Basic Tomato Spaghetti Sauce

Basic Tomato Spaghetti Sauce

By Mark Fitzgerald
We have spaghetti every week.  Though we normally break out the can of spaghetti sauce and add ground beef recently we tried something different - can we make a tomato sauce without meat that we like.  It turns out that we can.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 cup red juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 14.5 cans of diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• sprinkling of red pepper flakes

Directions

Heat up a little bit of oil in your pan and then saute your onions for 5 minutes.  Let them soften up but not necessarily brown.  Toss in the garlic powder and thyme for 30 seconds and then add the tomato paste for about 2 minutes.  Since we don't drink we make our wine substitute. Deglaze the pan with red juice and vinegar - I usually use the juice from our canned plums or cherries, though I haven't found a fruit juice that hasn't worked.  At this point you are ready to add your canned tomatoes.  Simmer for about 10 minutes and add in your olive oil and red pepper flakes.  Just before serving check your salt and pepper levels.

Light Rustic Rye Bread Round

Light Rustic Rye Bread Round

By Mark Fitzgerald
Our family loves bread.  We are always trying out new types and new ways of making bread.  I love how soft and light this bread turned out.  The caraway seeds and rye gave it a very distinct and wonderful flavor.

Ingredients

• 3 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 5 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• caraway seeds

Directions

Mix together all of the ingredients.  Cover with a towel and let sit out on the counter for 2 hours and then place in the refrigerator overnight.  The next day preheat the oven 450 degrees, about 30 minutes.  While the preheating, in a large dutch oven spray the sides with spray oil and add parchment paper to the bottom of the dutch oven.  Add half of the dough into the dutch oven, shape, and sprinkle on caraway seeds.  Place the lid on the dutch oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Egg Salad Sandwich

Egg Salad Sandwich

By Mark Fitzgerald
Our family loves coloring Easter eggs, but only the adults like hard boiled eggs.  The two of us have a hard time going though a dozen or more hard boiled eggs.  One thing that helps us is egg salad sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 4 hard boiled eggs
• 1/4 cup of salad dressing/mayo
• 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup peas
• salt and pepper
• Buns

Directions

Peel the eggs and chop up into bit sized pieces.  Mix together with the mustard, salad dressing, onion and peas.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve on a toasted bun.

Simple Beans

Simple Beans

By Mark Fitzgerald
We often have beans with tacos and we like to try out different types and flavors.  This combination worked out well enough to share.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 can Pork and Beans
• 1 can Great Northern Beans, drained
• 1 tablespoon of dehydrated onion flakes

Directions

Heat up oil in a small sauce pan on medium high heat.  Bloom the seasoning for about a minute.  Add in the beans and onions and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Parched corn

Parched Corn

By Mark Fitzgerald

When we got to the Valley many of us were out of provisions, July 24th, here we stayed about one month.  August 26th, we started for Council Bluffs, for my outfit to go back with I had but 2 quarts of parch corn and 3 quarts of course corn meal. I was sick all the way back, and suffered everything but death; many times I had nothing to eat, and sometimes I had a little poor buffalo bull meat. We returned back to the Bluffs about the last of October, and found my family well.

We were introduced to parched corn on the first LDS Trek we participated in.  I love it.  It reminded me of a similar commercial food - corn nuts.

Ingredients

• 1 lbs frozen corn
• 2 ounce Spray oil

Directions

Dry the corn can be dried in a dehydrator (though you can use an oven). Make sure to rotate trays and not let it burn.  Once dried you are ready to add the oil.

Spray a skillet with a thin layer of oil and heat on low.   Add the dry corn, stirring constantly to prevent burning. The parched corn is done when the kernels have swollen, and turned a medium brown. (You are likely to make a little popcorn in the process).

Pour the parched corn onto paper towels and allow to thoroughly drain and cool. Store the parched corn in a  plastic bag.

Information

Makes 10 1.6 ounce servings
30 calories per serving

Corn on the cob

Corn on the Cob

By Mark Fitzgerald

We kept meeting some teams from Salt Lake City now, which rendered all the assistance they could. I remember asking one of the drivers to give me a cob of corn to eat. He looked so pitiful and said, “Oh, sister, I hate to refuse you but my horses haven’t enough to eat now, and I do not know how we will get back to Salt Lake.”  I said, “I ought not to have asked you, but myself and children are so hungery.” He said, “Keep up your faith, sister.”  A loaf of bread would have given me great faith and satisfied a hungry stomach as well, but the bread was not many miles off. We got it and it was the sweetest bread we ever ate.

I love the sweetness of corn and I don't think that I am only.  Over the years sweeter hybrids of corn have been selected and developed.  The common corn of the Saints would have had on their overland journey would have been field corn or wild "volunteer" corn.  The corn would be used for the horses, but it would also be dried or ground into meal.

Ingredients

• 6 corn cobs
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 teaspoons salt

Directions

Salt and sugar large pot of water. Shuck corn, rinse and break in half. Add corn to water and turn on high heat. Boil for 5 minutes. Serve with butter.

Information

Makes 12 halves
60 calories per serving

Eggs for an event

Eggs

by Mark Fitzgerald

Our stove was placed in the baggage wagon during the day, and set up on the ground at night. We had plenty of ham, beans, dried fish, dried meat, salt pork, etc., etc., and our meals did not lack variety. On the eve of this particularly trying day, I had planned an especially appetizing supper-ham, and as a treat, eggs, hot biscuit, etc.-My disappointment was great indeed when I found every egg broken. They were packed in a box of salt in the rear end of our carriage, and as we emerged from the deep ravine, water had invaded the box with dire effect on the eggs.

I love eggs.  I learned to cook them in college working in the dish room.  There is nothing better than a flattop.  My personal preference is a thin omelet folded over with sauteed onions and mushrooms.  Often times eggs are used for large events, like a ward camp out or an LDS trek.  They can be cost effective and hardy.  Try to precracked egg mixes.  I find them very harsh and they don't really save you on time.

Ingredients

• 20 large eggs
• 2 ounce spray oil
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Scramble Eggs with salt and pepper into a mixing bowl. Spray skillet and heat on medium high. Ladle 1/3 cup of eggs, into the skillet. Cook 1 minute and fold in half. Cook 30 seconds more.

or

Spray a large Dutch oven and heat on medium high.  Break the eggs into the Dutch oven and scramble them.  While the eggs are cooking, scrape the bottom of the oven continually.  Add salt and pepper.  As the eggs have firmed up but just before they look dry take them off the heat.  The residual temperature will finish cooking them.

Information

Makes 10 2 egg servings
150 calories per serving