Sour Cream

You WILL NOT BELIEVE how ridiculously easy it is to make your own sour cream. SERIOUSLY. When I first made this, it was like the realization as a first grader when you make butter in those little baby food jars just by shaking it. Anyone else remember doing that? That amazing feeling of making something with your own two hands carries on with this recipe.

Sour Cream
Two ingredients. Don't you just love low-count ingredient recipes?!
1/2 Cup Active Fresh Cultured Buttermilk. (The only thing my store had was this "Cultured Lowfat Buttermilk. I don't know if it is the same, but it worked!)
1 Cup Heavy Cream (My cream was not heavy. I will show you the difference later in the post)

You will also need a nice big jar or container with a tight lid.

 Pour your buttermilk into your container.

 And then pour in the cream.

Seriously, so easy. Enlist your preschool kids to help with this. They will love it!
Now SHAKE! You're going to shake for about 3 minutes, to make sure it is nice and mixed. It shouldn't be very hard to shake at all, and don't worry about doing it really vigorously or anything. It's just always good to burn a few extra calories before you consume something like this. :)

Here's the hard part, for kiddos and parent alike. You are going to LET IT SIT on the COUNTER for 24 hours. I think we all have reservations about leaving dairy out of the fridge for extended periods of time, but what did you think the word "Sour" in "Sour Cream" meant? I went ahead and labeled it real quick, just because I often have mason jars filled with who-knows-what in the fridge.

After 24 hours, it's done! If you can see here, it looks kind of fluffy, and that's because it IS a little fluffy. That's probably why you need to use HEAVY cream. Haha! However, once it hits your mouth, that same smooth and creamy texture comes through, and it really does taste like sour cream!

Extra notes: If you use regular cream like me, this sour cream should be good for about a week in the fridge. Heavy cream will make it last about two weeks. Serve with chicken tacos or make a quesadilla with some flour tortillas, cheese, and a big ole' plop of this good stuff right on top.

Make Your Own Dairy Products Week!

So, i've decided to do something SUPER fun this week! Each day (Monday-Friday), I will post about making your own dairy product! By dairy products I mean things like: Ricotta Cheese, Sour Cream, Yogurt, and more!
And you will NOT believe how easy they are to make! I actually have a dream of one day having my own little farm and being much more self-reliant on what we can grow and make and milk at home. Knowing how to make all these wonderfully yummy things from scratch will sure come in handy when my dream comes true! (Right honey, my dream is going to come true, right? This is to you, Bradley!)
They are also fabulous ways to save money, have tastier ingredients, have more control over what is in your food, miss out on preservatives and artificial things, and always be able to have what you need without needing to run to the store! Oh, and I promise to only use NORMAL things. You won't need crazy things you've never heard of or have at home, like rennet or mesophilic m.

I was considering letting the posts be a surprise, but I changed my mind and will give you a run-down of what is coming on each day.
It will make it easier for you to pick and choose which day you need to check my blog. Haha!

Monday: Sour Cream


Tuesday: Ricotta Cheese


Wednesday: Butter AND Buttermilk


Thursday: Yogurt


Friday: Cream Cheese

I hope this will be as fun for you as it will be for me! Check back tomorrow for sour cream!

Flour Tortillas

Did anyone notice my "Holiday Hiatus"? Christmastime is just so darn busy! It's funny, because I made a LOT of food in the past few weeks and completely spaced on taking pictures of anything! I even made an entire Christmas dinner spread and didn't even take a single picture of the final products!
However, I did take pictures of one recipe that I made two weeks ago, even though it is far from Christmas related (at least in my home anyway.)
Flour Tortillas!
The recipe is actually from Our Best Bites but there are tortilla recipes floating all over the web if you want to find a different one. I've used this recipe quite a few times with great success. I love it because I can whip up some tortillas super fast, which means there is always something yummy on the horizon for dinner. Even when it's last minute, I can make these in 10 minutes or less, and then just fill them with whatever I have lying around- beans, cheese, leftover chicken or steak, salsa, avocados, even scrambled eggs and sausage.

Flour Tortillas
Thanks Our Best Bites
(Just a side note, my recipe is going to vary from the Our Best Bites website. Apparently, the one in the Our Best Bites cookbook is a little different from the website, and the cookbook version is the one I use.)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 Cups Flour
3/4 tsp Salt (Kosher or Sea Salt)
1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbsp Shortening
3/4-1 Cup Hot Water


**Update: I've since started using coconut oil in place of the shortening in a straight 1:1 ratio and have had great success! Make sure the oil is not in a liquid state. There is a super slight coconut flavor, but it's hardly noticeable.**

Start by adding your flour and salt to a large mixing bowl. I used my stand mixer and just whisked them together.

Next add in the shortening. Using the dough hook on the mixer, mix the shortening in until it's nice and crumbly looking. You can also use one of those pastry cutter things or a couple of forks or knifes to cut in the shortening. (My hubby was helping me. Sorry the best picture I got was one of his knuckle. Haha!)

See how it's nice and crumbly? Now you can slowly start to add the water. Start with the 3/4 Cup of Hot Water and add more if needed.

According to the cookbook, it should be about playdough consistency when it's done.

Plop that out onto your counter. Honestly, I don't even flour or grease my countertop and this dough doesn't stick to it at all.

Divide it up into 8-10 little balls. My math-deficient brain couldn't figure out how to make 10 balls, so I made 8. :)

Now roll them out as thin as you possibly can! Looks nice and round here, right?

WRONG! I am a total failure at trying to roll out circles. I never can and never will be able to. Brad helped me roll out the rest and he did a much better job than me.

Heat a nice big nonstick skillet over medium heat and then plop your tortilla right down in there. Let it go for about a minute.

Flip it over and let it go another 30-60 seconds. If you see any huge bubbles happening, just pop em with a fork.

Keep the tortillas on a plate under a kitchen towel to keep em warm while you cook up the rest.

There we go! A nice big pile of tortillas ready for fillin'!

These babies make DELICIOUS burritos. Seriously. YUM!

Serve these with Shredded Chicken, cheese, rice, beans, sour cream, and Tomatillo Salsa and you will have a super amazing dinner.
OR,  use Chicken Taco fillings inside these guys to make burritos, or even just soft tacos.
OOORRRR, serve them with Black Bean and Corn Casserole for a super filling and healthy meal!
Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Did you know that this is supposed to be our last year according to the Mayans as well as Nostradamus? I guess we'll see what happens. :)

In the meantime, I have some FUN things in store for this year, as far as this blog goes.
Introducing. . .  "THEME WEEKS!"
Every other week (this may decrease over time) I will set aside an entire week to a certain theme. On Sundays I will introduce the theme for the upcoming week, as well as a list of what will be coming on each day. Monday-Friday I will post a different recipe relating to that theme. Sound fun? I sure hope so! It should be fun for me at least. I haven't quite decided how long to keep up with the theme weeks, because I know I will start running out of ideas at some point. Unless of course my lovely readers give me some inspiration. :)
The first theme week will start on January 8th, so stay tuned!















Ok, ok, want a little idea of what to expect?
Here are the first four themes, but after that you will have to be surprised!

January 8th- Make your own Dairy Products Week
January 22nd- Sit-Down Restaurant Copycat Recipe Week
February 5th- Valentine's Day Recipes Week (of course!)
February 19th- Recipe Ingredient Staples Week (ingredients most American households use in a variety of recipes)


During the in-between weeks, I will continue to post one or two recipes every couple of days. Sometimes, they may relate to what was posted in the previous theme week. For example, during Dairy Week, I will show you how to make Ricotta Cheese. The following week, I will post a Lasagna recipe using that ricotta cheese. :)