Help me out please.

They finally took me out of music and called me to the Enrichment Committee. We had planned a small one where we would talk about food storage and we would swap easy recipes. I was going to demonstrate how to make homemade hot chocolate. Well, I got an email from the RS President today. She wants us to also include emergency preparedness, freezer meals and rotating food storage as well as how to cook with your food storage. So as it turns out, the Enrichment that I was planning for the end of the month is being taken from a small Enrichment to a full blown huge one.

Please please pass along your freezer or crock pot meals. And what you do with your food storage. Being in an apartment that is way too small for our needs, my food storage consists of fruit snacks, forumla and M and Ms. (Black market bargaining in an emergency.) I need to have a substantial recipe book compiled and done up all Relief Society-like before the 22nd. And I don't think the RSP will find it amusing if I teach all of the women that they should just can M and Ms as their emergency plan...

Happy Peach Season!

This is courtesy of my mother-in-law. Its really quite wonderful.

Peach Pie

2 c. flour
1 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. powdered sugar
Mix and bake at 325 for 20 minutes

1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 t. salt
Mix together
1 c. water 1/2 lemon juice
Pour water and lemon over above mixture and cook until thick.  Add 1/2 c. sugar and yellow food coloring.  Cook 1 minutes.  Pour over peaches and into prepared crust.

Great use of peaches that are on their way out. Mmmm....

Tom's not-so-recipe for Raspberry Lemon Meringue Pie

This is a creation made by Tom for last Thanksgiving. It has been done once, and only once, and without a recipe or writing things done. So, its more of a method than a recipe.

The filling: He cooked down fresh raspberries, adding a little sugar. Then, he smashed them (or, as Jesse would say- smooshed them.) Mix in a can of lemon pie filling and heat that all up. Throw it in a crust, and top with meringue and bake. That's all I got for you all.

He uses the meringue recipe in the classic red and white cookbook. Bake according to the directions of whatever meringue you use.

a request?

can I post a request that Jessica put Tom's Raspberry Lemon Merengue on here? I kind of am craving the pie, and maybe reading through the ingredients will help.

Chocolate chip cookie dough (and variations)

2 sticks butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 1/4 cup flour (plus probably another 1/4 cup)
2 cups chocolate chips

You know the drill.
But if you are guaranteed to serve them hot, then decerase the white sugar to 1/2 cup and increase the brown sugar to a full cup. the extra molasses in the brown sugar will make the cookies harder when cool, but whne warm, it gives the cookie an extra carmel kick.

And if you would like an amazing frosting for your brownies, then substitute the egg for 2 tsp milk, and leave out the baking soda. Throw a few m&ms on top. I call it "half baked Brownies."

For a "mookie" variation, add 1/2 cup peanut butter and 2 cups oatmeal, an extra tsp soda and some milk to make it muffin consistency. Spoon into muffin tins and bake. There will be a sort of a hole down the middle when they are done, fill it with chocolate frosting. We call them "mookie's" because they are a combination of muffins and cookies. Amy loves them. We made them out in Provo quite a bit, during my "perfecting cookie dough" years.

Cookie dough is one of the great comforts in my life. Whenever a day goes badly, I try to spend part of the evening doing something I kow I am good at. This is where cookie dough comes into play. I know I can ace cookie dough. It is the best kind of therapy, after you've messed up everything else, to remind yourself of something you can do right. I reccommend that everyone make a list of a few things they can do right, to fall back on when everything else you try fails. Honestly, I don't even have to eat the batch to feel better. Just make it and taste it in order to know that I am not a total failure. It helps, though, if you can share it with someone who comes to the same conclusion.

Chicken Alfredo

Alright, here we go:

Chicken Alfredo

clove of garlic
1 chicken breast
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 margarine
1/4 half n half
parmesan cheese
whatever vegetables you like...I use a normandy blend (steam them)
whatever pasta you have on hand (cook before serving...ha...ha...ha)

sautee the garlic for just a minute or two. add the chicken breast. cook it. chunk it as you cook it. when its all cooked, add the margarine and cream cheese. simmer until they're mostly melted. add the half n half. keep cooking. when its mostly creamy, add parmesan cheese to taste. serve the sauce over the pasta and vegetables.

This makes enough for about 3 people. I usually double it and Matt takes it in his lunch. Some of you may even want to triple it. It makes the whole house smell heavenly. (and by whole house, I mean our 4 room apartment, so really just like 100 square feet, but who knows, maybe the neighbors can smell it too?) This is definitely not part of our portion controlled diet, but I like to make it for date night. Grandpa Pratt also seems to really enjoy that.

Bruscetta

I miss cooking. I used to have weekly parties, very informal, in which everyone I new who had nothing else to do would show up at my place on a saturday night, because they knew that if they brough a random ingredient, I would add it to whatever meal I was cooking, and we would all end up with a gourmet, definitely better than any college kid ever eats, kind of a dinner. Then we would play a ridiculous party game and laugh until 2 am. The thing is, cooking is no fun if you don't have people to cook for, so the rest of the week I would eat ramen and cold cereal, always looking forward to the saturday night party, that nobody ever planned, and it was better for it. Undoubtedly, someone would call satuday afternoon and ask to come over, and I would say "bring some baguettes!" From there, anyone who came by, called, or who we felt inspired to call, would get the invite and be told to "bring something to eat, or an ingredient for something to eat. We'll figure it out when you get here." That is how you make bruscetta. It is also the best way to eat it.

There are, however, a few basics you need.

Olive Oil (all mormons have it on hand.)
Vinegar (prefferably flavored, i prefer balsamic, but apple or otherwise fruity works)
Fresh tomatoes.

Now for the variables.

Spices. (salt, sugar, rubbed sage, mustard powder, lemon pepper, herbes de provence, basil, any seasing blends you have laying around, and garlic.)

Avocado
Cheese chunks
peppers
onion (whatever kind)
cucumbers
lettuce
artichoke hearts
tofu chunks
bacon
water chestnuts
radishes
crasins
palm hearts
hot dog chunks (it sounds gross, but if you chop them up enough, you don't get the texture, just the flavor.)

This list can continue to include anything you might want in a salad that will absorb the flavor of the vinegar, but it all must be cubed or chopped. little chunks people, so they can blend together and be spooned onto bread.

use a 2:1 ratio on the Oil:vinegar. If you have good mustard (not the yellow american stuff, but maybe grey poupon, with the seeds in it even) blend a couple of tablespoons of that in too. Then pur it over all of the stuff you have chopped up, and mix it so you have a salsa like consistency (chunky, fresh salsa.) Then season to taste. If you think it needs more salt, add a little sugar first to see if that helps. Mom puts a little extra sugar in more things than we know. A teaspoon here and there makes everything taste more like home.

My favorite blend ever was tomatoes, chives, white onions, avacado, mozerella, and a mustard vinaigrette with rubbed sage and lemon pepper. Two of my roommates got engaged over that particular batch of bruschetta.