Lake City, finally

I didn't have the opportunity to write yesterday because it was a busy day getting ready for the event in Lake City. I indicated finally in the title because we have been building up for this since November!


The yogurt cheese was absolutely divine. (I hate to be dramatic, but there is no other word for it.) I used 36 oz. of it to make the cheesecake in the biggest baking pan I have. I use another hunk for an olive sandwich spread, and still have quite a large chunk of it. I also have 2 quarts of regular yogurt left out of the 2 gallons. It was the only yogurt I have been able to tolerate straight up, but you all know, of course, I would prefer it sweetened. My favorite way to eat yogurt is with a little sweetener and some lemon juice over fresh or canned fruit - cantalope or pineapple are my favorites. The Lake City loved both the sandwich spread and the cheesecake; they devoured nearly all I made leaving only crumbs.


I had decided to bake bread since I couldn't see a food storage class without homemade bread, and a lot of people don't think you can make good homemade whole wheat bread, so I have to leave my mark there. The recipe I use for large batches makes 4 loaves. They ate 2 1/2 of them, so we have some to get us through the weekend. I was trying to make one loaf at a time and eat it fresh, but Roger really loves having bread around, so I am now baking this 4 loaf batch all the time. We slice it when it cools in my deli slicer so all the slices are thin enough for sandwiches, and then we freeze it in 2 slice portions in sandwich bags and a big loaf bag to protect it from freezer burn. I think the last batch lasted about 10 days, so I guess that is a good plan. Roger gets positively ballistic when there is no bread in the house. It doesn't seem to matter how much other stuff there is...


I also used a recipe I found the little food storage handout book for a grape-nut cereal like product. Once made, the large brick can be ground; the bigger chunks are used for cereal, and the crumbs can be used like graham cracker crumbs to make a pie crust. It is a very interesting recipe and one that I have wondered about for a long time. There was a sister in Lake City who routinely eats Grape-Nuts who said it tasted remarkably like them.


Here is the recipe in case you can't find your booklet:

CRUNCHY WHEAT CEREAL & CRUMBS

Makes approximately 5 cups cereal and 2 cups crumbs

6 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups buttermilk (2/3 cup powdered milk, 2 cups water, 2 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice)

Mix ingredients thoroughly. Press or roll evenly to fit two ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown around edges. Turn over with spatula, break into small pieces and return to 200 degree oven to dry out thoroughly. Grind chunks in food or meat chopper on coarse blade. Put ground chunks in strainer and sift out small granular pieces. Larger pieces may be used for cereal and casseroles. Finer pieces may be used as you would graham cracker crumbs for pie crusts and other desserts.

To make a pie crust:

CRUNCHY WHEAT PIE CRUST

1 1/3 cups Crunchy Wheat crumbs
2 tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup melted margarine

Using the finer crumbs sifted from the Crunchy Wheat cereal, combine all of the ingredients, mix well and press firmly against sides and bottom of pie tin. Pour filling into the shell and refrigerate until firmly set.

Here is the yogurt recipe:

1 qt. lukewarm water
2 cups dry milk powder
2 tbsp. plain yogurt or dry yogurt starter

Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a thermos bottle and let stand overnight.

To make cream cheese: Hang the finished yogurt in a cheesecloth bag overnight. Add salt to taste.

To make salad dressing or sour cream substitute: Add salt and seasonings.

To serve as a dessert, add sugar to taste.

To make yogurt cheese, you just dump the yogurt in a cheese-cloth lined colander overnight. In the morning you will have a nice ball of cream cheese like product that has no fat.

To make the cheesecake, I mixed 12 oz. of yogurt cheese with 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup sugar and 2 eggs. It bakes at 350 degrees until it doesn't jiggle, about 20 minutes if you make a small pie plate size. Good stuff.

The sisters in Lake City couldn't believe it was all from food storage. I also make tuna salad with all the dehydrated veggies (onions, celery), homemade relish, and we served that with dilly beans. We had the olive spread to make sandwiches out of as well.

Olive Sandwich Spread

Yogurt cheese

small can black olives

a few green olives

some home pickled jalopeno peppers

I just ground it all up together in the food processor.

I think that was about it. We had some games to make up and picked out some prizes to give away, and off we went. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there because we let Wilma guide us through all the back roads (Wilma is our Navigator), but only 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home when we went the way we knew. Of course traffic was not as bad coming home either. It was still a long haul.

There was about 26 folks there which I thought was great including several husbands and their stake president and his wife. She and I e-mail back and forth a lot about food storage, so I guess she wanted to check me out in real life. There were some very knowledgeable brothers and sisters there, but some who had not gotten started yet. One had 7 children, and we knew her dad from the temple. I was so glad she seemed committed to start her food storage. I can't imagine having 7 children and no way to provide for them when the bottom falls out. I will keep up with her through e-mail to encourage her.

We took the computer and our printer to print out the worksheets like we make up so that they would know how much product was needed. One of the things we have learned while serving at the HSC is that most people have no idea how much they really need if they were to truly have to live for a year without purchasing food. That is one of our goals in doing these classes.

Another thing we did was make up the food storage "seed" and demonstrate that people can store in other ways besides metal cans (that cost 75 cents apiece). We put some white wheat in a PETE juice bottle with an oxypack to demonstrate that. We also gave away 1/2 pint canning jars with 12 oxypacks in them so that they could do it at home themselves with stuff they buy in bulk at the grocery store or warehouse club, or they can buy bulk at the HSC and process it at home less expensively than the metal cans. Plus the PETE bottles are being recycled and can be used again and again. We are hard pressed to find uses for those 1 gallon cans when they start accumulating.

We saw a few things we need to improve upon for our next demonstration in 2 weeks, but it went very well, and the people there were very kind. They all said how nice it was and how much they appreciated us coming. I guess it was good to hear somebody different.

One member there, the one who originally invited me, is someone I have known through e-mail a couple of years. She and her husband are almost totally self-sufficient. We are going to go to their house to see how he built a solar powered pump that he uses to aerate a 2 acre pond he built for bass and blue-gill. He stocked it initially and keeps it self-perpetuating with minnows. It sounds amazing. The solar powered pump is what I am interested in because I worry so much about being without water if there is no power.

Today we had an assignment to work at the HSC, but they called to cancel at the last minute, so we spent the morning catching up in the garden. I planted about 8 different kinds of lettuce in one box and more cole crops in another. I also started some tomato seeds in the house. I am going to try little tomatoes this year; I always do so horribly with the bigger ones. I think the little ones are better suited to my conditions here. Anyway, I planted 3 different types, 24 seeds of each. I don't think I can resist one big one; I keep thinking I'll find the variety that will grow in my garden without being nasty.

I think the frost might have killed off most of the peppers, but it looks like some of the more tree-like ones might have survived it. I guess I will order more seed this spring as I don't want to be without peppers. I may order fewer varieties though. Those pickled peppers are so good! We had them with refried beans the other day and I used them in the sandwich spread. I'm going to bring some to the FHE super bowl party.

Oh, and I finished my wool-silk socks the other night and started a new pair yesterday of a wool blend put out by Paton called KROY. But these match my Christmas serape, so I like them in the dark green color, and the lace is pretty too. The picture doesn't do it justice. Anybody know how to get this to turn the other way? I have it right side up in my folder, but it won't move that way.