This week has been Scratch Cooking week here in our New Tribes training. Learning how to make at home many of the foods that we eat daily will be useful and often essential on the mission field. Plus, it is lots of fun! We had demonstrations and hands-on classes every morning this past week. Some of the things we saw made were the following: bread, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, crescent rolls w/ filling, pizza dough, crepes, waffles, donuts, tortillas, pie crusts, chicken pot pie, cheddar salmon pie, biscuits, ham and broccoli with biscuits on top, homemade salad dressings, yogurt, sour cream... oh boy, I know I'm missing a ton of things that we learned. Fortunately, we have a recipe handout booklet that we can refer to.
Next week will be fun and challenging. We are to take what we've learned this week and for five days we are not to use processed foods or convenience foods. Things like frozen anything (except meat), milk, juice (frozen or tetra-pack), store-bought bread, junk food are not to be used. We also are encouraged not to go to the grocery store for the week to simulate having to plan ahead when living in a remote location. Last night we went to the grocery store and bought our supplies for next week. I was pleasantly surprised at the grocery bill which was lower than I expected. Making things from scratch is inexpensive as well as more healthy- but the rubber meets the road when I consider the time involved and my lazy tendencies... :) Anyway, we are ready to dive into our scratch week and all the culinary adventures it will bring.
Above: my newest kitchen friend: a pressure cooker! Make mashed potatoes in 15 minutes, start to finish!
Below: making "fried oatmeal" cereal: brown sugar, oatmeal and coconut fried in a wok with butter
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Making baby wipes: half roll of Bounty paper towel, 2 cups warm water, 2 TB baby oil and 2 TB baby wash. (Not for eating, silly)
6 comments:
That sounds like so much fun! And I've wondered about baby wipes. I may have to try that myself!
I like the baby wipes, idea gonna try that and I love making this from scratch. I grew with a mom that made and did everything from scratch. Sigh the good ol days how fun that must have been for you Val :0)
Sounds yummy! What a good experience. the fried oatmeal concoction sounds very interesting - is it a breakfast meal, a staple for dinner or a dessert?
I am surprised if you didn't know about the advantages of pressure cooking before now. I'm pretty sure I've seen such a pot in your Mother's kitchen. My Mom used hers lots. I have one but U. Helmut was just asking the other day why I don't use it very often. Should you ever have to cook a beef heart I find that they come out very nice using the pressure cooker. It is good for other meats as well.
The baby wipes idea sounds economical but I don't know if Bounty paper towels would be available in remote areas. What ever happened to the idea of cleaning the baby's bottom with a wash cloth, soap & water?
Ah, you can tell this aunt is really old.
love you all, A. Jean
Well, I hope the wipes turn out for you all! I like mine, but don't expect them to be store-bought type quality. If you use good quality paper towels then the final product will be fairly durable.
Mix up the liquids separately, then pour it over the half roll. Allow the liquid to thoroughly soak through the roll, the peel out the cardboard from the middle. Place in a container with a lid (like an old wipes container). Pull the wipes from the middle. They should come apart at the perforations.
I had to pour a little excess liquid off after I knew that the roll was saturated.
A. Jean, I've used water and cloth wipes too with my cloth diapers- they work great, but I'm out of the habit right now and thought I'd try making some for a change. :) Pressure cookers- my Mom does use one all the time, but I never had one of my own and she didn't make me do too much with it growing up.
From scratch is so much fun, but it does take time and energy! I find that as long as I set the boys up with aome playdough, or another "hands on messy" craft they are usually content to let me get some kitchen work done!
They usually try to make cookies or bread them selves....
Can you bring yoru recipe book when you come this month? I would really enjoy seeing them.
Praying you have a great experience this week :)
I've been making the wipes since chloe was a baby and i found out she had allergies to whatever was in store bought diaper wipes. I use the bounty and put it in a 2L ice cream tub. I use 2 squirts of baby soap and 1 tablespoon about of olive oil(more natural then baby oil) and about 3/4 cup of water.. any more then that and I found the same as you they are too soggy and harder to use. The icecream tub works great because then you are pulling from the top not trying to pull them out the side. Ok there's my thoughts on that. But i wondered like aunt Jean.. in a jungle somewhere you'd probably end up using a cloth and soap eh? Again sounded like a good week.
Amy
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