Rice

Rice is something that stores very well (30+ years) and we serve it alongside many dishes. I am always a little surprised to hear it when someone has never cooked conventional (regular) rice. There are many out there who use the minute rice on a regular basis. Learning to cook regular rice will save you lots of money and increase your nutrition. You can use a rice cooker. I don't have room in my cupboards for lots of small appliances so this is one I do without. A regular pan with a lid works great!

I thought I would share the simple directions for cooking rice. Place 1 cup of white rice in a pan. Add 2 cups of water and a bit of salt. Cover and turn burner to high. When it begins to boil, turn it down to low. Watch it closely so you don't boil it over. (I often boil my rice over - my husband teases me a bit about it. I'm getting better at remembering to watch it.) Once it is on low, cook until all the water is absorbed. The whole process takes about 20 minutes. If you double the batch, plan on closer to 30 minutes. 

I always put the rice on to cook and then prepare the rest of the meal. Twenty minutes passes quickly in our kitchen and the rice is done in time to eat.

Rice also freezes well so I often cook a large batch and freeze the leftovers to use another time.

Brown rice does not store as long, but I have successfully kept brown rice in my pantry for over a year just in a plastic container. You cook it the same way, but it requires a little more water and a longer time to cook. Add 2 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of brown rice.  It takes 35-40 minutes to absorb all of the water. Brown rice freezes very well also.

Pudding Pops

My son, Ben, requested that we make Butterscotch Pudding Pops the other day. They are quick and easy and don't require a lot of supervision once your kids get a little older. It was an easy request to grant. They are a snack that you could easily include in your food storage meal plan.

Mix pudding (any flavor works) with 2 cups reconstituted powdered milk.

Pour into popsicle molds or small Dixie cups.

Once it begins to set up, you can position popsicle sticks in the center of the cups, or like us, you may have lost a few popsicle tops over the years. Place on a flat shelf in the freezer for a few hours and enjoy.

Report For Duty

It's Money Monday here on the blog when I try to share a little something about helping your dollar stretch or how to teach your kids, etc.

As a parent of younger children I am always looking for ideas to help teach my kids about money. This is a fun little game my mother-in-law played with the kids one time when she was here for a visit. The playroom was especially messy and I was on bed rest on the couch - fully out of ideas on how to motivate the kids from a distance. I noticed how much fun they were having and thought to myself, "This is something you should do more often with them even after Grandma goes home." It has evolved a little over the last five or so years since we've been playing it. I hope it adds something to your bag of tricks to break up the monotony a little.

How to Play "Report for Duty" - Have the kids stand at attention and salute you while saying, "Reporting for duty." At this point, assign each kid to do something different such as pick up all the toys that have yellow on them, pick up all the books, put away your clean laundry, etc. Be sure they count how many items they put away. Each time they finish the task, they report back and you pay them a penny for each item. This game works especially well with young children. After playing, I always pull out a few snack items and assign an amount to each one. They can then use their pennies to buy their snack of choice from Mom's store. 

We are the Family's Storekeepers

From James E. Faust

“Every Father and mother are the family’s storekeepers.
They should store whatever their own
family would like to have in the case of an
emergency...”If we do not have the resources to
acquire a year’s supply, then we can strive to begin
with having one month’s supply. I believe if
we are provident and wise in the management of
our personal and family affairs and are faithful,
God will sustain us through our trials.
--April 1986

James E. Faust served as an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until his death in 2007.

I love this quote because it reminds us that each family is unique and we really need to think about what our own family will need and want if an emergency hits. By putting together your own meal plan of storable meals and then storing the ingredients to be able to make them, you can know you have what your family will want and need whatever challenge comes.

Seafood Pasta Salad

Spring is coming - hooray!! We are all feeling a little bit of Spring Fever around here these days. With the warmer days, I began craving a more summertime meal. Many of us don't stop to realize that there are quite a few salads that can be food storage meals. I made this one a few nights ago for dinner and served it with pulled pork sandwiches. I came up with this salad recipe after having a similar one at a local restaurant. I have had many requests for the recipe. The secret is to use a lot of dill. Celery stores quite a while in the fridge so I had some on hand this time, but I have also made this salad with dehydrated celery that I had rehydrated to give it the similar flavor. By using plain yogurt in the dressing, you significantly drop the fat content in this salad and it also has a lighter flavor in my opinion. Enjoy!

Seafood Pasta Salad
8 oz rotini pasta	Mayonnaise
Canned tuna, salmon, or shrimp	Plain yogurt
Black olives, sliced	Dill, onion powder, garlic powder,
Cucumbers, diced, if available	salt, and pepper to taste
Celery, chopped, if available
Cook pasta until tender. Drain and rinse in cold water. Mix vegetables with pasta. To make dressing, stir equal amounts of mayonnaise and plain yogurt with the seasonings. Stir dressing into salad and serve. I often use imitation crab meat in this salad also since it freezes so well and I can have it on hand. There are no amounts for this recipe because I never measure. I just mix it until it looks and tastes good.

Focaccia Bread

This is a simple bread to make that is just delicious! We love it with bean soup or just as breadsticks to dip in pizza sauce.

The kids have fun helping to push it out on the tray. It doesn't really matter what is looks like so it is easy to turn over to them.

Bake until it is golden brown.

Cut into sticks and enjoy!

Focaccia Bread
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour	1 tsp dried basil
1 ½–2 cups white bread flour	1 pinch black pepper
¼ cup gluten flour	1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt	¼ cup dry milk powder
1 tsp sugar	1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp garlic powder	1 ¼ cups hot water
1 tsp dried oregano	1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 tsp dried thyme	1 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
Mix according to basic bread making instructions. Once dough has completed the first rise, place on greased baking sheet. Push out into a ½ inch thick rectangle. You do not let it rise a second time. Spray top of loaf with oil and sprinkle with additional dry herbs if desired. (I like to sprinkle some rosemary on top along with some other herbs. Many times I bake it without adding anything though.)  Bake at 400° F for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 1 loaf.

Making Bread

Basic Instructions That Work with All Recipes:

Mix all dry ingredients only adding half of the flour in your mixer bowl.

Add wet ingredients and begin mixing using the dough hook following the suggested speed in your mixer 

instruction book for bread. (Water should be about 115°–120° F to allow the yeast to rise.)

If using a Kitchen-aid mixer, set it on 2 for the entire bread mixing and kneading process

Gradually add additional flour until dough cleans the sides of the bowl. The exact amount of flour you will add will depend on the humidity in the air and whether you are using all whole wheat flour. Be patient as you add the flour. Only add ¼–½ cup at a time and watch to see if the dough pulls together and leaves the sides of the bowl basically clean. Remember that when making bread by hand, you are to knead the dough for 6–8 minutes. The mixer doesn't necessarily do it any faster, it just does the work for you. The mistake that often 

makes bread too heavy is adding too much flour.

There is not enough flour yet - the sides of the bowl are not clean.

This is good - stop adding flour and allow the mixer to knead 2-3 minutes.

Once the dough is pulling together and leaving the sides of the bowl clean, stop adding flour and just allow the 

mixer to knead the dough until smooth, elastic, and resistant. (About 2–3 minutes.)

Lightly oil top of dough (or spray with cooking spray), cover with a cloth and let rise until double in size. You can speed this step up by turning your oven to 150° F. Once it is hot, turn the oven off and set your bowl of dough into the oven. (If your mixer has a plastic bowl, you will want to transfer the dough to an oven safe bowl first.) On the counter, it usually takes an hour or more to let your dough rise. In the oven, it is double in size in about 20 minutes.

I spray the bowl before removing the bread hook so it can rise without sticking to the sides.

Remove the dough hook and spray the top of the dough as well.

Cover with a towel and allow to rise until doubled in a warm oven or on the counter.

I use the oven method most of the time.

Punch dough down and remove from bowl. (You can allow the dough to rise multiple times. Sometimes you just can't get to it when it's ready. Maybe the turkey is still in the oven or the baby needs to be fed or the phone rings. You know you have days like this. Just keep punching it down each time it is double in size. 

Letting it rise a few times actually makes for a fluffier, lighter texture.) When you punch the dough down, turn the oven on to preheat to the right baking temperature for your recipe.

My kids love to be the ones to punch it down - they always wind up a little before giving it their best punch!

Pour it out on the counter - it should leave your bowl pretty clean.

Shape into loaves or rolls on an oiled countertop and place in greased pans.

I oil the counter tops by just spraying them. You can spread a little oil with your hands if you want to. I love my solid surface counter for bread making, but we had laminate counters at our other homes and they were good to.

Grease your pans using pan spray. I store pan spray in my food storage for bread making. It makes it much more convenient.

Divide your dough into the number of loaves you will be making.

Make them as even as possible - some people actually weigh them with a kitchen scale. I don't get that technical.

Shape by grabbing and rolling back and forth a little to lengthen it into a loaf shape and round out the top. You want to manhandle the dough a little to get the air out so you don't end up with large bubbles in your bread.

Here's what it looks like on the top.

Place into greased pans.

Spray the tops of the loaves.

Cover with a cloth and let rise until almost double, about 20 minutes.

I like to pop them in the oven when they reach the top of the pans. You can see the my third loaf was a little smaller - I didn't use a scale.

Bake according to specific recipe instructions. Bread is done when it is golden brown and sounds hollow 

when you tap it.

Take bread out of pans when done and cool on a cooling rack. Spread melted butter over the tops of the bread if you want a soft crust.

Take a step back and admire your work - go ahead feel provident today! Homemade bread costs less than $.50 a loaf to make and you can control the ingredients. Find a favorite recipe and make up a few mixes to keep in your pantry to speed up the process another time. Only put half the flour in your mix along with the other dry ingredients and then you are ready to just dump it in your mixer and begin.

I'll post some of my favorite recipes soon.

Making Bread by Hand - you don't have to have a mixer!

Follow the basic instructions as above. You are just going to do the work the mixer usually would. It will take a few times of trying bread to determine just how much flour to add. It is better to add a little less flour than a little too much. Many women who bake bread all the time for their families find that they can do a larger batch by hand than they can do in a mixer so they prefer doing it by hand all the time. Don't let not having a mixer be an excuse not to bake bread!