F.S. - Tomato Basil Soup

This recipe can be entirely made from food storage items. All of the soup ingredients are dry or canned, and croutons can be made from homemade bread, basil can be grown indoors all year round, and sour cream can be made from powdered milk.

Some of the recipes I post for food storage will be my own creation, and some will be others. This one is mine. Try it. I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients
1 (26 oz) can tomato soup concentrate
1 can milk (use empty soup can)
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 T Olive Oil
1 t Kosher salt
1/2 t Garlic powder
1/2 t Fresh Ground Pepper
Fresh Basil, Chiffonade ( this just means the style in which the basil is cut when you stack some leaves together, roll them tightly and slice them into thin strips)
Sour Cream
Croutons

Method
Pour soup concentrate, milk, olive oil, tomatoes, salt, garlic powder, and pepper into a large pot. Stir to combine, and heat to a gentle simmer.

For croutons: Dice a loaf of french bread into 1 inch cubes. Lay them out on a cookie sheet, drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. (You can also drizzle balsamic vinegar over croutons, but I like them without it for this recipe.)

Ladle soup into bowls, drizzle with sour cream, add croutons, and a pinch of basil. Serve immediately.

Powdered milk Sour Cream recipe to come later.

Sweet Baby James

We had a Doctors appointment today, where my suspicions were confirmed. James is HUGE! At 3 1/2 months he is 26" tall, and weighs in at 15 lbs 4 1/2 oz. That puts him in the 95th percentile for height, and 75-90th percentile for weight. He takes after his Dad.

Food Storage - Getting Started

Building food storage, for me, seemed very over-whelming. Shane and I just started buying bulk rice, wheat, and other items from the cannery. We had a food storage check-list, and were building our 3 month supply, but I couldnt come up with a single, regular meal that I would make from our bulk items.

This class is about gaining a new perspective on food storage. You can do it. It can be simple, and you can make meals that your family will love.

To get started:
1. Clean out your kitchen. Get rid of anything that is old, broken, or that you don't use. Throw out old foods, and rancid oils.
2. Research. What does your family eat most often? What are your favorite meals? How could you translate them to food storage? How many of the ingredients are canned, or dried already and how long would they store for?
3. Write down 10 meals.
4. Take stock. What's in your pantry and food storage to get you started? Based on the meals you chose, what more do you need? Decide on a weekly budget and begin building your food storage 1 meal at a time.
5. Start a new Family Cookbook. Put in your favorite recipes, family recipes, and some you would like to try.

Bag Meals!
Put all of the dried or canned parts of your meal together in a bag (ziplock, paper - doesn't matter) Pancake mix, muffin mix, bread ingredients...If you're making soup, measure out the spices and have them ready to go in a little bag. If you're doing pasta, measure out the amounts and seal them up. Put the recipe in the bag and label the meal. You will have to pick up some fresh ingredients from the store, or use what you have in the fridge, but dinner is almost done.

Bag meals are great for a number of reasons:

1. You can start rotating old storage items immediately.
2. Its a more cost effective way to build storage.
3. You will actually use it.
4. When you look at your food storage you will see actual meals that you want to eat instead of a drum of wheat, and a bag of rice.
5. It's a nice and easy way to take care of breakfast/lunch/dinner for everyday use.

Get together with a few friends, and have everyone bring X number of the same meals to exchange, and you all walk away with a variety of meals with minimal effort.

This concludes the official lesson portion for this week. Look for the Tomato Basil Soup recipe later today.

2 Things

1. We have spent the last week or so doing sleep training (Which, is why I have not blogged - I have been sooooo tired - lots of rough nights). And, now I am am thrilled to tell you that James sleeps 9-10 hours a night, and takes full naps in his crib!!!!!!!!!!! Wow. It feels really good to say that.

2. I am teaching a class on Cooking with Food Storage, and I am going to share all of the information here on my blog. It's going to be a combination of cooking skills, cooking on a budget, cooking with food storage items, and general information about Wheat, Rice, Pasta, Corn, Sugar, Honey, Legumes, Milk, storage info, vendor information etc. It's really cool stuff - I promise.

The class, called "Be Prepared", is taught in a series. Every week I will put up new information, tips, and recipes. This week will focus on the purpose of building food storage, and some fun ways to use it for your family. I will also post 3 food storage recipes this week - Tomato Basil Soup, Southwest Chicken Chopped Salad, and Chocolate Mousse.

If you're wondering why I'm doing this - it's because I love food, and I believe in being prepared for whatever emergency may arrive. Also, I took this class from a group of women who have been teaching it for years, and have incredible knowledge on all things food. Seriously, these women know everything. And they have very generously allowed those who take their class to share what they have learned with whomever they wish.

I will put all posts relating to food storage in a new "food storage" category, so you can have it all organized in order.

This is going to be fun.

Creamed Chicken in Pastry Shells

This is another favorite family recipe. I'm not sure where it comes from, but all of my Aunts, and my Grandmother, and my Mom make it. I make it every year for Easter, and for me this dish is very special and sentimental.

Ingredients
3 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts, roasted and shredded
12 Pastry shells (freezer section - Pepperidge farms)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups good chicken stock (make it from scratch to pour some serious love into this dish)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
3T chopped fresh parsley
4 T butter
1/3 cup flour
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Method
Heat oven to 350. Season chicken breasts with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast in the oven for 35 minutes, or until cooked through (consult meat thermometer). Remove from oven, cover with tinfoil, and let rest for 10 minutes, then shred.
Re-heat oven and cook pastry shells according to the directions on the package.
Heat a large and heavy stock pot over medium high. Drizzle about 1 1/2 T olive oil in the pan and add chopped onion and a pinch of salt. Turn heat down to medium and saute onions until translucent, about 6 minutes. Remove onions from pan and set aside.
In the same pan pour another tablespoon + of olive oil and saute the mushrooms. (They may seem dry, and you may have the urge to add more oil, but resist! After a few minutes the mushrooms will soften and release juices) Remove mushrooms from pan and set aside.
In the same pan melt 4 Tablespoons of butter, and sprinkle 1/3 cup flour over top. Whisk constantly over medium heat for a couple of minutes to cook the flour.
Add 1 1/2 cups chicken stock to de-glaze the pan, and whisk the mixture for a few more minutes until it is smooth and begins to thicken. (You'll also be scraping up all the flavor from the onions and mushrooms on the bottom of the pan)
Add 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, shredded chicken, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and heat through.
Fill pastry shells, and garnish with fresh parsley. Serve immediately.

Serves 6 people, 2 shells per person.

3 Months

And, the little man can stand, but we have to watch him carefully.

Life gets easier as time passes, and James is becoming much more independent. He wakes up in the morning and hangs out in his crib smiling and eating his hands until I come to get him. He is learning new things all the time, and showing more of his personality. Everyday is still unpredictable, but we have the night-time routine down, and for that I am extremely grateful.

I love my boy, I love being a mother.

Happy Easter

And happy spring too.

Baby Announcement

I have some seriously talented people in my family - Artists, Graphic Designers, Photographers, Interior designers, and on and on. I have 2 graphic designers in my own immediate family, and my sister Lindsay was kind enough to design these announcements for me and my sweet baby. I know I am shamelessly late getting these out - we've had some difficulties, but they are all going in the mail next week! Most people I'm sending them to don't even know what a blog is, so I'm posting here as well.

p.s. I took pictures of these instead of scanning them in, so they don't look as nice as they do in person.

Fingerling Potatoes

I think I like these so much because of their unique shape and size, but they also have a really good flavor. Plus, they're easy to make, and I love potatoes.

Ingredients
2 cups fingerling potatoes, washed clean
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 T chopped fresh dill
Kosher salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

Method
Steam potatoes for 45 minutes in a covered steam basket. ( I don't have one so I put my colander in my large stock pot with the lid on top - it works really well) Remove from stove and toss potatoes in olive oil, butter, and fresh dill. Season to taste and serve immediately. That's it!

Little Things

A few weeks ago James learned that he had arms and legs, and that he had some measure of control over them. A week or so later he learned to put his right fist into his mouth, then his left, and more recently to put both hands in at the same time. Figuring out how to separate his thumb to suck on is his most recent accomplishment.
We started from scratch people - no knowledge whatsoever - this is a big deal in his little world.