1-4 Tortillas Serves 1 Person
Serve on a plate or eat each rolled up tortilla over the stove as you heat up the next one.
What You’ll Need:
- Flour Tortillas
- Butter
- Cinnamon Sugar (from the store)
Instructions:
1. Prep and prepare!
Let your butter soften to room temperature. If you have store bought cinnamon sugar then you do not have to mix together your own.
2. Heat!
Turn a burner on to medium heat for your pan. Place one tortilla on the pan and wait until you feel a pull to flip the tortilla. You may flip it with your hand or a tool like tongs or a spatula if the pan is too hot or you are unpracticed.
- If you touch the pan with your hand shake it fast as you run to the sink, run your hand under cold water to soothe the heated area.
Continue to flip the tortilla until the desired texture changes. Ideally, it will crisp up a bit on the outside to the point that the outer most heated texture begins to flake. When heated, transfer the tortilla on a plate.
3. Spread!
Use a butter knife to spread your room temperature butter on one side of the tortillas, enough for a thin coating resulting in a nice shine.
4. Sprinkle!
Sprinkle your cinnamon sugar evenly on the buttered side. You can sprinkle as close to the edges as desired. The more you sprinkle, the more you will feel the grainy texture of the cinnamon sugar as you chew. The less you sprinkle, the more the cinnamon sugar will blend into the butter.
5. Roll!
Roll up your tortilla with the butter and cinnamon sugar coating on the inside of the roll. Some of the warm butter may drip onto your plate taking some cinnamon sugar with it. You may swipe your rolled tortillas along the plate to pick up every last drop.
6. Repeat!
Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each tortilla. They will cool quickly. To make them in a batch, heat the tortillas a little hotter and keep them warm by placing them in a clean dish towel to preserve the heat.
Warm and Sweet. Simple and Personal.
Someone’s comfort food is something that is extremely personal. It could be a food that reminds them of home, a flavor that was there for them during a hard time, or a safe food option that they can turn to in an unfamiliar place or when they don’t feel well. One dish that exemplifies that for me is flour tortillas with butter and cinnamon sugar. The politics of my recipe lie in the familial and nostalgic connection and the simplicity of the instructions connected to feelings and the senses.
My Grandma Isa loved her family hard and one of her strongest tools was food. You’d never leave a visit without a full belly and smelling a little like her perfume. Amongst the feast of savory dishes there’s one nostalgic meal that has stuck with me and that’s breakfast. On a day off of school at Grandma Isa’s we’d have PBS Kids on the TV as I sat at the table for a breakfast of ‘toastabread’ (toast with butter and cinnamon sugar), Eggo waffles, cereal, or my all time favorite: tortillas with butter and cinnamon sugar. It’s warm and sweet and a source of comfort on a sleepy morning. It’s not the fanciest or most nutritional breakfast option, but it is a favorite of mine because I associate it with the care of my grandma.
I wanted to keep the instructions as simple as the ingredients and as personal as the recipe. I do not identify as a chef, but I have made this dish for myself many times. Grandma Isa passed away in 2019 near the beginning of my senior year of high school, but for at least a few years before that I had been the one to primarily make the dish for myself. I never had set measurements for anything and would alternate serving myself 2-4 tortillas depending on my hunger level. Everything was eyeballed and timed out with my heart. There is no set amount of butter or cinnamon sugar and there is no set amount of time to have the tortillas on the stove. InThe Recipe Bloom explains that when it comes to instructions readers are asking, “‘How exactly do you do it?’ And we want the answer to be ‘Like this!’ the honest answer is ‘Be me!’” (Bloom, 17). I wanted to put the reader in my shoes. I wanted the reader to know what to do if they lightly burn their hand on the stove (something that can happen when I decide to make the dish as a midnight snack) or be able to decide for themselves what kind of texture experience they want to have based on how much cinnamon sugar they use. The instructions are asking the reader to go through the process of making this dish for themselves as I do. It is asking the reader to perform an act of self care and to trust their instinct. They can flip the tortillas whenever they feel like doing so.
Tortillas with butter and cinnamon sugar have been there for me in the good times and the bad. They have been there for me when I’ve come home from a late night at the ‘Sco and crave a sweet treat. They have been there for me on summer mornings after my high school breakup when I was too sad to put effort into a more elaborate breakfast. They are there for me when I’m homesick at Oberlin and miss my family. They are there for me when food is confusing, stress levels are climbing, deciding what to eat is hard, and I need something to fill my stomach. When I flip tortillas in my small gold hoops my grandma gave me I am comforted by the memory of Grandma Isa in her own gold earrings fearlessly putting her hand near the heat to prepare the tortillas for me.
When I think of Grandma Isa I don’t just think of her in the kitchen. It’s true that she made delicious food, but she also taught me how to play poker and would read spicy romance novels in Spanish with salacious covers. She also listened to WBBM every morning and didn’t like to miss an episode of her favorite telenovelas. She would take us on walks to the neighborhood pet shop and encourage us to do our homework. I have many memories with my grandma in addition to her cooking, but it is a fact that she cooked a lot of food over the years for her family and anyone who would enter her home. In “Tortilleras y testimonios y recetas” Esquibel reflects on her former opinions of a sister’s friend who would cook every night for others down to making fresh tortillas. Esquibel says, “I devalued the ‘women’s work’ that Frances was performing while I moved toward ‘important’ academic endeavors.” (Calvo and Esquibel, 126). One of the ways I have combated that on my own queer journey through academia is by sharing the joys and the treats of the work of the women in my life. On my Sophomore year Spring Break I was able to be in a house with my close friends and I made it a point to dedicate one morning’s breakfast to tortillas with cinnamon sugar. It was my chance to share something so personal and turn the love and care Grandma Isa had for me into the love and care I have for my friends. It was a profoundly emotional experience that brought me so much joy and it was also so simple. Gestures of love that may seem small can have great impacts on both those who care and those who are being cared for.
The politics of my recipe are ones of self love and self care rooted in the love and care from my family. Love and care don’t have to be complicated. They can be simple steps and actions you take to ensure the wellbeing of yourself and those around you. Recipes don’t have to be complicated either. I want my readers to trust themselves while making this dish just like I do in my own process. I want them to listen to their body and how they feel. I want them to take care of themselves. If that means eating each rolled up tortilla over the stove as they make the next one then they should. That’s what I do.
Al Herrera OC’24 (They/Them) is a fourth year Creative Writing major at Oberlin College. They made some tortillas with butter and cinnamon sugar the before day they published this recipe.
Works Cited
Bloom, Lynn Z. “‘First, Turn And Face The Stove’ The Recipe As An Instruction Guide.” Recipe, Bloomsbury Academic, New York, NY, 2022, pp. 7–26. Accessed Mar. 2024.
Calvo, Luz, and Catriona Rueda Esquibel. “Tortilleras, Testimonios, y Recetas: Decolonial Foodways from México-US Borderlands.” Mexican-Origin Foods, Foodways, and Social Movements, University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, AR, 2017, pp. 125–149. Accessed Apr. 2024.
