Number 12 Video

Over the last two weeks at elementary school we have been learning how to talk about our schedules.  In doing so we had to first make sure that everyone could say 1-12 so that they could at least say the hour at which they do something.  Most 5th graders already know English numbers from 1-10 but just to make sure that everyone could say 1-10 and 11 and 12 I introduced the number 12 song from my youth.  I watched this on America's public television channel, PBS. It was an animated video of a song and I watched it many times while watching Sesame Street.  So, now for your viewing and listening pleasure, here is the number 12 song from Sesame Street on YouTube.

12 and Pinball Animation.

Making Flour Tortillas

Today at an elementary school we are making flour tortillas.  To the left you can see a picture of what it might look like while making tortillas with a two-year-old. As you can see the tortillas before cooking are soft but they won't fall apart.

Here is the recipe.

Chewy Flour Tortillas

•  2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup lukewarm milk (2% is fine)

Stir together the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and vegetable oil to the lukewarm milk and whisk briefly to incorporate. Gradually add the milk to the flour, and work the mixture into a dough. It will be sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour and knead vigorously for about 2 minutes (fold and press, fold and press). The kneading will take care of the stickiness. Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it rest for 15 minutes. (This dough will not rise, but it needs a rest.)

Divide your dough into 8 balls of equal size, cover them, and let them rest again for about 20 minutes. Avoid letting them touch, if you don't want them to stick together.

Dust your work surface with flour. Working one at a time, remove each piece of dough and pat it into a 5-inch circle. With a rolling pin, roll out the tortilla, working from the center out, until you have a 7- or 8-inch tortilla a little less than 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the tortilla to a hot, dry skillet or griddle. It will begin to blister. Let it cook for 30 seconds, turn it, and let the other side cook for 30 seconds. Remove the tortilla, place it in a napkin-lined basket and cover with aluminum foil. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.

Although flour tortillas, like corn tortillas, are best if eaten right after they are made, these tortillas will freeze well. Wrap them tightly in plastic, and they will keep, frozen, for several weeks. To serve tortillas that have been frozen, let them thaw and come to room temperature, then wrap them in aluminum foil and heat them in a warm oven. Microwaving tends to toughen them.

Here are some tips as to technique:

l        Do not use bread flour. You want flour with a low gluten content.

l        You don't want to over-flour your work surface, but you don't want your rolled-out tortilla sticking to it either. I found that the dough adhered less to an unvarnished wood surface (like an old cutting board) than any other surface I tried.

l        A flat dough scraper, known in baking parlance as a "bench knife", is very efficient in removing the rolled-out tortilla from the work surface.

l        When rolling out tortillas, dust your rolling pin with flour, and don't be afraid to apply pressure. Flour tortilla dough is pretty sturdy; but not to the point of rerolling. You don't want tough tortillas.

l        The Border Cookbook recommends the use of a tortilla roller (similar to a short piece of broomstick), rather than a rolling pin.

l        Once again, I believe a cast-iron skillet or griddle is practically indispensable for making any kind of tortilla. A dry cast-iron utensil, unlike most other materials, can take high temperatures over a sustained period of time without being adversely affected, although you may have to do a reseasoning afterwards (see How to Love Your Cast-Iron Skillet).

Once you get a rhythm going, you can roll out a tortilla, put it on to cook and, while it cooks, roll out your next tortilla. Seems like an arduous process but, with this method, I could produce 8 tortillas in about 10 action-packed minutes. Be sure to rewrap your fresh tortillas each time you add another to the stack.

This recipe found at:
http://www.texascooking.com/features/sept98flourtortillas.htm

Russian Tea Cakes

Russian Tea Cakes
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Russian Tea Cakes
I made these myself. Just had to have some Christmas Cookies. Luckily, I was able to have a snowman cookie and a Christmas tree cookie with red sparkles on it at a friend's house. So Christmas has come and gone and I have only a few Christmas Cookies left. "Russian Tea Cakes", or as my recipe book calls them, "Sandies". These cookies were really simple to make. I mean, even I was able to make them turn out right! I wanted to make several different types of cookies for Christmas but I just didn't have the time. Actually, if truth be told, I really just wanted to EAT several different types of cookies. Ah well, next year, with better planning, I should be able to make many more cookies. Since you can refrigerate the dough, I should be able to prepare several different types in the month before Christmas and just keep them in cold storage until I am ready to bake them. That should work out all right.

Living here in Japan has made me begin to take more care and have more interest in my own culture and traditions. I miss things from back home. I realize that if I want to enjoy the traditions of my homeland, I will have to actively engage myself in them.

Choosing a Pumpkin

IMG_5637
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

I like this picture. Here I am looking at all the pumpkins trying to choose just the right pumpkin to bring home to display at my dad's house. I choose a nice round one that wasn't too small and wasn't too big. I didn't have time to make it into a jack-o'-lantern but still it was nice to have it. Halloween is on October 31st. I carve one or more pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns every year for Halloween. I put a candle in them and light them up at night for the people in the neighborhood or passersby. Did you do anything for Halloween?

Happy Halloween!

I didn't get to do anything for Halloween this year and I am a little bit bummed. However, the kids at Nukanai Elementary did make a jack-o'-lantern out of an expensive pumpkin that I gave them. We all got together the day before and made pumpkin pie and paper-craft turkeys for Thanksgiving. Here's a picture of their jack-o'-lantern on the left. Up until this year, and a few years at university, I have dressed up as a monster of some sort or another every year for Halloween. I never get very elaborate with my costume. The last couple of years I have been a vampire. I have tried to make myself look like Count Dracula the vampire.

Welcome to Wyoming!

We made it to Wyoming at last!
After changing planes several times and staying the night in Billings Montana, we finally made it to my home sate Wyoming!

Adopt-a-Highway

It was a real shocker to me when I came to Japan and saw all of the trash strewn on the sides of the highways. The cities are kept pristine but not the areas in between. I think Japan really needs to get an Adopt-a-Highway program started.

Rain, rain, go away

Rain, rain, go away,
come again some other day!

This is a chant that I know from my childhood. We say this when it is raining and we want the rain to stop so we can go outside and play. Well, who's to say that you can't play in the rain? Anyway, with the Typhoon recently it has been raining just too much here in Hokkaido. My zuchinnis are starting to get soft and so am I! I just wish we would have sun for summer break! This is not like summer at all! Yuck! But then again, nothing here is like I expect it to be. We all have our expectations based on our experiences or desires. My experiences growing up in Wyoming has lead me to expect a 3 month summer vacation with NO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES. Yes, that's NO school activities and 3 months of fun in the sun. It is summer break now here in Japan but I still see kids wearing their school jerseries or school uniforms doing club activities or going to school. I aslo saw their teachers hand out homework to be done during the summer break! That just doesn't seem like a summer break to me. I mean "break" means to "stop doing". So a summer break from school means to stop going to school. Yes, I realize that there are no normal classes so it is a break. I wonder what the students would do with three months of no school and no school activities? I guess the closest thing we had to a summer break similiar to the summer break here was the winter vacation. It was just about a month long but I can remember having homework and still going to limited wrestling practices.