Rocas

Ingredients:

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all ingredients.

Make balls.

Rolls balls in sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Use the back of a butter knife to make cross on each ball.

Bake.

Empanadas

Per batch:
Using a large ice cream scoop (2.25 in) that is filled and pressed flat against side of bowl, will make 16 empanadas.
About 3 cups of applesauce


Ingredients:

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Picadillo

Below quantities were based on ground beef purchased from Sam's. 

Ingredients:

5.75 lb ground beef
1 large onion (chopped)
5 or 6 large garlic cloves (chopped)
3 X 14 oz can diced tomato (puree with emersion blender) or crushed (don't need to blend)
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
1 cup water

Directions:

1.      Brown meat

2.      Drain fat from meat

3.      Add onion and garlic.  Mix well.

4.      Cook until onion is clear

5.      Add tomato, oregano, cumin, salt, water.

6.      Simmer 1 hour.

Triple Batch:

15 lb ground beef  (3 trays from Sams)
5 large onion (chopped)
16 tsp minced garlic
2 (28 oz can) tomato puree

2 (28 oz can) tomato sauce 
3 tblsp oregano
4 tblsp cumin 

3 tblsp salt
2 cup water

Tortillas

Makes x dozen x inch corn tortillas.

Heat two burner griddle on medium/high.  (I prefer a two burner griddle because you can make more faster.  Gas stove is recommended.  I have had bad luck with an electric stove.)

1 Cups Masa

X Cups Water (hot from tap)

Place Masa and water in mixing bowl. 

Mix by hand until it comes together.  Should not be sticky.  Like soft playdough.   

Make X inch balls. 

Place one ball of masa in tortilla press that has been covered by plastic.  (Use a gallon size ziploc bag that has been cut open so that you have two pieces removing the ziploc part.)  

Press ball flat.  Thinner is better than thicker.  But don't go so thin that you can't easily remove tortilla from plastic.

Remove tortilla from plastic and place on hot griddle.

Wait 25-30 seconds and flip tortilla.  After you flip you should not see "dark" color spots.  You should see it started to "dry up" which almost looks like specs of "white".

Wait 25-30 seconds and flip tortilla.  After you flip you should see that the outer edge has dotted brown (dark) color ring on the outer edge..  

Wait 25-30 seconds.  After you flip, it should start to puff up.  If it does not puff, use the flat back of a wood spatula and press/release.

Wait 25-30 seconds.  Remove tortilla

The first flip is the most important. If you flip too late, then the tortilla gets too dry and will not inflate on the final flip.  

With a double griddle, you can make 3 tortillas at one time as there are 3 spots on the griddle.   The trick is finding your rhythm with the flipping.  They would each be at a different "stage" in cooking.

Storage:  After they have cooled completely, pile them up in a kitchen towel and place in a gallon ziploc bag or any plastic bag.  They will keep in the fridge for 1 week.

Spicy Crackers

Loretta/Annette shared these yummy crackers with us at camping.

Ingredients:

1 box Crackers (Saltines) - all 4 sleeves
1 cup canola oil
1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix  (or Spicy Ranch)
1-2 tbsp. cayenne pepper

Directions:

Put crackers in a large glass jar (like a extra large pickle jar).
Mix oil/dressing/pepper in a bowl
Pour mix over crackers.
Lay jar on side and roll every 10-15 mins until oil absorbed.

Lemon Snowball Cookies

Rosy shared these yummy cookies with us on Xmas 2015.

Rosy's Receipe Tweeks

Add juice of one lemon

Ingredients

• 2 cups (282g) all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp (24g) cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup (8 oz) butter, softened
• 2/3 cup (84g) powdered sugar
• Zest of 2 lemons (about 4 tsp)
• 2 tsp lemon extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (68g) finely chopped almonds
• 1 1/2 cups (180g) powdered sugar, for coating

Directions

• In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch and salt, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter on medium speed until creamy, about 20 seconds. Blend in 2/3 cup powdered sugar. Mix in lemon zest, lemon extract and vanilla extract. With mixer set on low speed slowly add in flour mixture and mix just until combine. Stir in almonds. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes, preheat oven to 350 degrees halfway through chilling.
• Scoop dough out 1 Tbsp at a time and roll into a ball, then place balls on Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing cookies about 2-inches apart and bake in preheated oven for 16 - 18 minutes (these are a cookie that I think are best when they aren't moist in the center so I'd say don't under bake them. These actually are a cookie that are meant to be dry. Dry but a melt in your mouth kind of dry). Remove from oven and allow to cool several minutes then while cookies are still warm, pour 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar into a bowl and roll cookies in powdered sugar. Transfer to a wire rack to cool then once cookies are cool, roll in powdered sugar once more, this time to generously coat (I pressed it into the powdered sugar to give it a thick coating). Store cookies in an airtight container.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy