Kiddo Swap for Institute

The new season is out, featuring Brother Edmonds as the Institute teacher. Choose the channel you'd like to tune into (Book of Mormon, Old Testament, etc), then hop on the phone/internet/blog and find someone to swap kiddo-watch with so that you can go be spiritually uplifted during the week.

RS Book of Mormon Challenge- Closing Ceremonies

(Wednesday (the 11th) at 7pm in RS room.)

This is also a great place to shout out some of your thoughts about the Book of Mormon Challenge, and how it has influenced you over the last few months.
Just click on "comment" and leave your experience if you care to share!

Deals in town

FREE 5 Gallon Buckets
You can store wheat, rice, sugar, 72 hour kits, toys, tools, car stuff, kitty litter, rock salt... you name it.
FREE at your local bakery upon asking. Most of the icing comes in huge 5 gallon buckets, and they just get rid of them at most bakeries here.  Save-Mart on Anderson & Covell doesn't have big ones, but Wal-Mart does. I've already gotten 2 there for free. I just ask when I go shopping. There are these cool lids you can get too called Gamma lids that cost money, but make getting in and out of the buckets SO easy.

50 cent VEGGIES at Wal Mart
Libby's green beans, peas, and corn at 50 cents at wal mart this week.

50 cent cream of chicken/cream of mushroom
Campbell's are on sale right now at WalMart

49 cents/lb for apples at Yolo Fruit stand

Pretzel Recipe (from Jess)

Aunt Annie's Soft Pretzels
http://110dinnerclub.blogspot.com/search/label/bread (on my recipe blog)

 (NOTE FROM JESS: Literally just immerse them in the solution momentarily and move them right onto the sprayed cookie sheet!)

Rachel's Pita Bread

The recipe is HERE and there are important things to note on making this YUMMY pita bread:

(http://allrecipes.com/recipe/peppys-pita-bread/detail.aspx in case you want the link.)

Rachel uses a pastry cloth, which is like a huge piece of canvas material that has been "seasoned" with flour, and using it means you don't have to plop flour all over the counter each time you do a bread recipe.

Notes to the recipe:

-highlight items on a recipe that go into the bread machine first. Makes life easier. (Recipe does not have to be done in bread machine though!)

- when it says to "gently roll & stretch", it's actually already the 12" it asks for, so you don't have to do it.

- when it says to separate dough with a "knife", Rachel suggests what she does: pinching the sections off instead using just your fingers

-1 ball is about 6-7 inches before it's baked (and maybe a little less than 1/2 inch thick?)

-Some of the rolled out dough balls sit out longer by the pure nature of having to wait for others to get outta the over first. The dough can get sticky with time, so flour the "last to go in the oven" pitas a little more heavily so they don't stick to the pastry cloth (or counter).



Making Bread more Nutritional - by Lisa

Lisa's Amazing Wheat Bread Recipe
(*preheat oven to 350)

• 3 and 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 and 1/2 cups Hot Water
• 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons Yeast
• about 1/3 cup Gluten (has tons of protein, and increases denseness/chewiness)

Mix these and let it rise for about a minute or two. Then add:

• 1-2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice (change based on your preference) (This contains Vit A, Vit C, helps the digestive tract and even kills worms. Who knew??)
• 2 Tablespoons OLIVE OIL (This is used instead of 1/3 cup Veg oil because Olive Pil is a heavier oil that has Omega 3s and Omega 6s.
• about 1/3 cup Flax Seeds (or Ground Flax- no real differences in nutrition that anyone knew of)
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses (gives it the browner color and gives a little sweetness)
• Dash in some Wheat Germ
• 1 Tablespoon of Salt (err on the side of less)
• 1/2 cup sugar**, if you use any at all. Use less sugar if you've used molasses
• 2 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat (for a total of about 6 cups in the whole recipe)

Oven to 350 degrees for around 18 mins, but keep an eye and nose on it! 
Lisa goes by color. Others check bread when it has a strong yummy bread smell.

• (optional and less healthy:) Brush butter over the top when they come out of the oven

Other tips and bits of information shared:
-You can use Coconut oil instead of Vegetable Oil for a much healthier alternative. Yes, it's fat, but it's good fat.  It looks like shortening. It used to be super cheap, the standby everybody used until Corn fields began being subsidized by the Fed. Gov'mt and now most people use Veg. /Canola Oil, etc.
-Mono & Poly fats are good.  Trans and Saturated are bad.
-Coconut oil container says that coconut oil + hemp oil + olive oil builds up the perfect balance of Omega 3s.
-Lisa gets hers off Amazon in order to buy bigger containers of it.
-Rye and Barley are not as nutritionally dense as whole wheat, even though they're in the spotlights lately in the latest of health crazes.

White Bread (Tasha's Recipe)

1 ½ cups warm water 1 cup warm milk
2 Tbsp. Sugar 2 Tbsp. Sugar
1 pkg. Yeast (1 Tbsp) 1 Tbsp. Salt
6 ½ cups flour 3 Tbsp. Oil

Combine water, sugar, yeast, and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Cover and let rise until light and spongy. Mix together remaining ingredients except flour. Stir down yeast mixture; stir in milk mixture. Stir in remaining flour. Knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise until double. Punch down, divide in half. Put in 2 large or 3 small, greased and floured loaf pans. Cover and let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.

Tips:
*It is better to have too warm of water than too cold.
*Kneading helps the bread to be tasty, don't be afraid to knead a lot
*Before you shape your dough and put into bread pans, make sure it is the consistency that you want. Consistency is the key to good bread. At least that is what I believe.

Fun variations:
*try adding herbs/spices for an herb/spices bread (add with last flour)
*before putting into bread pans, roll it out and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar (or Parmesan cheese and garlic, or whatever you would like) onto the bread. Then roll up like you are making cinnamon rolls and put on a greased cookie sheet. Gives you a french looking loaf with yummy goodness rolled inside.

Healthier variations:
*substitute applesauce for the oil (same amount basically, but could effect the amount of flour, go for the perfect consistency)
*replace ½ of the white flour with wheat (if you want to use all wheat flour, a recipe for wheat bread is better) note: I find that wheat flour is drier than white flour so it could change the amount of flour you need just slightly
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NOTES FROM TODAY:
- Higher altitude means a little more yeast should be added
-I pkg yeast = 2 and 1/4 teaspoon yeast
-You can dye bread to make pumpkin looking breadbowls, but it's a lotttttta dye, and you can also google "natural dyes" to find some alternatives to the regular dye.
-You don't have to put the dough in bread pans. You can let it stay in an elongated form (like how italian bread is sold in the store)
-you can score the loaf before hand (cut very shallow streaks or designs on the top of the raw bread loaf) to make it look really cool when it comes outta the oven.
-WAYS TO TEST wheat dough elasticity (stretchiness) of bread to see if it's a good consistency: 1) Poke it and see if it bounces back. 2) "Window Test" where you pick it up, pull it apart (like you're pulling saran wrap outta the box, not just pulling) and see if it stays together and stretches (but doesn't break right away). 3) Should start to pull from the side of the bowl and form a large stuck-together mass.