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"Quick and Easy" or "Difficult and Time-consuming"?

Trying to follow an American recipe in Poland can be a catastrophe. Especially, those recipes that say "Quick and Easy." About 99% of the time, I must first of all make my substitutes for the time-saving bought ingredients that aren't available over here. After all my dishes are dirty preparing all the ingredients, I can then assemble the recipe. Unfortunately, for me, these recipes become quite complicated. Georgene posted about being faithful in little things. I thought I would post some of the substitutes I've learned to use. Maybe some of you can save some money by preparing your own substitutes.

Bisquick Substitute
8 cups flour
4 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder
8 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups shortening
Mix until finely crumbled. Store in air-tight container or in the freezer.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Substitute
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup warm water
Blend in blender until smooth. Chill.

Cream Soup Mix
2 cups instant dry milk powder
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken boullion
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Combine. For one can of cream soup (10 3/4 oz) blend 1/3 cup mix and 1 1/4 cup water.
I have many more, but maybe this is enough for today. I will post more later.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
That would be interesting. I very rarely buy bisquick so the one for bisquick I am familiar with but those other two are good to know. I have the "Make-a-Mix cookbook and it is so helpful for that stuff, but I don't thik it has either the milk or soup one. Thanks! -val ( i can't get my sign-in to work for some reason)
10:56 AM
Karen G. said…
I can understand some of these substitutes, but you can buy sweetened condensed milk. Look for it on the shelves where they have cream for coffee, etc. Some comes in little cartons, but you can also find cans--but there is both sweetened and unsweetened, so be careful.

Mleko zagegeszczone--either slodzone or nieslodzone.

Good luck. ;-)
11:55 PM
Karen G. said…
zageszczone, I mean. Sorry, no Polish characters, and the spelling is hard.
11:56 PM
mybubblingteapot said…
Thanks for the comment on my site. Yes, you're right. You can buy sweetened condensed milk in Poland and I do sometimes, it's just rather expensive. :) Thanks for the hint. I enjoyed browsing your site. I see you have a post about homeschooling. Are you Polish? and you homeschool in Poland? I would like to hear more. You can email me personally at jolasmucker@terramail.pl if you like.
12:19 AM
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