Shirley J seasonings

Last June I blogged about the wonderful Pantry Secret enrichment that I attended and learned how to make the yummy bread. Many of you are also making the incredible bread and pizza. I know that I have raved about the pizza and the pizza seasoning that they used from Shirley J. This seasoning truly is the secret to making the pizza taste amazing!

I was so impressed with the seasoning that I tried to find out more about this Shirley J company. What I found out was it basically was a wholesale only company for the food industry. I was a little disappointed that I would not be able to try any of their other products.

The other day I discovered that Mike Olson, who was the director of the Tahitian Noni Cafe, is now affiliated with the Shirley J company. They are taking the amazing products and making them available to the public! Hooray!!!! They have opened a location in Orem and are having an open house, right now. Not only can you buy the products but you can watch some demonstrations on how to use the product and there will be some sampling. The open house runs through the 11th of April and I don't believe it will be open during general conference.

For those of you who don't live in Utah and would like to try their products check out their blog page http://shirleyjsoupbasesandseasonings.wordpress.com/ or go to their web site where you can place orders. www.shirleyj.com

I can't wait to try out the soup base and the other seasonings. This will be a great addition to your food storage. I am thinking the soup base will be similar to the "magic mix" but is already made for you.

If you have not ever tried the pizza seasoning, it is so easy to use. You mix one Tablespoon of the seasoning with one can of tomato sauce and you have your pizza sauce. No longer will your pizzas taste homemade but they taste just as good if not better then your local pizza place. I have gotten my sisters and a sister-in-law using it now. The can of seasoning will last you a long time as you only use a tablespoon. Pizza anyone?

Food Dehydration

I was so happy when my Aunt let me have grandma's dehydrator. I have finally put it use and tried my hand at dehydrating food. I watched some very informative videos on Youtube that taught me how to dehydrate various foods. It really truly inspired me to dehydrate more then I would have. If you would like to check them out follow this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxVpIHre2ao

There is a great store in Provo that has produce for really cheap on Wednesdays called Buy Low Market. It is by Cafe Rio in Provo, for anyone who lives here and is unfamiliar with the store. So, last week I got 16 lemons for $2, 3 lbs of zuccini for $1, 3 lbs of tomatoes for $1, Broccoli for .50 and 3 lbs of oranges for a $1. I thought this was the perfect price to try out various items and see how I like them. This shows my lemons, broccoli, zuccini and strawberries.

So far they have turned out pretty well. I don't know that I will ever dehydrate oranges...they didn't taste very well after they were rehydrated. But, the rest I think I will enjoy. I think the jars are kind of cute with the different colors and textures...they make my pantry cute. Like that is important.

Book Binding Class

Last month when I received my utilities bill I decided to read the enclosed newsletter for upcoming city events. I saw that the Lehi City Arts Counsel was going to have a beginning bookbinding class. That sounded like a lot of fun so I signed up for the class.

I really enjoyed the class and learning the book binding techniques. We learned how to make 5 different styles of books. I have completed 3 of the 5 books. When I finish the other two I will post those.

The first book has handmade paper and is bound to a dowel.

The second book has a fabric spine.

The third book is a fabric envelope book with a ribbon closure. The center portion of papers can be removed and you can refill the envelope with more paper.
The other two books that we learned how to make is a Japanese Stab book and a photo album. I am excited to complete these. It was a fun class to take and I can't wait to practice and make more books.