Married Moe Monday!

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. The best way to beat the Monday blues is to have a special treat waiting for you at the end of the day. For us it's $5 burritos at Moe's. They are delicious and not too unhealthy (the chips though, that's another story), and we can each get exactly what we want.

Moe Monday's became a tradition for us last winter. It started when I heard about a job with Moe's corporate offices. I had never been there so we decided to give it a try and were immediately hooked. By March it became part of our weekly routine.

First ever Married Moe Monday!

We continued the Mexican food theme once we got home with TortillaFest 2013. Mike makes tortillas disappear like no one I've ever met before. This used to mean weekly stops at the store to buy tortillas. It wasn't until our honeymoon in Belize that, while eating delicious handmade tortillas daily, the idea to make our own dawned on me. Growing up my mom always made fresh flour tortillas for us. In recent years she's upgraded to making corn ones. Last week I pulled out the family recipe (included below) and whipped up and batch to surprise Mike when he got home from orientation. He loved them, and as a result we made batch number 2 on Monday night.

You know any recipe written on an index card will be legit.

The process is very simple especially if you have one person rolling and one person manning the stove. We actually ran out of all-purpose flour so these are half whole wheat (bonus points for health!). We made a double batch resulting in 21 tortillas, and we quickly knocked that down to 18 :)

The Process: roll 'em, fry 'em, eat 'em.

The trick to making these is to roll them out very, very thin. They will poof a bit in the pan so you really want to take the time to get them as thin and you can manage. I found rolling one out, then flipping it over and rolling out even more on the other side worked best. The handmade thickness plus the addition of the whole wheat flour made these very hearty and perfect for non-Mexican food too, like wraps or gyros. My favorite way to munch: spread with hummus and add sriracha to your liking. Then roll it up and cut into delicious little pinwheel snacks. Yummmm.

Mom's Tortilla Recipe:
Yields about 10 tortillas

5 cups flour (all-purpose, wheat, or a mix will work)
2 tsps baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup warm water
3 Tbs shortening (softened)

Mix the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients, kneading to combine. Let dough rest. Heat skillet to medium heat and add a thin layer of oil. Roll out golf ball sized pieces of dough as thin as possible. Add to skillet one at a time. Cook 1-2 min. on each side. Be careful not to burn them! Add more oil as needed.