh no! The oven isn't turning on! Now I have to
4. Scoop 1/4 bell pepper mixture onto skillet or frying pan with lid over medium heat. Cover, cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Put cooked mixture into large casserole dish or bowl; repeat with the other 3/4 of the mixture.
5. Drain canned tomatoes or dice fresh tomatoes, remove seeds. Add tomatoes and beans to bell peppers and corn, toss well.
6. Scoop into delicious homemade tortillas, top with

Salsa Wouj
(This uses the local hot pepper, which I think are the same as habañeros, but I'm just going to call them hot peppers. I say salsa wouj instead of salsa roja because it's now a sort of creole sauce.) (I just found that they are called [elsewhere] Scotch Bonnets, and they are closely related to habañeros)

Ingredients
3/4 cup diced tomatoes
1 small hot pepper, diced, all but 2-3 seeds removed
1 clove garlic, diced
Dash black pepper
Dash cayenne
Dash onion powder
(again, if I had chili powder or cilantro, those would go in there. Also, I don't like onions, but if you do you can certainly use onion instead of onion powder.)

Directions
1. Make sure you use gloves (or a plastic back around the hand holding it, which is what I do) when cutting the hot pepper. Seriously. I am not kidding. I should know (my eye and hands have learned my lesson for me). Wash your hands and your knife and your cutting board thoroughly after cutting it.
2. Blend all ingredients together until there are no chunks
3. Wash hands again. Pour mixture into small serving dish. Wash hands again. Taste to see how spicy it is. Wash hands again.
4. Warn people that this is either spicy or very very spicy (if it's medium spicy, it takes a couple seconds before the heat hits; ) depending on the outcome.
5. Use to top black bean something or other that's in your delicious homemade tortilla; enjoy!

So there you go, a Melaney-style Thanksgiving dish.

It's late now, so I'll post pics of the steps and write about Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.