Don't ask me what spurred the sudden interest of making my own tortillas but it seemed like a good idea since I had forgotten them from my shopping trip the day before and did not want to go back to the store. I repeat, I DID NOT WANT TO GO BACK TO THE STORE. I'm wearing what could be the ugliest sweatpants I own, no make up and hair that could not be tamed. I already had chicken in the crockpot that I had planned on shredding and was craving mexican so homemade it was. I found this pin to a recipe from the Taste of Home site for tortillas that did not require lard. (didn't have any of that either) The ingredients were incredibly simple but it was more time consuming than I had planned. But now I know what I'm doing so the next round should go a little better. One issue I had was that I could not roll out my tortillas in perfect circles. Screw perfect, I just wanted a somewhat traditional shaped tortilla but kept getting misshapen ovals. I swear one looked like the profile of Shrek. They did taste good. That was the important thing.
xot
I tested 
Definitly going in the Aszmus recipe book.
xot
It's been awhile since we've had chinese food. Honestly I have yet to find really..I mean really good chinese food in Anchorage. The last time I had mongolian beef was from New Sagaya. I would only describe it as more mongolian onions than beef.
So when I came across this recipe and read the ingredients, I thought "cool, doesn't need 15 items that I need to purchase and have sit in my fridge/cabinet for a year." The only thing I didn't have was a wok but my large skillet worked fine.
It was really delicious and easy and the best thing....quick. Oh how I love a quick meal. And if you have a rice cooker that keeps rice warm, extra bonus. I was able to get the rice done when I got home and it stayed warm by the time dinner rolled around.
The only thing was that my sauce/meat wasn't the rich brown color in the original photo. I'm pretty sure this was because 1. I didn't brown my meat enough and 2. I didn't follow her detailed instructions on shaking off excess cornstarch. This in turn made my sauce thick. Too thick...like paste. I had to add additional water to thin it out and I still didn't like the consistency but it didn't effect the taste. The chili flakes added just enough spice for our taste. We're not heat seekers.