One of my friends gave this to me 11 days ago.  Yesterday, I finally was able to bake the bread and fell in love with this recipe.  It was so simple and easy to make.  I was very hesitant at first because I am not the type that likes to do the whole pass along to friends deal.  I hate it in fact.  If people send me emails saying I have to send it to 10 friends or something happens, I delete it.  So when I received this Ziploc bag full of weird liquid and a paper that said I needed to squish and mush, I thought, oh boy, what am I in for now?  I faithfully followed the directions and wham-mo, I almost ate the whole 2 loves by myself.  Luckily I have a house full of 5 boys and 1 husband to help me make sure I didn’t gain 10 pounds in one day!  Thanks guys!  I have included the PDF you give to people when you give them their own starter and also the recipe for the starter.  Enjoy and share the love of this FABULOUS bread.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  DO NOT SKIP the step of sprinkling the sugar/cinnamon mixture all over the bottom and sides of the pans.  This is a crucial overall yummy effect that you will miss the flavor of if you don’t do it.

Amish Bread Recipe

As you can probably tell by my previous posts, I’m all about easy when it comes to cooking.  I don’t mind cooking and I think I would even experiment a little more if I had a little more time.  However, with 5 kids, a husband, a dog, and all of my other responsibilities, there isn’t a lot of time left over for cooking.    I look for recipes that look easy, involve very little time, and hopefully ones that my kids will eat.  Recognizing all ingredients in the recipe is also a MUST!  This is a fabulous recipes for salsa.  The hardest part is chopping the cilantro and slicing the avacados which is actually not hard if you do it this way: 

1.  Cut the avacado in half

2.  Take the pit out of the center

3.  While the skin is still on slice the avacado lenthwise then widthwise (I hope that makes sense )

4.  Take your knife and separate the skin from the avacado – the sliced pieces should fall right into your dish.

I tried all sorts of ways to peel and slice an avacado and for some reason they were all a disaster!  This is easy and fast.

Serve this dip with tortilla chips.  Our favorite chip with this is the lime flavored chips.  It’s delicious!  This is a great appetizer for parties or a great side dish for a summer barbecue.  This could also be made from your food storage.  You would have to do without the avacados and fresh cilantro but it would still be a delicious treat!  Enjoy!

COWBOY SALSA

1 large can diced tomatoes drained

1 can black eyed peas drained

1 can shoe peg corn drained (white corn)

1 pkg. dry italian dressing

2 T vinegar

2 T oil

1 T dry onion flakes

1/4 c. fresh chopped cilantro

3-5 avacados diced

fresh lime juice to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in the bowl and mix them together.  It’s that easy!

Family Documents & Information and Important Names and Numbers are items we do not want to miss when we are gathering our Emergency Information.  As this should really be Tricia’s post since she is the guru in that area, I am going to defer you to her awesome blog that is amazing and should win “Blog of the Year Award for Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage”!  You are simply amazing Tricia!

Here is a link to her blog in case you haven’t been there yet.  Prepared Not Scared.

Steps 1-5 help you get your house in order.  We have covered making a blue print for your home, a daily quick clean to help you survive, 3 boxes to declutter, routines to help you find time to do it all and cleaning your home!  We are now going to into organizing your life.  Step 6 is all about being prepared.  There are a lot of things going on in the world today that make this a vital part of organizing your life.  Many people throughout the world have found themselves without a home because of a natural disaster or even just tough economic times.  Being prepared in all things will bring you peace of mind in all the chaos!

Begin Step 6 by organizing all of your important documents.  This could be anything from birth certificates and social security cards to your medical information and Wills or Trusts.  First you need to decide what is important to you.  Make a list of all the documents that you want to have immediate access to.  Start with your marriage license and/or certificate, birth certificates, social security cards, immunization records, allergy information,  and gather all of them so you can store them in your desk organizer.  For a complete list of what you can or should include check out Tricia’s blog www.preparednotscared.blogspot.com and click on vital records.  She has listed important documents here as well as given many forms that you can fill out that will be very helpful in an emergency situation.

Next, begin working on emergency information and plans.  This could include evactuation plans and disaster plans.  It is important for your family to be prepared in any situation whether it be a fire, natural disaster, or an evacuation.  If your family has talked about it and is prepared to act, it will make a HUGE difference when it actually happens.  Children are scared when they don’t know what to expect.  If you have practiced and talked about an emergency situation, they will be much more calm when it comes to reacting to it.  I recommend checking out Tricia’s site for information on this as well.  She has several suggestions and other sites to check out listed on her ward blog.

This task can seem overwhelming.  Just pick what you can do and do it!  If all you can do right now is start to gather documents and talk to your children about a meeting place out front should a need arise, then start there.  Being prepared takes a little time but don’t put it off. Remember being a little prepared is better than being UNprepared!   Start small and continue to move forward.  I promise you will never regret it.  It is so handy to have all your documents in one place especially when you register your kids for school.  You will sleep better at night knowing that you and your family are on the road to being prepared!  Feel free to email us or comment with questions, suggestions, things you have tried that work, and things that have not.  We all need to learn from each other.Good luck!

Check-out www.preparednotscared.blogspot.com for Two Fun Projects!

A Temple Memory Game and How to Make Your Own Portable Washer!

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while!  I have been working hard on my calling as the Food Storage and Preparedness Specialist for my ward.  It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of work!  I created a blog – www.preparednotscared.blogspot.com and have prepared a new post for each day of the week.

Each day of the week will focus on a different area of preparedness.  Our goal is to be prepared as a family both physically and spiritually.

Here’s a rundown of what you can expect:

Sunday: Vital Records Pages and Journal Pages

Monday: Family Home Evening Lessons

     Week 1: Primary Theme & Scripture

     Week 2:  Safety & Preparedness

     Week 3:  For the Strength of Youth/Mormonads

     Week 4:  Family History

     Week 5:  Family Service Project or Family Activity

Tuesday: Ark Prep 101 – Preparedness Topics

Wednesday:  Preparedness Project

Thursday:  Family Activities

Friday:  Preserve It . . . Canning Corner

Saturday:  Food Storage Meals & Menu Planning

By the end of the year, you should be well on your way to becoming more prepared!

We have added a link on the left side of the page.  Hope you enjoy! 

Trish

My oldest son was in the mood to fix dessert for the family last night.  I told him he could pick what ever he wanted and he decided on a new recipe.  We REALLY loved it.  Remember to have plenty of vanilla ice cream to serve with this.  One 9×9 pan was enough for our family of 7 for one serving each.  He made two pans so we will some more tonight!  Another reason why I like this recipe is it’s all made in the pan you bake it in.  No mixing bowls to clean up afterward.  This is also a GREAT food storage recipe as it uses everything you have in your storage.  No store bough items.  LOVED IT!!

Hot Fudge Sundae Cake

1 cup flour                         2 Tbl oil

3/4 cup sugar                  1 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbl cocoa                       1 cup chopped nuts (opt)

2 tsp baking powder     1 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt                      1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup milk                     1 3/4 cup super hot water

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix flour, sugar, 2 Tbl cocoa, baking powder, and salt in an ungreased 9 inch square pan.  Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla with a fork until smooth.  Stir in nuts.  Spread batter evenly in the pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa.  Pour hot water over batter.  Bake for 40 minutes.  While warm, sppon into desert dishes and top with lots of ice cream.  Spoon sauce from pan onto each serving.  Note: sauce will thicken as it cools.

I don’t mind cooking – really I don’t!   What I do mind is planning the menu.  Ughh!  I don’t know why it seems like such a chore but it does.  Trying to plan something that all my kids will eat gets more and more challenging with each child that I have!  I am also into quick and easy these days -  who knew that little league football would be so intense?  We wanted to share some of our favorite recipes to help you break up the monotony of meal planning.  This week I have a great breakfast recipe that I wanted to share.  We came across this recipe when the kids stayed overnight with grandma.  She made them ginger pancakes.  They are delicious and healthy too!  My three year old will even eat them and she doesn’t like anything.

Ginger Pancakes

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 3 Tbsp. oil

Mix dry ingredients first and then add the milk, egg, and oil.   You can make pancakes or waffles with this mix.

I usually double the recipe to make enough for my family.   We even have them for dinner sometimes.  We top them with syrup (you can try our recipe for plum syrup if you want to!)  or yogurt and they are delicious!  I have also made them with my food storage.  I used powdered milk and powdered eggs and they tasted great.  To use the powdered eggs you just put in 1 Tbsp. of powder for each egg.  You don’t have to reconstitute them with water but you may need to add a little water to the batter if it seems dry.  You can mix them up according to the directions on the can (1 Tbsp. powder to 2 Tbsp. water) and that works as well.  For 3/4 cup of milk you need 2 1/4 Tbsp. of powder and 3/4 c. water.   So rotate some of that food storage and give them a try!

When my neighbor told me about this sauce, I just had to try it! It was so yummy that I converted it into a canning recipe. Perfect for a last minute dinner! Hope you enjoy it too!

16 c. quartered fresh tomatoes (about 20-22 medium size)
1 whole onion – finely chopped
3/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves – crushed/minced
2 tsp. sugar
2 heaping tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 c. fresh basil leaves – finely chopped
1 tsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine tomatoes, onion, oil, garlic, sugar, salt, pepper flakes and pepper in a large baking dish. Roast vegetables for 45 minutes. Add basil and then pulse them in a food processor to desired consistency. Place sauce in a large saucepan. Season the sauce to desired taste. Bring sauce to a rolling boil. Pour into sterilized jars. Add 1 tsp. lemon juice to each jar. Process jars for 50 minutes in a hot water bath. Yields: 5 quarts.