Birthday Dinner

Oh, how I love birthday dinners! In our family, the birthday boy/girl gets to choose what's for dinner. Ally usually chooses something like hotdogs or pizza (although this year she just wanted chocolate cake) and Parker isn't really old enough to decide what he wants. So I decided to go with tacos since he enjoys those and his birthday falls on Cinco de Mayo.
Normally I just buy the tortillas but thought I'd try making them homemade. And man, was it worth it! First off, it's SO easy to make once you find the masa flour (in Nanaimo, the only place I could find it was Walmart but later a friend told me that you can get it at Taj Mahal spices on Bowen) and secondly, it tastes SO much better.

Here's a picture of the masa flour (do not use cornmeal!):

All you need to do is add some water (2 cups masa, 1 1/4 cup water) and mix until it forms a dough:

Roll it into 16 balls:

Next, place ball of dough in between two thick pieces of plastic (I cut up a ziplock bag) and either use a tortilla press or use a heavy pan to squish the dough into a thin circle. You can use a rolling pin to thin the dough out if needed:

Peel dough from the plastic and cook in a dry skillet over medium to med/high heat for 45 seconds each side. Stack tortillas and cover while cooking the rest:

How easy was that?!

Normally I make cake for birthdays but there's a new cupcake shop in town called A Wee Cupcakery that I've been dying to try.  It was yummy and the woman who worked there was really kind to us. The only thing I wished was that the cupcakes were boxed better because they were a little smooshed up when I opened it. We each chose a different flavour: Mexican Chocolate, Pink Lemonade, Triple Trouble and Coconut Vanilla. All to die for but I think the best weas the Coconut Vanilla.