New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution this year was to make 3 things a month out of my food storage.  I was so excited to have our family's food storage done, but then I realized I hadn't done anything with it!   This month I made...

Green Beans and Spam

Ingredients:

1 bag of green beans

1/4 t. black pepper

1/4 of a package of Spam

1 onion

1/4 stick of butter

Heat up ingredients in sauce pan (covered).  Heat until beans are cooked.  I used frozen green beans, but if you use fresh, add 1/8 of a cup water to the pan also.  This was REALLY good.  David and I LOVED it!  

Homemade Wheat Thins
Make your own homemade wheat thins using food storage ingredients.
Ingredients:
3 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
¾ teaspoon salt

In blender, emulsify the water, oil, and salt. Pour immediately into the flour and stir until all is moistened, but knead as little as possible.
Roll dough as thin as possible on 3 ungreased cookie sheets.
Mark with knife into small cracker shapes (diamond shapes or squares), and then prick each cracker a few times with a fork. Sprinkle lightly with salt or onion salt.
Bake 30-35 minutes at 350°F, until crisp and brown. When cool, break apart.


Soft Wrap Bread*Makes about 8-9 breads
3 to 3 1/4 cups (12 3/4 to 13 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) boiling water
1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) potato flour OR 1/2 cup (5/8 ounces) potato buds or flakes (I used potato flakes)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon instant yeast*
Place 2 cups of the flour into a bowl or the bucket of a bread machine. Pour the boiling water over the flour, and stir until smooth. Lightly cover the bowl or bucket and set the mixture aside for 30 minutes.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the potato flour (or flakes or buds) and 1 cup of the remaining flour with the salt, oil and yeast. Add this to the slightly cooled flour/water mixture, stir, then knead for several minutes (by hand, mixer or bread machine) to form a soft dough. It may look like the flour/salt/oil/yeast mixture will never absorb into the boiling water/flour mixture. It will, I promise, but you may need to take it out of your electric mixer, if using one, and knead the flour in by hand or add it very gradually into your electric mixer.
Note: You can allow the dough to go through the entire kneading cycle(s) in the bread machine, but it’s not necessary; about a 5-minute knead in the machine, once it gets up to full kneading speed, is fine. The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat sticky (the dough is fairly stiff, so don’t be worried – just be careful not to overflour the dough). Add additional flour only if necessary; if kneading by hand, keep your hands and work surface lightly oiled. Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour (I let mine rise up to 2 hours).
Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each about the size of a handball, around 3 ounces), cover, and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes. Roll each piece into a 7- to 8-inch circle, and dry-fry them (fry without oil) on a griddle or frying pan over medium heat for about 1 minute per side (I cooked mine about 2-3 minutes per side and they didn’t dry out), until they’re puffed and flecked with brown spots. Adjust the heat if they seem to be cooking either too quickly, or too slowly; cooking too quickly means they may be raw in the center, while too slowly will dry them out. Transfer the cooked breads to a wire rack, stacking them to keep them soft. Serve immediately, or cool slightly before storing in a plastic bag.
*This recipe works best with instant yeast because it dissolves during the kneading process, so you don’t have to knead liquid into the dough. If you really prefer to use active dry yeast, use only 1 cup boiling water for the initial dough, dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, and add this mixture to the dough along with the potato flour mixture. It’ll be somewhat “slippery” at first, but will knead in and eventually become smooth.