Cooking for 2: Tortillas & Sugar Cookies

Tortillas

½ cup flour

Pinch of salt

2 pinches baking powder

2 teaspoons oil – I like canola

Scant ¼ cup of boiling water

Mix flour salt and baking powder together.  Add oil and mix in.  Add boiling water and mix.  You may need to use your hands.  Check the temperature of the dough before jumping in to mix with your hands.  It can be very hot after putting in the boiling water.  As soon as you can handle the temperature without burning your hands, mix the dough.  If it is a little sticky, add a tiny bit of flour or roll out with flour on the counter.  If it is too dry, add a tiny bit more water until it is the right consistency.  Divide dough into two parts and roll each into a ball.  Let dough sit for a few minutes before rolling out with a rolling pin.  Roll out and put into a hot non-stick frying pan or iron skillet.  I use an iron skillet and love how they turn out, but both should work well.  I heat my pan right BEFORE I make the dough when using an iron skillet.  I am not sure how long you need to heat the non-stick pan to get it hot enough.  You also don’t want to melt you pan!  The tortillas turn out much better when using a hot pan to cook them.  Cook for 1-1/2 minutes on each side until it starts to bubble a little and you can see a few little brown spots.  You can use these for tacos, breakfast burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas, etc.  They are very easy to make.  Don’t give up if they don’t work perfectly the first time.  You will get the hang of it.  Once you have had homemade tortillas, you won’t want to go back to store bought tortillas. 

Sugar Cookies

1 Tablespoon butter

1 ½ teaspoons shortening

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon whisked egg

1/8 teaspoon vanilla

About 5 Tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Soften butter.  Add shortening and sugar and mix.  Add egg and vanilla and mix.  Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix.  Add a little bit of flour only if necessary.  Roll out and cut into desired shapes.  This dough makes two big sugar cookies plus a little extra.  I rolled my dough between parchment paper (bottom) and wax paper (top).  I cut out one cookie, and left it on the parchment paper.  I picked up the scraps and rolled it out to make another cookie on the same piece of parchment paper.  Then I just cooked the rest of the scraps in a pile since there wasn’t enough for another big cookie.  If you make smaller cookies, you could make more than I did.  I cooked it on the parchment paper at 385 degrees for 6-8 minutes.  Some people like cookies very soft and others like them a little crispier.  You can bake them a little longer if you like them crispier.