Ask the Readers: How do you keep frozen bread tasting fresh?

Homemade bread - including my successful Sun Oven experiment

Please allow me a bit of a brag: I have stopped buying bread at the store altogether. Between my NutriMilland my Bosch mixer,making bread with wheat from my food storage couldn't be easier. I bake four loaves at a time (the Bosch can handle six, but I only have four bread pans!) and freeze them.

Here's the problem: my frozen loaves just aren't as moist and tasty as they are when fresh.I have experimented with the type of sugar I use in the bread - white sugar, honey, or brown sugar. I have experimented with the type of wrapping I give the bread before freezing it - a freezer bag, foil, or a layer of plastic wrap, then foil.

Nothing I've tried seems to make much of a difference.

So I ask you, gentle readers: what are your best tricks for freezing bread so that the taste and texture when it thawed is like freshly baked bread? 

How This Prepper Did Disney

Hi, y'all! I've finally escaped central Florida and found the way back to my blog. Our mega road trip to Disney World left me with a wicked sunburn, a giant pile of dirty laundry, and a desire for some real home-cooking. Don't get me wrong - our vacation was fun - but there really is no place like home.

Osama bin Laden was killed not long before we left for Disney World. You wouldn't think those two events would be connected, but I felt a bit nervous that some nutbucket would decide that DW would be a great place to retaliate. It didn't help that on the eve of our departure CNN displayed a map with potential terrorist targets in the US. Wouldn't you know it, DW was on it!

Needless to say, we had a fabulous time at DW and nothing scary or even irritating happened, but had things gone sour, we had some preparedness resources at our fingertips.  Thanks to those of you who responded to my plea for ideas on how to be prepared while on vacation. In addition to the comments left by my fabulous readers, here are some things to think about before you head out on the road this summer.

Road Trip Lessons and Tips:

1. Our car had been recently serviced. The oil was changed, tires were inspected, and windshield wiper fluid was topped up. Vehicle maintainence is always important, but even more so prior to a road trip.
2. I checked our car kit to see that nothing was expired/used up. This is what I routinely carry in our family van: road atlas, a case with basic tools, jumper cables, and work gloves; 3600 calorie food bars (one for each family member); Aqua Literz and Aqua Blox (beware!);  hand warmers; ponchos; emergency blankets; matches; whistle; compass; an emergency tool like this; cell phone charger/radio/flashlight like this; head lamp; lightstick; toilet paper; duct tape; multi-tool; a basic first aid kit.
3. Take along plenty of cash. Just make sure you don't keep it all in one place in case of theft or lost purse/wallet. Both Hubby Dear and I carried some, plus we had an emergency stash in our van.  
4. Pack with care. In addition to clothing suited for the muggy Florida weather, I packed a pair of jeans, a jacket, and sturdy shoes for each member of the family. They didn't take up much room in our suitcases, but if we had to walk long distances or camp out, we would have been thankful to have them. We also brought along an entire case of diapers. That's one item you do not want to run out of ever, much less in an emergency.
5. Bring along plenty of snacks and additional water. I bought a case of bottled water and several kinds of snacks and kept them stashed in the car. A bag of crackers can do wonders to keep young children quiet and content. Quiet and content children = sane mom and dad. Obviously, this is also useful in case of an emergency.
6. Hubby Dear attended a conference on three of the mornings we were at DW. His conference was being held at a different Disney resort than where we were staying. What if there was some kind of emergency while we were separated? We made plans ahead of time.  
7. While in the parks, we made sure to take along extra water and sunscreen. Additionally, I carried all the elements of my EDC. The first aid kit came in handy a couple of times. 

Getting prepared didn't take much additional time or effort on my part, but it gave us a lot of peace of mind on our vacation. If you are travelling this summer, don't forget to make preparedness part of your planning!

Ask the readers: Being Prepared on Vacation

I need to ask you all a hypothetical question. Picture a family going on a National Lampoon Vacation-style road trip from, say, Illinois to Disney World.

Chevy Chase and Co. in "National Lampoon's Vacation"

This hypothetical family consists of two adults and four children that range in age from nine to a newly-minted toddler. They will be on vacation for about two weeks total during the spring. They already anticipate that the essential items they'll bring along on this Griswoldian trip will create sardine-like conditions in the family mini-van.

With these facts in mind, what preps should this family take along?

Keep in mind that this is a completely hypothetical question. It has nothing to do with a vacation my family is undertaking in a couple of months.  Not at all....

Ask the readers: Your Favorite Can Opener

If you are a prepper, chances are you store a lot of canned food, be it from the Piggly Wiggly or an LDS Cannery. If the only can opener you own is electric or a dinky one attached to a faux Swiss Army knife, you need a good manual can opener, stat!

Can you imagine if TSHTF and you didn't have a way to open your cans? You'd be a little frustrated, just like the cat in this video.





Sesame Street was so much better back in the day. "Elmo's World", which seems to take up most of the current incarnation of the show, makes me want to gack.

Oxo Good Grips Can Opener. Image from Amazon.com

I own a pretty decent manual can opener that I use all the time, an Oxo Good Grips Can Opener. It is very easy to turn and cans open smoothly. I have noticed that the plastic around the handle appears to be breaking down a little bit after a year of continual use. I definitely need to develop some redundancy in this area. I think we should have three manual can openers, minimum, to be safe.

So, I'm asking my readers: do you have a favorite, rock star manual can opener? What's your go-to device for opening TEOTWAWKI eats?