Tag: dinner

Smash (or Pass)

January 20th, 2025

Now you’re probably wondering from my last post, WHY would you take the time to make your own tortillas?

LOL sorry, all I could think about was someone saying it just like this scene from Gilmore Girls. Any fans? Yes? No? At least go find this episode so you know how you’re supposed to ask me, “Why did you make your own tortillas?”

BECAUSE! 1) I had to redeem myself from attempt #1, obviously, and 2) because I knew I could if I just gave myself the time to do it. Heck, if I can make chocolate babka buns, I think I can manage some measly tortillas.

Now, do you want to know what I made them for? Of course you do! Hint: there’s a clue in the title.

SMASHED BURGER TACOS!!

Beautiful plating of recreated Smash Burger Tacos

Okay, where do I begin? Other than this is the only picture I have of this meal (typical). Looks pretty good, right? One would even say reality met expectations maybe?

So here’s the backstory: A few weeks ago I started going through my backlog of magazines to cut up for collaging (a completely different arts and crafts story for another time); well, I decided I would also cut out the recipes I had previously saved. Reader, I had pretty much saved all the recipes, so a lot of these magazines are pretty bare-bones. Anyway, now I have a STACK of recipes. I’m talking about appetizers, dinners, desserts, and drinks. Too many to count.

Well, for another project (don’t worry, I’m getting there), it was a poetry prompt to create alternative New Year’s resolutions. Okay, bet. I decided that I was going to take 5 new recipes that I cut out from my magazines and actually recreate them!! So far we are two weeks down, and I have some yummy new recipes that I cannot wait to add to my rotation.

Circling back, now here we are with my smash burger tacos! As you can tell in the photo, there is a magazine beside my recreated dish. Not all of my recipes I cut out have their photos, or if they do, they are not on the same page (*cough cough* Better Homes & Gardens with their mini recipe cookbook). So far I have made recipes from Real Simple and Bon Appetit.

Now I did stand at the little tortilla stand and debated whether or not I wanted to buy tortillas. Why are there so many types of tortillas? So instead of debating any further with myself, I made the decision to make them.

And well, we know how that went 🙂

Now, caveat with the burger tacos. Firstly, I am now 1-year cow-free (*mostly, except I still have beef bouillon paste in my fridge that I have to use up, and that’s super rare, AND I still eat tons of cheese). So I used ground turkey. Couldn’t even tell a difference personally, because you mix the meat with a full packet of taco seasoning. Secondly, this version is definitely more Mexican-style than American-style. There are, of course, other versions of smash burger tacos out there that play up the American burger.

As I’ve said, I’ve got some more recipes that I’ve recreated. My mom gets a new text every evening I do them, aptly named Expectation v. Reality. Of course, these would probably look a little better if I were a food photographer, but alas, I have too many other hobbies. Maybe I’ll do another post where I talk about those more in-depth instead of just the brief photo op they get over on Instagram.

Stay hungry!
xoxo, Gilmore Girl
Homemade Tortillas (Attempt #2)

January 19th, 2025

Did you think I was scared off the last time I made them?

Maybe just a little. But this time I took out the sourdough discard (is that what I did last time?) and just went to basics. And wahoooooooo we have tortillas!

A plate of cooked tortillas

Minus them not being round, you would never think they were homemade!

Look at them roll! The key to rolling them was flour! flour! flour! Oh my gosh, when I made the dough, it was so sticky. I actually had to let it rest before I could continue on. Then I cut out my pieces, floured them, covered them, and let them rest. Then rolled them out on a floured counter with a floured rolling pin.

Tortillas preshaped

To make more than one at a time, and since the skillet was such a pain last time, I decided to try out the griddle. Pretty sure my griddle is showing its age because I had that bad boy cranked up, and it was still taking forever for them to brown.

Tortillas cooking on a griddle

Here is the ultimate test: the scrunch! I would cry but there are NO TEARS IN SIGHT (ba-dum-tiss).

Tortilla being scrunched without falling apart

Okay, there was a tear-off from the corner because this was my taste tester, but otherwise, these came out so good! I am so proud of myself! I will be making these again and hopefully they will come out a little rounder next time. It only took my homemade pizza about 6 years before it turned into an almost circle.

xoxo, tortilla girl
Rolling With It

January 3rd, 2025

Happy New Year!

Let’s talk about everything I made in the last two weeks of 2024 instead of my lofty goals for 2025.

I made these Rosemary Potato Rolls from King Arthur twice. The first time was to go with my Christmas Eve lasagna. The inspiration was the recipe on the back of the potato flour bag. And wow, wow, wow, they were so good. Hence making them twice. I made them again for Friendsmas. The pro move there was to slice them open (still warm, of course), put a piece of brie and prosciutto inside, and add a drizzle of hot honey. And MAN! You are in business. The business of deliciousness.

Potato Rosemary Rolls straight from the oven

Let me briefly tell you about this lasagna, even though this post is cutely named “Rolling with it”. I got this lasagna recipe from a magazine. It uses no ricotta, which is great, because I invited my cousin over, and she does not like ricotta at all. Instead, it uses cottage cheese! Now, of course, me being me, I had to tweak it a bit. The original recipe just called for regular cottage cheese, but that wouldn’t fly, so I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and fresh dried basil. And instead of my cottage cheese going in cold, I warmed it up a bit in the microwave so it got a little frothy and melty.

And speaking of melty, those pools on top? Slices of mozzarella! Not only were they on top of the lasagna, but also in the middle! Don’t worry; there was enough of everything leftover. I made a tiny lasagna to put up in the freezer.

A bowl of rolls beside a pan of yummy lasagna

Now traditionally, I make a french toast casserole for Christmas Day, but there was a slight change of plans this year so I was unable to do that. Never fear, dear readers. I made up for it because after Christmas I made King Arthur’s recipe bake of the week features for Dec: Chocolate Babka Buns. OMG.

Please look at this chocolate perfection. It was a bit of a process, but it was so worth it. We ate them for 3 days straight.

Singular Babka Bun

I was smart and made the dough the day before, and then the day of, I rolled it out, filled it, shaped it, cut it, and waited forever before I could eat it. Making the dough ahead of time did help though. I will say it was maybe a tad tight while I was kneading it in the mixer and probably could’ve done with a pinch more milk. But overall they ended up rolling out just fine.

Rolled, but unbaked Babka Buns

I mean, you can’t even tell there were any issues! Look at those swirls!! Take that bakery cinnamon rolls!! I am a true wunderkind at rolling. And do you want to know what makes them so shiny? It’s a delicious sugary glaze that’s been infused with orange zest. DROOL. You have the hint of orange with the chocolate, plus the filling. OMG. Maybe I should make them again this weekend…

Baked and Glazed Babka Buns

So here is where I should probably maybe potentially set myself some goals for the new year, but as we are aware, I am not too good at doing that. So instead, I’m just going to hope for the best, and I will see you when I see you. I will say that I am feeling pretty confident with the writing and the baking, and I may or may not have added a few more arts and crafts and hobbies to my repertoire that I could blog about. I am brimming with creation.

2025 is for the arts people!!!
XOXO, gossip girl