Ticky Makes Tortillas And Rosie Makes Appetizers.

Ticky's main reason to come visit the Hawthornes, outside of the fact that she missed us horribly and couldn't stay away from us for another day, was to get help in "tweaking" recipes. She wanted to take basic recipes for crepes and tortillas and make certain substitutions so they would be healthier. Quite a noble undertaking, Ticky. Instead of making the recipe for white flour tortillas which I got from Kelly of Evil Shenanigans, which contained the evil, vile, never-to-touch-these-lips lard, Ticky wanted to make a lighter version, not containing theevillard, and containing her blessed whole wheat flour. And by the way, I have made the evil version of these tortillas, and they are devilishly good. Thanks again, Kelly.

Ticky's substitutions were white whole wheat flour instead of the evil white all-purpose flour and vegetable oil in place of theevillard.

She measured out 1 cup of her God-sent whole wheat flour using the correct dip and sweep method for dry measurements. To this she added 1/4 tsp each of salt and baking powder.

Then she added a little less than 1/2 cup warm 1% milk. I liked that little tornadic activity going on with the pouring of the milk. Because she used oil instead of theevillard, she needed to add more whole wheat flour until she could get a nice ball of dough.

Ticky gathered her dough into a nice ball on a lightly floured board.

She separated it into 6 little balls and let it rest for a while.

Then she rolled each ball out to make a thin tortilla.

Here's the video of virgin tortilla-flipper, Ticky, flipping her very first tortilla. Good job, Ticky!

Now it's my turn to take over for the appetizers. I have bottom left - myevillard tortillas. Bottom right Ticky's heaven-sent tortillas. In the back I have buttah, paprika, coriander, cumin, and cilantro.

I melted my buttah and added the paprika, coriander, and cumin.

Then the minced cilantro went in.

And I brushed each tortilla wedge with the butter mixture. Put in a 350 degree oven until crisp. Geeze, I don't know how many minutes. Do I have to tell you everything? Just set the timer for maybe 10 minutes, check 'em then, then add on a few more minutes. And bake until done. Cooking is a learning experience. I can't give you exacts, since there really aren't any. (Except in serious baking.) When I say a teaspoon of this or a teaspoon of that, I do that for my tastes. Your may want more or less of certain ingredients, such as spices (not leavening ingredients like baking soda, baking powder, or yeast). Always err on the lesser side when adding seasonings. You can always add more. Taste as you go along and layer your seasonings.

The day before, in anticipation of Ticky's visit, I made creme fraiche. Very simple. Very easy. And it beats sour cream out of the ball park.

1 TB buttermilk goes into 1 cup heavy cream.

Add 1 TB lemon juice.

That's it. Cover and let sit overnight at room temperature.

The next morning you have this glorious, thick concoction. Cover and refrigerate. Next up, I'm making two different dips for the tortillas: The first is a kidney bean concoction. The second is a seasoned creme fraiche.

First, I rinsed about 6 ounces kidney beans.

And poured them into a pot of boiling, salted water. I let them boil a couple of minutes, then turned the heat off, covered them, and let sit for about an hour or so. I rinsed the beans under cold water, then poured them back into a fresh pot of boiling, salted water, let boil for a few minutes, turned off heat, covered, and let it sit again. Repeat one more time, if needed. I like toothy beans, not mushy beans.

Here are the ingredients for my bean dip: cooked kidney beans (Reserve some of the beans for garnish.) (If you wanted to Sandra-Lee this, you could use a can of rinsed kidney beans, but I may come and haunt you.) 1 jalapeno (I like it hot, so I keep some of the seeds and the ribs.) 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 TB cider vinegar 1/4 cup oil (not olive oil) mixed with 1/4 cup water 1 tsp paprika 1 tsp freshly ground pepper 1 tsp chili powder salt to taste Tabasco to taste I processed all the ingredients in my mini-processor, then slowly added the oil/water.

Taste and adjust seasonings.

Heh. Youngest Hawthorne came in, took one look, scooped up a chip of dip, and said, "I hope this doesn't taste like it looks." It didn't. Next up is another dip. My seasoned creme fraiche.

My ingredients: creme fraiche jalapeno cilantro lime juice and zest Wait a minute.

Is it cold in here?

Here I have: creme fraiche grated zest of lime minced jalapeno minced cilantro

lime

I added the juice of 1/2 lime to my creme fraiche.

Then stirred in the lime zest, jalapeno, and cilantro.

Seasoned creme fraiche, red bean dip, and seasoned tortilla chips.

Tortilla wedge with kidney bean dip topped with

lime/jalapeno/cilantro creme fraiche. This is so simple to make and soooooo delicious. Please try it. You'll be glad you did. Hey, have I ever told you wrong?