Powdered Milk and its Uses

Here are some things that you can do with your powdered milk. You don’t have to use them all the time, but you should know how to make them and how they taste.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 1/3 cup instant dry milk (¾ cup non instant)
½ cup hot tap water
¾ cup sugar
4 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
Pour water into blender, add milk and sugar. Blend, Add butter and blend thoroughly. Let mixture thicken a little, and then use in recipes calling for canned sweetened condensed milk. Chill if not going to use right away. Makes 1 ¼ cups, equal to one can.

Evaporated Milk

1 1/3 cups water
1 cup instant dry milk (1/2 cup +1 Tbsp non-instant)
Mix water and powdered milk well. This is equivalent to one can of evaporated skim milk.

Whipped Topping

½ cup cold water
½ cup powdered milk
2-4 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
½ tsp vanilla
Place water in a bowl to chill in the freezer (or you could use a bowl previously chilled in the freezer). When it has ice crystals around the edges, it is ready. Add powdered milk to the bowl of ice water. Use electric beaters to whip the milk until stiff peaks form; it will take about 5 minutes. Gradually ass desired amount of sugar. Add lemon juice and vanilla and beat only till it is mixed in. Serve right away for best results. (Do not over beat)

Storage Information

Store powdered in airtight containers in a cool, dark place. It’s stored properly it can last much longer up to 20 years (in #10 cans or mylar bags with an oxygen absorber). Since nonfat milk powder has little fat it does not go rancid, but it will lose nutritional value and develop a stronger flavor over time. Milk that is too old, works as a great fertilizer for your garden. (This I have not tried)

How to Cook With Wheat Berries

The most common wheat used and sold is Hard Red Wheat and White Wheat. Hard Red spring wheat has strong gluten and generally used for standard bread flour. Wheat is used in cakes, pasties, cookies, crackers and breakfast foods. So you have to use the flour according to what you are going to bake.

Wheat is an important product and needs to be in your home storage, but don’t just store it. Start using it now before you have an emergency and then wonder what to do with it. Some of us (not just adults but children also) are allergic to wheat so you must find out before you start storing wheat.

If you have wheat and are wondering what to do with it: Well start using it. It makes great hot cereal, bread and many other things, following are some recipes you can start with.

First, you need a grinder, whither it’s electric or hand powered. Of course in an emergency you won’t have electricity, so start with a hand grinder and make sure it works properly. Don’t just get one and put it away, use it.

Wheat Cereal

1 cup wheat berries
2 cups water
½ tsp. salt
Put in shallow pan or slow cooker. Bake overnight at 200 degrees. You can also soak the wheat overnight then cook on top of the stove for an hour. Serve with milk, sugar (brown also) a little cinnamon and honey. Top with berries or some such fruit and eat a delicious breakfast.

For a quicker method of Cereal (Cracked Wheat Cereal)

½ cup whole wheat
2 cups water
¼ tsp. salt
Crack wheat in blender on high speed for 35 to 40 seconds or crack with a hand grinder. Bring water and salt to a boil. Using a wire whisk to avoid lumps, gradually stir in cracked wheat. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes stirring occasionally. (I ate this for years and with milk and sugar is very good. Howard)

If you’re not crazy about hot cereal, try Pancakes

11/4 cups water
1 cup whole ground wheat
¼ cup nonfat dry milk
1 egg or egg substitute
2 Tbsp. oil
1 Tbsp. honey or sugar
¼ -1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp. baking powder
Mix water, ground wheat, and dry milk. Add egg, oil, honey, and salt. Mix, add baking powder, and mix. The mixture should foam up and get very light. Cook immediately on a hot nonstick griddle. Also makes greatfles.

I hope that this will help you get started on cooking wheat, more recipes to follow in the near future. As always, we would like to hear your comments suggestions.

Preparedness Mom

Making Homemade Granola

It’s not hard to make, but you have to pay attention during the cooking because it does brown fast. (Burns also) This recipe that I use gives me three cookie sheets full and then I have 3 different varieties. I put different dried fruit in them after I cook it. If you put the fruit in before it will get really hard once it dries.

Granola
10 cups of oats (oatmeal, barley, spelt, multi grain or any combination of oats)
4-6 cups nuts almond, walnuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seed, what ever you like
1 1/2 cups maple syrup (real maple syrup is too expensive, so use what you desire.
1 cup oil (I used olive oil once, the taste is different-didn’t use again)
1 1/4 tsp salt (optional)
5 tsp vanilla or any flavoring you like better

Mix all the ingredients together. Spread thinly on cookie sheets. Bake for 30 minutes at 325 degrees until lightly browned. YOU NEED TO SET A TIMER FOR 10 MINUTE INTERVALS AND MIX INGREDIENTS UNTIL BROWNED. It will last two months in closed jar.

Ingredients to add:

your choice of raisins, dried apples, pineapple, pears, papaya, cherries, coconut, sunflowers, pumpkin seeds, and you can use spices if you choose. Use your imagination and what you like to eat. Its granola have fun with it.

Reconstituting Dehydrated Foods

Here is a list of items and what they yield after reconstitution. Of course this list is not complete, but once you try some of these you can experiment with your own product. Prepping is not easy and no one (not even my husband) will ever know everything they need to know.

Each situation and place is different. So your best bit is to practice and practice some more.It has been my experience that vegetables rehydrate better with boiling water and fruit warm water. Don’t rush it give it a chance to soak.

Preparedness Mom

Dried food	Amount	Water	Yields
Apple slices	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	3 cups
Apricot slices	1 cup	2 cups	1 1/2 cups
Beets	1 cup	3 cups	2 1/2 cups
Bell Peppers	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	2 cups
Buttermilk	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	2 1/2 cups
Cabbage	1 cup	2 1/2 cups	2 cups
Carrots	1 cup	2 cups	2 cups
Celery	1 cup	1 cup	1 cup
Cheese	1 cup	1/3 cup	2/3 cup
Corn (Sweet)	1 cup	3 cups	2 cups
Dates	1 cup	1 cups	1 1/3 cup
Fruit Blend /td>	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	1 1/2 cups
Gelatin	1 cup	4 cups	4 cups
Green Beans	1 cup	2 cups	2 cups
Green onions	½ cup	1 cup	1 cup
Margarine	1 cut	2 tbsp	¾ cup
Milk	1 cup	4 cups	4 cups
Onions	1 cup	1 cup	1 1/2 cups
Onions (Minced)	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	2 cups
Peach Slices	1 cup	2 cups	2 cups
Peanut Butter	5 tbsp.	4 t. oil + 1/3 t. salt	½ cup
Peas	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	2 1/2 cups
Potato Dices	1 cup	3 cups	2 cups
Potato Granules	1 cup	5 cups	5 cups
Potato Sliced	1 cup	2 cups	1 cup
Sour Cream	1 cup	6 tbsp	¾ cups
Spinach Flakes	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	1 cup
Tomato Powder	1 cup	1 1/2 cups	1 3/4 cups

Pizza Balls

Ingredients:

3 cans Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits (10 per can)

56 pepperoni slices

block of Colby cheese

1 beaten egg

Parmesan

Italian seasoning

Garlic powder

1 jar pizza sauce

Preparation

Cut the block of cheese into 28 squares. Flatten a biscuit out and stack pepperoni and cheese on top. Gather up the edges of the
biscuit. Line up the rolls in a greased 9x13 in. pan. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with parmesan, Italian seasoning and
garlic powder. Bake at 425°F for 18-20 minutes.

**Use the pizza sauce for dipping

Make a Bean Teepee

A bean teepee creates a wonderful hiding hole for young kids during the summer months at the same time as providing a perfect support for growing pole beans!

You can locate your bean teepee either in the vegetable patch or in a spare corner of the garden - it adds the dimension of height and is not only useful and fun, but quite ornamental too. Just bear in mind that the teepee will cast a fair bit of shade once the beans have grown.

How to Make a Bean Teepee

You will need: 7 - 9 long bamboo poles, some twine, string or even masking tape, and runner or pole beans.

Start off by finding a suitable spot in your garden and dig the earth over in a circular shape. A circle with a diameter of 3-4 foot is usually perfectly adequate.

Beans like well-drained soil, so add some compost and fertiliser if needed - like in this example!

Firmly push the ends of the bamboo poles into the ground by about 3 inches on the outside of the circle.

Leave a gap between two of the poles to act as the entrance to the bean teepee.

Tie the bamboo poles together firmly near the top using twine, string, a bit of old rope or even masking tape.

There is absolutely no fine art in tieing the poles together - the main and only aim is to ensure they are all VERY firmly held in place, as no matter how careful kids are, they are likely to knock the poles when going in and out of the teepee!

Plant the runner or pole beans about 2 inches deep. Plant them on the inside of the teepee rather than the outside, as this makes it easier to hoe and keep weeds down - anything growing on the outside of the bamboo poles are weeds!

It is usual to plant two beans per pole. That should ensure at least one healthy plant per pole.

Water generously.

Beans usually take between 7 to 14 days to germinate. Once the seedlings appear, protect them from slug attacks.

When the beans are a few inches high, loosely tie them to the poles. From then on, they should find their own way up.

When the plants reach the top of the teepee after about 7-8 weeks, nip the growing ends off. Keep them well watered during a dry patch, especially once the pods have started forming.

Once the dense foliage of the runner or pole beans has climbed up the bamboo poles and provides a cover, your bean teepee is ready for it's inhabitants. Pop a blanket inside for the perfect private hide-away!

Tips

Once the first bean pods are ready to be harvested, keep picking them every few days to ensure the plants keep flowering and producing more pods. Once a pod reaches full maturity, the flowering process is shut down.

Beans can be planted outside once the risk of frost is over, usually late May or the beginning of June in the more northern areas.

For an even more colourful display, interplant climbing flowering plants too, such as climbing nasturtiums or black-eyed Susan.

Cats love these shady hide-aways too!

*Orginally Found on Kiddie Garden (the link is now broken but was http://www.kiddiegardens.com/bean_teepee.html)

Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

1 gallon whole milk (just be sure that it is not Ultra-pasteurized, any other kind will work, store bought, fresh from the cow (or goat))

1 tsp. citric acid*

1/4 rennet tablet*

2 tsp. cheese salt*

A big pot

Thermometer

Slotted spoon

1) Place milk in large pot with thermometer.

2) Turn heat on med-low and heat milk to 90 degrees, stirring occasionally.

3) While you are heating the milk, dissolve 1/4 rennet tablet in 1/4 C. cool water.

4) When milk has reached 90 degrees, turn off heat. Pour rennet over slotted spoon into milk and stir for 20-30 seconds.

5) Remove thermometer and let milk sit undisturbed for 8-10 minutes.

6) Milk should be like a thick gelatin. Cut the curd into a grid pattern.

7) Stir gently for a minute and then remove the curd using your slotted spoon into a microwave safe bowl, trying to leave as much of the whey (the yellowish liquid) behind.

8) Pour off as much liquid as you can without losing any curds. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Stir, pour off liquid and heat for 35-40 seconds more. Stir and pour off any liquid. Cheese should start to stick together and look stringy. If the curds are not sticking together you can heat for 35-40 seconds more.

9) Once your curds are sticking together and you have removed most of the liquid, add your cheese salt. I usually sprinkle a little on, knead, and sprinkle more on until all the salt is incorporated.

10) After your salt is incorporated, heat the cheese for 35-45 seconds more until it is stretchy like taffy. The cheese will be really hot, so it helps to wear gloves to work with the cheese.

11) Pull and stretch cheese until it is shiny and smooth.

12) Shape cheese into a log by kneading on counter top.

* Also, I took the whey, brought it to 200 degrees, added 1/2 cup of vinegar and got about a cup of ricotta. I kept almost all of the whey and froze it to use in soups. I've also heard that whey is very good for your skin.*