I'm a Mormon

Our church leaders have challenged each one of us to create a profile on the mormon.org website. This is so that the missionaries can help investigators relate better to other members of the church and to see that we are just like them. I took up the challenge and created my profile. At first I wasn't sure what I would say but they gave us a few tips to help us out and I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to write as much as I did.

If you would like read my profile go HERE.

This is a really neat website will all kinds of inspiring stories from other church members.

Food Storage 2

Here is the 2nd installment of my food storage series.

Today's focus will be on supplemental items that don't come from the grocery store, such as home canning, dehydration and freeze drying. I will start out with canning since it is the most commonly used form of home food storage.



Canning
This is a fun hobby to develop to be able to add fresh produce and meats from your own garden, or a nearby farmer's market. Our family has started a garden and it has been a lot of fun watching it grow. Last summer we canned a lot of fresh veggies that helped us get started on our storage. This year our garden is much bigger, thanks to my father-in-law, he kinda went a little crazy this year with the sqaush and tomatoes. hahaha We will not want for pickled sqaush, which by the way it really GOOD!! We are also going to start canning meats, now that we have invested in a pressure canner, we are very excited about it.


If you don't know where to start on canning here are few sites that I have found that can be of some use to you.


Ball
How to Can Fruits and Veggies
National Center for Home Food Preservation

You can also visit your local bookstore and pick up a couple books, perferrably ones with recipes, to help you out. Or if you have friends and neighbors that can ask to help them out to learn some of their tricks.

Food Storage 1

A couple months ago I did a food storage series on my craft blog and thought that I should post it here as well, just in case one actually reads this blog. So here is the first part of the series.

I've chosen this topic b/c with our recent experience in a loss of income it has been on our minds, mine and my husband's, and we don't want to be stuck in that situation again. I am not an expert but wanted to share my research and ideas with you, so here goes.


Space
Finding space to start your food storage is part of the fun and can also be a challenge. For me, I have plenty of room, for one I have closet pantry in my kitchen and walk-in pantry in my laundry room off the kitchen, jealous? Anyways, if you don't have 2 pantries, you can use your basement if you have one, corners of closets in your house, under the bed or find cute furniture that can act like a closet to hide your stock pile. Use what space you have to suit your needs, who said that storing food couldn't be stylish. ;)

Planning
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither should your food storage/ stock pile. Take the time to carefully plan out what you need as far as what your family likes, meals you enjoy and even what kinds of products you use for hygiene purposes. Your storage shouldn't just be about food, but personal hygieng products as well. Look for sales and opportunities to stock up on the essentials. Get the family involved to give some input as to what you would like to accumulate. For example, in my house beans, rice, tortillas and cheese are a MUST. We LOVE Mexican food and I always have these on hand to make burritos with. An easy way to help get started is to create a menu of the meals your family likes and go from there. Something to stock up on are pastas and sauce for a quick pasta meal. Have fun with it!

My Large pantry, in the laundry room. Isn't is pretty? :) I still have a ways to go.