A Sprinkle of Time Saving Tips

• Chop a large amount of nuts and place them in the freezer for later use to save some chopping.
• To keep apple slices from browning on your fruit platter, dip them in orange juice.
• The sharper your knife is, the less accidents you will have because your knife will do what it's supposed to do, cut through.
• Zest your scrap lemons and place zest in freezer containers for later use.
• Use an ice cream scoop to form equal amounts of cookie dough or to fill muffin tins.
• Instead of sifting flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together when baking, just simply whisk them together to remove any lumps.
• Tuck stray bread bags or Ziploc baggies into an empty paper towel roll. Tuck away in a drawer.
• Use clothespins instead of bread ties to easily close open bags.
• Instead of having to wash and dry your lettuce every time you need it, try this simple time saving tip: After you bring your lettuce home from the store and before you have to make a salad, wash your greens. Grab a laundry bag that's used for nylons or delicates and place your wet greens inside (use this bag strictly for lettuce alone). Place bag in your empty washing machine and run your greens through the last spin cycle. Voila! Dry lettuce to be stored in a bag in the fridge for your salads throughout the week.
• Store grains and beans in jars or containers on your counter for easy access.
• Do most of your dinner preparations earlier in the day to avoid stress at meal time.
• Freeze casseroles ahead of time.
• Purposely make extra of your meals or save leftovers in the freezer for future meals.
• Put spices on a turntable for easy access.
• Alphabetize your spices with stickers and number them. When looking for a particular spice, look for it alphabetically. When putting it away, put it in numerical order to keep organized.
• Soak your beans overnight in a crock pot on low for next day use.

(Taken from my Wholesome Food Preparation course by Sue Gregg) ~Alli

Ahhh! A Wonderful Daughter

Today, after a particularly hard day, I came into the kitchen and found this.

What a surprise and a relief to find a carefully prepared dinner all ready to go into the oven!!!! Directions were even on the chicken enchiladas. Homemade salad dressing in the mason jar. Spanish rice in the Tupperware!!! I cannot tell you how wonderful it was. Alli is such a blessing to me. Thank you Alli, I love you ~Mom

Philly Cheesy Pizza Dip

Last night, we tried out "Philly Cheesy Pizza Dip" for our Friday family fun night. It was an immediate hit with our family! Doesn't it remind you of Christmas with the red and green? Mom found this recipe in the new issue of Food and Family by Kraft. That is a great magazine by the way, and the subscription is free! Inside are some delicious and cheap recipes like this one!

Philly Cheesy Pizza Dip

1 pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 C pizza sauce
1/2 C shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tbs each chopped red and green peppers
1 tsp Italian seasoning

Spread cream cheese onto bottom of 9 inch pie plate. Cover with pizza sauce; top with remaining ingredients. Microwave on high for 2 minutes (we baked ours in the oven at 400 until hot and bubbly) until heated through. Serve with Ritz crackers.

Makes 2 cups

~Alli

Roll Making Technique

Today I am making rolls! I love making rolls but whenever I do make them, they always turn out lumpy, uneven, and different sizes. :) That's why I was so excited when I learned about making yeast breads and rolls in my Wholesome Food Prep course because Sue Gregg taught a little trick you can use to get perfect even-sized rolls every time!

Step one: Take a little bit of dough and stretch it to make a mushroom cap (make sure your hands are greased well with oil so it isn't sticky!)

Step two: Shape your fingers in an "O" shape and push the dough up through it with your other fingers

Step three: Squeeeeeeze the dough to make a little puff like this (See my other fist? I must be squeezing this one really hard. :) It's a good way to take out all of your frustrations. ;) I have no idea what I was doing with that hand!)

After you've squeezed the dough, pinch the excess off of the bottom or tuck it under your roll. Isn't that neat? I love how this technique makes the tops of the rolls so smooth! Give it a try!

Ta da! And they actually rose this time...unlike my last attempt at making bread. :) I'm still blaming it on the yeast! ~Alli

A Very Chocolaty Birthday

Today is Mom's birthday! Because today was a special day, she was treated like a queen, of course! Instead of cake, we thought we'd try a new dessert for a treat after her birthday dinner. I decided to try making little chocolate bowls with chocolate mousse inside... a dieter's nightmare! I had seen some fancy chef make this dessert on a cooking show and I have been longing to make it because it looks so elegant!

Okay, I got off to a rough start. :) In order to make the chocolate bowls, you melt chocolate and then dip an inflated balloon in it to make the bowl shape. When it hardens in the refrigerator, you pop the balloon and...voila! Well, I was not thinking and dipped a balloon in piping hot chocolate fresh out of the microwave! KABOOM! There was chocolate all over the kitchen! I think I still have some in my hair. :) So, if you want to make this dessert, please make sure your chocolate has cooled!
To make the mousse: Whip a carton of whipping cream with a mixer or a whisk (the chef held three whisks together and whisked the cream making it go a lot faster!), melt some chocolate in a separate bowl (I used a bar of Baker's chocolate), then pour the whipped cream, a little bit at a time, into the melted chocolate. The chef added a scoop of whipped cream to the chocolate first to temper it and cool it down a little bit before adding the rest. Then you fold it together...not too much or the whipped cream will loose its fluffiness. Then, I scooped the mousse into a plastic baggie, snipped a corner, and piped it into the chocolate bowls. We had raspberries sprinkled on ours, but you could also use strawberries.
Mom's bowl :)

Oh another thing...if I were going to make this recipe again, I would make the bowls a lot smaller! This is a really rich dessert! It was very good though, and it is a recipe that is definitely going in the recipe box. :) The "queen" enjoyed it! Happy birthday Mom! We love you!

Cookin' Up A Storm

After worship on Sunday, our fellowship is having a harvest party! Mom and I decided to make caramel popcorn balls for the group... and boy was it sticky. :) We ended up quadrupling the recipe twice to get the amount of popcorn balls that we needed (about 65 medium-sized ones)! Mom and I did sneak a few samples though while we were mixing...after all, the cook has to taste her creation to make sure it's fabulous! ~Alli

The Trent family is celebrating the fall season a little early this year! Tonight, Mom fixed us apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an after-supper treat to eat on the deck outside. It's something about the crisp apples, buttery crust, and aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves that really warms the heart and makes you crave those changing leaves and cool temperatures. So bake an apple pie and enjoy! ~Alli

Black Bean Chowder

Ever since last Tuesday, I have been feeling a little "under the weather" with a tremendous craving for soup. :) Mom's homemade chicken and rice soup is always an automatic comforting food to me when I'm sick so I have been eating that all week! Along with chicken soup, I have also been craving another one of our favorites for lunch today : Black Bean Chowder.

We found this great recipe a few weeks ago from the Girotti's blog. It is absolutely fantastic and requires very little prep work. This recipe to us has a little Mexican feel to it with seasonings of cumin and chili powder. We doubled the ingredients this time so that we will be able to eat it for dinner tonight and have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. We have this meal very often in our house because it's so cheap, fast, and easy make! Please check out the recipe found here on the Girotti's blog...you will love it! ~Alli

Canning Day

One of the joys of having a garden is being able to enjoy it. Today, we decided to harvest our beets and pickle them. I do love canning, although it is hard work and takes forever! Here, Philip, Eric, and I are plucking up our row of beets for canning.


Finished! Eric looks like he's in pain, but the funny face is really from the heavy load. :)
After we picked our beets, we brought them over to the picnic table, washed them, and sliced off the excess stems. Mom then boiled the beets in our big pot until they were tender and ready to peel!

Once the beets were peeled and sliced, Eric and I stuffed them into hot canning jars. Our hands were beet red. :)

We then poured the brine over the sliced beets, removed the air bubbles, screwed on the lids, and set them in the canning pot to be processed.

"Pop!", "pop!"

Ah, the sound of a good canning day! Since we had some leftover brine, we decided to squeeze in a few jars of pickles as well. :) ~Alli