Category: Dessert

Year's Supply quantities, Roast Chicken Dinner with rice, and apple crisp

10/26/2010

Hi,

Remember this?

"We encourage members world-wide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.” “For longer-term needs….gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive” (from All is Safely Gathered In, First Presidency pamphlet)

Here is what a basic supply of food includes: it will provide about 2200 calories a day, which means you’ll probably get 1800 and your husband will get 2600. This is less than most people are used to, especially if you're suddenly living a 'more active' lifestyle, but it will keep you alive!

300 lbs grains- includes Wheat, Rice, Rolled Oats, Dried Corn, Popcorn, Flour, Pasta Products, Dried Potatoes. Some lists say 400 lbs per person, but the current Church site says 300. Take your pick, according to what you can handle. Storage-wise or hunger-wise; that extra 100 lbs provides an extra 435 calories per day.

16 lbs. powdered milk- this is just enough for cooking, about ¾ cup per day. You can store instant, regular powder, and canned milk. It takes about 5 (12-oz) cans to equal one pound of powdered milk

60 lbs sugar- this includes white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, honey, molasses, jam/jelly, corn syrup, fruit drink mix, gelatin. If you have honey that crystallizes, set the bottle in the sun on a warm day, or put it in a pan of water on lowest heat overnight. It will become liquid again. You will want more sugar than 60 lbs. if you can your own fruit.

10 quarts cooking oil (2 ½ gallons)- yes, YOU NEED FAT. Your brain is made mostly of fat. Guess what happens if you don’t get any fat in your diet? Plus, it’s a lot of calories for very little storage space. The darker & cooler you keep it, the longer it lasts. Fats include shortening, cooking oil, butter/margarine, mayonnaise, peanut butter.

8 lbs salt per person- this is the cheapest of them all!   In addition to the round canisters, you can buy salt in 4-lb rectangular boxes; these stack together more efficiently. At Sams’ Club, these boxes are just under $1. Woo-hoo! Two bucks and you have your personal salt for the year!

60 lbs. legumes, dried- includes soybeans, pinto beans, white beans, kidney beans, lima beans, anything that ends with ‘bean’ (unless it begins with ‘jelly’), black-eyed peas, split peas, and lentils. These are a great, inexpensive source of protein. Store the same as wheat- dry, clean, dark and cool if possible. It takes 4 ½ (15 oz) cans to equal one pound of dry beans.

14 gallons water per person. This is just 2 weeks’ supply, for drinking and a tiny bit for washing; the minimum our church leaders have counseled. You may also want a way to purify water for longer-term use. To purify, you can boil water for 2 minutes, or use chlorine bleach (plain only, not scented!) If the water is clear, use ½ tsp. per 5 gallons of water. If the water is cloudy, use double; 1 tsp. per 5 gallons of water.

Children do not need a full adult’s portion. For them, figure age 3 and under= 50%, ages 4-6= 70%, ages 7-10= 90%, ages 11 and up= 100%.

Obviously, kids' ages are always changing, so when I calculate what to have on hand ( I inventory every Conference), I project out six months to a year. For instance, if someone is 6 years old, I count that child as 7 years. That way I'm not always slightly behind when it's time to replenish.

* * * * *

Recipes today are for a whole meal….

Roast Chicken               From Living On a Dime, Jan 2010.
Here is a very basic but yummy recipe. You can also put this in a crock pot to slow cook all day.

1 (3 lb.) whole chicken
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tsp. onion powder
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 stalk celery, leaves removed

Season the whole chicken inside and out with salt, pepper and onion powder. Place breast side down in pan placing margarine and celery into cavity. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until internal temperature is 180° (82° C). You can baste with juices or melted margarine once or twice. Remove from oven and cover with foil for 30 minutes and let it rest before cutting.

You can easily adapt this recipe to your own likes and dislikes. For example, you might use garlic powder instead of the onion powder, you could slide slices of lemons or garlic cloves or even onion slices under the skin. Try other seasonings, too.

The main thing that makes this recipe great is cooking it breast side down, which makes it extra juicy.

Cheesy Peas and Rice

2 1/4 cups rice, cooked
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen peas, thawed
1 (6 oz.) can of mushrooms, drained
6 oz. Velveeta, cubed*

Combine all the ingredients in a greased 1 1/2 qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

I didn't used to buy Velveeta because it was more expensive than other cheeses, but since it is the same price or less than cheddar now, I buy it more often.

Apple Butterscotch Crisp

This recipe is good served with ice cream or, for something different, try a slice of cheese or a dollop of sour cream.

5 large (7 small) apples, sliced and peeled
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar, depending on your apples
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup butter or margarine, cold
1 pkg. (3.5 oz.) cook and serve
           butterscotch pudding

Place apples in a greased 9x13 pan. Mix everything else in a bowl, cutting in* the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apples. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until apples are tender.

You can leave out the butterscotch pudding; it won't throw off the recipe. It will still be delicious.

*Whenever a recipe says to cut in something, that means to take a pastry cutter and mix the butter, margarine or shortening in with the dry ingredients until the mix gets crumbly looking. (I just use my fingers. It is easier for me to wash them than a pastry cutter.)

Roast Chicken Leftovers:

Chicken Spaghetti Bake- Make your favorite spaghetti, mixing noodles and sauce. Instead of adding hamburger to it or leaving it without meat, add some cubed leftover chicken. Put it in a 9x13 greased pan sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350° until heated through and cheese is melted.

Make Chicken Soup with leftovers- see the recipe for turkey soup. Use ¼ the amount of water and spices for chicken because it’s so much smaller!

Leftover Leftovers- If you have any of this soup left, thicken it with a little cornstarch or flour mixed in water. Make a batch of biscuits or use any leftover biscuits you have and pour the thickened soup (now like gravy) over it.

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Water Storage, Powdered Milk recipes & notes

10/25/2010

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Powdered Milk from the Home Storage Center, $1.40/lb. The bowl holds yogurt. You can make plain yogurt as cheap as $ .42/quart, or $ .10/serving.

If you don’t have your water storage yet, what is a good price for water drums? Prices vary, but generally figure $1 per gallon of storage capacity. The 55-gallon drums, then, will probably be $55 or less. Once in a while they go on sale; I've found them at Macey's (our grocery store) for $40. They're even cheaper if you can find them in the classifieds. Only use food-grade drums. Empty pop bottles or juice bottles work great, but milk jugs break down fairly quickly and will leak. If you are using chlorinated city water, you do NOT have to drain and refill these every year. The First Presidency has asked us to store at least 14 gallons per person. This is one gallon per person per day for 2 weeks.
Attached are the recipes from yesterday's class on powdered milk. Here's a list of what is there, and a few notes on them. Sorry, it's a scanned-in document, so I couldn't go through and type in my notes.

Anyplace I've put cost of a recipe, it's based on the following: $1.40/lb for powdered milk, $13 for 25 lbs of sugar, $2 for a pound of butter, $8 for 25 lbs. flour.

For the recipes that give you whey (any of the cheeses, including the yogurt cream cheese), save the whey. It has vitamins, minerals, some protein, no fat, and some milk sugar (lactose- very low on the glycemic scale). I use it in pancakes, muffins, bread, etc. If your whey has vinegar in it (most of the cheeses use this), you can add 1 tsp. baking soda for every 2-3 cups of whey. This will neutralize most of the vinegar. Yes, it will foam up, kinda like those volcanoes you made in 3rd grade…

Go to http://everydayfoodstorage.net/training-cooking/powdered-milk for recipes for evaporated milk, Magic Mix, and Condensed Soups using Magic Mix. And she has a great little chart you can print out and tape to the inside of your cupboard so you know how much milk powder to use when you're baking with it:

http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net/handouts/milk-conversion-charts.pdf

The Wooden Spoon class handout has a TON of info on powdered milk. It is from some classes that the LDS Church's Welfare Square was teaching for a little while. The collection is not copyrighted; the two ladies who compiled it just wanted to spread the information.
    When I get a bunch of new recipes, usually most of them get ignored unless I'm already familiar with them. So let me familiarize you with all these possibilities....

The first couple pages include:

what the difference is between regular and instant dry milk

storage times- which are completely off! Ignore what it says; a BYU study shows that canned dry milk has been found to last 20+ years when kept at room temperature and below.

Mixing and drinking it- how to make it taste the best

Cooking with powdered milk

How much to store per person

How to determine if milk is past its prime shelf life

What to do with it if it's too old

Reconstituting chart

Now the recipes-

'whole milk' (powdered milk is powdered SKIM milk)

Buttermilk substitute

Evaporated milk- everydayfoodstorage link above gives quantities for a 12-oz can. This costs $ .25.

Sweetened Condensed Milk – for the closest version to a 14-oz can, use

1/2 c. (non-instant) powdered milk
1/2 c. water
1 c. sugar
0-2 Tbsp. butter

If you like to be precise, use 1 1/2 Tbsp. less than 1/2 c. water (this also gives a slightly thicker result, like the can), but the first way is very close (yields 14 3/4 oz)    Other recipes use more -or less- of any of those ingredients. Really, they all work. That said, the 'closest' version costs $ .39 if you use no butter, and $ .53 if you use 2 Tbsp. What a deal! One important thing to know- these recipes call for hot or boiling water so the sugar gets completely dissolved. Otherwise you get grainy condensed milk. I usually put my sugar with the water, then microwave and stir until the sugar dissolves. Then blend with the milk powder and butter.

Hot Cinnamon Milk Mix- from an old 'Friend' magazine

Hot Caramel Milk Mix- like hot chocolate, only not!

Hot Chocolate Mix- one of many options out there, this one you just add water to.

Strawberry Shake- with a touch of orange to pep it up. yummy.

Creamsicle Drink Mix- uses 3 Cannery products. And it is really good.

Orange Julius- uses the church cannery orange drink powder. You could use Tang if that's all you have.

Presoaked Wheat Blender Pancakes or Crepes- blender pancakes that are a little easier on your blender. You just have to plan ahead with these.

Whole Wheat Pancake Mix

Fruit Syrup- no powdered milk here- just a really handy way to make a fruity topping for your pancakes. The handwritten note says "Can use peaches canned in syrup and you just add cornstarch and cook" Use 1-2 tsp. cornstarch per cup of syrup/juice.

Basic White Sauce

Cheese Sauce Mix- uses powdered cheese, pdr. milk and pdr. butter. And onion powder. (Remember my method of making onion powder?)

Low-Fat Cream Soup Mix -replaces 9 cans of condensed creamed soup, at $ .30 per can!

Potato Soup Mix-   very very easy. (Well, they all are..)

Broccoli Soup- using all fresh ingredients except for the milk

Biscuit Mix- "Bisquick" where you add only water. Use for any Bisquick recipes. This makes as much as 2 40-oz boxes, at about $2.75/box

Honey Dinner Rolls

Whole Wheat Muffins

Weiner Schnitzel- not what you think, it's the old German dish. Uses noodles, cheese, hotdogs.

Macaroni and Cheese- using the little 5-oz jar of cheese sauce. This is a 'bag' recipe; everything can be put in a bag ahead of time and kept on a shelf (or given to a friend)

Microwave Caramels- mmmm

Whipped Topping- A little explanation here... Evaporated milk will whip like cream if it is ICY-cold when you whip it. This is glorified whipped evaporated milk, starting with the powder. They add a few things for flavor, some oil for richness, and gelatin to keep it from going flat. I think the gelatin gives it a strange consistency. Next time I'll use a couple teaspoons of Instant Clear Jel. Or cook some cornstarch with the water. Or forget stabilizing it, and just eat it fast- maybe just whip evaporated milk and add sugar and vanilla to taste.

Fudgsicles- don't these sound good?

Dry Milk Ice Cream- Bad name, but it uses sweetened condensed milk, which makes it really good. The recipe claims to make a gallon, but it's really more like 2 quarts.

Peanut Butter Chews- similar to Bit-O'Honey if you use the honey instead of corn syrup.

Vanilla Pudding Mix- fat free, and has variations for chocolate and caramel pudding. When you make it, you add a tiny bit of butter and an egg, so it’s still lowfat, just not fat free. If you cannot have wheat, substitute half as much cornstarch as the flour called for.

Plain Yogurt- really, this IS easy. The recipe says it makes 2 quarts, but part of the water got left off the ingredients list. Use 7 cups instead. If you use your hottest tap water, this will be about right to start incubating. You need the yogurt to start out between 105 and 120 degrees. The lower end gives sweeter yogurt, the higher end makes it more tart. Wrapping the jars in a towel help keep it warm. Some warm areas to incubate it are- on top of a heating pad (cover with a towel), an insulated cooler (I put in a jar of almost-boiling water to warm it up in there), a water-filled crockpot, a warm oven (an oven thermometer is helpful! Hotter than 130 degrees will kill those friendly bacteria.). Or get creative. This costs only $ .42 per quart if you are using your own starter.

Vanilla Yogurt- has gelatin in it, like most of the store-bought versions. This keeps it firm, even after stirring. (Yogurt with no gelatin will become drinkable after stirring.) If you want to use sugar instead of honey, use from 1 to 1 ½ cups. And dissolve (boil) it in some of the water first, or it will settle to the bottom. You could use a package of flavored Jello- a 3 oz box is just under ½ c. of sugar, and as much gelatin as one packet of unflavored.   Or use juice/syrup from canned fruit as part of your water. Stir in fruit after the yogurt sets up.

Almond Crunch Granola- also no powdered milk, unless you count what you pour on top when eating this!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie- uses the yogurt you just made…

Yogurt-Fruit Smoothie- Banana-orange; uses yogurt as well as powdered milk

Yogurt Breakfast Waffles- yogurt makes them extra moist. They also have a hint of orange and cinnamon in them. I love these using the lemon yogurt.

Yogurt Dill-Veggie Dip- close to Ranch Dip

Yogurt, Berries, and Pecans on Crispbread- self-explanatory

Ranch Salad Dressing- do you have any idea how much better fresh made is?

Fruit Yogurt Salad- uses vanilla yogurt and whatever fruit you have

Yogurt Parmesan Chicken- uses yogurt instead of mayonnaise or eggs to get the coating to stick. Very good.

Granola, Yogurt, Berry Parfait- kinda like those little ones at McDonald’s, only you sweeten plain yogurt with honey. You taste the fruit better this way.

Mock Mozzarella Cheese- about $1.50 per pound. It only takes 10 minutes to make! And it melts wonderfully. Do use a blender to mix everything, otherwise the oil won’t mix in with the cheese curds and you’ll end up with a layer of oil on top of the whey. (Make bread!) NOTE- the recipe doesn’t tell you about salt. Unsalted cheese is not very tasty. I use 1 tsp. salt for this; I mix it in after rinsing the curds.   Even wrapping in cheesecloth, and pressing (under whatever heavy thing I can find) overnight, this hasn’t ever been cohesive enough for me to grate. It crumbles, though. When I aged this for a couple months, it became very creamy and softer. If you don’t have cheesecloth, you can use a piece of cotton fabric- something that will let the liquid drip out. Cheesecloth can be found in some grocery stores in the kitchen tools section, or in fabric stores and Walmart over with the notions.

Parmesan Cheese- this is in already-crumbled form. Best flavor after aging in fridge for 3 months, but still good used right away.

Yogurt Cream Cheese, Yogurt Sour Cream- which one you make only depends on how long you let the yogurt drain. 16 ounces of yogurt will make just over 8 oz. of cream cheese, so it costs about $ .21 per 8 oz block.

Easy Homemade Cheese Ball- a cream cheese based cheese ball. Use your yogurt cream cheese.

Mock Ricotta Cheese- about $ .84 for the batch, using your homemade yogurt. ‘Real’ ricotta uses whey instead of milk, but normally you don’t have easy access to whey. If you do (from making mozzarella?), use ¼ c. vinegar in 2 quarts whey, heat to simmering, then let sit for several hours for the curds to form. Then strain through cheesecloth, salt, and press.

Jalapeno Cheese- variation on the ricotta.

Queso Blanco- this one does not melt; it holds its shape through cooking.

Homemade Cottage Cheese- this makes the curds. To make the creamy liquid the curds sit in, use a little yogurt, sour cream, or evaporated milk to the curds. I like it with ¼ tsp. salt. Add more if you like. The recipe makes about 8 oz. of curds and costs $ .36

Cottage Cheese Scramble- a form of scrambled eggs, only mostly cottage cheese, with chives.

Cheese-Stuffed Jumbo Shells- like Manicotti. For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is similar in flavor to lasagna, only you use shaped pasta and stuff them, instead of doing layers. The recipe calls for ricotta, cottage cheese, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses… but use what you have. When I made it for the class, I used only cottage cheese, with mozzarella just on the top. And only about a cup of spaghetti sauce.

Happy cooking!

-Rhonda

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Cooking and storing pumpkins, root cellaring

10/16/2010

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You can even store summer squash alongside your pumpkins, if the summer squash is very mature, with a hard rind.

A bowl of thick, tasty Pumpkin Chili. Don't tell your kids, and they'll never know....
Want to know what nutrients you're getting with that pumpkin? A whole cup of it has only 49 calories, but is loaded with fiber, Vitamin C, riboflavin, potassium, and lots and lots of Vitamin A. For the numbers, see nutrition for cooked pumpkin puree.
For the facts on its seeds, which are a great source of protein, Omega-6's, magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese, see nutrition for pumpkin seeds.

Hi everyone,

This week we had a pumpkin class at my house. It was fun, and I think everyone learned at least one new thing. I have two different ‘handouts’; one is the Pumpkin class handout, two pages from the class; the other is a big collection of recipes I started in college, The Great Pumpkin Cookbook (If it won't load, get it in two parts, here: The Great Pumpkin Cookbook part 1 and The Great Pumpkin Cookbook part 2). I had asked a roommate if I could have her jack-o-lantern after Halloween. When I told her I was going to make pie out of it, she incredulously responded with, “You can do that? How?” So I started by typing up instructions, and one thing lead to another…

The Great Pumpkin Cookbook includes information on cooking pumpkin, canning, dehydrating, freezing, and ‘root cellar’ing it, plus things like Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Shake, and Pumpkin Pancakes.

If you want to learn more about storing vegetables through the winter, with or without a ‘real’ root cellar, click on Storing Vegetables At Home, which is a chart and information from the Wisconsin Extension Office.

Here’s something to chew on, from the LDS Family Home Storage pamphlet; italics are mine:

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance,
for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs
as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to
“prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity
come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops
as they care for others.
We encourage Church members worldwide to prepare for adversity
in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.

And another, related, quote:

“Can we see how critical self-reliance becomes when looked upon as the prerequisite to service, when we also know service is what godhood is all about? Without self-reliance one cannot exercise these innate desires to serve. How can we give if there is nothing there? Food for the hungry cannot come from empty shelves. Money to assist the needy cannot come from an empty purse. Support and understanding cannot come from the emotionally starved. Teaching cannot come from the unlearned. And most important of all, spiritual guidance cannot come from the spiritually weak. President Heber J. Grant declared, “Nothing destroys the individuality of a man, a woman, or a child as much as the failure to be self-reliant.” -The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance, Marion G. Romney

I challenge you to expand your home storage efforts, to find some part of it to learn more about, to try for the first time (or try better for the second-- or tenth-- time), to do something that will help you become a little bit more self-reliant. The Lord doesn’t ask us to do everything, all at once, but he does ask us to be diligent. (See Mosiah 4: 27) I know our capacity and freedom will increase as we do this.

-Rhonda

Here's some great information I found at http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=122&t=2166
"Only fresh and sound produce should be root-cellared. The food should be free from cuts, cracks, bruises, insects and mechanical damage. When I prepare produce for winter storage, I inspect it carefully. Items with any damage are either eaten quickly or canned or frozen. Apples and pears can be made into sauce, squash roasted and frozen, and beets pickled.

Quantities for a family of four:

Apples: 5 bushels
Carrots: 40 to 60 pounds
Cabbage: green, 20 heads; red, 10 heads
Beets: 20 pounds
Celeriac: (celery root, use instead of celery) 10 to 20 heads
Leeks: 40 plants
Potatoes: 100 pounds or more
Jerusalem artichoke: 10 pounds
Onions: 40 pounds
Garlic: 10 to 20 pounds
Winter radish: 10
Parsnip: 20 pounds
Squash: 40 ‘Delicata’ and 30 pounds butternut
Pumpkin: 5 to 10
Turnip and rutabaga: 10 or more"

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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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'extras' in your home storage, Zucchini PIzza and Zucchini Cream Pie

9/25/2010

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This week has been an exciting one for our end of the Salt Lake valley, with the large fire in Herriman and the evacuations there.   It really makes us stop and think about what we would do if a catastrophe occurred in our own homes.   (Nice timing, September is National Preparedness Month.)

Could you grab all your important documents if you only had five minutes? Could you list, at the drop of a hat, what physical things are most important to you?   I recommend spending some time making a list of what to grab if you only have a few minutes. What would you get if you had an hour or two? It’s better to figure it out ahead of time and never actually have that emergency, than to forget something in your rush.

I dropped in at the Red Cross evacuation center (an LDS stake center), and learned a couple things. When I was there on Tuesday, one family had been there since Sunday. They’d gone three days without a shower or a change of clothes, and the children were expected to be back in school. I rounded up clothes for the family (thanks to those who donated!), which they appreciated. The thing that really surprised me, though, was what I brought that they got EXCITED about….    The 8-yr-old was ecstatic about having pajamas to wear at bedtime, but the mom and 11-yr-old were happiest about Chapstick, fingernail clippers, and hair elastics.   Those are such simple, inexpensive things.

Do you have extras of these in your home storage? Would you be ‘up a creek’ if you couldn’t get to a store? Think about what little things would make a difference to you, and store some. A great inventory list to help you expand your storage, if you’re at the year’s supply stage, is found in the back of the Church booklet, “Essentials of Home Production and Storage”. If you’re not that far yet, that’s okay, keep moving toward it.

“Maintain a year's supply. The Lord has urged that his people save for the rainy days, prepare for the difficult times, and put away for emergencies, a year's supply or more of bare necessities so that when comes the flood, the earthquake, the famine, the hurricane, the storms of life, our families can be sustained through the dark days. How many of us have complied with this? We strive with the Lord, finding many excuses: We do not have room for storage. The food spoils. We do not have the funds to do it. We do not like these common foods. It is not needed -- there will always be someone to help in trouble. The government will come to the rescue. And some intend to obey but procrastinate.” -The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.375

Now the recipes- dinner and dessert, all using zucchini. One of the beauties of zucchini is that it doesn’t really taste like anything. This means you can put it in recipes and taste the OTHER ingredients instead of the squash. The zucchini pizza may sound strange, but my mom (who invented this recipe) fed it to 150 college students recently, and all but one liked it a lot. Pretty good odds. My kids and husband liked it, too. The photos above show the finished pizza and the just-cooked crust before adding toppings. I used yellow squash in mine.

Zucchini Pizza

3 eggs
3 cups shredded zucchini or yellow squash
1 cup biscuit mix (or pancake mix or flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder mixed in)
1/4 cup of chopped onion (or more if you like onion a lot)
salt and pepper to taste-few sprinkles of each

Mix the biscuit mix into the shredded zucchini and chopped onion. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl with the salt and pepper, then mix into the zucchini. Spread batter onto a 12 inch pizza pan that has been sprayed with vegetable oil spray. Bake at 375 until edges are slightly brown and center is firm and springs back nicely. Spread about 8 ounces of pizza sauce on top, then top with favorite cheese and meat, just like any pizza. For pizza sauce, I use a can of tomato sauce and add a little each of: garlic, pepper, oregano, basil, and thyme.
It does still stick a bit to the pizza pan,unless you use a pizza stone or parchment, but it's allright if you use a pancake turner and are careful.

ZUCCHINI CREAM PIE

1 ½ cups peeled, seeded and grated zucchini (yellow squash works too)
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
¾ cup – 1 cup sugar (adjust to taste)
2 eggs
3 T. flour
1t. vanilla extract
1/8 t. salt
2-4 Tbsp. butter, optional.
1 unbaked 9 – 10" pie crust
½ t. ground cinnamon
½ t. ground nutmeg

Steam or microwave grated zucchini on a microwave safe dish until very soft,
about 2-3 minutes. Drain off any excess liquid and cool. Preheat the oven to 425
F. Place the evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla and salt in a
blender and blend, adding the butter if you’re using it. Add the cooled zucchini and blend again until smooth. Pour custard into unbaked pie crust and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Place on
a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 F. and bake for
another 30 minutes or until a sharp knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 8 servings.

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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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Our divinely inspired Constitution, easy homemade pizza

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Year's Supply quantities, Roast Chicken Dinner with rice, and apple crisp

Water Storage, Powdered Milk recipes & notes

Cooking and storing pumpkins, root cellaring

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

'extras' in your home storage, Zucchini PIzza and Zucchini Cream Pie

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.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