Party: The Relief Society Birthday

"Relief Society. . . . gives [women] opportunity for growth and development. It gives them status as queens in their own households. It gives them place and position, where they grow as they exercise their talents. It gives them pride and direction in family life. It gives them added appreciation for good, eternal companions and children.

"What a glorious organization Relief Society is. There is nothing to compare with it in all the world."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Thanks to all who came to celebrate 169 years of this wonderful organization!! We are especially grateful for the organization of Relief Society and focused on the gifts that we've received from Relief Society.

 Past Relief Society generations have given us the gift of faith and great examples of following the prophets; supporting progressive causes for women; and the gift of frugality and craftiness.

To learn about the early roots of the organization, we played a wonderful game of Jeopardy, LDS style (on-your-honor points!)

  As a tribute to the "gifts" Relief Society has given us, we practiced unique and thrifty wrapping and then exchanged our gifts with other sisters.

Thrifty wrapping ideas:

Thank you to all who came to celebrate the birth of this wonderful organization! 

Relief Society Birthday Celebration!

Come celebrate the gifts of Relief Society at this fun fun event!

(and the second "fun" was not a type- the fun is going to be double!)

Family History

Russell M. Nelson said that family history work can "elevate the spirit of [our] ward, strengthen the spiritual roots of new converts, and bless the lives of all members."

Our latest Relief Society meeting focused on Family History work. Brother Rogers, our stake family history consultant, took us on a tour of the family history center and showed us how to access our genealogies online in a couple simple steps:

1. Visit http://new.familysearch.org, create a username and password [if you have an LDS.org account, then use that]
2. Click on See Me & My Ancestors

On that website, you're able to add family information, see temple work that's been done for your ancestors and prepare names for the temple.

Marinda Misra gave a wonderful presentation on how to introduce a child to family history work. (You can find a fun printable guide when you click on the link)

Whitey Thompson gave us these Easy steps to indexing!

And we had WONDERFUL family desserts! Find the recipes below: 

Custard Pie (Grandma Benton's recipe)- Cheri Weaver's recipe

3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups scalded milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat eggs until light and fluffy. Then beat in rest of ingredients. Pour into pastry lined pie pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and continue cooking for an additional 20 to 25 minutes. Watch carefully and check to see if done by inserting knife in center of pie. If it comes out clean, the pie is done. Serve warm.

Fudgey Pudding Cake (serves 4-6)- Sarah Evan's recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 6-cup casserole dish (something like an 8-inch round and 4-inch deep would work).  
2. Sift or mix thoroughly: 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 2/3 cups sugar, 2 Tbsp cocoa
3. Combine in separate bowl: 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 Tbsp melted butter. Add to dry ingredients, beat until smooth and spread into casserole dish.
4. Mix 1 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp cocoa. Sprinkle onto batter
5. Pour 1-1/2 cups boiling water over entire cake. DO NOT MIX
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, uncovered

Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream, whipped topping or ice cream.

Can Rotating Shelves Activity

Thank you to all the wonderful sisters who came to our activity on Jan 18 at the church.  We had the gym full of glue guns, cardboard, rulers, and box cutters.  It was a really fun activity and the shelves that everybody made were wonderful.


Also here is a video of how the shelves work.  Courtesy of Foodstoragemadeeasy.net and youtube

Included here is a link that will give a diagram of how to mark the sides of the shelve before you begin to glue it together.  The link also shows a measurement table which needed to be amended a bit.  So below is the fixed table.  (we added 1/8" to the sides so that the cans wouldn't get stuck going down)

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/docs/shelfplan.pdf

 Instructions and Measurements for can rotating shelves.  Website with video and instructions

 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/02/16/build-your-own-can-rotating-rack/

Description	Fruit Can	Vegetable Can	Evap Milk Can	Soup Can	Make
Sides	10 x 11 1/2	10x 13	10 x 13	10 1/2 x 12	2
Back	5 3/8 x 9 1/4	5 1/4 x 10	4 3/4 x 10	4 1/2 x 10 1/2	1
Upper and Center Shelves	4 7/8 x 8	4 6/8 x 9 3/4	4 2/8 x 9 3/4	4 1/4 x 9 1/8	2
Lower Shelf	4 7/8 x11 5/8	4 6/8 x 13 1/8	4 2/8 x 13 1/8	4 1/4 x 12 1/8	1
Upper Front*	1 1/4 x 7 1/4	3 3/4 x 6 7/8	3 3/4 x 6 1/2	3 1/4 x 6 1/2	1
Lower Front*	4 1/4 x 7 1/4	1 1/4 x 6 7/8	1  1/4 x 6 1/2	1 1/4 x 6 1/2	1
Wood Block	1 1/2 x  4 3/4	1 1/2 x 4 5/8	1 1/4 x 4 1/8	1 1/2 x 4 1/8	*
A	3 1/2	3 1/4	3 1/4	2 3/4	*
B	3 1/2	3 1/4	3 1/4	2 3/4	*
C	3/4	1 1/4	1 1/4	1 3/4	*
D	7 5/8	7 3/4	7 3/4	7 7/8	*
E	4 7/8	5 1/4	5 1/4	5 7/8	*
Number of cans stored	9	12	12	12	*
Notes: 1. Material:  Thick 1 ply or 2 ply corrugated cardboard.
2. Glue gun with glue, or calking,
3. Reinforce all exterior exposed edges with a coating of glue.
4. All dimensions are in inches. 5. * Crease and fold appromimately 3/4" from each end and fit to the width. Wrap around the sides.  6. A-E, Use these measurments on "Side" part to mark where to glue pieces onto it.  7. We did not make the woodblock and it worked out fine.

Welcome to the New Year

We will be having some fabulous weekday meetings this year.  We hope to be doing a lot of hands on activities and enjoying the company of our fellow Relief society sisters

2010 was a great year and we did a lot of very fun activities.  Here is a quick recap of what we did

-Monthly book club focusing on other cultures
-Old fashion Favorites-  how to make lemon curd and apple butter
-Health class
-RS Birthday dinner
-Container Gardening for small spaces
-Increasing our Relationship with our Saviour
-Tasting night- Focusing on how to cook with beans
-Decorating your home Night
-RS Temple Day
-Get To know Seattle
-Service Auction
-Cookbook night and Meal planning
-Christmas Brunch

Service Auction Recipes

Thank you to all those who came and participated in the Service Auction last Tuesday. A special thanks to Gabby Hansen who provided the recipes for that night's wonderful, authentic dinner. In case you were not able to be there, below you will find her recipes. Bon appétit!

Chocolate cake Flan

Recipe for one cake

1 mix of chocolate cake (betty crocker triple chocolate works very well)

1/3 cup oil (for cake mix)

2-3 eggs(for cake mix)
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
6 eggs
1 8 oz cream cheese full fat :)
1/2 cup sugar
1 ts vanilla 
1 can of dulce de leche (mexican caramel)

Make cake as instructed on package. In a sauce pan, melt the sugar until it becomes golden-amber in color. Pour it in the bundt cake pan. With a knife spread the sugar over every surface in the pan-  on the sides and the middle. Let sugar harden. After sugar is cool and hard add the cake mixture. Using a blender, mix evaporated milk, the condensed milk, eggs, cream cheese and vanilla in separate bowl. Add this mixture on top of the cake. Bake as instructed on the cake box. After cake is done let rest for about 5 minutes, turn over on a platter, let cool and frost with the dulce de leche. 

"Barbacoa" 

3.5 - 4 lbs of beef chuck shoulder 
5 roma tomatoes
2 anaheim peppers
1 small white onion
1 small red onion
1 ts white vinegar
1 cup water
3 dried pasilla peppers (To rehydrate, stick in container of hot water and let soften. Remove seeds and stem before using)
3 medium size garlic cloves
1/2 ts mexican oregano
2 russet potatoes
3 carrots
about 10 to 12 green pickled olives
5 slices of pickled jalapeno
1 T pickled jalapeno juice
2 ts of tomato-chicken bouillon
salt and pepper to taste

In a pan, sauté meat, onions, pepper and tomatoes with about 2 T of oil. After about 10 minutes add chile pasilla mixture (blend chile pasilla, garlic and oregano and 1 cup water) let  simmer for about 1 and half hours. Add potatoes, carrots, olives, jalapeno, pickled jalapeno juice, chicken bouillon, salt and pepper. Cook until potatoes and carrots are done. I hope this is helps.

Horchata:

2 cups of rice
3 cups of water
2 cups whole milk
3/4 C sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Soak rice in hot water for 8 hours. Drain the rice and add it to a blender or food processor along with 3 cups of water.  Pass the rice blend through a mesh strainer or thin cheese cloth into a container. Squeeze it good to get all liquid out.  Discard all the solid part of the rice.  Add remaining ingredients to the jar, stir, serve cold. (You can add spices and sugar to your taste)  Makes about 1.8 liters.=7 cups

Mexican Sausage Beans (similar to refried beans but much much better)

3 cups of cooked beans (puree beans in a blender or food processor)
6 oz of chorizo

1 1/2 cups of shredded melting cheese (such jack, colby, etc)

1 T dices pickled jalapeno

1 ts jalapeno pickle juice 

2 T butter

add butter to a pan, add the chorizo cook for about 10 minutes. Add the beans cheese, pickled jalapeno and juice.  Stir cook on low until cheese has melted.  this serves about 8 to 10 people.

Pasta Salad

Noodles 8 oz

Mayonnaise 6 T (mexican mayonnaise tastes the best "Mayonessa" I think)

peas 3/4 cup

salt 1 tsp

pepper to taste

Cook pasta, let cool. Mix all ingredients. add mayo till it seems right.  You don't need to add the whole amount if it seems ok. Add pepper and more salt if desired. Serves about Serves about 9 to 10 people. 

Mexican Rice (we didn't serve this, but its a delicious and authentic recipe!)

1 cup of rice

1 clove of garlic minced

3 T chopped green pepper (anaheim or bell pepper)

4 T chopped white or yellow onion

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1 3/4 C warm water

1 ts salt

1 ts chicken bouillon (is that how you spell it)

2 T butter

In a pan melt butter add rice, garlic, onion, and green pepper. sauté for about 10 to 17  minutes being careful not to burn the rice. Add water, salt ,tomato sauce, and the chicken bouillon. cover and cook in medium heat for about 20 to 25 minutes. Turn the stove off, fluff the rice with a fork, add warm vegetables such as carrot, peas and corn and mix. 

CILANTRO RANCH Dressing (contributed from Cafe Rio)
1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk
2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno (we like it SPICY so we kept the seeds in it, if you like it mild, just remove the seeds)

Mix all ingredients together in the blender. That's it!

Upcoming activity: Service Auction!

The Relief Society Service Auction is coming up!

 When: Tuesday, October 19
     dinner @ 6pm- authentic mexican food with a special dessert!
      auction @ 7pm
Where: Church




What: Donate acts of service (ie., a car wash, free babysitting, a friend to walk with), or donate your talents with handmade items (ie., freezer meal, cookies, crocheted beanie). Look for more ideas of what you can donate in the Relief Society binders on Sunday. Consider this as an opportunity to grow closer to the sisters in our ward through service.


How: When you arrive at the auction, you'll be given a quiz to determine  how many points you have for the auction. Items will be bid on for points only, no money. After the item is "sold", the bidder and seller will each receive receipts of the item/service acts.

You won't want to miss this fun event!