Play with your Food; Seriously. Yin/Yang Tortilla Making

Aunt Linda here on this 2nd day of January, 2015. The snow has melted from our New Years snow fall here in Tucson. Yesterday we awoke to snow on the ground. The bee hives, poultry feed bins, and garden were all covered with the beauty of  cold, wet, snow. Today’s recipe is less about the “what” of the food itself and more about the “how” of food. Like the attention we give it while making/preparing it. And the quality of that attention. Seriously, let’s play a bit while we prepare our food!  I take the wrong things seriously and can “miss” important things, (like actually TASTING food), while my mind thinks about other more “important” things. What got me thinking about Apparent Opposites  – like serious play – was cleaning out the poultry coops two mornings ago.                   I love cleaning coops.  It is messy affair, yet rejuvenates me. Hens eat and and then poop. They shed feathers and grow back new ones. They die and new ones hatch. The coop is definitely a place where the yin and the yang of life comes together. And it is a place where the tin and yang of “doing” and “allowing” is required as well.  Poop and old food scraps do not make their way to the compost on their own. That requires active raking and hauling it to the compost. After that, compost HAPPENS.  We allow it time to do its magical transformation from “hot” compost that will burn a plants roots, into the “black gold” that garden plants love. Making tortillas requires the apparent opposites (but by now you get that they are not separate, but part of the same whole!)   of  “doing” and “allowing”, as well. If we were to make masa (dough) directly into tortillas, the consistency would not be right.  Just as in bread making, the dough needs time to rest; and to transform. And in order for that transformation to happen, we must take our hands off it;  let it do it’s own alchemy.          With tortillas, we actively make the masa.  We let it rest – then shape tortillas.  With experience, we know when the perfect consistency is reached. Time and heat transform them.                             Uncooked tortilla being shaped (above) and then cooked (below). These are the big tortillas cowboys like on ranches. So back to you and perhaps some apparent opposites in your life. You may want to play with the yin/yang of “doing” and “allowing” of making tortillas. Or not.   There are many fun tortillas available on the market these days, from organic yellow corn, to blue corn to wheat, spelt, rice. Whether you make they or buy them,  I dare you to play.  Why? Because with play we forget our serious selves, and we enjoy (and this do not miss!) our food. I also dare you to play so much that you make mistakes. We are mistake adverse in this culture.   If you buys your tortillas, or if you are rewarming your home made ones, warm them over a flame – or in a pan (cast iron best) if you are flame adverse.  Add butter, or olive oil, or coconut oil or and sprinkle with salt.  Or use any oils you like and add honey – or even coconut butter for a sweet treat. I like to keep the flavors present but not overwhelming so I can still enjoy the taste of the tortilla itself – but there are no rules and experimentation is fun.       Warmed Corn Tortilla with Butter and Honey!! There are few things as startling simple as this! I used refried beans to make this Yin/Yang tortilla – and added a fried egg  as breakfast while writing to you.