Par-tay Rice and 'Shroom Soup

This one is just for you, Michelle....

Kidding season is chaos around here, and some days it is difficult to put a hot meal on the table.  Last year i started dehydrating anything i could get my hands on, then putting a meal together in a baggie that will only require water and a jar of meat that i have also canned.  These recipes are pretty much all soups, but it is cold during kidding season, so this is perfect.  Not that these recipes are strictly wintertime things...the chicken soup recipe i will share later sells all year.  I make it up by the dozen, and the children can make a pot of soup any time they want.  We had it at least once a week all through the summer, if you can imagine that.  It is better than any chicken soup i have ever made.

The other groovy thing about this style of food prep is that you always have a gift ready to go.  When i mix and store, i always bag a few with an instruction card in fancy cello with star garland twist tie, so when i need a gift or a bribe it is ready, handy, and cute.

Oh, and have i mentioned that this stuff has an excellent shelf life?  I prep them during the fall, then we have meals all winter.

All of the recipes i will be sharing came off the internet and then got the momma treatment.  I am not claiming them as my own original, just as the ones that have passed my kitchen test.  You can Google "Gifts in a Jar" and find a plethora of recipes. So kudos to whomever originally figured out this process. 

Note:  Actually the name of this is Creamy Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup, but i like my name better. 

Par-tay Rice and 'Shroom Soup

1 (2.75 oz) pkg country gravy mix (i buy everything in bulk, and use Morrison's Pepper Gravy mix.  If you are doing this, you need 1/2c + 2T)
1 T chicken bouillon
2t dried minced onion
2t dried celery flakes
1t dried parsley flakes
1/4c uncooked wild rice
1c uncooked white rice
2T coarsely chopped dried mushrooms

Put all this in a bag or a jar to store. 

To prepare:  Add 7c water, simmer 25-30 min or until rice is tender.


That is it.  Insanely easy, huh?  And it is Oooooo Soooo good.  Trust me.  And Michelle.


Let's talk just a second about the dehydrated stuff. 

Our grocery store has a section where they "fire sale" produce with that day as the "Use By" date.  Here i can get a packaged of presliced mushrooms or perhaps a three pack of celery stalks for $1.  Hope you can get that lucky. I have dehydrated everything from tomatoes to bell peppers. Whatever they have on sale that we use (i let them keep the brussel sprouts.)   I bring the day's find home, and immediately put it in the dehydrator.  I aspire to a real dehydrator, but until that day, my Wally World cheapos are working just fine.  In about 12 hours, i have a pile of dried veg that i let cool, then bag or jar it up, and store in cool, dry, preferably dark place.

The only thing i refuse to do on my dehydrator is onions, for a variety of reasons.  Bet you can guess a few of them.  (I run the dehydrators in the children's rooms <because my Custome Home has plug issues> and they argue over whose room i run the mushrooms in...mushrooms put out an awful, lingering STENCH as they dry.  Hee Hee Hee, just one of the threats i use around here.  As in, "If you don't **insert command here** i am gonna dry the mushrooms in YOUR room!!"  Works like a charm.)  I have found a better way to get dried minced onions.  I buy them that way.