I Dare You To Eat It

I’m always encouraging (badgering) people to make room for their food storage, even if it means parting with some of the endless craft supplies. But throwing things out can be difficult. Here’s a suggestion for re-purposing and using up some of those miscellaneous odds and ends.

This idea came to me in the grocery store while I was shopping for some wrapping supplies. Can you believe the cost of fancy gift bags and ribbons? Yikes. Completely put off, I headed home, determined to find something that would work just as well.

In the spirit of “brown paper packages tied up with string” I settled on using up a little hem tape, ric-rac, and bias tape to trim this box.

Then I remembered my stash of old buttons. I’m keeping them because “I might really need them later” but really, I’m just keeping them.

These seemed like a close enough match and I found random little felt guys to coordinate. Wrapping angels!

Now, a normal person would KNOW where their 3 glue guns were stored, but I actually had to get out a needle and thread.

Totally insecure about my crafting abilities, the compliments from friends at the baby shower were greatly appreciated.

Thanks to my daughter, Sarah, our new favorite salad is this spinach and blueberry number.

The dressing is so simple and yet I get asked for the recipe every time it’s served:)

I think Sarah found the recipe for the salad dressing somewhere on Pinterest. I found the ingredients in my food storage.

Basic Balsamic Salad Dressing

Storage Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons honey

1-2 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Blueberries and Pears Spinach Salad

Fresh Ingredients

baby spinach leaves

Gorgonzola cheese crumbles

toasted pine nuts

blueberries

pears, thinly sliced

A friend, with a lactose intolerant husband, sent in a message today asking if I had any suggestions for substitutions in recipes that call for cream of whatever soups. I shot back something I read only last night about using instant potato flakes prepared with chicken broth as a general thickener, gravy base, or soup substitute.

Then, I told her I would ask YOU.

Fresh Ingredients

2 cups milk, scalded

2 eggs

Storage Ingredients

2 tablespoons yeast

6 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup cornmeal

7 cups flour

Scald milk by heating it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. It’s ready as soon as tiny bubbles begin to form around the outside edges. Discard skin that may have formed on top of the milk. Pour hot milk into your mixer and stir in the sugar. Allow to cool slightly before adding the yeast. (I used Saf Instant Yeast so I didn’t have to wait 10-15 minutes for the milk/sugar/yeast mixture to get puffy.) Add salt, eggs, 1/2 cup canola oil, water, and corn meal. While mixing, add five or six cups of flour.  Continue adding the remaining flour just until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and is not sticky.  (I only used a total of 6 cups of flour.) Knead for 10 min. Divide dough in half, then into thirds, and braid as desired. Transfer to a sprayed cookie sheet, sprinkled with cornmeal. (One recipe made two fairly large Christmas wreaths.) Let raise about an hour, until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes and brush with butter before serving. The braid was soft and tender as can be on the inside with lots of corn flavor.

This is my new favorite bread and a wonderful holiday treat that isn’t terribly (?) sweet. (oxymoron)

My friend Cami demonstrated how to bake this yummy hybrid during our Relief Society Big Bad Bread Initiative. Only took about 3 and a half months for ME to gather the courage for trying the recipe on my own. Never mind that my first December baking adventure ended up, ONCE AGAIN, in the garbage can. All three batches. But that’s a whole other story. Who says the Card family doesn’t have special Christmas traditions???

So, anyway, THIS recipe is easy to make and the results are wonderful. Really, the best of both worlds. Thaaaaaanks Cami!

My daughter, Samantha, gave me the yummy recipe after she received it from our dear dear friend, Zina. Zina and Sam suggest using regular full size butternut squash, but when I went to the store they only had these little runts. What is it with me and the miniature butternuts? At least they were bigger than that one paperweight I grew in my garden a couple of summers ago. (None of that will be on the test.)

Fresh Ingredients

1 med-large butternut squash (or 5 minis)

4-8 oz. Gorgonzola cheese

1/4 cup butter, softened

Storage Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 – 1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 tablespoon flour

dash of salt and pepper

Wash outside of squash. Cut in half, making a bowl with the bottom end of the squash, and remove all the seed…crud. Peel and dice the pulp from the neck of the squash and fill the hollowed out bowls with the squash chunks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and pack with crumbled Gorgonzola. For the topping, combine the butter, brown sugar, spices, flour, and pecans and  pile/press on top of the squash. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of your squash.

These little bad boys were GOOD!

We served the little squash grenades (fully loaded, armed and dangerous) with pot roast, steamed purple cabbage, asparagus, and rosemary roasted potatoes. Isn’t holiday food fun!

Have you read this News Week article? IT’S GREAT! I’m so proud of Jeff Edwards. Not only are the Edwards our friends, neighbors, and ward members …we just three days ago hired their son to move our year supply of long term food storage back into the house now that our remodeling is almost finished. It was ridiculously exhausting work, with at least 80 trips up and down a steep staircase and yet this young returned missionary was the very picture of a diligent, dependable, and cheerful employee. Thanks C! You’re obviously part of the big picture.

Promised Land

How Utah became the new economic Zion.

The above shot is a bit of false advertising. Me and everyone else. My excuse is that I originally wanted to share a recipe for fresh tomato bacon soup but then I tried a different recipe tonight and liked it so much more. In fact tonight’s version was easier to prepare and then gone so quick, the thought of taking a picture didn’t even cross my mind. Ignore the bacon bits and sour cream.

It all started when my amazing friend, Linda, who happens to be a bottling FOOL, gave me the recipe for her famous bottled tomato soup. It calls for a half bushel of fresh tomatoes? What is that? I had to Google the term “bushel” to find out. Then…I divided her recipe by EIGHT, added one of my own secret ingredients, and made a wonderful, yummy, healthy, rich, pot of  fresh from the garden tomato soup for the family’s dinner tonight. Next summer…we are going to have this soup once a week.

Fresh Ingredients

3 lbs. of fresh tomatoes, washed and quartered

1/3 cup onion, course diced

2 tablespoons butter

Storage Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons sugar

1-2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon flour

1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)

All you do is pour the olive oil into your crock pot. Add the onion, tomatoes, sugar and salt. Cover and cook on high for approximately 3 hours. The amount of time is totally flexible, which I love. When you’re ready to eat, melt the butter and stir in the flour before adding it to the crock pot. Then pour in the can of evaporated milk and puree with a stick blender. That’s it. It’s wonderful.

I had my husband run a couple cups of the hot soup across the street to my neighbor. After tasting the sample she phoned to ask what I had done to flavor it so well. Yes! Good old sugar and salt…and canned milk.

This is THE way to enjoy lots of tomatoes, without lots of work.

You believed that?

So here’s the whole truth.  My sisters served this fresh lemon ice cream at a family wedding shower a couple of weeks ago. EVERYONE agreed it was fantastic. And besides tasting amazing, it turns out that this recipe is easy to make.

Now, I’ve never made ice cream before but this turned out perfect, even for ME! I piled on sweetened raspberries but you totally don’t need to do that. Like really good creme brulee, this lemon ice cream is perfect all by itself.

Fresh Ingredients

1/2 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

2 tablespoons lemon peel zest

1 quart half and half or whole milk

Storage Ingredients

2 cups sugar

rock salt

(These are the exact instructions I received from my sis.) (She thinks she’s soooooo smart.)

ah well… hmmm … didn’t come with any instructions. You just follow the instructions on the ice cream maker. (super helpful for someone like me) But basically, you combine all the ingredients in the ice cream can, (I mixed it in a separate bowl) stir for a minute so the sugar is mixed into the liquid. Then you put the paddle in the can, and the can in the ice cream maker. Layer ice and rock salt all the way up surrounding the can, and turn it on. I think you’re supposed to whistle the whole time it’s turning. (she’s killin’ me) When it gets thick enough to stop the turning, you just turn it off, and hard-freeze in the freezer.

Dear friends. Can you hear me? Look into my eyes.

YOU SHOULD TRY THIS RECIPE.

TONIGHT.

Well folks, she’s off and running! 

This Sister Card has completed week number one in 18 months of missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We’ve received one letter and one email and can already tell that she’s happy, learning, and growing in new ways. Evidently, the Mission Training Center experience has her ”whelmed but not overwhelmed”. And I was RIGHT about the no time to get ready in the mornings and how much she’d love the bottomless chocolate milk. Told ya!

Sometimes I actually feel a little embarrassed that I’m not in shambles with two daughters currently serving missions. I of course miss them both every day, but there honestly isn’t anything I would rather have them doing. Missions aren’t right for every Mormon young woman but when it fits it’s a completely remarkable experiences! In my mind, this (and marriage and family) is what all the years of hard work and family nights were for. We were trying to get them ready to do BIG things. I’m thrilled that two of our girls have been in a position to accept callings to serve the Lord through sharing His restored gospel in Missouri and Arizona.

And for the record, people are not joining The Church, the world over, solely or even primarily based on the individual testimonies of 19 year old boys and 21 year old women. I mean…really? These kids are great but they’re not that great. People choose to be baptized because they read The Book of Mormon and feel the power of the Holy Ghost testifying of its truthfulness in their hearts. The missionaries’ job is to share that opportunity.

Whether or not you’ve tasted this signature dessert from the Manhattan restaurant Serendipity, this food storage friendly and slimmed-down version is a perfect summer treat. (Only 150 calories and virtually no fat.)

Storage Ingredients

1/2 cup chocolate syrup

1 cup fat-free evaporated milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups ice cubes

Combine chocolate syrup, evaporated milk, vanilla and ice in a blender until smooth. If you want to be as fancy as the restaurant, garnish individual glasses with a dollop of whipped topping and/or sprinkles of chocolate shavings.

Variations: Mexican Hot Chocolate–Add 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Peppermint Hot Chocolate–Substitute 1/4 teaspoon mint extract for the vanilla extract.

Thanks to Joy Bauer, RD, TODAY show nutrition-diet expert, I have a last minute Visiting Teaching gift!

The summer months can be especially difficult to schedule appointments that work for you, your family, your companion’s schedule, work, and the sisters you’ve been called to serve. Believe me, I know. We tried all month long to set up something meaningful but just couldn’t seem to get it  pulled together. Refusing to give up, I copied the visiting teaching message, marking paragraphs that impressed me most, and left it with this recipe and bag of supplies. Clearly, drive-by visits are not ideal, but I think it’s better than nothing. At least my sisters know that they’re on my mind and in my heart. Our efforts don’t have to be perfect in order to be valuable.