I've been trying to come up with at least one new way to cook a meal entirely from storage foods every week. This one is from last week. Anybody else out there learning how to use the foods in their storage programs?

Beef over noodles

One can of beef chunks (12-16 ounces)

One pound of dry noodles (we like flat noodles)

One half cup dry onions or one medium onion chopped

One cup dry mushrooms or two small cans of wet pack mushrooms

Three tablespoons white all-purpose flour

Three tablespoons cooking oil

One half-teaspoon garlic powder (less for you Midwestern and Northern types - grin!)

One quarter teaspoon black pepper

Red wine (optional)

Combine cooking oil and flour in a heavy bottomed skillet and brown over medium heat until medium to dark brown. Stir frequently to prevent burning. When browned add water to make gravy to a consistency to please you. Add beef chunks, onions, mushrooms and seasonings. Simmer until any raw vegetables are cooked or any dry vegetables fully reconstituted.

As gravy is browning, bring two to three quarts of salted water to a boil in pot of sufficient capacity to boil the noodles. When water reaches boiling add the pasta and stir it in. Stir occasionally until done (should be slightly firm to the tooth or "al dente").

NOTES: For a more exotic flavor try substituting red wine for one quarter to a half of the water when you make the gravy (be sure to keep the heat low). A variant on this recipe is to brown the flour only until golden and use canned chicken instead of beef. If using wine to make the gravy use white wine with the chicken.

............Alan.

The Providence Cooperative - free preparedness & survivalism FAQ's

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), February 22, 2000

Answers

I have been using my storage since Christmas. I have only found one item that had gone bad and that was LaChoy canned sweet and sour chicken with vegetables. The expiration was past and the stuff was awful. So don't even bother to use if the date has expired if you have any. I will not bother to replace that item as the shelf life is too small for long term storage. I have found that if a recipe calls for chicken tuna can be substituted in most. Especially in casseroles.

-- Carol (Glear@usa.net), February 22, 2000.

I eventually did the same thing myself with Parmalat milk. It's useful stuff but the shelf life is fairly short. My brother used it so keeping it rotated wasn't a problem but when he moved out I found that I tended to overlook it since I'm not much of a milk drinker and ended up throwing out two gallons of the stuff for being way past its expiration date.

Of course now I'm beginning to do more storage food cooking and find that for some things like custards low-fat milk will work but full fat whole milk makes a better dish. I'm thinking of either keeping whole milk Parmalat again or trying to find a local source of whole milk powder. I try to buy as much as I can locally and reserve mail order only for things I really have to have and can't find locally.

Food storage is a constant running expiriment and we get to eat the results.

........Alan.

The Providence Cooperative - free preparedness & survivalism FAQ's

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), February 23, 2000.