Bread in a Bottle

*Find your favorite recipe: cake, sweet breads, regular breads and rolls,

*Make according to directions with only one change: Replace each egg called for with one teaspoon of prepared, clear gelatin.
*Take clean, sterile jars, and wipe with shortening this is important, if you use butter or sprays, they will go rancid--but shortening will last much longer! Of course, the breads shrink as they cool and are so moist that they probably would be fine without anything.
*Place the jars on a cookie sheet, well spaced by 4-5 inches.
*Fill each jar half full--they will probably still rise over the top, but you will just have to cut it off when it comes out of the oven.

* Bake for required time in recipe.
*Remove from oven, cut off tops slightly below rims of jars. Wipe off any residue around and immediately place sterilized lids and rings on the jars.
*Jars should seal within minutes and will last for years to come on the shelf or make for great snacks in the middle of winter, when out camping, or fun to give away as gifts!!

INFORMATION FROM WENDY DEWITT (Food Storage Specialist):
Jar cakes & breads: This method of baking has been done for years, but there has been some discussion as to its safety. Because the eggs were exchanged with unflavored gelatin in all of these recipes, it is unlikely that the ingredients used could support bacteria if prepared and cooked properly. If you feel at all uncomfortable with this method, don’t use it.


Jar cakes are great for food storage and the solar oven, but you must be sure to sanitize all your jars and lids to be sure they are free from bacteria. Foods such as breads, cakes, muffins, cornbread, brownies, cookies and cinnamon rolls are cooked and sealed in mason jars and can be kept on the shelf for several weeks. Using a pastry brush, grease the inside of your jar with shortening (no Pam or Baker’s Secret) and fill it ½ to 2/3 full with batter or dough and bake. No lid is used at this time. Let your breads rise in the jars and then bake. If it bakes too high, cut the top of your bread or cake off before sealing the jar. Just be sure your jar edge is clean and your lids are hot. Immediately after the food is cooked, place a heated lid on the hot jar and tighten with the ring (Use hot pads). Within a few minutes, the lid will “plink” and the food will be sealed. The food will slip out of the jars easily if you use the straight sided “jelly jars” but any kind of mason jar will work. With this method, you can do your baking on your bright sunny days and have fully cooked baked goods waiting on your shelves for that rainy day.

WHY Visiting Teaching.......

Every so often it seems that changes must be made to our visiting teaching, the routes, the companionships, and as I start to make these changes I feel myself wading out into the mire, being bogged down with questions, worries, stress, and doubt. I desperately want to know ‘WHY?!?!” Meaning, why do I have to re-do the visiting teaching, why does it have to be so hard, why does it seem so monumental to actually accomplish. I ask myself this so many times, even finding myself saying, “I HATE IT, I HATE IT!!” It is the hardest thing. And then I find myself ashamed, and listening to our leaders speak of the importance of visiting teaching, of its divine mandate, and so, I decide to answer the “WHY.”

Why do we do visiting teaching? Why do I stress and worry so much over these changes? So, that I can see it in the correct light, so that it isn’t a burden, but a sacred task of making sure each one of His daughters is watched and loved by His other daughters, that they are coming to know and love each other—all the while strengthening their ward, their stake, His church. Faith Family and Relief are what we do, and the vast majority of that comes through our visiting teaching. Here is what I wrote down after pondering about it. Maybe each of you could add to it….
#1 Because it is the Lord’s plan of watch-care for each of His precious daughters—in all honesty we may fall short as people and may not love them all the same, BUT He does!! And so provides a way for them ALL to be watched for, to be loved, to give us the chance to know them, so that we may come to love them as He does.



#2 It is a way for us to teach, to share, to spread the gospel and use our testimonies to benefit those around us.



#3 It also helps us to grow and learn from what others can teach us as we come to know them in their homes, in their lives.

 #4 It gives us more opportunity to serve than we would ever have without it.



#5 It gives us precious opportunity to follow promptings of the Spirit as we pray for them and how to meet their needs.


#6 It humbles us, as we overcome selfishness, as we give of our self to others, to serve and love them, especially when it is someone we may at first see as challenging to know and love.

 #7 It humbles us as we see the Lord use us to do His work, and see how much more we are capable of when we turn ourselves over to His plan for us.

 #8 Through it we also gain precious, eternal friendships that strengthen and fortify us through all we face.


#9 WE are acting for Him, doing His work—is there any greater reason than this?


So, I apologize for my bad attitude about the work and effort that goes into it, I pray for the insight and inspiration from the Spirit to make the right companionships, the best routes, to bless all involved. I pray for compassion and understanding amongst the sisters, but most of all I pray for them to desire to get to know and love their sisters—in a busy life sometimes it is a phone call, a note, but if they are in your prayers, they will be in your thoughts, and you will find the time, courage, patience to serve them. This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Hi all,
Just wanted to remind you that the General Relief Society Broadcast is tomorrow night at 5 pm, available at the chapel and online, BYU-TV, etc. Hope you get a chance to listen it only comes once a year, and last years was wonderful!

Also, we had such a wonderful time at the ward party last night--I apologize that I didn't get an email reminder out about it, this week has been CrAzY! On the way home, Stetson said, "That was the best party ever, huh, mom!?!?" I thought that was a pretty good assessment from a 5 year old. Afterwards I was thinking that I learned at new things about at least 4 or 5 people that I have known for a long time, but just having the chance to sit and visit gives you such great opportunities to really get to know and love those we call our 'ward family.' Sorry for those who missed it, we know how hectic it is to find a night that works for everyone, hope we'll see you next time!!
Also, thank you for all who came out to our canning event, we hope you had a wonderful timed and learned fun stuff--I have been canning nuts and choc. chips this week since we realized my grandma had a foodsaver with the vacuum hose that she had never used!! We really enjoyed having all of you out and had such a great time, too!
I have forgot to update the blog, but for those interested, BOOK CLUB is back in session and currently reading "Pride and Prejudice" and will meet the first Wednesday of each month!! So, you still have a little bit of time to read the classic that is one of my all-time favorites!! We are still trying to decide if we will do a movie night or not!
Many of you have received the BEAUTIFUL new books about the history and purpose of the Relief Society, these will be coming to you all, so don't think you have been missed or forgotten if you have yet to receive one. They are to be used for personal study and helps with callings in the church. I would encourage you to read and study them as you have time, but would especially like to invite you all to read the subject on visiting teaching. IT was so interesting to me to learn more of the history and to gain a better understanding of what my role is and I definitely feel I have some room to improve! Some of you exemplify it so well. Again, it is a beautiful book, the 1st presidency was inspired to direct it's making and we would be missing out if it collected dust on our shelves.
And, one final note, we are making changes once again with visiting teaching that will in a small or large way affect about half of you--once the dominoes start to fall, it is very hard to stop them!!! We want to make sure our sisters are being watched and cared for and hope that these changes will really help that to happen. THANK YOU to all who serve so faithfully, to those who try even when it is hard, who are brave even when shy or scared , to all those who even desire, but yet are unable....we know your hearts and love and appreciate your service and have spent much time in prayer and effort to make changes that will be for the best! We will be trying to get them in order for October, so keep up the good work this month and you'll probably be hearing from us!

Love,
Sister Perkins

An "Out of The Box' Canning Activity.....

For many of you, canning is a way of life, and for others, it is a complete unknown......SO, we wanted our canning night to be something that can benefit everyone, come and learn and gain new and fun ideas--vacuum sealing your dried goods, like choco chips and nuts so they last for years and years instead of getting stale and rancid.  What about bottling meat--instead of thawing cooking and then getting it into that casserole, why not just open a bottle and add meat cooked only in a little salt and it's own juices???  Or maybe breads and cakes for some extra treats or sweets when that day comes that you might not be able to get them at the store, or just for a camping trip that you don't want them to go bad before the last day of????  Learn about juicing, pressure canning, and even just quick and easy tips for the  basics!!!  Plus, we are going to have refreshments and sampling of some of them so you can try for yourself!!

WHEN:  TUESDAY, SEPT. 20th

TIME: 6:30 PM

WHERE: THE CULTURAL HALL

WHO: ALL Relief Society Sisters and Friends!!

**If you have a favorite tip or a fun recipe for bottling, feel free to bring it and share with us!!

Relief Society, Stake and General....

Panaca 2nd Sisters, if you missed stake conference on Sunday you may not know that we have a new Stake Relief Society President, Sister VaNae Cumming!  She was sustained, along with counselors, Charlene Lameroux, Pearl Hatch, and Donene Mathews.  We are excited to have them leading us and also appreciate Sister Perkins and her presidency for their service over the past few years.  Sister Cumming let me know that there will be no stake activity before the General Meeting, but she asked that we encourage all sisters to attend at the stake center, or watch from home!! 

Here is the info from church headquarters about when to tune in!

General Relief Society Meeting to Be Held on September 24, 2011

Relief Society sisters worldwide are invited to view the satellite broadcast of the general Relief Society meeting, which will be held on Saturday, September 24, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. (MDT) and will be broadcast to many areas of the world. (Panaca 2nd Sisters, this means the broadcast will be at 5:00 at the stake center or online or on BYU-TV!!)
All sisters 18 years of age and older are encouraged to gather together in meetinghouses to view the broadcast.

Video of the broadcast will also be available live in American Sign Language, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish at conference.lds.org. Additional languages will be available as a live audio broadcast at the same site. Archives of the broadcast will be available in those same languages at the same site within 24 hours. Live audio will also be available in English at mormonchannel.org.

Those wishing to attend in person can contact the ticket office for more information.

WASHINGTON APPLES.....

Sisters,
If you are interested in ordering apples this year, the link to the web page is below!!

WASHINGTON APPLES ! ! !
Here's their information:

JECS Farm

September 10, 2011
Hello,
We are excited to bring you another season of apples. Our goal is to help as many people as possible benefit from these great apples. So please feel free to foreword this email on to others whom you think would love some great apples! Here are the details:
Note: The apple supply in our area is estimated to be 10% less than last year. As orders will be filled in the order received, this means the sooner you place your order, even for Fuji's and Honeycrisp's, the more assured you are of receiving your apples. Last year we barely had enough apples to meet the orders so order now and don't miss out. Don't wait until the deadline or you will miss out. Order here: http://www.applesinaseed.com/apple_order.html

Deadline to order:
Golden's and Honeycrisp: September 21, 2011. Estimated time of delivery: First week of October.
Fuji's: November 21, 2011. Estimated time of delivery: First two weeks of December.
Price: Golden's & Fuji's-- $26/box (.65 cents/lb), Honeycrisp-- $31/box (.78 cents/lb)

To our regret, you may notice the small price increase from last year. This has been unavoidable as many costs have increased for us (and the rest of the economy) this year. The cost of the apples themselves has gone up 15%, shipping is up 20%, cardboard boxes are up 8%, labor is up 5% and so on. We have tried to absorb as much of the increase as possible without passing it on but can only do so much. Thank you for your understanding. Our prices for this farm fresh fruit are still 50% to 75% less than the local grocery store with superior quality.
As in the past, each box will weigh approximately 40 lbs. and are 'field run' apples. This means you will have a variety of sizes, shapes, color and small defects as you would when picking directly from the tree. They are washed and cleaned and we sort through them to get the best apples possible. They are the same apples as you have received from us in the past. Washington State has long been known as one of the best areas to grow apples but these apples are grown on the banks of Lake Chelan, Washington and are the very best; crisp, juicy and great flavor.
Remember that it is very important to watch your email for the delivery information. We will notify you by email of the delivery date and specific location. You must come and pick up your order at the specified time. In many locations we can't store your apples and have someone waiting around to get them to you at a later time. Any leftover boxes will be given to a local charity.
Suggestion: Because of gas prices, the economy and possible time constraints, we encourage people to consolidate your trips to pick up apples. Work with a friend in your area, donate to them a dollar or two for gas and time, and consolidate trips. This should help many of our customers who may have difficulty for one reason or another getting to the apple pick up locations. Because the apples are also prepaid, this will simplify things. This will also help keep the cost down on your apples.
Please order now:
There are two methods of payment: Credit/Debit Card or Check
Just click on the link below:
http://www.applesinaseed.com/apple_order.html
Thank you very much
Ken and Shauna

Aug 2011 PRESIDENCY MESSAGE

(August's Theme from the Releif Society Declaration is: Love Life and Learning)
Dear Sisters:

It seems that sometimes as wives and mothers we are often so buys that our learning opportunities are limited. Maybe schooling is put on hold, or put off completely, or the thought of going back to it seems so far away. But, it is our responsibility to never give up on learning, and to seek chances for it, though they may come in small and sporadic times. Elder Bednar teaches: “You and I are here on the earth to prepare for eternity, to learn how to learn, to learn things that are temporally important and eternally essential, and to assist others in learning wisdom and truth (see D&C 97:1). Understanding who we are, where we came from, and why we are on the earth places upon each of us a great responsibility both to learn how to learn and to learn to love learning.”

Our theme for August, from the Relief Society Declaration is: Love life and learning. They seem to go hand-in-hand. I truly believe that the more we learn, the more we see and understand our Father’s plan, and with this learning comes the desire to know more, and as great wisdom and knowledge open before us, we will have greater love for life and living.

As always, we must remember there is a balance. The things that are ESSENTIAL to our eternal salvation come first, the things NECESSARY to daily survival and responsibilities come next, and then the NICE things we fit in as time allows. And if we follow this order, we will find time, happiness, and love of life and learning.
Love,
Jamie, Cindy, Loree, and Kathy