Grocery Specials

Reading the ads this week I found a few things I thought worth mentioning.

Cash & Carry
1 lb bricks of Darigold butter--$2.48 per lb.
They also have some really great meat specials this week.  If you are interested, click HERE to be directed to the Hot Sheet this week.  Scroll down the page to the Hot Sheet Specials.

Albertsons
Tuna--59 cents per can

Smiths
Kroger Butter-- 2/$5

Ridleys--
24 pack Western Family Bottled water--3 cases for $5.  (approximately 7cents per bottle)
2 gallons free milk when you buy 4 boxes General Mills Cereal (or several other options)

Happy Shopping!
Shanna

Let's talk about the new Home Storage Center and learn 6 canning myths we need to know about.

The Home Storage Center north of the temple is now open in Twin Falls!  The entrance for the Home Storage Center is the southwest corner of the building.  It is open on
Wednesdays from 11am to 2pm and Saturdays from 9am to 12pm.  I am so excited we have this facility right here so close to us. For a copy of the price list click HERE

Canning season is here! Why should we consider canning?  For starters, canning produces flavorful, high-quality food that saves money, builds self-reliance, and can be a great source of personal satisfaction. 

Home canned food is often much more nutritious than store bought canned goods. Most home canned food is canned from produce picked from the vine and processed almost immediately. Your home canned jams and jellies don’t contain additives you don’t want or need.  What are your reasons for canning?

Food preservation with the canning method is safe and reliable, IF you know and understand the basics.  The best place I have found for up-to-date and reliable information on canning is on this website- National Center for Home Food Preservation.  

Click HERE.  The website teaches canning basics, and includes recipes that are tested and safe to use.

 To get you started, I have included an article that teaches about common myths associated with home canning.  Hope this helps!

For a link to the following article and more information click here

6 Canning Myths

1. If it’s canned in the store you can “can” it at home. Nope. I wish this was true. I truly do, but commercial canners can reach much higher temperatures than our at home pressure canners, which means they can can things we can’t. Some examples, pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie filling. Just because it’s canned in the store doesn’t mean you’re safe to can it at home.

You’ll see store canned chicken noodle soup, but you can’t can this at home with the  noodles in it. You can however, can chicken soup.

2. My grandmother and great-grandmother canned this way for years and they never got sick. You might be willing to gamble with your health and that of your loved ones, but I’m not. We know that botulism isn’t killed by the temperature of boiling water, which is 212 degrees Farenheit. Boiling food for longer doesn’t make it safe, even if you boil food for six hours, it still won’t reach above the temperature of the water, 212 degrees.

Botulism grows very well in an anaerobic environment (without the presence of oxygen, like sealed jars of canned food). It doesn’t grow in acid, so you may safely can acidic foods at home with a water bath, but for your vegetables and non-acidic foods, you must pressure can them. (website listed above will list what needs to be pressured and what you can safely water bath.)

Most people are canning food to be frugal, create healthier food than the grocery store, and to prepared. Let me tell you, a hospital visit isn’t cheap, becoming sick isn’t healthy, and preparing for a disaster while using means that could create one doesn’t make much sense to me. Botulism isn’t a form of food poisoning like the stomach flu. You can die from it. I don’t tell you this to scare you. Canning food at home is completely safe, but you need to follow updated guidelines.

3. Oven canning is just fine, it’s the same temperature as boiling water after all. Oven canning is not a replacement for using a water bath. First, it’s a dry heat, and the glass canning jars aren’t made for dry heat, so you’re risking breaking your jars. Second, you don’t know that the internal heat of the food inside the jars is reaching a high enough temperature to kill off all the bacteria because dry heat is very slow to penetrate the jars and to sustain said heat long enough to kill the bacteria. Third, water bath and pressure canning help a jar vent, or simply put, it pulls out the oxygen from inside the jar. You’re not going to get this on a reliable level in an oven. They’re not designed for it.

Again, there’s lots of things I buck the rules on, but my families safety isn’t one of them. Use a water bath.

4. My jar sealed so I’m good to go. No. Sorry, just because your jar sealed doesn’t mean it’s safe. Some older recipes call for pouring your hot jam (or pickle brine) into the jar, putting on the lid and band, and turning it upside down to get a seal. You will get a seal in most cases, but generally the seal is weak and will come undone a few months into the jars shelf life. Most important, a seal in no way means there isn’t bacteria present, which is what the whole water bath and pressure canning process does.

5. Just scrape the mold off of the jam/jelly and eat the rest. This used to be common practice, but once you see mold, even scraping off the top layer, the mold spores are already throughout your jam and jelly. We eat mold spores every day, little small ones we can’t see, and for most of us, it doesn’t cause any harm. But (you knew this was coming, right?) to someone with a compromised immune system, it can result in a fungal infection in the lungs. This is extremely hard to get rid of and to treat.

A better practice is to can your jam and jelly in smaller size jars. If it’s getting mold from being opened in the fridge too long, then simply can it in smaller jars.

If you see mold when you pull the jar off the shelf, then your seal was compromised and you should toss it out. The golden rule of canning is if in doubt, throw it out. 

6. Canning is dangerous. Despite all these myths, canning is safe if you follow the guidelines and stay up to date with your practices. I’ve eaten home canned food my entire life and canned on my own for over 16 years. We’ve never gotten sick, ever. I want to reassure you again, canning is easy and fun, just follow the “rules”.  Canning isn’t the place to be a rebel.

Melissa Norris.

Which Expired Foods are OK to Eat?

Apologies ladies, the link to the expired foods is broken, so I have copied the info into another site.
If you are interested, click here to be directed to the information.

Shanna

Today's Followup

Thanks for the great questions today.  

Thanks to Brenda Allen for the link to a web page that discusses food expiration dates.  It is very informative.  If you are interested, click the link below.

Fox News-which foods are ok to eat.

Also, I don't often buy meat because we usually raise our own, but when we do we purchase it at Swensens.  I have also learned through a very reliable source that the Twin Falls Cash and Carry has the best quality meat you can buy.  It can be a little expensive, but if you google Twin Falls Cash and Carry and watch their Hotsheets, you can often get some really good deals.

If any of you have any more suggestions, please share.  Thanks!

Shanna

Mix it up!

June already!  How are your garden's coming?  It is still not too late to plant.  Just think of a short row of beans for summer stir-fry, or tomatoes to make delicious homemade salsa, and let your children help you plant pumpkins for halloween.  If you are new to gardening, planting just a few things and watching them grow will get you excited and not feel so overwhelming.  

The monthly challenge for June is to try one or both of the mixes below.  These are staples in anyone's pantry. They take just minutes to make, and are a fraction of the cost of buying them at the store.  
Note: I buy my spices in bulk at Winco.  So much more economical than the little jars down the spice aisle.  

Taco Seasoning Mix                      Printable Recipe

3/4 cup dried minced onion
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup chili powder
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. each cornstarch, crushed dried red pepper,
dried minced garlic, ground cumin

Combine all ingredients and store in a jar.

To Use: 2 T Mix, 1/2 c. water & 1 lb ground beef, simmer altogether.
Add 2 Tbsp. dry mix to 1 lb. ground beef and 1/2 cup water.
Heat through.



Ranch Dressing & Dip Mix                  Printable Recipe 

2 cups dry parsley flakes, minced
1/2 cup instant minced onion
2 tablespoons dry dill weed
1/4 cup onion salt
1/4 cup garlic salt
1/4 cup onion powder
1/4 cup garlic powder 
Combine all ingredients and store in a jar.  
For dressing: combine 1 Tbsp. dry mix, 1 cup of regular plain mayo & 1 cup of buttermilk.
For dip: mix 1 Tbsp dry mix with 1 cup sour cream.

                                                   Image above is from storytimehandouts.blogspot.com
As you are aware, Self-reliance involves several facets of a balanced life, including  (1) education, (2) emergency preparedness, (3) employment, (4) finances (5) food storage (6) spiritual strength and (7) physical health.

Under direction from the Brethren, these areas are all encompassed in the provident living guidelines. Our church leaders have asked us to improve ourselves so we can be self-reliant and help others as well.  I would like your input on any of these areas you would like more information about for you and your families. Please leave comments and questions below so I can gear my posts towards your needs.

I think we can all agree that our lives are filled with family, church and work, yet somehow we have to find time improve our self-reliance skills.  
If we are diligently consistent, we can improve little by little.
We don't have to cook everything from scratch, grow all our own food, sew all our clothes and run 5 miles a day.  However, if we try to improve our skills and at least try to learn how to do as much as we can, we will feel better about our abilities to take care our our families and serve others.

Have a great month, and if you have something to share, please do! If you are the first to comment, just click on 
"No comments" at the bottom of the post, and it will bring up a comment window.  Also, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the blog, you will see a gray box to follow by email, and you will be notified when I make a new post.  

Shanna

Hot Sheet @ Cash & Carry

I was in Cash & Carry today and there were several items on their Hot Sheet worth looking at.  

I have not seen bananas at 39 cents a pound in a long time.  If you don't mind getting them quite green it is a real bargain.  I bought a bunch to dry as my grandchildren love them and I think I will make some banana bread too.  
You can check out the rest of their hot sheet specials if you google Cash & Carry Twin Falls, Idaho.

This week Ridleys has 3 cases of 24 water bottles for $5.  Great for storage.(Who ever dreamed we would be buying water!) 

If you are willing to comment below, please share great specials you find with the rest of us as you come upon them.  Also this will be a great venue to share extra garden produce this summer.

I would love to hear your experiences making bread, and using herbs and chicken after our activity last week.  Keep connected!

Shanna

PS
Thanks to Janae, I also learned that 5 dozen eggs at Winco is $3.16, down by about $5.  So great to see the price of eggs come down again! 
I think I worked out the comment issue some of you have been experiencing.  Just click on the word "comment" at the bottom of this post  to add a comment.  Thanks everyone!

Maple Honey Butter

We had such a great time at our Relief Society on Tuesday night!  We learned so many things that will help us become more self sufficient, and great ways to feed our families as well.  Some of you requested the recipe below for Maple Honey Butter we sampled that night, so I have posted it below. 

Comment below of call me if you have any questions.               

                                                                                                 Printable Recipe

       

               1/2 cup (1 stick) real butter                           

2 tablespoons honey

2 1/2 tablespoons 100% real maple syrup

             1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

             1/4 teaspoon maple extract (optional)

         Place butter and 2 T honey in a mixing bowl and beat (with a hand mixer, or the whisk attachment of your stand mixer) until combined and smooth. Add maple syrup, cinnamon, pie spice, and extract. Beat slowly until combined and then whip for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy. Serve at room temperature.

 If you're making ahead of time, store in fridge, but allow time to bring to room temperature before serving. For best results, stir or re-whip before serving. Lasts for about a week or so in the fridge, several months in the freezer.