March Food Co-op

Standard share for $23 (Shown Below)
1 pkg. 2/8 oz. top sirloin steaks, 1 pkg. 4/5 oz. pork chops, 1 pkg. 2-lbs. chicken legs/thighs, 1 pkg. 1 lb. lean ground beef, 1 3-lb. bag yellow onions, 6 lemons, 8 Fuji apples, 1 cantaloupe, 3 red bell peppers, 1 head Romaine lettuce, 2 avocados, 6 tomatoes, 1 loaf Stone Ground's Artisan Wheat bread (not shown), and 1 16 oz. bag brown rice


The harvest share was $14 for: 1 3-lb. bag yellow onions, 8 lemons, 9 apples, 1 cantaloupe, 4 red bell peppers, 1 head Romaine lettuce, 3 avocados, 8 tomatoes, 1 bunch asparagus, 1 loaf Stone Ground's Artisan Wheat bread and 1 16 oz. bag rice.

The half share was $14 for: 1 pkg. l lb. lean ground beef, 1 pkg. 4/5 oz pork chops, 5 lemons, 7 apples, 1 cantaloupe, 2 red bell peppers, 1 head Romaine lettuce, 1 avocado, 6 tomatoes, 1 loaf Stone Ground's Artisan Wheat bread and 1 16 oz. bag rice.

The order for April is due by Friday, April 10th with pick-up on Saturday, April 25th. For more information visit www.foodco-op.net. which takes you to the community food co-op of Utah.

Just Simple Cornbread

Jessica made cornbread for her cooking assignment. It turned out good but this particular recipe wasn't as sweet as some variations. It rose nicely and the taste was fine.

Copycat Sweetened Condensed Milk

This is another of those days where I'm indebted to Recipezaar.com. We needed some sweetened condensed milk and didn't want to go to the store since it's Sunday. Cooking is an acceptable Sabbath activity in our home but not going to the store. We shop during the week or go on Saturday to avoid shopping on Sunday. See this great article by Elder Earl C. Tingey at LDS.Org from the May 1996 Ensign for more about shopping on the Sabbath.

So we turned to the World Wide Web and one of my favorite cooking sites, Recipezaar.

There they have a multitude of recipes with pictures and ratings and suggestions. We quickly found a promising recipe comprised of nonfat dry milk, sugar, water, butter and vanilla. Moments later Jessica had a finished batch that's the equivalent of a 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk. Click on this sentence for a link to the recipe (or look for the recipe with copycat sweetened condensed milk in the title.)

So we've discovered yet another use for powdered milk since the recipe turned out delicious if just a slight bit grainy in comparison to the canned sweetened condensed milk.

Just out of curiosity, how many of us were raised in families that made caramel from sweetened condensed milk by completely immersing the can in water and boiling it for hours?

(They don't recommend this anymore as the cans can explode if not complete immersed the entire time and molten caramel can cause severe burns.)

St.Patrick's Day Shakes

Jessica combined milk, ice cream, oreos, green food coloring and creme de menthe flavoring oil to make shakes for St. Patrick's day. They were cool and refreshing with a light green color to maintain the color coordination for the holiday.



On a side note, I buy most my flavoring oils from Bakers C & C.

Old Faithful with 3 Ingredients

Jessica has been pressed for time with all of her practicing and various musical practice sessions so she kept the recipe for this week simple and sweet. Just butter, marshmallows and crisp rice cereal to make traditional Rice Krispy Treats.

Jessica starting doing free-form treats on a cookie sheet a couple of years ago since she found that it kept the treats airy and easier to consume. With this shape, one just pulls off the desired amount of treat instead of cutting the treats which inevitably crushed them and left a fair amount of crumb residue. So one gets more choices in size and shape and with less mess using the free-form method. Although it can play havoc with trying to figure out portion size..... how much of a handful is one serving?

Fried Mushrooms and a joke

One day it started raining. And a squirrel found a mushroom to sit under. Then a frog hops along and asks, "Is there any more room under the mushroom?" And the squirrel says, "There's Mush Room!".


(Sarah came up with this joke on the way home one day.)

I thought it was clever and cute.


Jessica made fried mushrooms for her home cooking assignment this week. (Sorry for the blurry pictures-I was trying to get the pictures before the food was consumed.)


First you start with some Tempura batter mix that you just mix with water. We used Krusteaz brand since that's what we had in the cupboard. For more info, visit their website at: www.krusteaz.com

Wash and thoroughly dry some fresh mushrooms. Coat mushrooms and cook in hot corn oil until golden brown.


The first batch came out lightly golden brown and didn't get eaten quite as quickly. But then the second batch came out more golden and were all gone within a few minutes of frying them. I was lucky to get a picture of a few of the golden mushrooms.

It was also reassuring that Jessica was so careful around the hot oil.

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

A feel good horse book. Seabiscuit wasn't perfect but he had heart and loved to race. I listened to the audio book and enjoyed hearing the story of this famous racehorse and the people who trained, rode and cared for him.