Homemade

In this simple living, self-sufficiency project I'm undergoing, I'd like to be able to harvest all my food from my garden, but that's simply not possible. Given that limitation, I'm trying to do the next best thing. I cook from scratch whenever possible, and buy very few processed foods. Three staples that I've been cooking regularly are bread, noodles, and tortillas. I can't grow wheat for the flour, but flour is very cheap, and all of these things taste better homemade than store bought.

Homemade bread is pretty common, and everyone loves it, but I hate turning the oven on in the summer time. Mom has a bread-maker, and she uses it regularly, but I found another alternative. Mother Earth has a great recipe for five minute bread. The dough is made in advanced, and the bread is made on the stove-top anytime bread is wanted. It's absolutely delicious, and I can use it in conjunction with other homemade foods, such as hummus and pesto. It also works really well for stove-top pizza.

The other two are a little less common. I love making homemade noodles. It's a great way to use my excess basil. In a food processor, it's extremely simple. I toss a cup of basil, two cups of flour, two eggs, and a teaspoon of salt. I turn it on until a ball forms. After letting the dough rest for about a half-hour; I role it flat with a rolling pin, cut it up, and drop it in the pot for a few minutes. I topped it off with a simple homemade tomato sauce, and some freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 

Homemade tortillas are even simpler, and just as important, they are infinitely better than most store-bought tortillas. I've been making these regularly, because we've been eating a lot of mom's homemade salsa from last year, and I'll be making them a lot when the tomatoes ripen, and I can start making some raw salsa. Like the noodles, a food processor makes these extremely easy, but they are easy enough without it. There are many variations, but the simplest one I found has 3 c. of flour, 1/3 c. oil, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 c. of warm water. Put it all in the food processor till it forms a ball, flour the counter and roll them out with a rolling pin. Fry them up, and that's all there is too it.