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flatbreads and burritoos

i first tasted my first burrito at Tia Maria's way back in college at annapolis, and i remember it was a chicken burrito. i tried to imitate the whole thing but it was a disaster from the beans to the rice i used and well, the salsa was the ultimate challenge. lately i was home alone and i looked at our grocery shelves and saw the taco shells and taco mix with the bottled salsa beside it. hmmm. i gave it a try and i loved the taste of the salsa, except that our helper at home said that it was the exact same smell of the saudi arabian foods that she had unfortunately smelled when she worked there for two months.

i experimented with the flavor and used whatever spices i had on hand and so now, it is no longer a pandesal craze i am embarking on, but all kinds of tacos, burritos, enchiladas and my own version of thincrusted pizza mexican style. using the same mexican flavored salsa i added chunks of tomatoes, onions, peppers and slivers of garlic to make it healthier. then i also use as a topping black eyed peas which i cooked with some spices like turmeric, rosemary, and garlic. incidentally, did you know that for turmeric to be 100% effective as an anti-cancer agent, you need to add a bit or rosemary to the dish. that way, they become batman and robin. you will not like the taste, it is awful, but when i added the salsa to the beans, it was delicious you can hardly taste the turmeric which is quite bitter when used in large amounts.

so now, my house campaign is to create m own version of tortilla, using whole wheat flour and some cornmeal. i have already done flatbreads that have everything under the sun, i prebaked them and whenever piur family is having pork for dinner or lunch, this is what i prepeare for myself. a nice whole grain bean pizza or burrito. it will take a while for the rest of the people here get to eat what i eat because for them, a crust should look white. my niece has already taken a liking to the whole wheat baguette that i send them and the herb garlic pita breads, so hopefully they will like this new version of the flatbread as well.

i plan to stack my freezer with all sorts of tortillas maybe even use vegetable purees to create spinach and carrot versions. if only i can get a tortilla press here, it would be a lot easier. also, i need a supply of cornmeal or masa harina, so far, i think you can only buy it from Santi's, mine was sent to me by my sister from New York. i wonder if i can make my own cornmeal from freah dried corn. hmmm.

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