I Dare You To Eat It

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.

Me too!

FINALLY, thanks to our funky Spring.

I’ve been using the little sweeties to make lots of fresh pico de gallo. The leftover pico went into bottles of black beans. It gives the beans just a little…extra…kick in the pants. (In a good way.) Most of you already know how to do this but in case you’re interested in the step by step, I used: 

1/2 cup pico or salsa 

1 cup of rinsed and sorted black beans

hot water to the neck of the jar, stir to release air bubbles

wipe clean, top with heated lids and rims, and fill pressure canner (mine is only an 8 quart cooker so it will can four quart bottles at a time)

allow to vent for 10 minutes before adding weight on top at 15 pounds PSI, and can for 90 minutes

cool naturally and *carefully remove jars

So. You might notice that I have an odd number of bottles. That’s because something *odd happened.

I

EXPLODED

ONE!!!

But this is what I learned. DO NOT take a BOILING-BOILING HOT bottle out of the pressure canner and immediately try to wipe it off, in the sink (thank heavens) under a stream of warmish water. BAAAAAAM!

You should have seen my husband’s face. Makes me laugh just remembering, but it totally scared the dump out of us. Oh my gosh. It sounded like a shotgun.

Bean wars.

French toast is one of my favorites but I rarely serve it because of how long it takes to properly cook. And if you’ve ever experienced undercooked french toast as we did on a family vacation in San Francisco, you’ll understand why I’m a little anxious.

But with General Conference coming this weekend, WOOHOO! and a freezer full of homemade bread from the past month of bread lessons, I decided to experiment with oven baked french toast. If you’ve read even any two of my previous posts, chances are you already know that I’m all about doing things ahead of time. It’s a survival skill. It’s the only way I can keep up, and believe me, I BARELY keep up.

The most important thing about this next weekend are the messages given in General Conference. Nothing, not even food, should interfere with that opportunity. It would be nice if I could create a lovely gathering for the family and enjoy a celebratory meal, of sorts, but not if that meal hinders my ability to focus on General Conference. I can’t allow meal preparation to suck up all my life and energy, so that I end up dozing when I should be listening. Done that before.

Here’s the nummy results from this morning’s test run. Once again, this post is about designing a plan and not necessarily a specific recipe. If you search on line for oven baked french toast recipes you’ll easily find lots of suggestions. I tried my dear friend Natalie’s suggestion for Baked Orange Pecan French Toast and it was a hit. What I liked most of all is that the whole thing can be prepared the night before AND I was able to use up one of the leftover no-knead bread hubcaps. Even the bacon was oven roasted yesterday and zapped in the microwave right before we served. No mess no hassle.

I hope we’ll all be able enjoy General Conference this coming Saturday and Sunday. It’s such an incredible opportunity to listen to the Lord’s living prophet and apostles. Count your many blessings!

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. 

Or maybe, “CRACK POT CROWD PLEASER.” I don’t know…I’m still in my jammies, from yesterday, and it’s already tomorrow.

Yesterday was our big family dinner honoring Rosemary before she leaves on her mission and celebrating her 21st birthday. We had the shindig at a local park and it only took 5 crock pots to feed the crowd.

Here’s what we served to sixty: 1-Toasted tortillas, in crock pot #1, keeping them hot off the electric grill. 2-Cilantro Lime Rice 3. Black Beans 4. Durango Corn 5. Sweet Pork

Then there were the usual toppings and sides like chips, pico de gallo, fresh guacamole, grated cheese, chopped lettuce, creamy cilantro dressing, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, and lots and lots of desserts. Big big thank yous to everyone that helped!

Lucky for us, the pavilion had lots of electrical outlets, centrally located. Unlucky for us, the benches hadn’t been cleaned in 100 years. Nothing say’s Haaaappy 21st!!! Today is your special day!!! like having your mom roust you out, bright and early, so that you can help her SCRUB picnic table benches. So thoughtful. My friend, Jeanette, suggested that THAT would make an excellent service project for the Scouts. I want to personally suggest it to everyone. Rosie and I would have LOVED to have enjoyed the nervous energy of a few scouts helping us with the scrub brush action. Maybe she’ll get to sleep in next year. Probably not.

But the weather was great and the food was fine. When Mike was welcoming all the guests he made a joke about how I had been preparing the food for the past year. I was laughing but it sort of felt like that. With everything washed and put away, and having done it once, I can see that I only needed half as much food as what I had originally thought. The cooking/bottling/freezing-ahead-of-time warm-and-serve-in-multiple-crock-pots method worked like a dream! I didn’t have to rent one thing. I simply borrowed a few extra crock pots and the food stayed perfectly hot and ready for hours. No babysitting required.

I’m so glad that we had beautiful weather. (Our whole family was in Southern California last week but I guess some of our mountains had snow, again. That’s Utah.) I’m also glad that we hosted this “open house” on a Thursday night. Plenty of people were able to attend and share in the big family meal before Rosie leaves for her 18 months of service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mesa, Arizona. With the party behind us, now the biggest thing on my plate is helping her be ready to speak in sacrament meeting this Sunday. It’s a great feeling. And tomorrow (today) I’m going to shower and get dressed.

Provident living really works, especially when there’s lots of work.

 I love it when friends send me new recipe ideas for using both my long-term storage (rice) and short-term supply (basic canned goods) in (say it with me)

NORMAL RECIPES!

Thank you.

My dear friend Martha is the coolest grandmother I know. Today we were at the temple at 5:30 in the morning and she was sporting lime green flats that said COACH on the toes. Then Martha was off to another full day of helping her daughter recover from knee surgery, driving grandchildren here there and everywhere, faithfully attending their every scholastic and sporting event, most likely doing a little gardening and community service for the Historical Society, Daughters of The Utah Pioneers, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and then she still has time to remember me and my endeavors. I wish you could know Martha. Cute as a BUTTON and remarkable in every way!

Martha found this recipe in the Deseret Morning News, thanks to Penny Ramey and Julia Maddox. I followed the careful instructions for an easy sweet and sour meal the whole family enjoyed.

Fresh Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/4-inch strips

1 medium onion, sliced

1 green pepper, chopped

Storage Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

1 15-ounce can pineapple chunks

2 teaspoons, or two cubes of chicken bouillon granules

1 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar, any type

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 11-ounce can mandarin oranges, drained

In a large skillet, saute chicken in oil until chicken is lightly browned. If you prefer not to use oil, just spray some cooking spray on the skillet and use the chicken’s natural juices to cook. (These gals are pros.)

Add onion and green pepper. Stir fry until vegetables are tender.

Add 1/2 cup pineapple juice from the can of pineapple chunks, bouillon, water, vinegar and brown sugar to the skillet and stir.

In a small bowl, off to the side, combine soy sauce and cornstarch. Mix well to smooth out any clumps. Stir the cornstach mixture in to the chicken, vegetables and sauce in the skillet.

Simmer until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. This should take 5 to 10 minutes, and the mixture will turn more transparent as it thickens.

Add pineapple and mandarin oranges. Serve over rice. Serves 6-8.

Thanks again, Martha!

Sweet Heather, from sunny St. George sent me this fun recipe for bean pancakes. The pictures may not do it justice but try to think happy thoughts.

As I turned these little wheat-and-beaners, I topped the cooked side with grated cheese so that it was melted as they came hot off the griddle.

Then we topped them with the usual favorites of diced avocado, salsa, and sour cream…curds? Hmmm

Then we rolled them in half, taco style. Sorry about the picture. Here’s what the picky 12 year old had to say about them:

Yummy!

This is good!

It tastes like something gourmet…from a hippy…Mexican restaurant…in Arizona! (K, this one’s never even been to Arizona so…)

I thought the recipe was a really nice variation on the vegetarian theme. The bean pancake reminded me of a tamale, and a very happy, flavorful, tamale at that. We each gobbled down three. It’s an economical and fun way to enjoy pancakes for dinner without all the butter and syrup. (Nothin’ against butter and syrup.)

Fresh Ingredients

1 egg

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

Storage Ingredients

1 15 oz. can of beans, rinsed, drained, and mashed (I used black beans that I had bottled myself. Woohooo!)

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour  (I just threw about 3/4 a cup of whole wheat kernels into the blender and ground them with the evaporated milk.)

1 12 oz. can evaporated milk

2 tablespoons of canola oil

couple shots of Tabasco

dash of lime pepper (Didn’t have it and didn’t miss it.)

Mix all ingredients and cook into pancakes. Top with grated cheese, diced avocado, salsa, and sour cream as desired.

Still on my quest to prepare anything I can ahead of time, I’ve spent the afternoon cooking 70 cups of copycat Cafe Rio cilantro lime rice. I’m mostly following Erica’s recipe (http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2007/11/jared-and-i-love-cafe-rio.html) after she’s cracked the code from this local favorite restaurant.

It takes a village.

Fresh Ingredients

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 tablespoon butter, diced

1 lime, zest and juice

Storage Ingredients

3 cups rice

6 cups boiling water

3 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed if possible

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon dry sliced garlic pieces 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Boil water. Spray or oil a 9 x 13 inch cake pan and pour in the 3 cups of dry rice. Sprinkle on the cilantro, butter, chicken bouillon, sugar, and dried garlic pieces. Add boiling water and cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 for approximately 70 minutes. Fluff with a fork and stir in the lime zest and juice. This stuff is GOOD.

Trying to conserve both time and energy, I baked two pans at a time and increased the temperature to 375 degrees and then let them cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Each of the three batches turned out perfect, which is totally unusual for me. 

I still don’t know what happened that one time, about two years ago, when I was in charge of cooking the oven rice for a major dinner prior to Stake Conference . It seems like we were hosting not one, but TWO, visiting General Authorities, not to mention our wonderful Stake President, who just happened to be Gordon B. Hinckley’s son. Something went terribly wrong (surprise!) and my rice was not even close to being ready when it was time to serve this terrific group of leaders, and their lovely wives, an amazing salmon dinner. I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. There was either an evil hex on my kitchen that night OR I didn’t increase the oven temperature and add extra cooking time. Thankfully, the kind sisters I was serving with were gracious about my mess-up and insisted that the guests would just assume we were trying to go very “low carb”…or something.

Anyway, the rice for Rosie’s family dinner is D*O*N*E way way ahead of time.

My plan is to keep all the bags of rice frozen until the night before her farewell dinner and then microwave each as we’re ready to serve. Provident Living.

Repentance.

Meds.