Pretty Pavlova

Pavlova was served to us in Estonia and Finland then I made it for a Relief Society meeting dessert and now make it at home.  It's been requested in place of birthday cake by our youngest.  Here is the Pavlova recipe I use.

Fire Bread

Since our youngest was just tiny, he has called "Fry Bread" at the Mountain Man Rendezvous, "Fire Bread"! It's mainly because he used to watch the Mountain Woman make them over a fire and because he ate them hot!

In anticipation of this event this week, we made them at home. We usually eat them for "Pioneer Day" as well in honor of our Mormon pioneers who ate them frequently along the Mormon Trail to Utah.

I've used the "Tiger Ears" recipe posted September 2007 usually, but decided to use this new one from the book "Boarding the Ark Today" which has recipes to make from your food storage.

Fry Bread
This bread is traditionally used as an edible plate.

2 cups flour, white or wheat
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup oil or shortening
1/2 to 2/3 cup water

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in bowl. Add oil and water all at once and mix with fork until soft dough forms; knead for 2 to 3 minutes. Cover and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Form dough into 6 to 8 balls. Flatten each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Deep fry in hot oil until crisp, about 1 minute on each side. Bread can also be baked on a griddle although it does not have the same traditional flavor. Serve with honey, honey butter (see recipe below) or sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
From "Boarding the Ark Today", page 30.

We had these for breakfast one with ham and cheese on it and another with honey butter on it. I served Cantaloupe with them.

You can also use these for lunch or dinner as Najavo Tacos where you top the fry bread with your favorite beans, grated cheese, diced hot peppers and onions, chopped tomatoes and shredded lettuce, etc.

Honey Butter
Making good fluffy honey butter is almost a lost art. A must for hot breads.

1 cube butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Whip butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add honey and vanilla. Adding honey too rapidly makes the butter lose its thick, fluffy consistency. Whip 2 to 3 minutes longer; cover and refrigerate. Stores well. Serve at room temperature.
From "Boarding the Ark Today", page 46.

Note: Our local pizza chain serves honey butter so that you can use it on your pizza crusts!

Sourdough Bread — A Mormon Tradition

I love San Francisco's sour dough bread. I'm excited to have a recipe for the sour dough starter because today I read an article By Dian Thomas about Sourdough Bread being a Mormon tradition, and I'll post the recipe part of it here with the link to the entire article too. http://www.ldsmag.com/enjoying/080327bread.html

Making Sourdough Starter

Your homemade starter will work just as well as one that has been passed down through generations. Some families pride themselves on its length of time in use, and many even give their starter a name.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1.5 cups warm water

In a crock or plastic container, combine flour, yeast, sugar and warm water. Leave at room temperature for 3 days, adding 1 cup of new flour and 1/2 cup warm water each day until batter

is active. You can tell the batter is active because the odor is pungent and the surface is bubbly. This occurs from the gas released by the action of the yeast.

At this point your starter is ready to form the basis of sourdough recipes. Remember to set aside 1 to 2 cups of starter for the next batch. The amount of dough you mix will depend on the number of bread loaves or biscuits desired.

What has Relief Society done for you?

Tonight was our Relief Society Birthday Celebration!

It's always so much fun to get together with other women to share good food and good conversation and be entertained.

We celebrated the contribution the Relief Society has made to so many lives, so much so that the average Laurel would never realize its impact.

Table SettingsDon't you just love these centerpieces. I think she did such a beautiful job with them!

I'm thankful they shared the recipes of what we made and brought with us. So I have them handy for my use from any internet connection, any day, I'll share them here too. We served minestrone soup, rolls, and key lime pie.

Minestrone Soup
1lb hamburger, browned
2 chopped onions
2 T. green peppers
4 stalks celery chopped
2c. potatoes, diced
3 c. carrots, diced
2 c. diced tomatoes
1/4 c. barley
1 1/2 qt. water
1 c. tomato or V8 juice
6 whole allspice
1 bay leaf
1 t. sugar
2 T. parsley
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
salt, pepper, season salt, garlic salt to taste
Simmer 3-4 hours or put in crockpot for 10-11 hours on low or 5-6 hours on high.

I'd suggested sorbet to cleanse the pallet and they decided to serve it this fun way.

Frozen Key Lime PieFrom "Favorites" Crust: 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs 2 tablespoons sugar ¼ cup butter, melted Mix together and press into a 9 inch springform pan. Freeze for 15 minutes. Filling: 1 pint lime sherbet 1 pint Haagen-Dazs zesty lemon sorbet 1 pint vanilla frozen yogurt 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice Soften and mix together in mixer. Spoon into crust. ¼ cup coconut, toasted Fresh limes for garnish Sprinkle with toasted coconut. Freeze for at least 4 hours. Let stand 15 minutes before slicing. Serve with sliced limes on top.

Favor
Easter colored candies served as the take home favor in fun carrot shaped boxes.

Program

Our program was two part -- first a play about the role of Relief Society and then 3 sisters shared how RS stepped in to help each of them. I know I've been helped by the Relief Society organization. It doesn't matter where I've lived or visited, I've found instant friends, enrichment and consistency.
I'm so grateful for Relief Society in my life.

3 Reasons to Serve Cherry Chocolate Trifle in February

Whether you want to serve a red and chocolate dessert for Valentine's Day or something cherry to honor honest George Washington's legend of chopping down the Cherry tree, try this delicious Cherry Chocolate Trifle.

February is also time for the annual LDS Stake Relief Society Women's Conferences. This recipe, served in the 90s at the Menlo Park, California Stake Relief Society Women's Conference, was a hit.

Cherry Chocolate Trifle

Ingredients:
In large glass bowl layer:
1/2 baked Devil's food cake, cut in 1 inch cubes
1/2 chocolate instant pudding (2 small packages made with 3 c milk)
1/2 large carton cool whip
1/2 can comstock cherry pie mix
Repeat layers

Directions:
Chill a few hours before serving.

This year we get to listen to Sheri Dew at our RS Women's Conference! I wonder what they'll serve at ours and what they will serve at yours.

Calculate your own family size's food storage needs

Prompted by Sunday's RS lesson on self-reliance, here is a link to a calculatorhttp://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm where you can instantly calculate your own family size's food storage needs.

Another good site is http://www.providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,2003-1,00.html where you can learn about Three-Month Supply, Drinking Water,Financial Reserve and Longer-Term Supply.

Are we prepared? The blessing of a supply of food, drinking water, money, clothing, etc. comes in handy not only in a disaster (unless it's destroyed), but in times of illness or unemployment, in otherwards when cash flow is interrupted, but needs to eat drink and pay bills are not.

We made Mummo's porridge for Mummo

My mother is staying with us for a few days while my Dad is away and the kids wanted Mummo's Porridge which is really known as:
Marja Puuro (Berry Porridge)

8 c cranberry juice
1/2 c sugar to sweeten.

Bring to boil and then slowly sprinkle in 1 cup of instant cream of wheat with a wisk. Lower the heat, but still let it bubble. Cook for 10 minutes with a lid on.

Now, pour it into a large pyrex type bowl. Place the bowl in a pan of cold water. Beat the mix until it's much lighter in color. My mother used to tell me to stick out my tongue and when it looks that color, it's done. Keep it on the counter top for at least an hour and then serve with milk or half and half and a sprinkle of sugar. It goes especially well with Finnish Pulla bread.

My mother served this combination upon arrival of many guest in our home, especially each time a new group of Mormon missionaries on their way to Finland came to our home for an evening of Finnish cuisine and culture.

Our kids now call this Mummo's Porridge and plain cream of wheat or farina Papa's Porridge because it's what each often made for them when we'd visit. My Dad makes breakfast, so we'd have his then and my Mother did the rest of the cooking, until her health prevented her from her passion of cooking. We still asked her lots of questions while we were making it, since we don't make it too often and wanted to make sure we did it correctly since it was being made for the expert.

Now my kids especially like it on Valentine's Day since it's pink. I didn't get it made this V-Day since I didn't have cranberry juice on hand, so we did it today.