When tired children come in from playing outside, they pass through the kitchen on their way up to take showers. And inevitably, at least one will stop to ask, "Ooooh...what's for dinner?" Usually by that time, dinner preparation is well underway, and they begin to peek through the glass on the oven door or into bowls or pans that are filled with goodies. This is more than just food. It's an environment of the home...a stable routine...the smells of home in action. These meals are not wasted effort that will soon be forgotten but rather are tangible forms of love. Feeding the body and the soul...
This particular meal was chicken on tortillas (call it burritos or tacos or whatever you want...I created this recipe but haven't stopped to name it). It involves chicken thighs marinated in Vinaigrette dressing and a little bit of white wine. Before baking, top chicken with 1 onion (sliced), 1 pablano pepper (chopped coarsely), 1 can of green chilies, and spices (cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper and salt).
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes or until done. Cut cooked chicken.
While the chicken is baking, we make homemade wheat tortillas. We have a child who simply cannot process preservatives well, so I try to make as many foods from scratch as I can. Tortillas are very easy to make and are always good. This particular recipe calls for butter instead of lard, which is a personal preference.
Tortillas:
4 cups of flour (I usually use 3 cups of wheat and 1 cup of white flour)
1 tsp salt
1 stick of butter, softened
Warm water
Mix flour and salt. Using pastry knife, cut in butter. Add water a bit at a time (I begin with 1 cup and then add a bit more until the dough reaches a good consistency). The dough should be fairly moist but not wet. You should be able to pinch pieces of dough off for rolling easily.
Pinch a piece of dough off about the size of a golf ball. Roll onto clean countertop. If your dough is of good consistency, it should not stick to the counter or the rolling pin. If it does, add more flour to the dough until it works well.
Roll flat. These are homemade, so they won't be exact circles...especially if little helpers are involved. You'd be surprised at all the creative shapes we've had in the past! :)
Cook tortillas on the griddle (set on 350 degrees) until done on both sides. You'll have to toy with the time on this, depending on your griddle (or medium heat on stovetop). These cook quickly, so don't walk away. We usually do this as a team, with one person rolling and one person flipping tortillas on the griddle. If your tortillas get crispy, you're keeping them on the griddle too long. If you want some more visuals, I saw that another blogger has lots of photos of the whole process of making tortillas. Her recipe uses lard, which you may or may not find to be what you'd prefer, but the process is about the same either way.
Someone is assigned salad-making for this particular night. He chooses all the ingredients and makes a nice big green salad (which we have with nearly every meal). This is my natural-born cook...always helping in the kitchen. This night, he flipped the tortillas and made the salad...huge help!
I love Organic Girl's lettuce. This particular salad is a combination of spring mix and spinach.
The chicken mixture is spooned onto the tortillas and topped with homemade salsa, sour cream and cheddar/pepper jack cheese. Black beans are added, and it makes a simple and really good meal.
Oh, and here's a labor of love for dessert... Our oldest baked a homemade carrot cake (complete with shredding a zillion carrots...bless her for such endurance!).
She's an artist, so she created her own pastry bag out of a sandwich baggie and filled it with homemade cream cheese frosting to make carrots on the cake. Really, this was an amazingly delicious treat!
Another meal has been prepared and eaten...but so much more is wrapped up in this daily event. It's love tangible and worth every minute of effort.
