Dutch Oven Cooking Class

Thursday night I attended a night Relief Society class that focused on dutch oven cooking taught by Bonnie Waltz. She highlighted many great features of dutch ovens. Such as being able to adapt anything from stove top to dutch oven, using charcoal as the heating source.
~ frying, boiling -- heat from the bottom
~ baking-- 2:1 ratio lid to bottom
~ roasting-- 1:1 ratio top and bottom
~ stewing, simmering -- 4:1 bottom to lid ratio
~ lid- turned upside down can be used as a griddle

We also learned that a proper dutch oven needs to have a lid with a flange, or lip around edge, legs and a bail (the wire handle). The best ones are cast iron, but aluminum is also a choice.

Bonnie cooked a variety of foods for us to try. The bread pudding, chicken pot pie and biscuits were great. A big thank you to her for putting this class together and teaching such a yummy class!

Activity Day Girls Project

This last Wednesday the Activity Day leaders had a great project for the girls. They talked about emergency preparedness and then put together little 72-hr kits to get the girls started. The kits included things like granola bars, raisins, beef jerky, cup-o-noodles, trail mix and even a small first aid kit.

This is a good example for us all. It only takes a little bit of effort to get something put together, even if it's only something small.

A great quote was included in the kit:
"'Self-reliance means using all of our blessings from Heavenly Father to care for ourselves and our families and to find solutions for our own problems.' Each of us has a responsibility to try to avoid problems before they happen and to learn to overcome challenges when they occur ...

"How do we become self-reliant? We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education, and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities; and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being." -Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president, Ensign Jan. 2010