In Honor of our Son, and all the other 51,000 Serving World-Wide

Some of you may recall that our son, Rooster Junior, is serving in the Houston South Mission.  We miss him dearly, but are grateful that he has made the decision to serve his Heavenly Father as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Here is a glimpse of why so many young people make the same decision.  If you would like further information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ask your LDS friend or neighbor. Or, you may contact your local ward/congregation and meet the Missionaries in your area by going here.  Change your life.....find out more about how the Lord wishes to bless you and your family.

A Device that is nice.....

This is a Mixing Pitcher that I grown to love.  I dislike little clumps of drink mix or sugar floating about when I am mixing a drink.  This device helps mix the liquid quickly and efficiently.  Here is my method of mixing using this device.

Fill the pitcher with 2-3 inches of water.

Pour in all your drink mix.  Today, I am making Apple Drink.

Put the lid of the pitcher on and mix the water and dry ingredients until well mixed.  To mix, push and pull the plunger up and down until mixed well. 

Then add most of the water.  The reason I say 'most' is because I like to put ice in this drink when I serve it.   I made this up for a cookout we had later in the day.



Image courtesy of Emergency Essentials



I would like to have shown you the drink that was placed in a very beautiful decanter....but I forgot to take a picture before it was all gone.  That fact alone should let you know how much our little crowd enjoyed the Apple Drink.....and no one knew it was.......Food Storage!

Application:

•  Easy to mix
• Can be used to mix powdered milk if you do not have power
• Combines liquid and powder efficiently and quickly.

So, consider adding it to your list.  Here are several places you can purchase one:

• Sears
• Emergency Essentials
• Nitro-Pak

General Conference Breakfast.....easy with Peaches

Yes, I have a bunch of Peaches right now.  So, I decided to use them in a breakfast that is fast and easy.....for General Conference.

This is a version of the recipe by Rita Bingham in her book entitled Natural Meals in Minutes

Peachy Cool-er

2 peaches (I used fresh.  Blanch and take the skins off, then slice.  Ms. Bingham's recipe calls for canned or bottled Peaches)
1/2 Cup plain Yogurt
1/2 Cup liquid (I used some skim milk, she recommends liquid from the peaches)
I also added some vanilla to taste.

Blend all ingredients until smooth....serves 2!

Soooooo Easy!  If you haven't taken a look at her book, you should. It has lots of great ideas and recipes involving many food storage staples.  As you read along, you really do want to try the recipes as they look good!.

Enjoy Conference!

It's a matter of.......Salsa with Clear Jel

(Yes, this is real life...you can see where I spilled Salsa on my towel as I was spooning it into the jars:) ) 

In previous posts, I have shared with you all that Rooster Senior is serving in the Bishopric of a Young Singles Adult Ward....and that I have chosen not to go visiting these young folks in their apartments empty-handed.  Please know that this is a personal decision I have made....not a requirement put upon me by anyone.  These young people are often far from home and appreciate something besides Ramen and Fast Food.  Here is another 'item' I have chosen to have on hand to take with us as my husband and I go visiting.  This is a Salsa Recipe from Food.com.  Not only was the recipe highly rated, but it also allows you to adjust the amount you wish to make and calculates it all for you.  Finally......it uses a product that I have come to know and love.....namely Clear Jel.  For the recipe, please see this link. 

In the past when I have canned Salsa 'by the book', I didn't like it.  It was watery, and didn't resemble the types of Salsa my family enjoyed.  So, this recipe sounded and turned out to be like a big name brand salsa that you often see advertised on National TV.....that isn't made in New York City.

Now, I had a box of tomatoes....that were not going to wait for anyone.  So, on the day I processed them...I only had 2 hours to do all of this.  Literally, I had worked at the hospital for a better part of the day, came home (with 2 hours to use for this purpose), and then left home to go and serve hundreds of Young Single Adults a meal for a meeting that evening.  So, again I used my tools to help me do this and do it efficiently.  It is worth having tools that make your task easier and efficient.  You do not have to gather tools all at once.....but just obtain them conservatively over time.

I quartered my tomatoes to get them ready to process.

I placed them in the hopper of my Food Strainer and began to process them.

Using the Salsa Screen on my Food Strainer, this is how the puree came out. If the truth be told, I did strain some of the 'watery' liquid away as these tomatoes were very 'juicy'.  I knew it would take forever to reduce the liquid amount down if I didn't.  Using a hand strainer, I reserved the pulp but discarded the tomato water (a sin to some of you I know). I just didn't have the time to reduce it down.....it wasn't an option.

Time spent processing about a half of a bushel of tomatoes...20 minutes. 

This is called an "Alligator". 

You cut the onion in half and push the handle down.

This device chops the onions quickly and they fall into this hopper. Look how uniform they are cut. Time spent chopping a small bag of onions....7 minutes.

I added the onions directly to the puree from the hopper.

In the picture above, I am wearing gloves. This is imperative with onions and cutting Jalapeno Peppers....it protects your hands and you will not smell like peppers for days by doing this. Cutting peppers took me about 5 minutes.

Make a slurry of the Clear Jel Powder and just enough water.  Clear Jel helps your Salsa get a thicker consistency.  In this recipe, you also use Tomato Sauce, which helps with the thicker consistency as well.

Slowly add the Slurry to your other ingredients.  Now, at this point I had to put this pot into my refrigerator as I had to change my clothes and get ready to leave. I did not process the Salsa until the next day.  As the mixture was cold, it took a while to heat up to a small boil before it was ready to process. 

Here are the jars from the first batch and a little surprise.  I love my husband, but he can be a bit of a 'hoarder' at times.  I often park in the garage and hurry into the house as the garage is a bit 'visually challenging' for me.  However, out of the corner of my eye......I spotted another Hot Water Bath Canner.  I asked him why he had this.  He picked it up in his travels somewhere and didn't really remember.  Well.....because of my time crunch....this was a great bonus to me!   I processed 24 pints of Salsa in half the time.

So, what is the take home message here?  There are many:

• Use your tools to be efficient and save time.
• Try Clear Jel in Salsa.....it works just great!
• Even busy people can do this....I am proof!
• I now have something to pair with a bag of chips to take with us as we visit with these wonderful Young Single Adults.

If you decide you can do something.....the Lord will make the way for you.  You can do this and many other things to prepare and care for your family.  You just need to develop the skill sets to do so.

It's a matter of.....feeling empty-handed!

In a previous post, I let you all know that Rooster Senior has been called to serve in a Bishopric of  Young Single Adult Ward...and I get to along with him!  We went visiting some of the apartments of this ward....and when we walked in I felt empty handed.  Not that this is necessary, but I just felt like we should have brought something with us as these young people are often far from home. When several of them came over to our home, they commented on how much they appreciated being in a home....with real parents!  This just made me laugh as there were plenty of times that my now adult children would tell me that they were looking forward to moving into an apartment and growing out of the family home.

Well, again, not that it is necessary, but I decided to have things prepared to take with us when we go visiting in the future.  Here is my first 'item', which is Jam.  I made this using Clear Jel instead of Pectin.  For recipes and more information, please see this link. 

I went to my local Club store and found berries for a really good price.  I bought a lot!  I made 36 jars of jam for just a few dollars as I had all the ingredients to make the jam in my Food Storage and Pantry.

Time is really of the essence for me....I don't have a lot.  I am very serious about that.  I have to plan my time in blocks so that I can get everything done.  So, I decided to puree my blueberries in my food processor to save time....and it literally only took a few minutes.

First I pulsed it and then let it run.

As usual, mix your sugar with your Clear Jel before adding to the puree.

Add the Clear Jel mixture slowly with a whisk to incorporate it without lumps. Notice the color before the Clear Jel sets up.

After the Clear Jel begins to thicken, the color also darkened.

Now, for time saving tip number two,  I have a Food Strainer.  My husband likes Raspberry Jam, but really dislikes the seeds.  So, I purchased a berry screen to use with my Food Strainer.  Here I put the berries in the hopper.

Then I turned the handle.  See the berry juice/pulp coming down the slide and the seeds etc going out the left side of the picture? I decided to put the 'waste' pulp through the strainer a couple of times to capture all the juice I could.  Isn't it a pretty color?

Process per the recipe instructions.

I made 4 different types of Jam in one evening.  I realize I am only showing 3, but 4 gives me a variety to give.  I plan to make bread dough in my Bread maker (again, time is the issue) and have it waiting for me when I come home from work,  Then I can bake it in mini-loaf pans, put the bread in a cellophane bag with a bow and also put something cute on top of the jar to go with it. Every gadget has parts that can be put into the dishwasher to clean while I am doing something else.   I am hoping that these young people can feel a bit of 'home' when we go visiting.  As much as they would probably hate to admit it, they do miss their parents and the sense of home.

My whole point in writing this post is not to show how 'fabulous' I am.  Quite the contrary....I really am not.  However, I am trying to use my gadgets and machines to make the processes faster and more efficient so that I can accomplish as much as I can in a short amount of time.

Consider it!