Loaded Questions and Apple Survey

Jade and Josh are big game players. They got a new game called Loaded Questions. It is a really fun party game for 6 people. You read a question like, if you were to write a book what would it be on? Everyone answers anonymously and the person whose turn it is has to guess who wrote the answers. It is a pretty fun game that I would recommend.

While we were playing the game Jade brought over 15 different apples that we all tasted so we could figure out our favorites.

Here is the results:

Honeycrisp 1
Golden Delicious 1 sweet and sour
Pink Lady 2
Pacific Rose 2 sweet rose taste
Ambrosia 2 sweetest vintage taste
Fuji 2 crisp
Gala 3 no flavor
Braeburn 5
Jonagold 5
Cameo
Red delicious worst
Macintosh worst
Rome worst

72 Hour Kits

I was watching CNN this morning speaking about the hurricane that just hit Texas. They said that 4 million people are without electricity. They mentioned that when Katrina hit some didn't get their power back on for 3 or 4 weeks.
I heard the frustration in the leaders voices about the people not evacuating and now they have to spend there time rescuing people.
He also mentioned the fact that FEMA has told ALL Americans to have 72 hours worth of bottled water and food in their homes. He said that Salvation Army and the Red Cross and the government cannot do everything for everyone.
To me it is common sense to have this on hand. We see everyday somewhere in the country catastrophes happening. We need to do our part to help ourselves.

My mother made these kits at her church. These are 72 hour kits. If you have one of these for each person in your family, 2 liters of water, and cash tucked away, you can rest at ease.
(Click on the picture to see them up close)
This is what is in the containers.
Day 1
2 granola bars
1 juice box
1 pkg soup mix
1 pkg crackers (peanut butter or cheese)
1 beef jerky
1 pkg. ramen noodles
1 pkg cocoa mix
5 pcs candy
3 pcs gum
1 fruit roll up
Day 2
2 pkg.oatmeal
1 pkg cocoa
1 beef jerky
1 pudding cup
1 can soup
1 pkg crackers (peanut butter or cheese)
1 fruit roll up
5 pcs candy
3 pcs gum
1 pkg peanuts
Day 3
2 pkg oatmeal
1 pkg cocoa mix
1 beef jerky
1 pudding cup
1 can soup
1 pkg crackers (peanut butter or cheese)
1 fruit roll up
5 pcs candy
3 pcs gum
1 pkg peanuts

My daughter, her husband and baby were in Oahu, Hawaii when an earthquake hit on the Big Island. She heard about it on the radio. At the time I was speaking to her no one knew if it was going to turn into a tsunami.
She was very nervous because they had moved from one apartment and was heading to another. She had thrown away a lot of food and hadn't had much in the refrigerator because she didn't want to move it. They had only $17.00 cash and all the stores were closed and the power was out. The gas pumps didn't work and they could only pay with cash because the credit card machines didn't work.
She had a cell that could be charged with the car so I could talk to her, but not help. She bought junk food at a gas station and was very worried about the baby with not much formula.
If she had these little kits, the water and cash she wouldn't have been so panicked.
Lucky for them the power was restored in about 24 hours. She and I learned a valuable lesson to be ready in case of unexpected emergencies.

Fast Way to Cook Bacon

Open a package of bacon and slice the whole block up and put in a pan to cook. As it gets warm the pieces start falling apart. I stir a little but don't really have to turn it.

If you are cooking bacon to use in a salad or even a sandwich this method saves a lot of time. If you cut it up and put it in a pan it all cooks evenly and you don't have the messy job of crumbling it after.

Can you see that each piece is crisp and there are no burnt pieces and no raw pieces.

When I cook for my family, I am looking for speed and efficiency over how pretty it looks. If you think it looks tacky on the plate you could throw it in scrambled eggs.
I cook the whole pound at once and can use it later in the day or week. This cooking method can save 10 or more minutes.

Proper Portion Sizes

What a great idea Amy Roskelley had when she invented this simple plate. I saw this in a magazine a few weeks ago.

We have been conditioned to put a large piece of meat on a plate and add a roll and small portion of vegetables. When in reality it should this way, large portion of vegetables and small portion of bread and meat. After seeing this, when I dish up a plate of food, a picture of her plate pops into my mind. I think she is onto something.
Teaching our children proper portion sizes will help it become natural for them to eat this way.
Amy, owner of superhealthykids.com was quoted in the Utah Valley magazine below.

One of her habit changes was not so much about the food she served her children but the plates she served it on. Amy found that she was better able to teach proper portion sizes by giving her kids sectioned plates."A balanced meal should be half fruits and vegetables,"Amy says. "I didn't want my kids to grow up with mac and cheese as the main part of their meal with a couple piesces of broccoli on the side."
And then she took the sectioned plates one step further.
" I thought, 'It sure would be nice to have pictures on the plate,'"Amy says. 'That way the kids are the ones to say, 'Hey mom--I need more vegetables on my plate,'"

Even if you don't buy one of these plates, it is a good idea to teach our children the message, and maybe even have a picture like this on the table for a while as a reminder.

Water Storage

What if you had to go without water for a few days? I live in the desert and wonder what would happen if something went wrong with our water supply.
I just received a pamphlet in the mail from my city. It says that FEMA recommends every family in America have a 2 week supply of water.
This is from the pamphlet-
Rule of thumb: One gallon of water is needed per person per day. With careful rationing, this amount would be sufficient for drinking, food preparation, brushing teeth etc. An additional 1/2 gallon to 1 gallon per person per day would allow for hygiene care.
They recommend cleaned and sanitized two-liter soda bottles or heavy opaque plastic. Do not use milk jugs or juice bottles. They cannot be cleaned well enough and can crack and leak after a year or two.
I have saved some 2 liter pop bottles. I have them in the back of storage room shelves and in the back of cabinets. I also refill bleach bottles for washing hands. I know I couldn't live with myself if my children were hungry or thirsty.
My sister was without water for 2 days in N.C. She had water stored in pop bottles too. She was the only one in her neighborhood that had water and could use a toilet because she was able to pour water in the back of the tank. She went through 60 bottles before the water was turned back on.
With the world as crazy as it is right now, a little water stored away sounds like a reasonable thing to have on hand.

Easy Way to Help the Homeless

How many times have you pulled up at an intersection and seen a homeless person with a sign and didn't know what to do? My daughter and her in-laws had a family gathering. Each brought items that a homeless person might enjoy. They created bags to put in their car to pass out when they saw people in need. The bags had a water bottle, 2 granola bars, a pkg of crackers, Cambells Soup to Go or a pkg of tuna and crackers, small cup of applesauce, and a Ramen cup of noodles. She said they calculated it up and it came to about $3.00 a bag.
I thought it was a GREAT idea. Thanks Jade:)

Freezing Tomatoes

The tomatoes in our garden got a little out of control last week,

We put them in boiling water for a minute to loosen the skin.

Here are all the tomatoes with the skin ready to peel off.

This is what they look like up close.



Here are the peeled tomatoes. I just stuffed them in jars and poured there own juice over them and put them in the freezer.

Whenever I make a dish that calls for canned tomatoes I will get out a jar. They will be a little mushy so I will probably blend them before I put them in things.

Hawaiian Baked Beans for the 4th of July

I put rings of green peppers, onions and pineapples in. It gives the beans a great flavor and people can pick out which things they don't like.

Hawaiian Baked Beans
4 large cans pork-n-beans
1 lb. bacon cooked and crumbled
1 large onion sliced
1 large bell pepper sliced
6 T. worcestershire sauce
14 oz. ketchup
1 c. brown sugar
1 large can pineapple

Cook 3 to 4 hours. First half with lid on, 2nd half open at 350 degrees.
People WILL want this recipe it's one of my favorites!!!!

The first time I had this was 20 years ago at a family reunion. I got the recipe from my Aunt Pat. She has 11 children so the recipe makes a lot. It easy enough to half if you aren't feeding a crowd.
Let me know if you try it:)

Kids and Candy

Last Oct. a cousin came to stay with one of my kid's friends. This girl hadn't eaten candy for 10 months. She made a deal with her dad to not eat candy for a year for a cash reward. My girls were really impressed with this idea. On Jan. 1st my girls came to me and asked if I would do a similar deal. My son hadn't drank any pop for 3 years since his track coach told him how bad it was for runners. So all 3 decided to do the deal. No pop and no candy for 1 year for a cash reward from mom. I knew I couldn't do it, so I figured I wouldn't go broke doing the deal. I thought the kids might learn some valuable lessons, even if they could only do it for a month or two. They would learn that it was ok to try something different, to not do things when everyone else was doing it, how to conquer peer pressure when their friends were trying to get them to eat candy, how to put off immediate gratification (pleasure of candy), how to have a very long term goal. It seemed like a great idea to support. 2 of my kids are still in the contest. Whenever they go to a birthday party, school or church activity they give all their candy to me. I am shocked at how much candy is given out to kids!

Orange Juice

I have several orange trees in my yard. This is how I save my juice. I squeeze the oranges, and strain most of the pulp and seeds. I fill up canning jars leave at least 3/4 of an inch from the top. If you leave less than that you get a lot of breakage and orange syrupy stuff oozing out the top. It makes a huge mess. I fill up 2 freezers full each March and it lasts me all year long.

I just finished with my first freezer (64 quarts).
When ready to use, screw off the lid and microwave for 3 minutes. Chunk it up with a fork and pour it into the blender. I either serve it as orange juice slush or add milk, vanilla, fruit or yogurt and make smoothies.

Cute girl food

This was served to me in a really cute pink restaurant in Fort worth Texas. It was so cute I had to take a picture. It is fruit salad with a pink fruit dip, soup, muffin and 3 finger sandwiches, cucumber cream cheese, chicken salad and pimento cheese.

Vegetables are important to any diet. I
recommend carrot cake, zucchini bread, and
pumpkin pie. --Garfield