This morning as the girls were starting their schoolwork, I told them that we would be having a lesson on making tortillas at 5pm and so they should plan their time accordingly.
I was thinking the other day that I've worked myself out of a job in many respects. My girls are both excellent cooks and bakers, able to make most any recipe I put in front of them, even if they haven't made it before. I've become pretty obsolete in the kitchen around our house these days.
I've never really thought of cooking as a "skill" because I grew up cooking and I just assumed everyone else did too. I've come to learn that this isn't the case. I took for granted that my mom must have invested time and effort into teaching me all that I know about cooking. But nonetheless, I wanted my children to cook with confidence and ease, as my mom taught me to do; so I've had them in the kitchen with me their entire lives.
So as I was thinking about how I've worked myself out of a job, I knew there had to be things I haven't taught them yet. Tortillas came to mind. They know how to make everything that would go with or in a tortilla, but they've never made tortillas from scratch. In fact, I seldom make them anymore. Knowing how to make a tortilla isn't optional in my family, so I knew I had to put that on my list of things to teach my girls.
Growing up, my mom made tortillas from scratch (not always, I don't think; but she did make them). But my grandma, she always made her tortillas from scratch. And she made tortillas a lot. Tortillas are a staple of the New Mexican diet (my grandparents are from Mora, New Mexico). When I moved away from home when I was eighteen, one of the first things my mom bought me was a cast iron tortilla griddle (and though I don't recall for certain, probably my beloved rolling pin as well).
Grandma never measured any of the ingredients, she just used her hands and knew exactly how much of everything to put in. If you ask my grandma how much of everything to put in, I'm certain she'd say, "Ooooh, I don't know." I told the girls as we were making our tortillas tonight about how my grandma kept her flour in a drawer. She'd just open the drawer and put her cupped hand in there and pull out about four cups of flour. Now granted tortillas only have five ingredients and she made them several times a week, I'd guess, but the fact that she used her hands for everything is still kinda cool.
Grandma was known for her tortillas. Anytime you visit grandma (still today), no matter what time of day it is, she offers you tortillas with beans. Sometimes some fried potatoes or red chile, or her fought-over tamales if you're lucky. Grandma somehow always gets her tortillas nice and round, a skill that I work hard at but have never mastered completely (though I've improved immensely over the years...only one of my tortillas looked like a maple leaf this time around).
The girls were in charge of the rest of dinner tonight, so they started early to ensure they'd have plenty of time to roast chiles and throw together some caldito/hamburger chile verde. They eagerly awaited me at 5pm, ready to acquire a new skill. Avery was in usual form, asking every question she could think of about grandma Josie and great grandma Lala, which of course leads to questions about all her other grandparents and great grandparents. As I threw my ingredients in a bowl, I told them about how grandma would use her hands to measure everything and about her flour drawer. I showed them the tricks of keeping the tortillas round. Of course they wanted to know why I so rarely make tortillas lately and I realized it probably has a lot to do with how long it takes if you're the only one rolling them out and cooking them (I'm not fast like my grandma). But the girls are fully capable of both of those things now, so I guess I don't have any excuses anymore.
I told the girls that homemade tortillas are delectable hot off the griddle with a little butter on them, which surprised my girls because I don't put butter on anything, not even dinner rolls. At dinner Sadie said that store-bought tortillas will never taste the same again....I think she's officially become a tortilla snob! But that's okay because now she knows how to make them herself!