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!

Dehydrated Corn

So, instead of doing freezer corn this time, I decided to try something a little different. I dehydrated it! I think it will be perfect to throw in soups or stews, but we probably won't reconstitute it and eat it just as a side dish.



First, I shucked it, of course. :) Then boiled it for three minutes.





And then I put it into a bowl of ice water.




Next, I cut it off the cob and spread it out on my dehydrating trays.

I filled my dehydrator last night and this morning the corn was all dried and looked great!

The last thing I did was put the corn in jars (it filled a 1/2 gallon jar and a pint jar) and vacuum sealed them! Ta da! I am so excited about this! I can open them up whenever I make soup or stew this winter and sprinkle some corn right into my pot and then vacuum seal the lid right back on! Nice!

Oh, the things that make me happy. . . :)

Buttermilk Cornbread

So, I tried out a new cornbread recipe and LOVE it! Plus, I broke out the solar oven that I got for my anniversary/birthday/Christmas present last year (I was very unmotivated while pregnant). I love that, too! So, I put both together and this is what I got:

Buttermilk Cornbread

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs (or 2 T powdered eggs 1/4 c water)

1 cup buttermilk (I do my own with 1 T lemon juice to one cup milk)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup cornmeal (if you have a grinder--grind up yellow popcorn for the most delicious

cornmeal!!)

1 cup flour

1/2 t salt

Melt butter. Stir in sugar. Add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture. Stir in cornmeal, flour, salt until well blended. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

*OR*

I put my solar oven outside to preheat (it heats up to 300 degrees in 20 minutes and I've had mine get as hot as 375 so far)

Then I put it in and let it cook! It does take a little more time to cook, but not much.

I just took mine out when it looked done. It was delicious!!

Even two days later, it was still moist! Cornbread--moist? Yep!!

Homemade Laundry Soap

If you do not do this yet--then you must begin now!!! I have been making my own laundry soap for two or three years now (I can't remember) and I love it! It works great and it saves you TONS of money.

There are a bunch of recipes out there for laundry soap, you can try out different ones, if you like. Here is the one that I use and love:

1/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap, grated

1/2 c Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not to be confused with Baking Soda!)

1/2 c 20 Mule Team Borax

I get all of my ingredients at WinCo. This probably costs around $7 for these three items, and just think of how many batches you can make out of each box! Fels Naptha runs about $1 and I use a 1/3 of the bar for each batch. I grate up the entire bar and then put it in three separate ziplock bags, so I don't have to grate it up each time I make some.






-First, in a large pot on the stove, heat up 6 cups of water and pour in your 1/3 bar of grated Fels Naptha soap. Stir until dissolved (just on medium heat. . . don't bring to a boil).

-Then add in the washing soda and borax and stir until dissolved.

-Add 4 more cups of water.

Now what you do next will depend on how you are going to store your soap. This recipe makes 2 gallons. I have one of the old Costco laundry soap containers that this fits perfectly into. But, if I didn't, this is what I would do:

-Put 1 gallon, plus 6 cups of cold water into a two gallon bucket, or container. (I put this right into my laundry soap container using a funnel)

-Pour your soap mixture from you pot into the bucket or container. (Again, I put it right into my container)

-Stir or shake until it is all mixed up. (At this point, if you are not using a laundry soap container, pour your mixture into whatever containers you will be using to dispense the soap. You can pour it into two different containers if you don't have one big enough).

-Let it sit for 24 hours before using it.

You must SHAKE the container before you use the soap EACH TIME. It gets really gloopy.

Use 1/2 cup per load.

The price to make a two gallon batch of soap is less than $1. I'd say that's a pretty big savings compared to the price you pay in the store!!

New Bread Recipe

So, I tried a new bread recipe for fun that I got from a lady at the cannery. I loved it! Here is the recipe:

Whole Wheat Bread
makes 4 loaves

7 c whole wheat flour
2/3 c wheat gluten
2 1/2 T instant yeast

Mix for 1 minute. Then add 5 cups warm water and mix for 1 minute. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Add:
1 T salt
2/3 c oil
2/3 c honey
2 1/2 T lemon juice

Mix for 1 minute. Then add:

5 more cups whole wheat flour mixing after each cup

Knead for 10 minutes (in mixer). Shape into loaves and place in pan. Let rise to top of pan.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

They turned out beautiful and delicious! I actually used half wheat flour and half white flour, just because I only had that much wheat flour and I didn't want to grind more at the time. :) But, I made it again yesteday with all whole wheat flour and it turned out great, again.

Enjoy it!!

Have you tried this?

So, after the preparedness fair (see previous post), I had a few leftover wheat nuts and some granola that I wanted to save. I used this vacuum sealing method to vacuum pack my food into quart size canning jars. It is awesome! You can seal and save so many foods that you cannot preserve otherwise (wet pack canning, dry pack canning, etc.). Foods like brown rice, raisins, chocolate, nuts and things that normally go rancid will stay good for years sealed in a jar.


So, me and my little helpers went to work. Kayla (2 years old) was busy filling up my jars.


Lily (4 years old) put on the lid (just the flat lid, not the ring) and then the handy sealing top that you see connected by a tube to my food sealer (it's just a generic version of a Food Saver).

I worked the sealer and here you go-- granola and wheat nuts sealed in jars ready to be stored for a long long time.

The girls and I were having so much fun that we ended up sealing a few jars of chocolate chips and craisins while we were at it. It is addicting! I am excited to start sealing up more food!

Stake Preparedness Fair

On Saturday, our stake had a preparedness fair. I was in charge of the booth for our ward. I chose to focus on food storage. Here is a picture of our booth:


Thanks to Namifiers for the wonderful banner. (my brother-in-law works there) :) I have a year supply for one adult displayed in the back with the buckets and all the extras on the small table to the left. On the front table (from right to left) I have my grinder with samples of different kinds of flours (white bean, pinto bean, white rice, brown rice), a hand grinder with some wheat to grind up, samples of wheat nuts, granola, and cookies made with beans, and then a food sealer with jars of sealed up food (almonds, chocolate chips, dehydrated foods).

I thought we had some great information there and introduced people to some new ideas of how to use their food storage, along with how to plan their year supply of actual meals to make. Thanks to the many many people who helped me make samples and be at the booth during the fair!