July Food Storage item is Oil

I remember reading an article by President Benson when he visited Germany after WWII and seeing all the devastation left from the war.  He said that people had some food but the thing they didn't have was cooking oil to cook the food or use in making the food.  Oil and fat are an essential part of our diet so here are some storage ideas.

Cooking/Vegetable Oil: will store up to ONE year only; it MUST be labeled and rotated . Choose the highest quality cooking oil that you can afford.
Olive Oil: can be stored up to 3 to 4 years if you buy a good quality filtered extra virgin olive oil. It is best to get in smaller-type bottles.  When opened, if it is close to 4 years, it may go rancid perhaps faster than you would use it. Even though you are storing olive oil in a cool, dark place, still put a brown paper grocery bag over it to keep out ALL light.
Shortening: Crisco seems to store longer than other brands (the cans with the silver foil interior). 5 to 8 cans (3 lb. size) per person/one year (less if storing a variety of oil and shortening). Will store for 5 + years. 'Spectrum' brand has shortening with no trans-fats, look them up online if interested. 
Coconut Oil:  There are two types of coconut oil, Virgin and Copra.  Virgin is pressed from the coconut and bottled within generally 8 hours from the time the nut is opened.  It will appear as water in liquid form and have a nice coconut smell.  Copra coconut oil is made by allowing the coconut to sit in a warehouse for several months, is bleached and deodorized to cover the burnt smell and then processed with heat.  It will have a yellow color and no odor of coconut and will not store very long.  Coconut oil can be stored either in a liquid or solid state as it melts into a liquid at 75 degrees.  It generally has a storage life of 3 years or longer depending on how it is stored.  It should be stored in a temperature stable location and out of the light.  The test to tell if it, or any oil is good is the look and smell method.  If it is clear without any "floaties" and the cap is not bulged, open it and smell it.  If it smells like coconut oil, or the oil that it is, it is ok.  In any case, if you have had it for 8 years, get rid of it.  Another benefit of coconut oil is that you can use it on your skin to keep it soft. 

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: you can 'mix and match' oils/shortening you choose to store, just make sure to have 10 to 12 quarts per person/one year. (To help you figure amounts: one quart is 2 lbs. or 32 ounces).  If you open your shortening and find it has a bad smell, don’t throw it out, you can always put a wick down the middle of it and have a 30 day candle.


So there you go.  I will be posting some recipes that use different types of oil so keep watching.  For what it is worth, we store several types of oils.  We store virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, grape seed oil Crisco in the can corn oil, peanut oil and avocado oil.  The last three only in one quart size that we use regularly.  We also store powdered butter.  Honeyville Farms has a GREAT tasting powdered butter.  One trait of using powdered butter is that it will not melt when heated or spread on anything hot so don't use it to try to fry things with like regular butter.  It does taste like real butter and is great in recipes calling for butter, toast and pancakes.  If you are using it in a recipe, you don't reconstitute it before using.  Honeyville Farms also has powdered shortening.  Again, these two products are NOT a replacement for cooking oil.


Have fun with your food storage.
Bob and LouAnn Singer

June, the MILK month.

We are a little late posting this month.  The last part of May and the first two weeks of June have been very busy for us.  We built a storage shed out at my sisters house and then went back to Missouri for two weeks to pick up everything we had left there when we moved here.  We also attended two school graduations and a birthday while there.  FUN.  Towed the 6X12 Uhaul trailer full of our goodies home and then turned around and went to St. Johns Az. to attend the High School graduation of our oldest granddaughter.  Four days of rest and then off to Michigan to my Uncle Bob's 90th birthday.  We were there for two weeks and just got back.  Whew.  We traveled about 7000 miles in just over four weeks. Enough of our travels, lets talk about the food storage goal and this month's items. How are you doing?

June food storage tips:
Nonfat dry milk: 16 pounds per person/one year. This is an emergency supply of ONE (8 oz.) cup reconstituted milk per day, and meets minimum nutritional requirements. Keep in mind that children, and nursing/pregnant mothers will need more than this minimum. It takes only FOUR #10 cans of dry milk to equal the required 16 pounds.
Cannery hot cocoa: the church cannery carries an excellent-tasting hot cocoa mix. Even just two #10 cans would be a nice addition to your storage!! You can also make chocolate pudding with it.

Here is what the Utah State University has to say about using and storing nonfat dry milk.
USU storing Nonfat Dry Milk

 So, when you ask me what is the best nonfat dry milk to store, my answer would be, what ever brand you like the most.  Try a couple of different brands and then get what you like.  I don't work for Honeyville any more but I really like their brand of nonfat dry milk.   There are several websites that have good articles on using nonfat dry milk, just google "using nonfat dry milk".

Have fun with your food storage
Bob and LouAnn Singer

Beans Beans the Musical Fruit

Well, it's Toot month for the Stake Food Storage challenge.  Hey, if I can't have fun with it, oh well.
 
May food storage tips:
Legumes (dry beans, lentils, split peas): are a very important food storage item. They are little storehouses of fiber and nutrition. Store a minimum of 60 pounds per person/one year (about 2 cups of beans per pound, which is 120 cups per year). One cup of dry beans makes about 3 cups when cooked. Figuring one cup of cooked beans per day, then 60 pounds will interpret into 360 meals per year. It is important to find at least ONE kind of legume you are willing to eat. Lentils cook without soaking; but, as with all legumes, cook them in water only (salt/other ingredients inhibit beans from getting tender, and it makes the outer portion tough). Protein in legumes is incomplete, so eat cooked beans with the grains you store (wheat/rice/etc.) in order to complete the protein. Beans are good for diabetics as they digest slowly.
Note: always sort and rinse legumes before cooking. Best to rinse lentils in a screen-type colander.
Cooking lentils: 1 part lentils + 2 parts water, bring to boiling, cover, turn heat to low, cook about 40 minutes or until tender. Do not add salt. Brown lentils or green lentils are most common to find/buy.  We have several legumes that we particularly like.  We have Pink, Pinto, Garbanzo and Small White Beans in our food storage. 

Storing Legumes:  Long term storage of legumes can be done the same way as wheat. 
As beans age they lose their oils, resist water absorption and won't swell. Worst case, they must be ground to be used. Storing beans in nitrogen or oxygen absorbers helps prolong the loss of these oils as does cool temperatures. Hermetically sealed in the absence of oxygen, plan on a storage life of 8-10 years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F. They should keep proportionately longer if stored at cooler temperatures. 

Here is our first easy recipe.  I make these often because they are so good.  Remember, the more often you serve legumes in your diet, the more your body will become accustom to them and the less uncomfortable side effects you will have.

Rinse one pound of Pinto Beans and put them in a large crock pot.  Add 1/4 cup of dehydrated onions, 2 Tablespoons of minced garlic and two ham hocks or 1 cup of freeze dried ham and fill up the crock pot to just below the top of the crock with water.  Turn the crock pot on high and let it cook overnight.  You will awake to the most wonderful smell.  Salt to taste.  Make up a pan of cornbread from last months cornmeal food storage buy and enjoy.  To add a little spice to it, add in a teaspoon of freeze dried jalapeno. 

Enjoy your food Storage.
Bob and LouAnn Singer

Oatmeal Delights

I told you that I would put a couple of recipes using rolled oats on the blog so here is my favorite two.  My mother's Famous Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and Meatloaf so here we go.  

Famous Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

¾ C Shortening

1 C Brown Sugar

½ C Granulated Sugar

1 Egg

¼ C Water

1 tsp Vanilla

1C Sifted Flour

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp Baking Soda

3 C Rolled Oats

Raisins

Beat shortening, sugars, egg, water and vanilla until creamy.  Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.  Stir in oats.  Add raisins to liking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Oh Yeah, these are GRRRRRRRR eate!

Now for my Meatloaf.  I LOVE meatloaf.  It is so easy to make and soooooooo good. Whip up a batch of mashed potatoes from your food storage potato flakes, put some freeze dried green beans on to boil and what more could you ask for.  OH OH.  Reconstitute some fat free powdered CHOCOLATE MILK and you have all the food groups you need.  Did you know that Chocolate is a food storage item?  OF COURSE!

Meat Loaf

Ingredients

1 egg beaten
1 cup rolled oats, uncooked
1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
1 small onion finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup Ketchup

Preparation

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Pack into 9 x 4 x 3 inch greased loaf pan. Spread more Ketchup on top of the loaf.  Bake at 375 F for about 50 minutes.

If you have any favorite recipes for this month's food storage items, let us know.

Have fun with your food storage.

Bob and LouAnn Singer

Especially for Rice

I'll admit it.  I LOVE rice.  I probably came to realize that when I was in the Air Force flying in Weather Reconnaissance around the world.  We would go to Japan for 30 days at a time about every six months.  I loved eating off base in the little town of Fussa.  It was right outside Yokota Air Force Bases' main gate.  We would go out in the evening walking around town and then decide on which new restaurant we were going to eat at.  Most of these places were little mom and pop places but they always had good rice.  The funny thing about the restaurants was they had a sample all the dishes listed on the menu made in plastic to match the colors of the food displayed in their front windows if they were a downstairs store.  The meal was all laid out on the plastic plate and looked real.  I have had about every flavor of fried rice I think there was.  Shrimp fried rice, chicken fried rice, beef fried rice and even octopus fried rice.  So, this being the month in the Stake challenge that includes rice to add to your food storage, I thought I would add some information on it. 

The world has over 50 000 edible plants. Just three of them, rice, maize and wheat, provide 60 percent of the world's food energy intake.  Rice is a staple food for nearly one-half of the world’s population. In 1990, the crop was grown on 145.8 million hectares of land, and production amounted to 518.8 million metric tons of grain. Although rice is grown in 112 countries, about 95 percent of the crop is grown and consumed in Asia. Rice provides fully 60 percent of the food intake in Southeast Asia and about 35 percent in East Asia and South Asia. The highest level of per capita rice consumption takes place in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam.

Now that we have the facts, lets talk about how to prepare rice.  It seemed to be a mystery to me for a long time on how much water to cook it in.  I have found generally, that two times the water for the amount of dry rice works.  Here is what I got from Chef Tess.

1 cup Uncooked Rice            Cooking Liquid          Cooking Time          Yeild
Long grain white                     1 3/4 cups                     20 min                       3 to 4 cups
Long grain brown                    2 1/4 cups                     40-45 min                  3 to 4 cups
Parboiled                                 2 cups                           25-30 min                  3 to 4 cups
Medium grain                          1 1/2 cups                     20-30 min                  3 cups
Short grain                               1 1/4 cups                     20-30 min                  3 cups

Cooking Tips
Use broth, fruit juices or coconut milk in place of water for a change of flavor.
Measure accurately; use dry method for rice, wet method for liquid.
Time cooking accurately; use kitchen timer.
Do not open lid during cooking or moisture will be lost.
Do not stir rice or you will disturb steam vents needed for cooking. 
Rice will expand to 3 to 4 times its volume, so use appropriate size saucepan or casserole dish.
If rice is crunchy and liquid has been completely absorbed, add additional liquid, cover and cook 3 to 4 minutes linger.  Fluff with fork.  That is Chef Tess' way.  

Bob's way.
1.  Determine how much rice you are going to cook.  Put twice that amount of water in a sauce pan remembering that it will expand 3-4 times the amount you put in.  So, of you are going to cook 1 cup of dry rice, put 2 cups of water in the saucepan.
2.  Cover the pan and bring the water to a rolling boil.
3.  Add the dry rice into the saucepan, stir it, recover and turn your burner down to low.  Watch it so it doesn't boil over while the burner cools down.
4.  After about 20 minutes, uncover it and look into the saucepan.  Stick a spoon in it and move the rice to see if there is any water left.  If so, recover and let it cook a little longer until the water is all gone.  When there is no more water in the pan, sample it to see if it is done.  I have never had it not be done cooking it this way.  Now take it out and finish making what ever it was you were going to make with it.  I love making fried rice with all kinds of different things in it.  I even made hot dog fried rice one night.  haha.  I cut the hot dogs width wise, about 1/4 inch thick and then fried it up with the rice adding some soy sauce, dehydrated onion and garlic salt in it.  

Remember that rice can be stored just like wheat and for the same duration with the exception that you can't store brown rice for long term.  It will go rancid after 3-4 years.

The next blog will be about rolled oats.

Have fun with your food storage.
Bob and LouAnn Singer