Meg's questions

If you have more children in the future, would you consider allowing your sisterwives to act as a wet nurse rather than use bottles if they were willing?

Yes, I did that for Christie's daughter Emily for a while. I don't see anything wrong with that but I know it bothers some women.

How are Shari's daughters reacting to their new twin sisters?

Just fine. I think having babies around is pretty normal to them and they used to babysit for other families so they know some more stuff with babies that I did not know at first.

If your chickens stop laying, will you use them for meat so you know where your food comes from?

We already do. I have a couple special chickens who are more pets and we'll never do that with them but the rest are chickens and that is what they are for. The ones that have problems end up on the table like if they are laying soft shell eggs all the time or eggs without shells.

What is your favorite kind of cake to make for your family?

My favorite is chocolate with cherry filling and buttercream frosting but everyone else likes my Boston Cream Pie. I make it more like a cake than a pie and my trick is I use banana slices between the layers to make it stand up better and then everyone likes the banana slices.

Would you consider taking up knitting or sewing as hobbies, especially since they could be used as a means of providing clothing for your family?

That's weird you asked because I am starting quilting this fall and joining the quilting circle when it starts up next month.

What is your favorite dinner to make since taking the cooking classes? -Meg

The best one I have done is a pork shoulder roast. I took a 15 pound pork shoulder and put it in a 18 quart pot with vegetable oil on the bottom. I preheated it on a high heat to where the oil spattered when you dropped a little water in it and then seared the pork shoulder all the way around. I burned it a little on purpose to give it some flavor. Then I filled the pot up with water, a bottle of red wine, basil leaves, a pinch of anise and added about a cup of salt and then let it simmer for almost 6 hours. Then I pulled the pork out and strained the liquid and then used Kitchen Bouquet and some flour to make a gravy and added some pepper.

I served it with steamed Brussels sprouts and Idaho Gold potatoes mashed with one yam and butter. The yam adds a neat texture to the potatoes and it makes for a nice color balance on the plate. The whole dinner was really easy to do and I used only two pots. One for the pork and then one to boil the potatoes and I put the steamer over that pot for the carrots.

There were no leftovers and I only really had two pots to clean up after dinner so that is my favorite dinner so far.