learning a legacy

These are some pictures of my Grandmother - Alicia. She is, among other things, a most wonderful cook.

One of my favorite memories of visiting her as a child is waking up to a house filled with the smells of freshly made tortillas. She would be standing at the stove with her tortilla skillet flipping a cooking tortilla. Then she would turn to the other counter to roll out another tortilla ball to cook. While her back was turned I would "sneak" up behind her, slip my hand under the towel that was covering the plate filled with the steaming hot tortillas she had already cooked, and I would take the top one... the freshest, hottest tortilla. Then I would "sneak" back away with the tortilla help up to my face, just smelling it... the warmth, the floury smell...then I would take a bite right out of the middle of it! Oh man, the soft, warm tortilla was like manna to me! I would bite eyes to match the "nose" hole in the middle, and a matching smile and have my very own tortilla mask that I would hold up to my face and just feel it hugging me back. Those tortillas loved me just as much as I loved them! Other times when I grabbed one I would fold it in quarters and again bite the center out of it (there is something about eating the heart of the warm tortilla first that just made the experience) After that I would bite shapes into it just like kindergartners make paper snowflakes. Her tortillas were (and still are) the best ever ~ growing up with those kinds of tortillas ruined me from all other tortillas.

So this past Thanksgiving when we were in Georgia and she was there visiting as well, it was a perfect opportunity for me to learn her art of cooking. She taught me a couple of her trademark recipes and I took notes like a college freshman trying to make sure I remembered all the little things she did to make each recipe turn out the way it did. She taught me some Mayan and some Mexican recipes that she had learned growing up that were some more of those special childhood memories for me. Christmas tamales, enchiladas, fresh tortillas...yummy.

Then, as a Christmas gift, my mom gave me my very own tortilla skillet so that I could practice making tortillas myself. I gave it my first try today.. and sadly, these tortillas don't even compare to my Granny's. Not that I expected them to. She has been making them for over 60 years, my first try was bound to be far below hers, but my tongue still wanted the right flavor and my nose wanted the house to be filled with the aroma.

I think (other than lack of experience) it had to do with the fact that I didn't have the right type of shortening, so that changed the flavor a bit, and I don't think I used enough shortening anyways because my tortillas were a little dryer than hers... that might have come from getting a recipe that includes in the ingredients "add enough shortening to make the right texture... too much makes biscuits, too little makes crackers". There is no exact recipe! (Neither she nor my mom tend to give exact amounts when passing recipes, it is usually guestimates at best - they just have their best recipes so ingrained in them that thye no longer need amounts... it is just newbies like me that have yet to acquire the right art for making the recipes that need the amounts!)

Even though I did mess up on this batch, I am not deterred. The kids ate their weight in tortillas today - peanut butter wraps, meat and cheese wraps, plain, warm, cold... And the majority of mine looked like abstract artwork instead of the neat circles my Grandmother makes. Mine were like Picasso's compared to her Rembrandts and da Vincis. But, like always, I took some pictures.. these aren't pictures because I did a great job, but are rather picture proof that I did the job! I tried to chose some that were the most circular of the bunch. They all started out like nice concentric circles as I flattened the balls, but I don't yet have the fluid movement and control of the rolling pin to keep that shape as it thins out... mine tended to fold or ripple or form strange angles.



I am excited to see what the next batch looks and tastes like - another couple of decades of practice and I'm bound to get the hang of making them!