Storing Bread

I thought I would share how I store my bread since my last post was on making it.  When I make bread I am making 5 loaves at a time and I don't like them to go bad or dry out.  So, I store them in the freezer.  After my loaves are all cooled, I slice them up and put them in Ziploc bags (gallon freezer bags).  This way when I need to make an immediate piece of toast or a sandwich for someone's lunch, I can grab a loaf out of the freezer and not need to wait for it to thaw before cutting into it.  Anyway, maybe you all do this already, I just thought I'd share this handy tip!  

(My fifth loaf got eaten right after it came out of the oven)

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Chicken Soup from Food Storage

For the past several days my family has been passing the flu around in a major way.  My almost 21 month-old started throwing up on Wednesday night at about 11PM.  (It always happens right as I'm going to bed)   I was up with him until after 6AM and when he finally went down in his crib.  On Friday night, right at about 11PM (of course) my 4 year-old came rushing out of her bedroom and unfortunately didn't make it to the toilet in time to throw up.  I'm sure you are all really enjoying this story by now. :)  So, she was up throwing up pretty often--like every 15-20 minutes until about 8:30AM.  Ahh, another restful night. Ha ha.  I thought we were good after that, but Sunday night, my 6 year-old came in my bedroom (about 11:30PM) and started throwing up.  Right about that time, I had thrown-up, too, and was not feeling well.  Anyway, my daughter was throwing up fairly often until about 7:30AM.  I had gotten up to get my 7 year-old off to school when my 4 year-old (yes the same one I spoke of earlier) started throwing up.  Sigh.  So, for most of today, me and my girls (4 and 6) were lying on the couch with bowls nearby and sippy cups of water and Powerade (I know that stuff is horrible. . . HFCS is the second ingredient--ugh. . . I had some leftover from my couponing days and they wanted some) watching movies like Enchanted, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid.  Luckily, my husband was able to stay home and chase after our 21 month-old son who is in that lovely get-into-everything stage.

So, now on to my point.  I really felt like a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup.  My husband gets after me because I never use a recipe and it always turns out different.  I was still feeling sick and didn't feel like chopping a bunch of veggies to put in my soup.  So, here's what I did:

Chicken Noodle Soup (all from my pantry)

4 cans of Swanson's low sodium chicken broth

1 can of chicken (that I canned myself here)

1 cup of dehydrated carrots (which I dehydrated and vacuum sealed myself)

1/2 cup of dehydrated celery (this came from a #10 can, but I have dehydrated it myself in the past)

1 cup of corn (I actually used corn that I had frozen last summer, but I do have some dehydrated corn on my shelf that I did here)

1/2 cup pearled barley (a great comfort food when sick)

2-3 tablespoons of my dried onion soup mix made here)

I let this cook in my digital pressure cooker (one of the greatest inventions) for 10 minutes.  Then I opened it up and added in a handful of whole grain noodles and just let them sit in there until soft.    Then I added some salt and pepper and tada!  

Sorry there are no pictures.  I wasn't thinking about posting this until about 10 minutes ago and dinner is all put away for the night .  My soup was a little thick, my husband called it chicken noodle stew, but I liked it.  It had a little different taste to it and I think that was because of using my homemade dry onion soup mix instead of just plain onions.  

So, we had a nice quick, healthy easy dinner that was great for a family still getting over the sickies!  (My husband isn't feeling to great tonight and our 7 year old is the only one to escape it so far).  

I hope you all (and me included!) have a good night's sleep tonight and maybe enjoy a nice bowl of chicken soup sometime.   

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Potato Latkes

Each month I put together a dry pack canning project for my ward at church.  We usually can items like wheat, beans, flour, oats, etc. that the LDS Cannery offers. This month, I decided to try something different and we canned potato shreds and potato slices (dehydrated) from Winco.  It was a huge success.  We canned almost 300 cans (the big #10 ones).

Since lots of people have them now, I decided to post a yummy recipe using the potato shreds.  I made these tonight for dinner and even my SUPER picky eater thought they were pretty good.  

Here's my can (I had bought this awhile ago, it's not one we just canned)

Here's the recipe:

POTATO LATKES

 (I always forget how to pronounce them. . . )

Boil 4 cups of water (it doesn't have to be exact)

Add 1 1/2 cups dehydrated potato shreds (turn stove off0

1/4 c dehydrated onions (or you can use fresh and add in with other ingredients)

Let sit for 10-15 minutes

Drain water out 

Pour potatoes/onion into a medium sized bowl and add the following:

2 eggs (I used real, but I might try powdered next time to make it a great food storage meal)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix ingredients together

Scoop 1/4 cup of mixture into a frying pan with hot oil and flatten a little

Brown for a few minutes on each side

Top with sour cream and applesauce-- or I just like ketchup

Here are my re-hydrated and drained potatoes:

Here's my mixture (my daughter loves to help):

Here they are frying on the first side:

And after I flipped them:  

Place them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.

I used an electric skillet to cook mine and I had the temperature set to 300 degrees.

And there you go!  Enjoy!

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Apple Cinnamon Fruit Leather

After canning 124 quarts of applesauce, I still had some apples leftover.   I got a GREAT deal on them at $.13/lb at my local orchard.  So, I decided to make apple cinnamon fruit leather.  My blender was having issues, so I used my food processor to chop the apples up.  It was a little chunkier than when blended, but it still turned out fine.  All I did was wash, quarter and cut the seeds out of the apples and then put them in the food processor.  I added in some cinnamon (sorry, I don't measure a lot) and kept mixing. Then I spread it out on my trays and stuck in my dehydrator. 

Here it is out of the dryer. 

And the final product all rolled up in plastic wrap.  It is delicious!

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Q & A

I love getting comments on my blog. . . it really motivates and inspires me to do more, so thank you for your comments.  There was a question about what to do with leftover Halloween candy.  I have a few recommendations:

First, much of your hard candy (i.e. Jolly Ranchers, suckers, anything hard) you can actually dry pack can into #10 cans, if you have that available to you.  In my ward at church, we dry pack can each month, and you can bring your own food to can.   We put an oxygen absorber in the can, then fill it with the food, put the lid on and seal it with a #10 can sealer.

Second, you can vacuum seal it with a Food Saver, or other brand sealer.  I have a post here where I have vacuum sealed granola and wheat nuts.  You can totally vacuum seal candy--even chocolate!  Although, if it is for long term storage, I would put it in a box labeled "Broccoli" or something like that. :)  If you want to seal up something in smaller packages like mini candy bars, or packages of M&M's, then take a straight pin and poke a couple holes in the packaging so that the oxygen can be sucked out of the inside of the wrapper.  I love vacuum sealing, because you can preserve food that would otherwise go rancid quickly, like brown sugar, brown rice, and nuts.

Last, if you don't have either of those methods available, you can simply store it in a glass jar.  Plastic is okay, if it is PETE plastic, but glass if preferable.  You may put in an oxygen absorber if you really want to.  But, hard candy would probably be fine for a long time just in a jar.

Now, I am not an expert on the best way to store candy, but this is what I would do (and probably should because we have WAY too much candy around here right now!).

Thank you, Christina, for your question!

A Whole New World -- Powdered Dairy

I have had a can of butter powder for awhile that I've been wanting to try out, so I opened it today and bravely used it in a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Well, I wasn't THAT brave, I used half real butter and half powdered butter. My husband always tells me that I try too many variations at one time and then things don't turn out as well. :)



And, just for kicks, here is my favorite thing: Powdered Eggs. I love to use these especially in baking, then I don't feel bad about eating dough or letting my kids eat the dough.

So here's my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've been making these since I was 8 years old.

1 c butter (or in this case, 1 cube of butter and 1/2 c of powdered butter and 1/4 c water, maybe next time I'll do all powder)

3/4 c sugar

1 c brown sugar

MIX

2 eggs (powdered or regular)

1 t vanilla

MIX

3 c flour

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

1 1/2 c chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Here's how the dough looked:

Pretty good! Note: I used 1/2 c butter powder to replace 1/2 c of real butter in the recipe--a straight 1 for 1 substitute. I also added about 2 T of water. The instructions on the can weren't very clear on how to use it, so I just guessed. Next time I will add a little more water, but they did turn out great anyway. ****Thanks to my sister-in-law for the info: When you use powdered butter, use 1 part butter powder 1 part water. Thanks, Cori!


And here's a second correction.   Now that I have made these several times. . . I have found that using a part butter powder and 1/2 part water makes the perfect cookies.  So, I have corrected the recipe above . . . again. . . sorry!

Here is the finished product. The missing cookie was in the process of being eaten at the time. I had to test them out! And they were good!!

Overall, I was VERY happy with how they turned out! I will be doing more experimenting with powdered butter in the future!




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How I Can Chicken

Due to recent bulk chicken sales. . . I've been busy canning chicken. I have hesitated posting about how I can because there are so many different ways, regulations and safety issues that I don't want to be responsible for anyone who does it the way I teach and it doesn't work out. So, here is my disclaimer: You take full responsibility for following this post and if you have questions about how I do anything, feel free to research it and do it a different way.

Having said that, I have canned hundreds of pounds of chicken this way and am still alive. :) I love it and think that canned meat is the BEST!

1. I prepare my work space first: get my jars ready. If they are new jars, I just take them out of the package and place them on a large cookie sheet. I like to do this to keep them all together and minimize the germs that get on my counters. If they are previously used jars, make sure they are clean and ready to go.

FYI: for canning meat, it is recommended that you use NEW jars-at least the first time you can-so you decrease the chance of a jar exploding under pressure that has a tiny crack or something. You don't always know where your older jars came from -yard sales, passed down from mothers or grandmothers- so they might have imperfections that could jeopardize your entire pot of meat. Once you have pressure canned using certain jars, keep those separate from all of your other canning jars so that you know they are safe to pressure can with).

2. Cutting the chicken. (Photograph courtesy of my 5 year-old.) I like to wear gloves and an apron and am very aware of what I touch and don't touch once I begin handling the raw chicken. The chicken must be thawed first (in the refrigerator). I cut off any big pieces of fat and then cut up the chicken just enough to fit it into the jars. These were large chicken breasts so I had to cut them more. I canned some chicken tenders once and they were so nice because they didn't need any cutting at all! Just stuff in the jar! Now, here is a little inconsistency I just found. I had learned that you stuff the chicken tight into the jar, but as I was looking up some info I found another person who said to pack it loosely. I have packed mine tightly.


3. Once all of your jars are full (make sure you know how many will fit in your canner first) take a plastic handle or something that won't break the jar (probably not a metal knife or fork) and slide it around to get any air pockets out.

4. I like to add canning salt to mine. I am not sure of the benefit of canning salt or if it's okay to use regular salt, so you can look that up if you have concerns about it. Canning salt does not have iodine in it or anti-caking agents and it keeps your water from being cloudy. And that's all I know.

Add 1/2 tsp of canning salt per pint or 1 tsp per quart.

5. Once the salt is added, take a wet paper towel or napkin and wipe rims of your jars. A dirty rim will prevent the lid from sealing to your jar.

6. Now, I put my lids on my jars. The lids must be heated. I like to use my handy-dandy Little Dipper (mini crockpot). I put my lids in it with water and plug it in before I begin so they are warm and ready to go when I put them on the jars. Otherwise you can heat them in a sauce pan on the stove. They need to be heated, but not boiled.

7. Fill your pressure canner (DO NOT USE A BOILING WATER BATH CANNER) with 2-3 inches of water and place your jars with lids and rings on them into the canner. My canner is a Presto 23 qt and can hold two layers of pint jars. I put my first layer down ( you must have a rack on the bottom of your canner). . .

I have a second rack that I put down in between my layers of jars. If you don't have a second rack, don't place your top layer directly on top of the jars on the bottom layer, offset them.

8. Place your lid on your canner and let it get hot! I usually start my stove on high or near high.

9. Do not place your weight on the lid yet. As your water heats up, steam will begin to come out of the vent (small thing sticking next to the gauge). Let the vent steam for about 10 minutes.

10. After the vent has steamed for around 10 minutes, place your weight on the vent.

11. Wait and watch your gauge get to 12 lbs pressure (This is for my location--it depends on your elevation as to how much pressure you need for canning. Check with your local exension office to find out the PSI or pounds per square inch you should use while canning).

Once the pressure has reached the desired pressure, begin timing. 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts (if you have both sizes in a batch, do 90 minutes).

Keep a close watch on your canner. You will have to turn your stove down little by little as the pressure creeps higher and higher. Try to keep it at the right pressure. By the time mine are done, my stove is usually on low. But make sure the pressure does NOT drop below the recommended PSI!

Once your timer goes off, turn off the stove and carefully remove your canner. Let the pressure go down to ZERO without releasing the weight. Once the pressure has gone down all the way, take the weight off and it is now safe to take your lid off and take the jars out of the canner.

12. I place a towel on my counter before putting the jars on it. Listen for the "ping" to hear the lid seal. If you have any jars that didn't seal, you can re-process them within 24 hours, otherwise just stick the jar in the fridge and use it up. Let the jars sit for 12-24 hours without moving them. Then take the rings off them and store in a dark cool place. Don't forget to label them (what it is and the year you canned them). Ta da! You did it!

13. Be sure to REALLY clean all of your germy counters, cutting board, and anything else you used. Lysol, bleach, whatever you use, be sure to clean thoroughly.

I hope I covered everything, I had several little interruptions as I was trying to get this done. I hope this is helpful to you!



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Long Term Baby Food

I know that some pretty strange things get me excited. . . and this is one of those. :) I saw this on another blog and just had to try it. I had read about people making vegetable powders, which I thought was great, but never got around to doing it, until, I saw this incredible use for it: baby food! Not just any baby food, because, honestly, there are easier ways to make baby food, but this is baby food that can be stored and preserved for years! Great for your food storage and for 72 hour kits if you have a baby.



So, here's what I did. I bought four butternut squash, washed, cut them in quarters, seeded them, put them in baking dishes, and baked them on 350 until they were soft (I really should time these. . . sorry). Note: I didn't think about putting foil over the top, but I will next time because they tops were a little tough. Then I pureed the squash and spread it out on my fruit leather sheets on my dehydrating trays.

I dehydrated them for a LONG time. I wanted to make sure they were really dry. They were in there for over 24 hours--probably close to 30 hours. Sorry I am so exact!! Ha ha!

Then I put the dried squash into my blender and powderized it. FYI, it is LOUD. It scared my baby, so I had to finish when he was napping. :)

Here's my bag of squash! I haven't done this yet, but you can now vacuum seal this in the jar (do it in the ziplock bag so it doesn't plug your sealer, but poke a hole in your bag with a pin) and it will be good for years!

I am excited to do more of this over the summer when there are lots of extra veggies that need something done! And it doesn't just have to be for baby food. You can use vegetable powder to sneak in nutrition to other meals--not that any of you have picky eaterslike I do, I'm sure.

Mine didn't turn out super powdery. I probably could have blended it up longer. Once I reconstituted it it was a little grainy, but my baby didn't seem to mind.

So, that's it! A little involved but such a great way to be prepared with a young baby.

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Granola!

I had such a great time at our Self-Reliance class last night! Thanks to all of you that came!! I have posted the recipes for granola bars and yogurt, so now I am going to post the granola recipe. . . or maybe a couple recipes. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of it! Maybe I'll take one and add it later.

Granola

6 cups regular rolled oats (not quick)
1 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp salt (oops. . . I forgot that last night! Oh, well, it still tasted good!)
1 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups dried fruit

Mix dry ingredients. heat oil, honey, and brown sugar until warm, stirring. Combine dry and wet ingredients and pour onto large cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Add dried fruit in for the last 5 minutes of baking.

Here is another recipe for granola that I have been making:

6 cups regular rolled oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped nuts

Mix everything but raisins. In a separate bowl, whisk together:

1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla

Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients and stir to coat evenly. Spread on large cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes stirring frequently. Add raisins during the last 5 minutes of baking.

As you can see, there are many similarites to granola recipes. My advice is to use what you like (or what you have) in your granola and make it your own favorite. I like to add cinnamon to my granola sometimes. Other times, I will combine different recipes together. I don't think I've ever made the same granola twice! It's fun to try new things. One thing we put in our granola last night was pumpkin seeds (even though it wasn't on the recipe). Try it out and enjoy!



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Granola Bars!

I've been searching for a good granola bar recipe, and I have loved this one! I hope you all enjoy it!

4 1/2 c rolled oats (regular, not quick)

1 c flour ( I like to use whole wheat flour)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 c butter, melted

1/2 c honey

1/3 c brown sugar, packed

1/2 c mini chocolate chips (raisins, craisins, other dried fruit, whatever you like!)

Combine all ingredients but the chocolate chips (or whatever you are putting in). Mix and then add the chocolate chips in and mix again. Press into a greased pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 18-22 minutes. Enjoy!!

**this is a basic recipe. . . if you like other things, try putting them in and make it your own recipe! Nuts, seeds, coconut, peanut butter. . . the options are endless!**

Here they are pressed into my pan. I made a double batch the other day and fit it in this pan. It makes them a little thicker, so I just cut them a little smaller

Once they've cooled off for a few minutes, cut them up to your desired size. They are VERY filling, so keep that in mind, especially if you have young kids.

Once they have cooled completely, I like to wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store them in a big ziplock bag. You can also use the snack size baggies to put each one in. What a yummy and healthy snack your kids have to come home to! (And yummy for mom, too!)

Yogurt Chips

In case you haven't noticed. . . my dehydrator has been working nonstop lately! I have been wanting to try these yogurt chips for awhile, and I finally did it today!



It was sooooo simple. I scooped a small spoonful of strawberry yogurt all over my trays and stuck them in the dehydrator.






I put them in my dehydrator about 9AM this morning and took them out at about 7PM. They do take awhile, but they turned out great!




They are soft, pliable and tasty! What a nice healthy snack. :)

Fruit Leather

I have the secret to perfect fruit leather! Mix your fruit with applesauce or pearsauce! I made fruit leather yesterday and I mixed purreed peaches with pear sauce that I canned last summer. The ratio I used was about half peaches and half pear sauce. Here are some of my lovely peaches (by the way, I never peel fruit that I make into leather, I just blend it all up, skins and all):

And here is my pear sauce:

All I did was blend it together with a little lemon juice and pour it onto my trays.

Here's what it looked like out when finished drying:

Since I end up with huge pieces of fruit leather, I tear them in half, roll them up, and then roll them in plastic wrap. My girls were chowing these down like candy all day today!

For any other fruit leather you want to make, you can use 1 cup of pureed fruit to 2 cups of applesauce or pear sauce. The sauces help it to turn out more pliable and not so crispy (I tend to over dry sometimes, so I used to get crispy leather). This also helps to stretch your fruit further.

I made some with nectarines a few weeks ago, 1 cup of nectarines to 2 cups of pear sauce. It was so good I didn't even have a chance to take pictures! It just disappeared!