Cheese in a can...Are you sure?

Oh yeah, I'm sure, and it is good. It's shredable, meltable and has a really nice, mild flavor. It is a bit on the pricey side ($3.99/can), but for me, it's worth getting a few cans for the long run. I mean, what good is food storage without all the ingredients to make a decent pizza? Seriously, we've had this cheese many times and it works well in recipes and the kids like it too. I may be doing a demo on it in one of my food storage classes. I know they carry this Read Feather cheese at Macey's, but I think you can get a single can from MRE Depot too if you're not a local and you just want to try it out. Check out the Macey's ad on Wednesday as well, I think they're either having a case lot sale or food storage sale; good deals either way.

Email me!

I don't yet have an email link on this site but, you can email me at siufanua@juno.com if you have any questions. Also, I'll be teaching another food storage class on September 18th. I'd like to do more in depth on pressure cooking, maybe some cheese and yogurt from powdered milk, do more on the meal planning and perhaps try the canned cheese (really yum by the way). The content is not set in stone, but I'll post with more info later. Thanks for all who attended the class, I really appreciated your input and ideas, I learned something too!

I'm teaching a class this Thursday at 7:00 in the Macey's little theatre (Provo). If you want to attend, you can go in and sign up or I believe that you can call the service desk and have them add you to the list. The class is all about making fun foods with your food storage (like fudge and tootsie rolls) and also about different ways to add items like nuts, candy, raisins to your inventory by vacuum sealing them in jars. I'm also teaching how to bottle butter. Post if you have any questions.

Awww Honey!

Here are some awesome facts about honey and why you should be using yours:

* In an archaeological dig in 1905, vessels that were uncorked by the archaeologists still contained honey that was almost liquid but still preserved it's scent after thousands of years. That means that honey lasts a long, long time making it a SUPER item for your food storage.

*Honey is antimicrobial. Sweet!

*Honey contains less calories than refined sugar and can be easily substituted for sugar in almost any recipe!

*Even if your sugar has crystallized, you can heat it and it'll be as good as new.

So...If you have lots of honey stashed and you haven't used it, now is the time.

A quick tip for getting the kids to drink powdered milk

I can't remember where I got this tip, but it's mine now-ha! I regularly use my powdered milk in any recipe that calls for milk and none is the wiser. However, drinking it straight can be a little bit tricky for the kids and adults-me included. It has come to my attention that Morning Moo's is very drinkable, and others may have come across some that are very easy on the palate. That being said, what do you do with year's supply you already have in storage? The answer is easy my dears, simply store syrup, chocolate or strawberry and add it to the mix before serving. The transformation is amazing and your kidlets will eagerly gulp it down. I have chocolate syrup in my food storage cache for that reason alone, and I assure you, the shelf life is very long.

Fuuuuuuuuudge!

Here's a food storage recipe for fudge that I tried out last week. It turned out really well, despite the fact that the secret ingredient was----pinto beans! Yup, good old refried beans. No bean taste or weird texture at all-I swear. Next time, I think I'm going to add some other ingredients, maybe some peanut butter to the mix with some Reese's peanut butter cups sprinkled on top. Here's the recipe:

PINTO BEAN FUDGE

1 cup cooked, soft & mashed pinto beans (can also used canned or reconstituted)

¼ cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 lbs powdered sugar

6 oz unsweetened chocolate

6 tablespoons of butter or margarine

Stir beans and milk together, adding enough milk to resemble mashed potatoes in consistency: stir in vanilla. Melt chocolate and butter and stir into bean mixture. Add nuts. Gradually stir in powdered sugar to get it well blended. Spread onto lightly buttered baking dish or form into two 1 ½ inch rolls. Chill 1-2 hours. Cut into pieces and refrigerate.

Bread Making 101-V The last and final chapter

Depending on the temperature, humidity et cetera, et cetera, you're loaves should have doubled in size after about 1 1/2 hours:


After you are done baking they should look like this, all toasty and warm:



And now they are ready for the tummy (to get a better handle on your slices refrigerate or partially freeze for a cleaner cut) :




You should realize now that bread making is largely experimental. There are "good bread" days and "bad bread" days, but mostly the bread turns out well with just a few idiosyncrasies. For instance, I think that my batch of yeast is not as fresh as needs be, but the bread will be fine. It just won't be as fluffy as I like. Also, I should have just made one decent size loaf and maybe a few rolls because the loaf was so tiny, but is it going to kill me? Nah, it's just a preference. What ever you do, don't give up and email me for heaven's sake if you have a question.