Grandma's Family Recipe Tortillas

Aunt Josie's Tortillas

My Grandma Sadie never wrote down her recipes... Her tortillas were a family staple, I miss them. This recipe is from her Aunt Josie.
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. shortening
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
Put flour in a bowl, add baking powder, salt and mix well. Add shortening and into flour until well mixed. Make a hole in the middle. Add milk and hot water and mix and knead until smooth. More water may be added if necessary. Dough should not stick to hands. Roll dough into balls just larger than golf balls, roll flat with rolling pin and cook on hot griddle. Flip and pick how well you want them done. Smooth on butter and enjoy!

mix

knead

form into ball, roll into circle (not like this weird shape I am just now noticing!)

the first couple were too puffy and oily more like bunelos -
we ate these with homemade 3-berry syrup

Finally, no oil on griddle, rolled thinner - these were good!

More Inspiration from a friends blog - 101 in 1001

After reading a few different blogs over the years I was finally ready to start one. I have a friend who has a really great blog that I love to read. One of her posts from about 1000 days ago she started a goal list titled 101 in 1001. I googled 101 in 1001 and found this site, I signed up and started my list... so far I only 14 things but I will be adding to it daily. I look forward to this journey of goals and tracking... something I have never really done outside of my daily/weekly to do lists. I look forward to tracking things I have always wanted to do but never acted upon further than a thought or two on the matter. One thing about the site I found, it has a link for inspiration - ideas from other users. So here I go - I look forward to this being a step toward achieving more, stepping outside of my routine, this will be fun!

Snow-much Fun!

I have been following an super-cute blog and have been completely inspired, an old flame has been re-light I used to love to do so many creative things but I pushed all that aside at some point... After seeing what this blogger did with a little food coloring and snow - I knew my boys would love it and they completely did!

My husband bought the spray bottles, he bought 2 each of 2 different kinds (we found that the full action pump sprayer is better than the one finger pump)... the first time out we mixed red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, then had blue and the last bottle with red.

Oliver found squares that another child must have made with a snow mold, he filled those in with different colors. We also made footprints and then colored them. Samuel couldn't manage to get any color out, he would throw the bottle in the snow. I guess he was hoping that would get the color out. When Oliver was finished I took all the tops off and let Samuel pour it on the snow, he really liked doing that - looked like a slushie!

When Preston came home from school he was thrilled at the idea. He headed just as a fresh layer of fluffy snow fell. Perfect day!

And Now... A Moment for My Dear Husband

Honey,
I love you! I love you. I loved you from about the 2nd day I knew you! It was 10 years ago that I walked into my new job and found that I had been seated right next to a quiet guy with beautiful eyes and a love for the Broncos. What an adventure we have been on. Endless conversations at Starbucks, the Marriott, Shelbys! I treasured every moment with you. I would pray to God that he would make you my husband! I hung on your every word.

I didn't know God would answer my prayer, not only did he answer that prayer he even threw in 3 great boys! Who would have thought?

Now... what an amazing partner you have turned out to be. You are our provider, caregiver, everything, teacher, meal maker, playground pal, laudry-do-er, dishwasher - you take such wonderful care of us.

Thank you Honey! Thank you thank you. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years has in store for us! Loving you always, Your HoneyBun

Old an old favorite, thanks Mom - for making Spanish Rice

Tootsie's Spanish Rice

This is my Mom's recipe, a classic, brings back some sweet memories...She would make it with red chile sometimes, sometimes with steak, always with tortillas. I still remember the delicious aroma that filled the house.

1 small onion

1 green pepper

1/4 lb. cubed bacon

1 - 17oz can stewed tomatoes

Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

1 cup uncooked minute rice

3 cups water

Fry bacon, add onion and green pepper, saute. Add stewed tomatoes, simmer about 20 minutes.

In separate pan bring water to boil, add rice and stir constantly until rice is done. Drain and rinse well, add rice to other ingredients.

Friends glorious friends!

Friends... some thoughts on friends...

Growing up I had my "bff's" in jr. high I made some really great friends, who actually I have been able to get back in touch with (thanks Facebook!) after many years, about 23 years to be exact. Superfun friends, we had some of the best times!

In my twenties, I had a lot of friends but now that I look back they were more like happy hour buddies. Don't get me wrong, I love these ladies, loved our convo's but we never did anything outside of that environment. We never would really even talk on the phone or anything. Just talk and hang out for hours over drinks. If it wasn't these ladies it was most often with co-workers, acquaintances. For a season (10 years) that was fun.

I have always been a social bug, love to talk to people, meet people, hang out. But for me, I left everything on the "surface", never let people get too close.

It isn't until now though, at 37 years young, that I am realizing the value of having super-close girlfriends. I have been fortunate to meet some ladies in these past couple of years who I have really, truly connected with. What a wonderful thing it is to have them! I can open up to them about anything (I have never opened up to anyone about anything ever) what a treasure it is to have them there to listen and never judge me. I am completely at home with them and I love it! I suppose I could regret that I never opened myself up to people/friends before but I think that there are seasons for everything. This was my season to open up and let people in... what a joy, what a blessing, what a treasure! I know these friendships will last a lifetime!

Why I said goodbye to TV (well almost)

For years and years I was a queen of TV, I had my lineup every night. I would work all day, do some gardening then head in for 4 hours of TV. You name it, I watched it... Reality TV, nighttime Soaps, gameshows, etc. I would even screen calls and not take them if the show I was watching was interesting (sorry honey!). Sad I know. Only I didn't realize how sad until I started weening myself. Not a self-ween, mind you. It was having children, that was my original reason for not having a ton of screen time. But as time went on, I started realizing how much time I had truly wasted on nothingness. Garbage, refuse. While my oldest was younger we always had 2 tv's in our house. Cable, DVR, DVD player, Netflix account. As time had gone on some more I had no desire to watch TV but I found myself turning it on when I would enter a room that had a TV. We finally decided to do away with it once and for all. We gave away our TV's, canceled cable and netflix ($100 a month!) and we have been TV free for about 2 years now. What a life change. What an eye-opener. If you love TV I would suggest intentionally turning it off and try doing something different (crafting, organizing, call a friend/relative to catch up, you name it, the possibilities are endless). Unplug for a little while.

Ok so in my title I said "Why I said goodbye to TV (well almost)" - Now for the almost - The internet provides access to virtually any show ... so for now I do admit I still catch Top Chef, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation and The Office online. Good thing with watching online - it is on my terms, I don't get taken captive.

Anyway, for what it's worth!

Here we go!

For months I have been truly inspired by a friend to start blogging. I created my blog months ago but I get so intimated when comes time to write. The very first post you read on here was from July 2009 it is now Feb 2010. I recently found this awesome blog on my friends blog and it rekindled my desire to blog.... I don't want to lose any more time.

I only barely passed English Composition and I always let that get the best of me. Now, inspired once again - I shall write and not worry about how "pretty" it looks. I want to share, I want to journal, so hop on and let's see where this goes! Please try to overlook my errors and enjoy!