Category: Sauces

Easy Pico de Gallo (yummy salsa)

2/4/2012

I've seen mango salsa before, or peach salsa, but it had never occured to me to try adding fruit to regular salsa.

Try it, you'll like it!

Pico de Gallo

16 oz. jar salsa (mild, medium, hot, whatever you prefer)
1 large apple, diced
4 drops lime essential oil OR use the juice and zest of one fresh lime

Stir together, and use as any salsa.
Peach or mango can be used in place of the apple. Other fruits could be good, too- strawberry, raspberry, pear, ...

The idea came from a recipe for
Tangy Lemon Coconut Salad. The recipe was a tad too complicated for dinner that night, plus I had no fresh tomatoes. I pulled out a jar of salsa, added the recipe ingredients that weren't already in the salsa, and put it with the salad. It was amazing!

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Pickle juice and exercise

12/8/2011

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"No woman ever has enough time, enough energy, and enough strength to do all the good things that are in her mind to do. We have to have the help of the Holy Ghost to take care of the most essential, and then the necessary, and then fill in the nice-to-do things around that." - Julie B. Beck, president of the Relief Society, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Boy, is that right! I oughta be in bed right now, judging by what happened last night.

Like any self-respecting American woman, I intend to exercise on a regular basis. Yesterday I managed to get on the treadmill for just over a half hour. The only problem was the time: ten p.m.

So I walked, and walked, and walked, as I balanced my reading book on the treadmill's control panel. The book had to be held to stay up and stay open, so I alternated which hand could swing freely, and which stayed put. Since the book (Seven Miracles That Saved America) was more interesting that paying attention to which side of the treadmill I leaned towards, I wandered too far to the side and whacked the back of my hand on the rail. Now I have a big blood blister there.

After I finished, it was time to stretch out. So I did, sitting on the floor with my book still in hand. After a while stretching, I woke up. As in, while sitting up, reading and stretching, I had fallen asleep. Totally, completely asleep.

So that's how well my intentions end sometimes!

Anyway, if you thought from this post's title that the pickle juice was somehow a secret to exercising, get your hopes back down. :-) They're not even related, as far as I can tell. If you find out differently, please let me know...

It's just that something new dawned on me yesterday- pickle juice is useful. Sure, I've always used a tablespoon or two in homemade Thousand Island dressing, but the rest gets dumped.

What IS that pickle juice? Basically, it's vinegar, with salt, spices, and sometimes sugar. So if you find (or make up) a recipe that needs those things, you can use pickle juice! I even found a recipe online for pickle juice soup (which got surprisingly good reviews). Try it in place of the vinegar in a tuna salad, egg salad, potato salad, pasta salad, etc. (The flavor will penetrate better if you pour it over the potatoes or pasta while still warm.) Or make it into a vinaigrette or creamy dressing; in a pan sauce for meat- especially fish; poured over a roast (vinegar helps tenderize meat); pour it over cooked beets to make 'instant' pickled beets (or use another vegetable- try Dilly Green Beans), or do whatever else you can think of!

Have you ever been tempted to buy a bottle of fancy flavored vinegar? Look at that, you had some in your fridge all along!

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Cookbook- first two cards for Main Dishes

3/22/2011

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Card 1 includes chili, cooking beans, white sauce/gravy, and omelets.

Card 2 is all about potatoes: potato pancakes, mashed, roasted, oven-fried, and baked.

Main Dishes card 1

Main Dishes card 2

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Bishop McMullin clip, more on 3-month supply; Spreadable Butter, Snow Ice Cream

11/26/2010

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(originally from 3/4/10)

Today the information is from two Internet sources:

Here’s a link to Bishop Keith B. McMullin (Bishop for the whole church) speaking on Family Home Storage:http://providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,1706-1,00.html click on TV icon in upper right corner of page. It’s about a one-minute clip, and very good, simple advice to listen to.

At http://www.utahpreppers.com/2009/10/food-storage-short-life-supply/ there is a good post on a three-month supply- starting it, using it, maximizing shelf time, replacing it, advantages of having it.

And just a note: remember the email about storing vegetables without a ‘real’ root cellar? Yesterday (March 3) we ate butternut squash from last year’s garden, it was delicious! I kept it, along with a couple pumpkins and a giant zucchini, in a dark basement room. They’ve been just been sitting on top of a couple food storage buckets; I learned a couple years ago that they spoil quickly with moisture, so they can’t sit on a cement floor. They’ve stayed about 65 degrees there, so it requires nothing unusual. One pumpkin got dropped a month ago, bruising it, so one side has started to go soft. Maybe we’ll have pumpkin pie tomorrow, to use it before it spoils. The other pumpkin is still perfect, and the zucchini, well, now there’s an interesting experiment. It really is big, about 18” long, and bigger around than my hands can reach. It sat on my counter for about a month, until I decided it might as well go downstairs to see what would happen. It has blanched. It slowly lost its green color, now hardly any is left, but it’s still firm. I’ll let you know how it cooks up.

How’s your food storage coming? Are you finding the joys in shopping from your own pantry? Is it saving you trips to the store? Mine is a great blessing to me and my family. I love feeling that we could weather whatever economic storm comes our way. This is also the third month on the three-month challenge. If you’re not 2/3 of the way there, don’t panic or give up, just start. If you are that far or more, go look at your shelves/freezer of food and admire your work, and thank the Lord for it.

-Rhonda

Spreadable Butter
2 cubes butter, softened
1 c. oil, use olive oil if you like
¼ tsp. salt

Beat butter until smooth; while beating slowly add in olive oil, then salt. Pour in whatever size container you want it in; store in refrigerator. Make any quantity you like- you’ll always use equal amounts of butter and oil, and some salt for flavor.

Snow Ice Cream

1 cup milk, evaporated milk, or cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla or other flavor
6-8 cups fresh clean snow (6 c. if heavy, wet; 8 if powdery)

Mix together milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour over snow. Mix well and eat right away.
You may substitute a can of sweetened condensed milk for the milk and sugar- tastes good, but costs more.

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EP Moment; Mom's barbecue sauce

11/16/2010

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Click here to download a PDF of
the Putting Down Roots pamphlet
(16MB).

Barbecue Sauce on beef

(originally from 5/27/10)
Here’s a great idea from Meridian Magazine:

the “Emergency Preparedness Moment:

What emergency preparedness activity would you like to do this week for your family? Make this a matter of prayer and you will be surprised at the promptings you can receive. These few minutes every seven days during Family Home Evening can help your children be ready for a variety of emergencies. Problem solving skills, first aid skills, putting together backpack 72-hour kits, or any other kind of creative endeavor shows your family you love them and teaches them how to take care of themselves in tough scenarios. What will you choose this week?”

You could also find a minute or two while you're driving kids to school or activities. A little bit of time each week can help you cover a LOT of ground. If you need resources, some great ones online are http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/   http://ussc.utah.gov/publications/roots_earthquake_low.pdf    If you prefer a booklet you can HOLD, both of these are available, free of charge, at the city office building, from the city emergency planner. Here in South Jordan that’s Dustin Lewis. He’s happy to pass them out!

Maybe expand the “Emergency Preparedness Moment” into a “Self-Reliant Living Moment”?    See where the Spirit leads you in your quest…

-Rhonda

* * * * * * *
Mom's Barbeque Sauce      Makes about 3 cups

2   8-oz cans  tomato sauce (or 2/3 c. tomato powder and 1 1/3 c. water)   1   can/cup water (fill up one of the now-empty tomato sauce cans)   1 chopped onion (size is totally up to you) or use a handful of dried
A couple sprinkles of garlic
pepper to taste
3-4   shakes   of Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. vinegar, optional
Sugar, honey, or molasses to taste, anywhere from none to ½ cup

Simmer everything together until flavors combine, at least 10 minutes, or an hour if you have it, to let it thicken and become rich. This will be even better the next day or later in the week. Leftovers freeze well. If using this with hamburger, you can cook the hamburger with the onion and then add the rest and simmer.

If you want to change the flavor a bit, add a spice or two. Some good ones for this are cloves (try 1/8-1/4 tsp.), oregano (about 1 tsp.), chili powder (1-3 tsp.), or Liquid Smoke (1/2-1 tsp.), mustard (1 tsp. dry, or up to ¼ c. of the stuff in a squeeze bottle), a dash of cayenne, a little Tabasco sauce. Basically any spice that you like! Another idea is to use pineapple juice in place of the water. With that one, try just a tablespoon or two of brown sugar. Or use orange juice and honey with ½ tsp. ginger.

To make BBQ Beef, brown a roast in a couple tablespoons of hot oil. Pork or chicken are also good.

Add all the Barbecue Sauce ingredients. If you have a tight-fitting lid, or are using a crockpot, don't add the cup of water. A little vinegar in the sauce will help tenderize the meat. In this batch, I used 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar, and 1/4 c. honey.

When the meat is cooked and tender, remove the lid and boil until the sauce thickens enough to coat.

Shred or slice the meat, then stir together with the sauce. Delicious! Just the right amount of sweetness for me. Store-bought sauce is always too sweet, in my opinion. I still buy it when it's cheap, but mix it with some plain tomato sauce.

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White Sauce, both sweet and savory variations, quotes on work/prep

10/9/2010

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A simple medium white sauce. It will thicken as it cools.

To begin with, melt your butter over medium-high heat.

Next, add flour and salt; whisk until it's smooth.

Pour in milk slowly, whisking the whole time to get it smooth. If you do this off-heat, it's a little easier. Bring to a boil, continuing to stir.

Once it boils and thickens (see top photo), you can use it as-is, or add any ingredients you like. To this one, I added a bit of cayenne, garlic powder, black pepper, and about 1/2 cup of sharp Cheddar. Your cheese sauce is NOT going to look like Kraft's, unless you add food color. If you want a little more color than the cheese gives you, and don't want to add artificial color, add a bit of turmeric or crushed safflower strands. Or some pureed carrots or pumpkin.

One of the possibilities...

Here are some great quotes on working and preparing….
“We will have to go to work and get the gold out of the mountains to lay down, if we ever walk in streets paved with gold. The angels that now walk in their golden streets … had to obtain that gold and put it there. When we have streets paved with gold, we will have placed it there ourselves. When we enjoy a Zion in its beauty and glory [which we’re looking forward to], it will be when we have built it. If we enjoy the Zion that we now anticipate, it will be after we redeem and prepare it. If we live in the city of the New Jerusalem, it will be because we lay the foundation and build it. … If we are to be saved in an ark, as Noah and his family were, it will be because we build it. …" -Brigham Young

“The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah." -Pres. Ezra Taft Benson

How’s your food storage? I know there are great blessings, including increased freedom and peace of mind, from keeping this commandment.

-Rhonda

Fabulous, Adaptable

White Sauce

I love ‘concept’ cooking, and I rarely follow a recipe because of that; I cook with whatever is in the house, fridge, or garden. With white sauce, the concept is that flour or cornstarch will thicken things. The thicker you want it, the more you use. The only tricks are in knowing how to avoid lumps, and knowing which amount of thickener to use. Just remember that 2 Tbsp. gives a good medium sauce consistency, then go down or up from that depending on what you want. I use this formula for everything from pan sauces, to gravies, to “Cream of Mushroom Soup” replacements, to puddings and fruit sauces or syrups.

___________________________

Here is the basic formula:

Medium White Sauce

2 Tbsp. butter or fat

2 tbs flour

¼ ts salt

1 cup milk, cream, or stock

To make it, use one of the methods listed on White Sauces, both sweet and savory variations. Makes 1 cup sauce.

WHITE SAUCE USES:

Thin Sauce- Use as cream soups and other sauces, add whatever ingredients you want.

Medium Sauce - Use for creamed/scalloped dishes and gravies.

Thick Sauce - Use in place of a can of ‘cream of…’ condensed soups, or as a base for souffle.

For the recipes for thin sauce and thick sauce, 3 different methods of making White Sauce, and many, many variations, go to White Sauces, both sweet and savory variations

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Self-Reliance and interdependence, Chicken Nuggets and Honey-Mustard Sauce

10/1/2010

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I keep finding myself going back to one specific talk for perspective, so here’s a piece of it. The part in parenthesis below is from me, the rest is straight from a talk that has appeared THREE TIMES in the Ensign (the law of witnesses, anyone?)

“There is an interdependence between those who have and those who have not. The process of giving (through voluntary, not confiscatory, means) exalts the poor and humbles the rich. In the process, both are sanctified. The poor, released from the bondage and limitations of poverty, are enabled as free men to rise to their full potential, both temporally and spiritually. The rich, by imparting of their surplus, participate in the eternal principle of giving. Once a person has been made whole, or self-reliant, he reaches out to aid others, and the cycle repeats itself.

“We are all self-reliant in some areas and dependent in others. Therefore, each of us should strive to help others in areas where we have strengths. At the same time, pride should not prevent us from graciously accepting the helping hand of another when we have a real need. To do so denies another person the opportunity to participate in a sanctifying experience.

“One of the three (now four) areas emphasized in the mission of the Church is to perfect the Saints, and this is the purpose of the welfare program. This is not a doomsday program, but a program for our lives here and now, because now is the time for us to perfect our lives.” (Marion G. Romney, “The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance” Ensign, Mar 2009, 61–65. Originally given in Conference October 1982, also the First Presidency Message, Oct. 1984

I know that we are to serve each other in whatever capacities we can, and the more self-reliant we become, the more we can emulate the Savior in serving others. That’s the purpose of self-reliance; to more fully become like our Savior.

Below is a favorite recipe at our house. And I love knowing that my family is not getting any preservatives, bad fats, or fillers, for less money as well. The recipe method is essentially the same as breading any cut of meat, only you don’t need to pound the meat out thin, you cut the pieces instead. I use scissors for this. (Clean them with bleach or peroxide afterwards!)

Chicken Nuggets

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (2 whole medium)
¼ c. flour
¼ tsp. paprika (OK without)
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 beaten egg
2 Tbsp. milk
25 crackers, crushed (about ¾-1 cup; yummiest if they’re cheese crackers or Ritz-type); you can also use crushed cornflakes, or dry breadcrumbs with a little salt.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut chicken into 1 ½” cubes. Put chicken, flour, paprika, and pepper in a quart- or gallon-sized ziptop bag. Shake to coat.

Mix egg and milk together, then dip the floured chicken pieces into it. Roll in the cracker crumbs. Spread, single layer, on a cookie sheet, and baked for 10-12 minutes or until the thickest one is no longer pink in the center. Serves 4.

Leftover flour and cracker crumbs can be frozen to use for the same thing another time, or use them as part of your ingredients in a batch of cornbread, muffins, breadsticks, or hushpuppies. Just make sure they get cooked.

Serve with catsup, honey, BBQ sauce, or honey-mustard sauce.

Honey-Mustard Sauce

1 Tbsp. cornstarch (or 2 Tbsp. flour)
½ c. water
¼ c. honey
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
4 tsp. Dijon mustard (OK with regular mustard too)
¼ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. garlic powder

Stir together the cornstarch and a bit of the water, to make a smooth paste. Add the rest of the water and the honey. Simmer until thickened (about 1- 1 ½ minute in the microwave). Add all else.

Use for a dipping sauce, for a glaze on baked meats, or as a spread in sandwiches. Keeps longest in the fridge.

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Two Cans of Corn, Apple Cider Syrup

9/25/2010

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This week's recipe is a simple lower-sugar syrup we love at our house. Try it as
written, then reduce sugar further if you like. We often make it with only 1/4 c. sugar.
For comparison, regular syrup has 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of liquid.

Did you read last month's Ensign article about food storage? It was called "Two
Cans of Corn: Home Storage for Newlyweds". (Or for anyone else just starting their
food storage.) Remember Julie Beck's Relief Society address from a couple years ago,
where she talked about the Relief Society working toward being the best at righteous
living? The three categories she mentioned were Faith, Family, and Relief. I thought it
was interesting that when she gave details for each category, food storage was grouped
under "Faith".   Building your food storage is exercising faith in the Lord's
advice to us. If you're overwhelmed, start with the advice in that Ensign article. It's
simple and easy to begin. I know I've been blessed as we've built our food storage-
blessed to have enough in those money-tight times, blessed to know how to cook with it,
blessed with a feeling of added security.

Apple Cider Syrup

1/2 c. sugar                           1 c. apple cider or apple juice
1 Tbsp. cornstarch                1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon                 2 Tbsp. butter

Mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Stir in apple and lemon juices. Cook
and stir until thickened and bubbly, then cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir
in butter until melted. Makes about 1 1/3 cups. This is so delicious! If it gets too
thick, stir in a little more juice. If you want it thinner next time, use 2 tsp.
cornstarch instead of 1 Tbsp.

We've made all kinds of flavors with this recipe- whatever kind of juice I have works
well, though I often leave out the lemon juice, cinnamon, and butter. We also make it
into maple syrup- use water in place of apple juice, 1/4- 1/2 c. sugar (brown sugar is
yummy), and 1/2 tsp. maple flavor (a capful). Try making it maple, then stirring in
chopped pecans and butter.... aren't you hungry now?

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Our divinely inspired Constitution, easy homemade pizza

9/17/2010

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Happy Constitution Day!   It was signed on September 17 in 1787. For a wonderful article on it, see “The Divinely Inspired Constitution”, Dallin H. Oaks, at http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=729d94bf3938b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD     It has three main sections: its amazing creation and ratification, inspiration (what parts in it are divinely inspired?), and citizen responsibilities. You’ll finish it with a renewed sense of appreciation and wonder.

Shifting over to food now, are you finding enough things to do with all the wonderful produce right now? I had to laugh when I saw a big, abandoned zucchini right in the middle of the road last week. All those urban legends came to mind about people’s desperation to get rid of the squash. (Freeze it! Dry it! Slice it and pretend it’s pasta in recipes!)

I have two main recipes I make when I need to use up odds and ends: soup, and pizza. You can make pizza just about as fast as running down to Little Caesar’s, and it’s much better. I make a batch of bread every week (the six-loaf batch holds us, and fills the oven), and as often as not, bread-baking day is Pizza Day. This way I already have the dough, so it’s a no-brainer for dinner. If you make the dough in the morning, you can keep a chunk in the fridge until almost dinner time. If you’re making the dough that afternoon, you can let it rise, punch it down, let it rise, punch it down,….repeat until you’re ready for it! Or even just use it without letting it rise first.   One loaf’s worth of dough (1 to 1 ½ lbs) is a good amount to fill a 12x18 cookie sheet. To keep it from sticking to the pan, either grease or oil it, or sprinkle it with cornmeal or Cream of Wheat (coarsely ground wheat). If you like a crispy crust, preheat the cookie sheet with 2-3 Tbsp. olive oil on it. Or bake it on a pizza stone. Roll the dough out, and bake it at 425 degrees (really, any temperature between 325 and 450) until it’s just set (no longer doughy), then add toppings and bake or broil until the cheese is melted. You can even bake some crusts ahead of time; bake for 5-10 minutes at 425, cool, wrap, and freeze.  The Basic Bread recipe is also posted on this site.

My basic pizza sauce is:

one (8 oz) can tomato sauce

garlic powder (1/2 tsp.) or minced garlic (1-2 cloves)

a couple shakes of black pepper

spices: total of around 1 tsp. of whatever sounds good- oregano, basil, thyme, fennel seeds (great but go LIGHT on this one), rosemary

But what it really looks like, when I cook, is: open one can of tomato sauce, and to the top of the can add a couple shakes each of garlic powder and black pepper (if I feel like it), and then a few shakes each of 2-3 kinds of my ‘green spices’ (the ones listed, above). Stir it, kind of, then spread it on the baked crust. Sometimes I have part of a jar of spaghetti sauce sitting in the fridge. That makes a good pizza sauce, too. So does barbecue sauce. Or Alfredo. Whatever you have that needs used.

If you have a bunch of tomatoes, you can use a bunch of them on the pizza, sliced or diced, and skip the sauce. You already know the standard toppings; other topping ideas are:

-       Shredded zucchini (yes, really. Especially if it’s hidden under the cheese)

-       Shredded carrots (hides especially well under Cheddar)

-       Chopped up spinach or chard leaves

-       Onions or green onions, bell peppers

-       Leftover bits of meat (whatever lonely thing is sitting around gets added to our pizzas)- ham, deli meat, bacon, summer sausage from last Christmas (those things last forever!), crumbled hamburger patties, chicken, etc.

And of course you can always look at your favorite pizza chain’s menu to get more topping ideas.


You can also make breadsticks or dessert sticks/pizza out of the dough.   To make simple breadsticks, roll out the dough, cut into strips with your pizza cutter. Bake, then brush with melted butter, sprinkle with Parmesan and garlic powder. Dip in spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce. For dessert sticks, roll and cut them the same, but roll in melted butter and then in a mix of cinnamon and sugar. Then bake. Dip in applesauce or drizzle with glaze (1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1-2 Tbsp. milk or water)

m

Sep

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Forward>>

Easy Pico de Gallo (yummy salsa)

Pickle juice and exercise

Cookbook- first two cards for Main Dishes

Bishop McMullin clip, more on 3-month supply; Spreadable Butter, Snow Ice Cream

EP Moment; Mom's barbecue sauce

White Sauce, both sweet and savory variations, quotes on work/prep

Self-Reliance and interdependence, Chicken Nuggets and Honey-Mustard Sauce

Two Cans of Corn, Apple Cider Syrup

Our divinely inspired Constitution, easy homemade pizza

Need a Search bar?
One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this--
www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.

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Need a Search bar?One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this-- www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.Author

Archives

Categories

Need a Search bar?
One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this--
www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.

Author