Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Did I Say Real Butter?

Why yes I did! My friend and I spent a few hours turning real butter into food storage butter! I promise its really easy, so easy its silly not to have some real butta in your store house!
Buy any butter on sale. Cheaper butter requires more shaking but the results are the same.
Heat jars in 250 degree oven for 20 minutes without seals or lids. One pound of butter will fill one pint jar with a little leftover. 11 lbs = 12 jars.

While jars are heating, start on your butter.
Melt all butter until it comes to a slow boil. Use a spatula to stir bottom so the butter will not burn. Once it comes to a boil reduce heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
When jars and butter are done, you will then pour the butter into the jars. Leave 3/4 of head space in the jar so you have room to shake the butter.

Once butter is in the jars, carefully wipe off the top of the jars. Get a hot lid from your simmering water and place on top of the jar. Then seal tightly with the ring. Wait for your butter jar to "ping". When the jars are still warm being shaking them. Do this every so often until the jars have cooled off.
It's time to place the jars in the fridge.

You will then set your timer for 5 minutes. Once the timer goes off you will shake each jar. You will continue to do this until the butter becomes a solid. This process takes about 30 minutes.


Look how pretty it looks! The wonderful thing about the butter. . . it will not melt! It will last for up to 5 years, maybe longer we just don't know yet!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Prepardness Drill

On Sunday a few families were asked to go 1 week on the food in their homes. I thought okay, I can do this BUT, then we were asked to act out one day as if we were hit with a disaster. We are to use our 72 hour kits for food and we are not to use our electricity. Ouch! I knew this would be a little bit tough but how wrong I was. It sucks! We all had oatmeal for breakfast along with our lotion tasting hot chocolate! BARF! For lunch I TRIED to eat a Campbell's drink soup? GROSS! I couldn't even finish it. I then moved on to a cup of noodles. . . . gross, it tastes like lotion! I'm going to suffer with dry skin on our next emergency! Here is the plus to this. . . my Ritz crackers taste wonderful! My winter green breath mints taste awesome but I just want to chew them all up because I'm so hungry! I'll need a bag per day next time. My bad cuz my 72 hour kit is 1 year old. I now know the importance of changing it out every 6 months. For now. . . . I'm hungry! :(

Here are the girls getting ready for the night with flashlights in hand!

Husband had to get a picture! I will say that my headlight is awesome! I love having my hands free, it made reading a breeze!

It's my lucky day! My guardian angels arrived with a plate of yummy treats! I'm NOT cheating friends because in a real disaster if someone brought me treats I would eat them! I'm only cheating due to the fact that I am blogging this! :)


Sunday, March 22, 2009

Our Little Star

This was Morgan's first year in drama and she had a great time! She landed the role of a court jester and she did an awesome job! These are Morgan's friends Andrea and Hannah.

Grandma and Grandpa cheering Morgan on!

Dad, Mom and Makelle











Makelle, Morgan, Todd and Jamie.




Morgan and her two biggest fans! :)
Thanks for coming everyone!







Friday, March 20, 2009

That's My Man!

Yep, we went to the Temple today only to find my MAN wearing two different colored shoes! :) That is. . . after we left the session! We apparently go together because I didn't even notice! :)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Of Course She's Excited. . .

but I'm not! :( This means she's growing up and its happening way to fast!
My baby will never look the same! Of course, I think she'll only get more beautiful! :)


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Chocolate Gravy Anyone?

This was such a fun family home evening! Marsha Barnhart came over to teach us how to make chocolate gravy. The thought of chocolate gravy sounded quite gross! This was part of the morning meal if you lived in the Midwest. . . back in the day.
Marsha taught us how to make biscuits from scratch too!


She was great with the girls and they were diggin it!





This is my cute friend Grandma Shafer stirrin' the pot! We go visiting teaching together! :)
Here it is . . . biscuits and chocolate gravy! It looks weird but oh so tasty! Want to give it a try? Well here you go. . . .
Chocolate Gravy
2 T coco
4 T sugar
2 T flour
Mix. Add in 2 T. flour and 1 c. milk. Stir continually on low heat until it bubbles. Then add in 1 t. butter and 1/4 t. vanilla. The trick is to keep adding flour and milk to make the gravy thickness the way you like it. *Just like making white gravy. When making gravy for the 7 of us we tripled the recipe! Good luck and let me know what you think!