Saturday, May 18, 2013

BEDM Challenge: Day 18 I'm A Tortilla Making Machine

So today's challenge made me sad that I don't have any pictures from my childhood. I hadn't even realized that I have not a SINGLE photo from when I was a kid, say what?! My mom is sort of the keeper of any photos or memorabilia from my childhood. Yes, I said memorabilia! Day 18's prompt made me go way back and take time to remember my childhood.

"Tell a story from your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descriptive about what you remember and how you felt."

This is the last photo that I took of my Abuela about a month before she died when I was 19.
My earliest memories are centered around my grandmother's kitchen. As a child I spent a lot of time at my grandma's and like any traditional abuela the kitchen was the center of her house. I used to love sitting with my grandmother in the mornings and drink my "coffee", which was really just a bunch of milk with maybe a couple of sips of coffee mixed in. My grandmother's cooking was LEGENDARY and there are so many tastes that I can only try to recreate, but get NO WHERE near. Abuela's cooking was like medicine for the soul there was nothing that she couldn't cook away. I hope that one day when I'm a grandmother my grandchildren will say the same about me, but I'll do it WITHOUT the Crisco.

My mother has never been much of a cook and she never truly enjoyed being in the kitchen, but my grandmother was completely different. My grandmother loved people by feeding them and it's a trait that I have definitely learned from her. I remember being about 6 years-old and being completely fascinated by how my grandmother moved in the kitchen with lightening speed. Abuela was 4'9 and maybe a 100 lbs, a mother to 11 and the gentlest woman that I have ever known. Learning to make tortillas is one of the skills that passed on to me and whenever I get elbow deep in dough I think of her. I can hear my grandmother clucking at me when I am flipping the tortillas over an open flame and I can feel her approval that I am doing so barehanded because all good Mexican women should, right Abuelita? ;)

My grandmother was so particular about how things should be done and I find myself even arranging the balls of dough the in same L-shaped formation on the counter that she did before rolling out each tortilla. Because of my grandmother's passion in the kitchen I have learned to see it as an opportunity to show how much I care about someone. To me food can be a vehicle for the love you have for someone and I believe there isn't anything that a great meal can't fix. When I was in my grandmother's kitchen I felt safe and loved in a way that I haven't felt since she died. Abuelita died when I was 19 and I miss her terribly. 

I love you, abuela. Thanks for making sure that I have the old school skills to be a tortilla making machine!




14 comments:

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    1. I know! Abuela would NOT approve, but I have skinny jeans that I have to get into!

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  2. That is a precious memory. I met a woman like that once. Her house was in foreclosure and I was viewing it. When I arrived every member of the household was gathered in the kitchen and the entire place smelled delicious. You could feel the love in the air. It amazed me, house in foreclosure, yet the woman invited me to stay for dinner. You have to appreciate a tough, loving woman like that!

    >NewlyMynted

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    1. Yup my grandmother would definitely have done something like that. If there was food to share and a hungry mouth then an invitation went out! :) Thanks for sharing an equally great memory.

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  3. I love this memory of your grandmother and I LOVE LOVE tortillas. Mines never come out right even though I've been making them for years!

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    1. Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting! If your tortillas are letting down then try this: if you are making flour tortillas make sure that you give the dough enough time to rest before you start to roll out your tortillas, and if you are making corn try to cook them long enough that they kind puff up like a little pillow.

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  4. My nana was the same. The best tortillas no store could compete with

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    1. No food can compare with grandma's food. NEVER. EVER.

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  5. She sounds like an awesome lady. I loved reading about her.

    Enjoy the rest of your day x

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. :) My grandma was definitely an awesome woman and I wish she was still around so I could keep learning more great kitchen tricks from her.

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  6. your abuela sounds like an amazing woman. and what a fun thing to get to pass on that she taught you (not just the tortilla making) ... :)

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    1. Thank you so much! I really am grateful for the things I learned from my abuela and I am looking forward to passing things on when I'm the abuela!

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  7. Your Grandmother sounds like such a wonderful person and the way you described her in this entry almost made me feel as if I knew her myself! And wow, a Mother to 11? Incredible. Reading this makes me miss my Grandparents!!!

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  8. Sounds like you grandmother was such an inspiration to you. I feel the same about my nan, I miss her everyday... xx

    http://golovelife.blogspot.co.uk/

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