Asian Tacos

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Well, I had been leaving you in suspense since I posted my flour tortillas as to what we ate in them. The time is finally here to announce and it is certainly delicious…ASIAN INSPIRED TACOS!!! Yay! Can you even believe it?!? What a wonderful idea.

These things make my mouth water just thinking of them. In fact, I am *super* excited to share that tonight is finally Asian taco leftover night!! I love leftovers. Especially when it was just so good the first time round. I have been waiting and waiting for tonight. Okay, it’s only been a couple of days but even that has been too long.

The taco meat is kind of tangy, sesame-y, spicy, and slightly sweet. THEN, you top it with this crunchy quick pickle that is out of this world. Put them all on my homemade tortillas with a little Sriracha and lime and I am in heaven!

Now, when I made this recipe I knew we were going to have leftovers so I actually halved the quick pickle recipe. I like the veggies crunchy so if I were to leave the prepared quick pickle in the fridge for a couple of days it would kind of get floppy. You just wouldn’t want to eat a floppy quick pickle…so make what you need for the night, please! Tonight before I heat up the tortillas and meat I’ll pull together the quick pickle and it will be ready by the time we eat!

 
Asian Tacos
Serves 4
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Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
35 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
35 min
Ingredients for the quick pickle
  1. 1/4 cup vinegar
  2. 3 tablespoons sugar
  3. 1/4 teaspoon salt
  4. 1 cup very thinly sliced cucumber
  5. 1 cup shredded red cabbage
Ingredients for the tacos
  1. 8 flour tortillas
  2. 1 pound ground turkey
  3. 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  4. 2 cloves garlic, minced
  5. 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
  6. 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  7. 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
  8. 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
  9. 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  10. 1/4 cup water
  11. 1 tablespoon corn starch
  12. lime wedges
  13. Sriracha, optional
Instructions
  1. Whisk the vinegar, sugar, and salt together in a small bowl for the quick pickle. Mix in the cucumber and red cabbage. Let sit for 15 minutes to 6 hours.
  2. Brown ground turkey over medium-high heat. Once it is cooked through, drain any excess fat. Set aside.
  3. Add the sesame oil to a skillet. Once heated, add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until slightly browned. Add the ginger, crushed red pepper, soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar and heat through.
  4. Mix the water and corn starch together. When the soy sauce mixture is slightly bubbling around the edges, slowly add the water and corn starch mixture while constantly stirring to incorporate. The sauce should thicken quickly.
  5. Once thickened, add the turkey back into the sauce and let simmer until it is heated through.
  6. Prepare the tacos with the ground turkey and quick pickles. Serve with lime wedges, and Sriracha, to taste.
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
Flavor From Scratch https://www.flavorfromscratch.com/
 

Flour Tortillas

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We’ve been doing a lot of traveling this summer including many miles on the road and many miles in planes. I hate planes. I really do. I feel like I become claustrophobic after about an hour. Plus, my husband would agree that I pretty much squeeze all of the blood from his hand at take off and landing. But, with planes and cars come great places with great food!

We went to Hawaii at the start of the summer, including renting a car and road tripping back from Las Vegas. Yes, we had a wonderful buffet in Vegas where we ate EVERYTHING! We went to the buffet at the end of breakfast/start of lunch so we definitely stuffed our mouths full of both breakfast and lunch foods until we were sick. It was great. We’ve traveled back home to Ohio to visit family. Visiting family sometimes turns into a “let’s eat everything that we don’t eat when we’re just by ourselves but with family it’s okay” kind of thing. I hope you know this feeling or else my family becomes the odd ones out and this is just /awkard/. Anywho, his past weekend we traveled “up north,” as Michiganders say, to Mackinac Island and Tahquamenon Falls. Both gorgeous places with a lot of fun things to do.

This particular trip up north consisted of Mackinac’s famous fudge, ice cream, s’mores, and lots of yummy but not good for you grub. Needless to say, I needed some homemade goodness when we got home. These tortillas did the trick! And just wait until you see what went inside of these delicious pillowy treats…you’ll have to check back later this week 🙂 Sorry for testing your patience. It’ll be worth it!

Tortillas were something that I always took for granted because they came from the store, right? They’re one of those foods that unless you grew up making them you thought maybe they just were made by magic.

Well, my sister decided to make these flour tortillas for us one day. MIND BLOWN. Never again want to eat a store bought tortilla. For real. In fact, the recipe is from her blog! We’re like blogging sisters…but also literally sisters. Awesome, right?
Flour Tortillas
Yields 8
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Ingredients
  1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
  2. 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
  3. 1 teaspoon salt
  4. 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
  5. 3/4 cup warm milk
Instructions
  1. Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in a medium-sized bowl. Add in the oil and mix until the oil is distributed throughout the flour mixture without any large clumps (this is easiest when using your hands). Add in the warm milk and mix until it forms a ball.
  2. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 2 minutes. Then, place the dough back in the bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Let it rest for 20 minutes,
  3. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Place the dough balls on a flat surface where they are not touching and cover again with a kitchen towel. Let sit 15 minutes.
  4. After resting, take each dough ball and roll out on a well floured surface to about an 8" diameter. Keep the complete ones covered while rolling out the remainder.
  5. Heat a griddle or large saute pan over medium-high heat without any oil in it. Put one tortilla at a time in the dry pan and cook on each side for about 30 seconds. They will start to puff up and get slightly browned. Cover the tortillas until you are ready to eat them.
Notes
  1. To store, put in a plastic bag or wrap in foil and refrigerate. You can heat them up again on the griddle/saute pan if you want.
Adapted from A Chookie Chookie
Adapted from A Chookie Chookie
Flavor From Scratch https://www.flavorfromscratch.com/

Pierogi with Cheesy Potato Filling

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I’m approximately 72.5793% Slovak. Approximate guess. OKAY, random number I made up. But needless to say this fine specimen (me, of course) is mostly Slovak. I may, however, lose some Eastern European credit when I confess that I have never made homemade pierogi before now. I’ve eaten them many a time but never have these hands made them. *Sigh* Yes, I am ashamed.

My grandpa used to help make pierogi at his church and he would bring some back sometimes to eat. I’m pretty sure that when I say he helped “make” pierogi, he actually spent most of the time telling jokes and stories. However, the actual cooks were most likely well entertained during the pierogi-making process. And we were all happy to end up with tasty pierogi.

Since I had little idea of where to start making pierogi, I went to my trusty Slovak cookbook my grandma gave me many years ago filled with a wonderful mix of Slovak recipes and random recipes (I’m just guessing that chop suey is not Slovak…could be wrong). However, when the pierogi recipe called for 1 cup of flour and 1 potato to make 50 pierogi, I knew I probably would need a miracle from God to make that work. So, instead I found my way to the trusty internet and put together a mix of what I saw there with what my parents could tell me about how my grandparents would make pierogi and here is the end result.

These would be really good to make with friends, especially those with good jokes and stories like my grandpa had. I’m not saying they are hard to make, but very time consuming because so much love needs to go into each individual pierogi. Luckily, this recipe makes a good number of pierogi and once you have a system down, it wouldn’t be hard to make more! Just make sure your arms are up for a workout with all the dough rolling! 

*Note: Yes, the plural is actually pierogi, not pierogies as many people say. It may even be spelled pirohy if you are Slovak. Only if you are Slovak can you spell it that way. Sorry non-Slovak friends. Such is life.

Pierogi with Cheesy Potato Filling
Yields 50
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Prep Time
2 hr
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
2 hr 30 min
Prep Time
2 hr
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
2 hr 30 min
Ingredients for the dough
  1. 3 cups flour
  2. pinch of salt
  3. 1/2 cup warm milk
  4. 1 tablespoon melted butter
  5. 1/2 to 3/4 cups of warm water
  6. chives for garnish, optional
Ingredients for the filling
  1. 5 medium potatoes (I used red potatoes)
  2. 4-6 ounces of cheddar cheese, to taste, grated
  3. 1/2 to 1 onion, to taste
  4. 1 clove of garlic
  5. 1 tablespoon of butter (to saute onion)
  6. pinch of salt & pepper
  7. 1/4 cup cooked bacon, optional
Directions for the dough
  1. Mix the flour and salt together and pour on a flat surface. Form a well in the middle of the flour then add the milk and 1 tablespoon of melted butter to the well.
  2. Start incorporating the milk and butter into the flour until you form a dough. Add water, as necessary, to help form the dough. I ended up using about 1/2 cup of water, but you may need more or less.
  3. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes until a ball forms (Yes, you are reading that right. Turn on the TV or have a nice conversation while this is happening!)
  4. Cover the dough ball with a bowl or in plastic wrap. Let sit about half an hour to rest.
Directions for the filling
  1. While the dough is resting, peel and cut the potatoes into about 1 inch pieces. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Let boil until the potatoes are fork tender. This process will take about 20 minutes.
  2. Puree the onion and garlic in a food processor (you can also chop them into small pieces but my husband and I don't love onions so I pureed them to hide the texture a bit)
  3. Saute the onion and garlic mixture in 1 tablespoon of butter for about 5 minutes until the onions turn slightly transparent and start to brown.
  4. Drain and mash the potatoes, saving about 1/4 cup of the potato water to thin the potatoes if needed (you can also use milk or regular water to thin the potatoes).
  5. Mix in the cheddar cheese, onion and garlic mixture, salt and pepper, and bacon to the potatoes. Add potato water or milk to thin the mashed potatoes if needed.
To make the pierogi
  1. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces to make it easier to work with. Keep the extra pieces covered while working.
  2. Roll the dough thin and cut into circles with a cookie cutter or glass.
  3. Put about a teaspoon of potato filling into the center.
  4. Wet one side of the dough circle with water to help seal and fold the pierogi in half.
  5. Use a fork to seal the edges (and make it look pretty!)
  6. Place about 8 pierogi at a time in boiling, salted water. Let the pierogi float to the top then cook for one additional minute. Let drain on a drying rack or towel.
  7. Fry in butter until golden brown. Garnish with chives to serve.
Notes
  1. You can also serve pierogi with sour cream on top. My grandma would always finish the pierogi by frying them in butter along with onions (again, not a huge onion fan so I put the onion in the filling instead). I actually used bacon fat from cooking the bacon to fry the pierogi the first time we ate these. Also delicious. Pierogi freeze well after they are boiled. Just let them dry off a bit once they come out of the water so they don't stick together. I put parchment paper between the layers of pierogi before freezing as well. When you bring them out out of the freezer you can just fry them up, even without defrosting prior to cooking.
Adapted from Innocent Delight
Adapted from Innocent Delight
Flavor From Scratch https://www.flavorfromscratch.com/
 

Mint Extract

Making mint extract is kind of like a long term commitment with a delicious ending. It actually takes a few months to reach minty perfection. I am *seriously* sad I have to wait to use my homemade mint extract because I saw some brownies with mint chocolate chip frosting and I am already salivating. However, it is said that all good things come to those who wait. And I certainly can think of MANY good things in my future with this mint extract.

This recipe can make however much extract you want. I made about a cup, which I can only imagine will keep me coming up with mint flavored goodies for quite a while. You can make more and give it as presents, or less if you don’t see yourself using that much. Either way, this stuff really doesn’t go bad sitting on a shelf so it’s totally worth it to make it!

Talking about being worth it, making extract is SO cheap. I just did the calculations and the base of the extract (I used vodka) cost me about $1.63 for about a cup. We’re using the cheap stuff here. No need to buy the best, most expensive liquor because the mint flavor will be the star flavor! I have fresh mint in my yard so that was free but it’s not that expensive in the store either. I looked up mint extract and they are definitely selling 2 ounce bottles for much more than twice what I spent to make a cup. Go me!

Also, as if being cheap wasn’t good enough…it’s super easy to make! Really this is barely a recipe it’s so simple. Check it out:

Mint Extract
homemade mint extract in a couple of months!
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Prep Time
5 min
Prep Time
5 min
Ingredients
  1. 1/2 cup mint leaves, taken off the stem
  2. approximately 1 cup vodka
Instructions
  1. Place the mint leaves in a mason jar or container that seals very well and use the back of a wooden spoon to break up the leaves a bit and let out some of the oils.
  2. Fill the remainder of the jar up with vodka (I used a 1 cup mason jar so I ended up putting in a little less than a cup of vodka). Make sure to cover all the mint leaves.
  3. Seal the jar and shake it up a bit. Leave it in a cool, dark place like a cabinet, shaking it up a bit every few days. In about 1-2 months, or when it reaches your desired flavor, strain the leaves out and the extract is ready to use!
Notes
  1. I *think* I have peppermint growing in my yard (it was given to me so I'm not certain). Needless to say, you can use any kind of mint for this. You will get slightly different flavors depending on what you use but all should be delicious! Make sure the leaves end up covered after you shake it so it doesn't mold. If after 2 months the flavor is not as strong as you want, you can let the extract sit for longer or strain the mint leaves and add fresh leaves.
Flavor From Scratch https://www.flavorfromscratch.com/
P.S. Keep an eye open for my lemon extract recipe pictured below! It will be just as difficult to make as the mint extract…meaning it will take 5 minutes to make 🙂 *UPDATE* Lemon extract is up! Check it out here!

Tips & Tricks: Peeling Ginger Root

I never bought ginger root before about a year ago. No reason except that I thought I was perfectly content with the little dried jar stuff. WRONG. Don’t do it!! Buy the real stuff! It’s cheap and simple to use. I’ll even show you how peel it!

Ginger root kind of looks alien-like. Kind of scary. Looks like there’s a chance it could bite you if you touch it. Don’t worry…I’ve used ginger root many, many times in the past year (for recipes like Veggie Packed Peanut Butter Pasta) and I swear to you that it does NOT bite. You can quote me on that one.

So you buy the ginger root from the store (you can find it almost anywhere now) and bring it home. Simple, right? You got this. Next, you get a spoon. Everyone has a spoon. This is seeming easier and easier. That’s because it is. Take the spoon and scrape the skin of the ginger off. Ginger root is a little flexible so you can even get around the little knobbies pretty well. That’s it. Nothing scary. All you need is ginger root, which remember I said doesn’t bite, and a spoon. And a trash can for the peels if you want to get technical on me I guess. The peels could even be composted though so a trash can is actually not essential in this process.


To use the ginger, prepare it by grating it with a microplane or chopping it into whatever size you may need. Put what you don’t use in a freezer bag and freeze. The ginger root will last in the freezer for about 3 months and grates beautifully frozen. I just pull it out, grate the amount I need, then stick it back in the freezer until its next adventure awaits. Simple, folks. So go get some ginger root and make something!

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