i like my chocolate..... by itself please

maybe its just me - it usually is - but i wonder sometimes what people are thinking when they add chocolate chips to things that normally would NOT have them or IMHO, don't NEED them. for example, sprinkling some chocolate chips on your ice cream - good! adding a few to melt in your coffee or add some extra chocolatey zing to your hot coco, OK, i'm good with that but lately some of my favorite things have been invaded by over-enthusiastic chocolate chip sprinklers such as banana nut bread - already full of yumminess; homemade pancakes - again, already delicious and with the syrup, do you really need to add something more that's sweet? and now, the latest victim of the wide spreading fad - banana pudding! alas, i will continue to indulge as these things are baked, cooked, and prepared and offered to me free of charge but when no one is looking, i'll be trashing them.................

making flour tortillas

Making home made flour tortillas is a great way to say THANK YOU with food :)

so here's the recipe:
first, turn on your comal* on medium-low heat and grease lightly with some cooking oil on a paper towel

*my comal or griddle, is a 10" round cast iron one

ingredients:
one handful of shortening [tradition calls for lard but i use crisco all vegetable - not the butter flavor]; about 1/2 cup

one cup, more or less, of very warm tap water [or you can heat some water up in the microwave like in do, in a coffee mug]

2 cups all purpose flour

medium pinch of baking soda

medium pinch of salt

directions:
mix dry ingredients thoroughly

add shortening and break it up as small as possible, mixing it into the masa [dough] well

make a 'hole' in the middle of the dry masa and add 1/2 of the water

mix well and add more water [or flour] as needed so that your dough is not too wet or too dry
[it should resemble bread dough]

knead your masa until it is nice and smooth, roll it into a ball, place back in mixing bowl and cover with a dish towel for 10 minutes or so

next, break off chunks of the dough and shape into spheres about an inch in diameter

prepare your rolling pin by spreading a thin layer of flour on it and dust your rolling surface; you can also sprinkle a bit of flour on your 'ball' of masa to prevent sticking

roll out your masa until flat but not too thin - rotate your tortilla one quarter of the way to keep your tortilla in a perfectly round shape [this is the hardest part for me - mine have been known to resemble different states LOL]

cook on your now well heated comal for about 2 minutes - turn your tortilla over when large bubbles appear and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes

ENJOY

so, why WON'T you recycle?

over the years, i've gotten used to separating 'trash' from 'compost' from 'recyclables'. it was messy and required some extra work on my part but i did it for the supposed greater good i e saving the planet. oh and i was married to someone who was just a bit, well how to put this in a nice way, was FANATICAL about the issue. of course, if you use lots of water to clean said recyclables before tossing them in the bin, are you wasting one precious resource to protect another? what is more precious - raw materials or water? well any way, that's a question for another time....

so lets say recycling is GOOD for the planet and what's good for the planet is good for its inhabitants - like humans - with me so far? so the city has tried to encourage this habit by providing [at your tax dollars expense of course] convenient bins on wheels that look just like the trash cans but different color lid. and its single stream which means that all acceptable materials can be thrown in all together. got the picture?

so at our apartment complex, the recycle bins are on the 'grass' side of the dumpsters. it perplexes me to watch people walk PAST the recycle bins to throw their cans/bottles/cardboard etc in the dumpster. do they not KNOW that the trash they just throw out could have been placed in the CLOSER and convenient bin that they had to walk past?
or do they just REFUSE to recycle? why would someone refuse to do something that is both GOOD and CONVENIENT?
do they think its a conspiracy?
a fraud?
is it a political/social/race thingey? you know, like I'M A CONSERVATIVE AND ONLY LIBERALS RECYCLE
or is more of a social thingey.......ONLY HIPPIES 'SAVE' TRASH FROM THE DUMPSTER
or is it a race thingey............YOU NOT WHITE [brown, red, yellow - take your pick] THEN WHY YOU RECYCLING?

so here's MHO, which is the whole point of my blog, the MORE items that i can recycle INSTEAD of putting in my trashcan, saves me money. yes, that's right $$$$$$. okay, maybe not a whole lot of money but since i have to BUY TRASH BAGS, the less bags i use, the less $$$ i spend on plastic bags that i'm going to throw away anyway. and i HATE buying something that is specifically going to be THROWN IN THE TRASH.

it boggles this pea brain......