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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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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'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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    I'm a disciple of Christ, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a family-defending, homemaking, and homeschooling mom of eight children, two of whom sometimes can't have milk or wheat. Growing up on a farm in a high mountain valley, my parents taught me to 'make do', work hard, smile, and help others.  I love cooking, learning, growing food and flowers, picking tomatoes, and making gingerbread houses --which CAN be made allergy-friendly-- with my children.  I hope you find something to help you on my site!

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