Yellow and blue corn tortillas, handmade
from hand-ground corn by
HotBreadKitchen.org.

We whipped up homemade tortillas yesterday, inspired by this recipe from Hot Bread Kitchen.

Tortillas, a flatbread, are a staple in Mexico. As Mexican food continues to increase in popularity, more of us are buying them to make burritos, enchiladas and tacos at home.

The oldest-known tortillas date back to approximately 10,000 B.C.E., made of the local staple food, corn.*

Many thousands of years later, in 1519, Hernán Cortés and his Spanish troops arrived in the Aztec empire (modern-day Mexico) and noted that the locals ate “flat corn bread.” The Aztec name for the flatbread is tlaxcalli; the Mexicans used the name tortilla, “little cake.”

*The original varieties of corn, hybridized by the Aztecs, were far more nutritious than today’s corn, which has been bred over the years for yield rather than nutrition.

The original tortilla was made from nixtamalized† maize/corn flour. However, today’s tortillas are commonly made from less nutritious, less flavorful wheat flour. Wheat is easier to work with. While maize/corn tortillas have a heartier texture and flavor, the gluten in wheat flour tortillas enables them to be made larger and thinner without breaking.

†Nixtamalization is a process that prepares the maize/corn, in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled.

For better flavor and nutrition, go for the corn tortillas (wheat tortillas also provide more flavor and nutrition). Another benefit of corn tortillas: they can be gluten free, depending on the manufacturer (Mission tortillas are gluten free). Check the package. Some brands add wheat gluten to corn tortillas to tackle the breaking problem.

Yet, nothing beats the flavor from homemade corn tortillas. Today’s commercial soft corn tortillas are made by stirring hot water into instant masa/corn flour, which is to regular masa what instant mashed potatoes are to the real thing, or what bouillon cubes are to homemade chicken stock.

If you want to make the best corn tortillas ever, buy artisan hominy from Anson Mills and make their tortilla recipe. Their hominy is to supermarket hominy as…well, you get the picture.

You won’t believe how good a tortilla can be until you make these. We like to make them on Saturday morning and enjoy them all weekend.

German Chocolate Cake has a coconut-pecan
filling and frosting. Photo © H.D. Connelly |
Fotolia.

German Chocolate Cake is a chocolate layer cake filled and topped with a coconut pecan frosting.

The cake has nothing to do with Germany. It is so named because it was originally made with German’s Chocolate, a semisweet-type chocolate created by a Brit, Sam German, who was working in the U.S. for Walter Baker & Co., manufacturer of Baker’s Chocolate.

See more of the history and a delicious three-layer German Chocolate Cake recipe.

We love the description of the honeybees on the farm and would like to share it with all honey lovers:

Well, we’re wrapping up spring in good stead here on the farm. I captured and hived a swarm of honey bees last week and this hive will be the start of a new bee yard over by the currant fields.

It was a robust swarm of about 8,000 bees (3,500 bees weigh 22 lbs) and they’re doing great in their new home. Within 2 days they had made propolis* from the resin of tree sap and sealed up any small cracks and covered over all the knots in the new hive body. They are making honey and storing pollen and her majesty is laying about 500 eggs a day. In about a month, she’ll be up to 2,000 eggs each day!!!

If all goes well, the population of the hive should be in excess of 30,000 bees going into the winter. Worker bees, all females, live for 4-6 weeks during the working season; but the queen can live up to 6 years. The males, called drones, serve only one function [to breed new bees] and pretty much hang around most of the time eating the honey the females make, so they’re pretty expendable. Often they’ll be kicked out of the hive in the fall, to save the honey for the working members of the community.

*BEEHIVE TRIVIA: Propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees collect from tree buds, sap flows or other botanical sources. They use it as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the hive—small gaps of a quarter-inch or smaller. Larger spaces are usually filled with beeswax.
 
Thanks, Greg!

But you do have time to read these 10 quick grilling tips from Smoke In Da Eye, an award-winning competitive grilling and barbecue team.

Take a look: Your fire will start faster and your grilled meats will be juicier, more tender and flavorful—and not overcooked.

Also check out Bobby Flay’s Grilling Tips.

What should you grill? Learn the different cuts of meat:

The new Lipton tea flavors, in 100% Natural
and Diet. Tray and place mat from PacificMerchants.com.

Today is National Iced Tea Day, an appropriate day to note the move to “100% natural” in bottled teas.

“Natural” in tea means no artificial colors, flavors, chemical preservatives* or fabricated products such as high fructose corn syrup (see details). Natural-ingredients foods have become increasingly popular with health-focused consumers.

There are natural food preservatives: alcohol, ascorbic acid, citric acid, salt, sugar and vinegar. Ascorbic acid is vitamin C, sourced primarily from lemons. It is found in varying amounts in citrus fruits and some vegetables. Citric acid is also found in citrus fruits and some vegetables, but it has less nutritional value than ascorbic acid. Citric acid, which does not contain vitamin C, is most famously used in sodas, in large enough quantities that it can erode the tooth structure of heavy soda drinkers (details). Ascorbic acid can do the same, but it is added to foods only in small amounts.

 
The teas retail for $.99 to $1.59 per bottle. The line is certified kosher by OU.