Food Storage Friendly Friday and Tip of the Week

The tip of the week this week is about onions. Are you using dehydrated onions in your cooking and food preparation? If not, this is a good way to save some money. Dehydrated onions are very economical and are wonderful in most dishes you used fresh onions in (with the exception of fresh onion dishes like salads, etc.). They are a great way to spend less on fresh veggies. You can buy them in bulk for a lot less that what you spend on fresh onions. One #10 can will last for an extremely long time.

If you are using fresh onions in your cooking here is a great tip that I just heard about recently. If your red onion, or any fresh onion, is strong or you just want a milder flavor, cover the thinly sliced onion with cold water for 30 minutes, and then drain well. This takes some of the bite out of the onion for a milder taste.

This week’s food storage friendly recipe was sent in by Karen W. from Utah. She says this may not seem like a food storage recipe but she remembers her grandma Nessie making these on an old cook stove when she was just a little girl. Karen says that if these can be made on a cook stove, they can be made anywhere! She says she will never forget how good these tasted when her grandma made them and it is still a family tradition in their entire family. She says she remember going to her grandma’s house in the fall when all her cousins were there and they would double or triple this recipe and make hundreds of donuts! Awesome! Karen, thanks so much for sharing the recipe and the memories.

Grandma Nessie’s Spudnuts
2 c. Milk scalded and cooled
Dissolve 3 ½ T. yeast in
½ c. warm water with
½ T. Sugar (don’t use a real small bowl for this part)
In big bowl cream:
4 T. shortening and
½ c. sugar
Add:
2 beaten eggs
1 c. mashed potatoes (can use instant)
1½ t. salt
Add cooled milk, yeast mixture, and approx. 7 c. flour a few cups at a time, stirring after each addition. Don’t be afraid to add more flour to the dough. I usually add a little bit more; you’ll get a feel for it. You want the dough to feel like bread dough. If it’s too wet, add more flour.
Let rise, then punch down and roll out about ½” thick.
Cut out in donut shapes and let rise again on cookie sheets.
Fry in hot oil; dip in glaze made of:
1 lb. Powdered sugar
½ c. hot water
½ t. vanilla
Y: about 50 spudnuts. (Plus donut holes – the best part!)
Wooden dowels make the perfect drip-dry hangers for the doughnuts. Once you get good at it, you can use a wooden dowel to scoop the doughnuts out of the hot oil, and to dig them out of their powdered sugar glaze bath.