Gourmet Food Storage – It Evaporated into Thin Air!

Have you purchased your nonfat dry milk powder yet?  It could be instant or it could be non-fat milk powder.  It may be a little easier with instant, but either ingredient will work.  We’re going to be using it all month to create some amazing items and ingredients with it.  Can you guess today’s ingredient from the title?  Yes, exactly!  Evaporated milk.

I know it sounds so amazingly glamorous – Um….no, but no matter how it sounds it’s such a vital ingredient in so many recipes.  When I make my own sausage or sawmill gravy, cheese sauce, alfredo, or beef stroganoff, I use evaporated milk.

Making it with your food storage ingredients is so amazingly simple.

Recipe – Evaporated Milk

This recipe equals one can of evaporated milk

1 1/2 C water

1 C        dry milk powder

When I’m making my evaporated milk, I start with my dry milk powder in a small container – a bowl or a large 2 C or greater measuring cup.  I then add the water to it a little at a time, stirring as I go.  Adding the liquid to the powder makes for a more smooth ingredient.

When I was growing up, my mom made (or sometimes bought) turkey gravy, but I had never even heard of sawmill gravy or sausage gravy until I went to college. Biscuits and gravy – what’s that? I was clueless I know, I lived such a deprived childhood – well maybe only when it came to eating gravy.

But since I don’t want your children to miss out on all the fun, here’s a great recipe for sausage gravy.

Recipe – Sausage Gravy

Two “cans” evaporated milk (double the above recipe)

2 T butter or ghee

1/4 C flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 C sausage crumbles

Directions:

Make the evaporated milk according to the directions above.  Heat the butter in a skillet until melted.  Whisk the flour into the butter a little at a time until it’s all incorporated.  Slowly stir the evaporated milk into the skillet whisking all the time so that it doesn’t turn lumpy.  Once the evaporated milk has been completely added, add the salt, pepper, and sausage crumbles and let them warm on a low heat until the crumbles are moist.

So I did some digging and found some other recipes that use evaporated milk and could easily be converted into food storage recipes.  Here are some of them.

Scalloped Potatoes

“Farmer’s Casserole” – I think this is going to be a new family favorite.  You can use freeze dried hashbrowns that I’ve found at Costco to make this very food storage friendly!

Sweet Potato Pie

Potato Soup –  You need bouillon for this recipe.  You can easily substitute the recipe that I gave you a couple of weeks ago for the bouillon in this recipe.

Homemade Mac and Cheese – Talk about a comfort food!

Spiced Rice Pudding – The perfect food storage dessert!

So what about you?  What recipe do you use evaporated milk in most?  What’s your favorite recipe that calls for evaporated milk?

If you enjoyed this post, please share!  And I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments so that I can get to know you all better.