Cheesy Potato Soup

This is a recipe that Russ's wonderful sister Marilyn gave to us years ago and I recently rediscovered. It is a hit with every member of our family, which is saying a lot! I like that the ingredients are pretty flexible — we didn't have any celery and it was just fine. I added some broccoli and it was delicious. I made a double batch the other night and we had a nice amount left. Yum!

Cheesy Potato Soup
(makes 8 cups)
2 c. cubed potatoes
1/2 c. celery chopped
1/2 c. chopped carrots
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
4 c. boiling water

Put in large pot and simmer for about 10 min. or until carrots and potatoes are soft.

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. flour
2 c. milk
10 oz. grated cheddar cheese

Make white sauce. I always make mine in the microwave because I don't have to worry about anything scorching. Melt the butter, then add the flour and cook again until bubbly. Add half of the milk, wisk until smooth. Add the rest of the milk. Cook until it bubbles and thickens. (I know--I'm such a precise cook!) Stir in cheddar cheese, and add to veggie mix in pot.

2 cans corn

Add to everything else, heat through.

If you want a stronger corn flavor, like a corn chowder, add cream style corn. If you use regular corn it's more of a potato soup with veggies.

In Search of the Provident Pantry

I'm not sure where I was when the church announced the shift from accumulating a year's food storage to "a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet...gradually increasing your supply until it is sufficient for three months." Somehow I missed it, though, and this fall one of my goals is to make a 2 week (and eventually a 4 week) menu that can be used to figure out what exactly I would need to buy to achieve this.

One of the first things I realized as I started thinking about this last spring is that most of the food we eat is fresh or frozen--and storing three months of that is impossible. So I started looking for recipes that we already like that could be adapted by using canned or freeze-dried foods instead of fresh or frozen.

I'm going to keep track of my recipes here on my blog, where the rest of my brain already resides. At some point I'll also embed a spreadsheet to tell me what I will need to buy to have this 3 month's supply. All of this is of course for my benefit. But maybe you'll see some good, storage-able recipes that your family would like too!

Food Storage Experiment #1

For dinner the other night I made bread sticks. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to experiment with some of my new food storage. Because I was busy & didn't want to get out the wheat grinder, I decided to use the multi-grain rolled cereal. I put 1/4 cup of it in the blender and blended until it was mostly fine. Then I added the ground cereal to the flour I was using for the bread sticks. I also drizzled olive oil on the dough & sprinkled it with oregano.

I love the taste and texture of multi-grain bread, and I think that's what I was looking for. The texture turned out great, but I would have still liked more flavor. Next time I think I'll add more of the finely blended flour to see if it affects the flavor more.

Experiments in Food Storage

Our stake is lucky to be included in a massive order from Walton Feed twice a year. Last year I ordered a bunch of basics for our food storage. This year I ordered more wheat (you always need more wheat, don't you?) but decided that I was going to order some products that I was curious about and see how I liked them.

The only problem is that I placed the order about 6 months ago, and now that the stuff is here I can't remember what I was going to do with some of it!

Here's what I got:

I also got a #10 can of baking powder, which seemed like a good idea at the time. We go through a lot of baking powder (lots of pancakes in our house) and I'm always annoyed at how often I have to buy those tiny little cans. But can we really use 80 ounces within 6 months of opening the can? I guess we will see.

If you're wondering what some of these things look like, here are pics with the cans opened. As you can tell the oat groats can was reluctant to be parted from it's lid. Completely unwilling, in fact, even when pliers were used. The oat groats now reside in an old can and that uncooperative can has been sent to recycle heaven. (Now if only Katie would get back from France soon to tell me what I should do with oat groats!

dehydrated refried beans, clear jel (a thickener for hot foods), 9 grain cracked cereal

7 grain blend, oat groats, 6 grain rolled cereal

Emergency Preparedness Test

Last night as I was making dinner the sky darkened ominously. Soon drops of rain started to fall, and I could hear muted thunder in the distance. Simultaneously I thought "Cool, I love a thunderstorm" and "I hope Russ isn't driving home with the top down!"

I listened to the rain and thunder as I continued preparing the potato soup. As the thunder got louder and closer, I suggested to the big boys that it was probably a good idea to shut down the computers.

Good thing they did, because not 3 minutes later the power went off, then on again, then off, on, and finally, off. Of course we expected that it would come on again quickly, but it didn't.

I wasn't too worried. I went out onto the screened in porch to enjoy the rain, and within a few minutes it had lightened up enough to read. The little kids scrounged a flashlight from somewhere so that they could keep playing legos in the living room. And we waited.

Eventually Russ got home (he'd had the top up, thankfully, and says that pounding rain and thunder are both very loud in a convertible!) and suggested that since there was a burner on the grill, we could finish dinner out there. I was more interested in finishing my book, but I did tell him what needed to be done to finish the soup. (Really, it was almost done. All he had to do was boil some broth. Seriously. I wanted to read!)

When it got too dark to read, I went in to eat. I couldn't remember where I'd put the larger scented candles, so we had only 1 small candle and an emergency candle at the table. (I'm wondering now if the emergency candle would have given off more light if I had pulled the wick up farther. I'll have to give that a try. Right after I find the pliers, because that wick is pretty tight.) We managed to find several small flashlights, and finally Russ remembered that we also have a hurricane lamp.

The hurricane lamp definitely gave the most light. At least until the wick ran out. After that happened Russ scrounged around and finally found the hiding place for the scented candles. At least things smelled good, but there still wasn't much light. We were all delighted when the lights popped back on about 8:00 or 8:30.

Every now and then I appreciate a test run of our emergency preparedness. Not like a complete and total test of no power for 24 hours with freezing temperatures and 2 year old triplets. That was brutal, although I did learn from it and the resulting party will forever be one of my favorite memories.

But last night was a gentle test, and immediately I could see that we need some serious help in the "emergency lighting" department. I'd pretty much assumed that since I owned 5 of those emergency candles I was set, but I learned last night that I really want much more light than that.

The other thing I realized is that I have got to stop buying flashlights and then letting the kids play with them. Or perhaps I need to buy 2x the flashlights and let the kids play with half of them and put the others away for the next emergency.

I think I'm also investing in a couple of those battery operated lanterns. I'll have to hide those too...

True Story: Russ was talking to his brother in Atlanta who relayed this story. The other evening their home teachers were over and there was a thunderstorm. (Atlanta gets some pretty amazing thunderstorms.) WHILE the home teacher was saying the closing prayer, the house was struck by lightning. All of the tv's are now dead. I'm not sure what that says about the home teacher...

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UPDATE: I'm sure you'll all be just so relieved to know that this very morning Russ found someone selling 4 hurricane lamps on Craigslist, and he picked them up at lunchtime. Of course now the power probably won't go out for another 4 years, but we'll be ready then!