Cook corn tortillas before veggies go south

Part of the rhythm of my summer is buying lots of fresh farmers' market food on Saturday morning, enjoying it throughout the week and then by Thursday night, needing to cook up what's left of my veggies while they're still fresh. Last night I decided to use the last of the week's bounty for fajitas.

It defeats the purpose of trying to use up what I have if I have to run to the store for something I don't. I was determined not to do that, but last night I had no tortillas on hand. So I decided to pull out a recipe a friend gave me some years ago and make my own. I mixed those up and fried them, then put them into my warming oven while I prepared my fajita filling. This really didn't take long, and it was fun.

To make filling for my tortillas, I sliced up two pork chops, one small zucchini and a small yellow squash, a sweet onion and a big red bell pepper. I browned a pressed clove of garlic in olive oil in my wok, threw in the pork meat on medium high heat, letting the meat cook for three minutes before turning, then cooking three minutes more, adding a shake of cumin and two shakes dry oregano to the meat. I also squeezed juice from a half a lime over the meat as it cooked. Then I set that aside and stir-fried the veggies in the same oil for about four minutes, squeezing the juice from the remaining half of my lime over those. I combined meat and vegetables, and scooped that over my tortillas. Served it with chopped fresh tomatoes, salsa, grated cheddar, lite sour cream.

Here's the recipe for the tortillas, from my friend Brenda Oreskovich in Missoula. Last night, I started out using two pans, a big fry pan and a crepe pan, but I gave up on the fry pan after just one tortilla, because the crepe pan worked so perfectly:

Cornmeal tortillas

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
3 eggs
Enough milk to make batter runny (about 1-1/2 cups or more)

Stir with wire whisk 'til smooth. Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat. Pour batter into pan, tilting pan to spread batter evenly to coat. Cook about 2 minutes per side, or 'til lightly browned. Remove from pan, dabbing tortillas with a paper towel to soak up oil. Stack onto a plate and warm in oven 'til ready to use. Makes 8-10 tortillas.