Measurements

This is a handy item to have on hand to print out and keep in your cookbook!
Knowing what foods you can use as substitutes is a great food storage planning tool that allows you to really focus in on WHAT to store. Understanding yields can also be very helpful as you progress towards cooking more whole foods from scratch.

MEASUREMENTS
pinch = 1/16 tsp.
dash = 6 drops or 1/8 tsp.
1/4 T. = 3/4 tsp.
3 tsp. = 1 T.
1/8 C. = 2 T. = 1 fl. oz.
1/4 C. = 4 T. = 2 fl. oz.
1/3 C. = 5 T. + 1 tsp.
1/2 C. = 8 T. = 4 fl. oz.
3/4 C. = 12 T. = 6 fl. oz.
1 C. = 16 T. = 1/2 pint = 8 fl. oz.
2 C. = 1 pint = 16 fl. oz.
4 C. = 2 pints = 1 quart = 32 oz.
16 C. = 4 quarts = 1 gallon
8 quarts = 1 peck
4 pecks = 1 bushel
1 liter = 1 quart plus 3 oz.
2 oz. = 1/8 pound
4 oz. = 1/4 pound
8 oz. = 1/2 pound
16 oz. = 1 pound


NOTES:
tsp. = teaspoon
T. = tablespoon
C. = cup
oz. = ounce “=” means equals
“-” means minus
“+” means plus

These measurements can be really helpful when doubling or tripling recipes

I found these great conversion charts on Allaboutfoodstorage.com these are so awesome to have. You could laminate these put a magnet on them and put them up on your fridge. I have some (I paid money for) I use them a lot! These are great because they are FREE! Just click here

KIM'S FANTASTIC SALSA

This is a great medium salsa!!
7 Quarts peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes
4 c. Seeded, chopped long chiles (I used anaheim peppers and canned chiles)
5 c. Chopped onions
1/2 c. Seeded, diced jalapeno
2 c. Bottled lemon juice
2 TBSP. Salt
1 TBSP. Pepper
2 TBSP. Cumin
3 TBSP. Oregano
2 TBSP. Cilantro (Kim uses more and so did I)

Add everything in a big stock pot and bring to boil for 5-10 min. Put in jars, seal and process for 35 min. (I used a steam canner for this)
Tip** If you need to peel a lot of tomatoes like this recipe calls for boil some water on the stove, fill your sink up with cold water. Put about 5-6 tomatoes in and leave them for 45 seconds. Take them immediately to the cold water spoon them in. Put the boiling water back on the stove for your next batch. The skin will literally fall off. This works for peaches as well. I will confess that I did NOT chop all of the ingredients I used my food processor for everything but the tomatoes.
Thanks KIM!!

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

Hopefully in your food storage...if not we can get it there! :0) Come and Join us on Sept. 19th. Please RSVP to Sade if you can come! It will be a fun hour and I promise only an hour of how to store, use, and eat beef.

What you need to "SURVIVE" for a year..but let's not just "survive let's THRIVE!"

To make 1 loaf of bread a day for one year, you will need to have on hand: 275 pounds of Wheat....46 pounds of sugar or honey....8 pounds of yeast....7 pounds of salt....4 gal of oil. It is said "man does not live by bread alone...",

Cans $1.08 (includes can, lid, oxygen absorber)

Mylar Bags: .43 cents (includes bag & oxygen absorber)

Rob & Saundra will be here until December so you can dry pack!! Just give them a call and set up a time with them.

I go in spurts on here..I don't post for over a month and then one day I just keep posting..I need to spread it out a little!! :)

At the canning chicken class we talked about preparing for "everyday" emergencies. Like when you come home and there is nothing to fix or like me I hate deciding on what to fix! So, if we "prepare" now, then when we have those nights that are a dinner emergency all we have to do is open the cupboard and grab our "ready to go" meal that have the ingredients & recipe inside and we can have dinner on the table in 20 minutes with NO running to the store to grab a few items...(nothing can ruin a grocery budget faster than "quick trips" to the grocery store!)
What I need from YOU!
I need recipes that are mostly made from cans and that you add just one or two ingredients that are NOT in a can (water, egg, milk etc.) I have several recipes but I would love to have more for this class.

Sister Tami Nielsen said that she will be doing tomatoes & pickled beets (I have a great recipe that tastes just like grape jelly that is made with beet juice, I just made it today in fact!)if you would like to call her she would be happy to do a demo for you in her home!! Thanks TAMI!!!

We are getting ready to go to a family cookout tonight and I was going through my recipe book and I found this recipe that I totally forgot about because you only get to make it one season out of the year when all the ingredients are in season..which is now!! (Excuse the messy picture.) You can put this on grilled salmon or a side dish of anything. We use it as dip with Tortilla Chips.

CORN RELISH
2 Ears Corn, Peeled
2 Tomatoes, Diced about 2 cups
2 Avacados
6 Tbsp Finely Chopped Red Onion
2 Tbsp Parsley
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Tsp. Pepper

*Blanch the corn about 4 min. then add all ingredients.

The picture really doesn't do this dish justice because it is really good and I didn't have the red onion so I just used a regular yellow onion. It looks really pretty with that purple onion in there.
Do you have some yummy recipes for fall?? If you do post them!!

DUTCH OVEN CLASS

The class is being held this Thursday at 6:30. Don't forget to R.S.V.P. by having your money in to Sade Phillips by NO LATER than Tuesday the 21st! This will be a fun class we will learn how to season, clean, store our ovens as well as what heat sources to use and how to bury a dutch oven and of course how to cook in them. We will be having dinner there as well.

What's on the Menu?
Goulash
Rolls
Salad
Cobbler

Please bring a lawn chair with you!!

Food Calculator

Thought this was an interesting calculator and it may help you in preparing your food storage!!

Click here

Honey Facts - Nature's Sweet!!

To Replace Sugar with Honey
Substitute at 3/4 cup honey for 1 cup sugar. Reduce the total amount of other liquids by 1/4 cup per cup of honey. Lowering the baking temperature by 25 degrees stops overbrowning. Foods sweetened with honey will have a better falvor if kept until the day after baking before it is served.

Evidence of Pure Quality Honey
Bubble Test: While shopping for the right honey, perform the bubble test. Take two or three like containers and turn them upside down. The bubble that rises the slowest is the better honey. The others could have been force filtered or the moisture content is higher.

Taken from the Post Register

PLEASE VOTE ON THE DUTCH OVEN COOKING POLL!!
I NEED TO KNOW SO I CAN GET A CLINIC SET UP
IF IT IS AT ALL POSSIBLE!!

Honey Cox Farms

I love honey. I love it on toast, I love it on oatmeal I love it in my oatmeal, coconut bars...if you haven't noticed I really love it. I tried this honey and HAD to share some valuable information with you. While I was in Idaho Falls I went shopping in Shelley at the Cox Honey Farms . This is purely YUMM-O honey! The price I thought was reasonable but while talking to the clerk, he told me the most excellent news... Are you ready? If you order on-line your shipping is FREE!! Ok so that for me is a seller in itself because I am a big on-line shopper. I think you should try it at least once. I hope that you all are having a great summer!!

I forgot to mention that I have been trying the spray n' grow. I am hoping it helps my veggies. It is suppose to be "vitamins" for your plants. You can purchase on QVC for about $20.00 a bottle but you only use a teaspoon per 16oz. of water.

June UpDate on the Garden

I haven't posted in a while. So I thought I would share how my garden is growing...did you start one? This one is my peas and carrots. Ave helped me plant carrots he used a whole package in one row..hehe..so we have to thin that out now. I am looking forward to "out of the garden" veggies.

I have all sorts of goodies in this bed: Beans, pickling cucumbers, onion, something my dad gave me and I can't remember, lettuce, broccoli and parsley.

Strawberries they look beautiful..tip on strawberries: They LOVE damp soil, but not soggy soil. The rain we have been having has kept them happy but when we get "summer" they will need a good watering every day.

So I decided that I was going to see what I could do to be more provident in growing a garden. In May, (you know that month BEFORE the floods) I scavenged the boards from my dad. These are actually old picnic tables that have been disassembled. I used these and just went and bought some brackets. This literally took about 20 min. to put together..well not me but my hubby put together. Then I got some weed cover, or whatever it is called but it is black and keeps out the weeds. I then put it under my box and set in on top. Now for the dirt..ok so my hubby was kinda freakin' out on me because we were paying for poop..however, pay for the poop! I used just regular dirt in my strawberries and I am always picking out weeds, not so with my little mixture in the other boxes. Ok so how many bags of poop do you have to buy you may be asking? Well we made 8x4 boxes and it took 14 bags of steer manure and the big peat moss bale. I know its nasty but the best way to mix it is with your hands. It makes beautiful soil. I went through and marked every square foot and put a small brad nail in. Then when I had gone all around the box I took kite string and wound around and made my pattern, then bent the nail so it would help hold the kite string. So the total cost for my project:

Wood: Free (scavenge it is so worth it)
Steer Manure & Peat Moss: Roughly $65.00
Brackets: $30.00
Seeds: I acutally bought mine for 5 for $1.00 at Family Dollar

So for about $100.00 you can get your garden up and going. If you need help scavenging let me know, I love to look for deals!

INGREDIENTS FOR CANNED CHICKEN, PRESSURE CANNER, BOTTLES, CHICKEN, SALT AND A GOOD BOOK

We are planning to do some demonstrations on canning meat for this months meeting. Please sign up since we will be splitting up!! I hope that we see you there!!

Chicken prices vary every week but when I did this I just called Familee Thriftway and talked to Mike the manager in the meat department (very nice man). He got me a case on the next truck. I got my case of 40 pounds for $68.00 for boneless skinless chicken breasts.

I got about 2-4 chicken breasts in each bottle depending on the size of the chicken.

Get ready to start pressure canning. Put 2 inches of water in the bottom.
If using QUART jars; set your jars in and make sure they are not touching each other or the sides of the pan. If you are using PINT jars; you can stack them, not directly on top of each other but between two jars, thus allowing you to be able to get more of the pint size jars in at once. Put your burner on High, LEAVE THE REGULATOR OFF! wait until the steam starts to come out of the pipe. Then time it for 3 min. Put the regulator on and allow it to build pressure until it gets to 14pounds, then set your timer for PINT SIZE:1 HOUR AND 15 MIN. QUART SIZE: 1 HOUR AND 30 MIN. Once it gets to 14 pounds you have to keep it there so keep letting out steam and turn the burner down. This is when you read a book or watch T.V. right by the canner. By the time you are done you are going to be on medium-low heat. When the time is up move off the burner. I pushed the regulator and let out steam slowly until it got to 10 pounds and then took the regulator and allowed it to go all the way down to ZERO. DO NOT OPEN THE LID UNTIL IT IS AT ZERO!!! Then make sure you have jar tongs, or hot pads to get them out. (I used silicone hot pads and they worked fabulously.) Then let them seal, make sure you check them over a couple of days just to make sure they sealed. And you have fabulous meat in your food storage!
**TIP** IF YOU PUT WIDE MOUTH PINT JARS ON THE BOTTOM AND REGULAR PINTS ON TOP YOU CAN GET A LOT MORE IN THE CANNER, BECAUSE THEY STACK BETTER WITH WIDE MOUTHS ON BOTTOM.

I got a full 24 bottles of chicken! What a great feeling to have it in my basement. We tried it and it is wonderful chicken. Out of one quart of chicken we made; chicken enchiladas, chicken salad, small batch of white chicken chili. I think the next time I do it I am going to just do pint size because they are nice to have for sandwiches or quick lunches.

There is a great coupon this month. It is for a ShelfReliance Shelf. If any of you have seen these they are awesome!!
The coupon is for $100 OFF any Food Rotation System of $299 or more, PLUS FREE shipping on orders of $299 or more. When you check out enter DBM100 Hurry, it expires on May 31, 2009. Also, Shelf Reliance has a new food program called THRIVE. You can see a video about this new product and see if it is something that interests you! I do have a coupon for thrive products so just leave a comment and I will get you that coupon.

One more thing, I'm a posting fool today...but I have to let you all know about these handy conversion charts. They are magnetic so you can just post them on your fridge for super easy reference. You get one for powdered milk, one for powdered egg, and one for magic mix. They are $7.50 (shipping included). I would encourage you to act fast if you want them because they have already sold out once!! I just bought mine. You can click HERE or click on everyday food storage button on the side of the blog to learn more.

Hello ladies,

I am excited at what a turn out we had for the Ralph Burton clinic!! At the last count I did we had 32 people there! I hope that you got some questions answered. I watched KSL this morning and there was a lady that was talking about the best books for gardening and so I am passing along the information. Maybe if you didn't get your questions answered or need some more in depth knowledge these may provide that for you. (I couldn't see one that talked about rock gardens :0) j/k) I copied the three that I thought were the most interesting but for a complete list click here. I canned chicken today, whew..what an experience! I am going to post it soon! Have a Wonderful Weekend!

By Bunny Guinness

Sets out to prove it is possible to create a garden for the whole family to enjoy - one which combines mystery, adventure and exhilaration for children, while simultaneously appearing stylishly designed and planted for the grown-ups - even in a small space and on a tight budget.

By Patricia Lanza

This intriguingly titled book serves up a time-saving approach to gardening that will come as welcome news to the overworked and the horticulturally challenged. Lanza exhorts readers to build soil up, "instead of digging down," by simply layering organic materials onto a prospective garden site and close-planting directly into it.

By Marcia Tatroe

The first complete gardening book to cover the hot, dry, desert and plains areas of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, Idaho, Montana. Topics include: extensive plant lists for all areas, hardscape ideas using rock and wood, where to find garden art and how to use it to create your own regional aesthetic, as well as hundreds of practical suggestions to overcome the challenges of gardening in the Intermountain West.

“HEALTHY YARD & GARDEN SOILS”

7:00 – 8 :00 PM
THURSDAY APRIL 30
Relief Society Room.

RALPH BURTON, (Fairview)
PHD in Entomology
Worked with University Specialists
(including horticulturists**)
in various phases of
crop production.
His degree was from VA Polytechnic Institute.
He worked for an Agricultural Chemical Company.
Had many contacts with the US EPA.

We didn’t see his vegetable garden (under snow)
but we had heard good things about it.
Saw the big area where it has been…
and the tractor he uses for gardening!!
His tool shed where he starts his plants
Is very impressive!

Come find out when and how to “Start your garden”
Bring your questions.
**horticulture: "the science and art of growing fruits, vegetable, flowers or ornamental plants."

This is the book I was telling you that is coming out. If food storage has you a little scared this book is great!! She really does make it easy and fun. You can buy this from any LDS-Bookstore & Amazon.com
**Side note don't click on the picture I can't get it to work! Sorry!

I am rating our 1st meeting was a success!! So the highlights for tonight:

We talked a lot about gardening which is good since this is not my strong point. So things that I wrote down are this:

1. - We can grow VEGGIES here!! hehe..ok so I know this cuz my dad has a beautiful garden that I get to raid (However, I am wondering how I am going to implement this into my food storage??? hmmm....)I just don't know how to grow it on my own.
2. - Radawn Ruud may have some starts for some fruit trees if you are interested. Give her a call.
3. - Through a lot of talking it seems that everyone is interested in growing or at least learning how to garden. So this is the direction we are going to go for next month. Mark your calendars!! On April 30th we will be having a soil and garden clinic given by Ralph Burton. There are links that you can access from our blog on the right to find out about raised beds/squarefoot gardening which may be a choice for many of us.
4.- The health fair is coming up and you won't want to miss, it is a fraction of the price of normal bloodwork it is definitely worth it! It will be on Apr. 28, 30 and May 5 & 7. It is held from 6:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. at the SVMC. You MUST fast for 12 HOURS before having your blood drawn. (no food or drink, however you can have water to keep your veins hydrated)
5.- We learned the **magic** of Magic Mix! My kids were so excited that I had leftovers of the fudgesicles when I got home. If you are unable to find the magic mix recipe or any of the recipes that we talked about tonight let me know and I will e-mail them over to you.

If you have any questions let me know and make sure you sign-up for the newsletter, and don't forget to comment, we need imput we all have something to add!!

WELCOME

To the Afton 1st Ward blog!
Our intentions on this blog are to:

1. Provide members with information for provident living
2. Provide a place to share ideas with each other

I hope that you will check out the buttons on the right hand side these have VERY valuable information. Also, sign-up for our newsletters!! Our first meeting is on Thursday, April 9th if you missed it let me know and I can get you a handout.

We will be updating this blog weekly please be sure to check back!