My Thoughts on TLC's "Livin' For the Apocalypse"

I DVRed the one hour special "Livin' For the Apocalypse" on TLC after reading about it on Survival Blog. Just as Rawles predicted, this show definitely tried to show preppers and survivalists as loonies. The show was short on helpful information and long on sensationalism. Most of us don't "live for the apocalypse", we just live. Here's a snippet:



The show profiled four different families with different methods of preparedness. Compared to NatGeo's "Doomsday Preppers", the producers of this show had even less regard for their participants' privacy. Full names and locations were shown with abandon. Even when the participants expressed a desire to maintain OPSEC, the producers showed items that would easily allow anyone to find out just who they are and where they live. For example, "Survival Doc" made a point about how he wouldn't reveal his real name. That was pretty much blown out of the water when the cameras caught his chiropractic licenses and an information board in his office that showed his full name and the name of his chiropractic establishment. Oh, and by the way, his chiropractic office is located in his home. OPSEC totally blown.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the preps that Peggy Layton, author of numerous food storage cookbooks, has. The ubiquitous McClung family (in the clip above) with their tilapia pool was profiled. Again. I have seen them on three different survival-related TV shows in the last six months. And contrary to what Mrs. McClung stated, you do NOT have to be a professional to can meat. All you have to do is have a pressure canner and follow some simple instructions. I just felt sorry for the last pair, a transgendered woman and her friend. I'm not going to say much about them other than to say that I think the producers should be ashamed of their extremely unflattering portrayal. They are a pretty unusual couple, but the editing did them no favors.

I don't think Hollywood is going to be knocking at my door and asking to take a look at my preps anytime soon, but if they did, you can bet I would say no. I think the potential educational value of a TV show on preppers is far outweighed by the OPSEC concerns. I'll stick with my blog, thank you very much!

In case you missed it, here's the listings for the next time "Livin' for the Apocalypse" will be shown. I didn't find it posted on YouTube yet, but I'm sure it will get there at some point.


Did you catch "Livin' for the Apocalypse"? What's your opinion on the show?

A Visit by the Reverse Prize Patrol

I just love the Publisher's Clearinghouse Prize Patrol. I never get those sweepstakes entries in the mail, and if I did, I probably wouldn't fill them out. Still, I like to imagine that one day the doorbell will ring and some man will shove flowers and a check for a million dollars into my arms.

I have, however, been visited by the reverse prize patrol. What's that, you ask? The reverse prize patrol is when the doorbell rings and you find a large bill. Surprise! You owe $500.

Yep, that happened to me this week. I thought the doorbell was the UPS man when it actually was our propane delivery driver.

A 500 gallon propane tank is expensive to fill
Image from missiongas.com

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Gee, I thought we just sent you guys a huge check to pre-pay for our propane through April?"

Him: "Well, ma'am, that just covers you from September through April. We top off your tank before then.

Me: "......."

Him: "Ma'am, are you OK? You look a little pale and your jaw seems to be on the ground..."

---
Crud. August was a tight month for us and I definitely didn't have an extra $500 just kicking around.

A few years ago, this would have been a crisis. We would've had to take a cash advance on a credit card or engage in who knows what kind of financial tomfoolery to get this bill paid on time. Today, I was able to smile (after course of smelling salts and a Coke Zero) because I knew it would be completely different this time around.

We started following the Baby Steps outlined in Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover two years ago. As a result, we are debt free (other than our mortgage) and have an emergency fund in place just for occasions such as this.

Preparedness is not only about surviving an end of the world scenario. Preparedness means you don't have to make last-minute runs to the store for that forgotten item because you can cover it with your food storage. It means you have the ability to take care of your family and pay your bills no matter who is president or what's going on in the world at large. It means the reverse prize patrol is nothing more than a speed bump.  Preparedness makes a difference in my every day life and, boy, does that feel good!



If you don't have an emergency fund, start today. Little bits add up. If you don't have food storage, start today. Don't wait for the reverse prize patrol to come knocking! Can I get an amen from the choir?

Fresh from the Garden: Tomato-Jack Salad

This recipe couldn't be easier, and yet it is one of my family's favorite ways to eat vine-ripe tomatoes. My mom came up with this combination 20+ years ago and we've been consuming it in mass quantities ever since. The zesty dressing, sweetly acidic tomatoes, and the creamy spice of the cheese are wonderful together.

I'm happy to share with you one of my family's secret recipes. Just promise me you won't try this with bland, grocery store tomatoes, OK? That would be a sacrilege. :)

I used Roma-type tomatoes because that is all I had at the moment. Slicer-type
tomatoes are much better, but, trust me, this was still pretty good. 

Tomato-Jack Salad

Ripe tomatoes
Pepper Jack Cheese
Italian dressing (If I'm using bottled dressing, prefer to use one that is labeled "zesty" or "robusto". It enhances the spicy kick.)

Alternate slices of tomatoes with thin slices of pepper jack cheese. Drizzle dressing over the top. You can serve immediately, or let it sit for a bit to increase the lusciousness.

My summer reading list and plans for the future

In between accidents and trips to the hospital, I've been busy reading and making plans for our homestead. Can you guess what we're planning based on my selection of library books?

My reading material

Of course, when I say "we're" planning, what I really mean is that I'm planning and Hubby Dear is tolerating, albeit with sighs and massive amounts of eye-rolling.

We're going to begin with two or three pecan trees this fall and add in several apple trees in the spring. We want to plant lots of other types of fruit trees, but I know better than to try and do too much at once. We I decided to start with apples and pecans because both are nutritious foods that have the potential to store well. Pecans, in particular, take a few years to start producing, so they got bumped up to the top of the project list. Since we have such rotten soil, we're going to have to take particular care to prepare the planting sites.

We're also going to expand our square food garden and fence it in preparation for the spring's big project: a chicken coop, chicken moat, and, yes, chickens.

A chicken moat plan from Mother Earth News

The above diagram is not exactly what our chicken moat will look like, but you get the picture. The idea of a chicken moat is that you surround your garden with a chicken run, which reduces weed and bug problems. Plus, you raise your own meat and eggs and get a rich source of compost for the garden. We need to start setting up the fencing around the garden area now because we are going to be swamped with garden work in the spring. I'd rather get the chickens now, but first things first. :)

Summer's not even over, but I just can't resist planning for next year. Are you planning a major addition to your yard, garden, or preps in the year to come? Do you have any advice for my ventures? I'd love to hear from you!

Fresh from the Garden: Basil Pesto

It's the world's klutziest woman checking back in. :) I got a new accessory today - an arm sling.Turns out I separated my right shoulder and I get to have my arm in a sling for a month while it heals. And, yes, I am right-handed. Thankfully, I have plenty of Advil in my stockpile (that I got for free with coupons, thank you very much!) and I still have a sense of humor about the whole thing. Sometimes if you don't laugh, you'll cry.

With that out of the way, here's the latest edition to my "Fresh From the Garden" recipe collection - pesto. I know, I know. Pesto isn't exactly new and innovative. But when it is made with garlic and basil from your own garden - oh. my. gravy. So delicious! My kids practically lap it up. 

This pesto recipe is the best one I have found. The simple step of blanching the garlic keeps it from being too strong and overpowering. The spicy basil and pungent garlic are in perfect balance with the creamy pine nuts. Dang it. I've made myself drool just typing this.

Pesto fresh from the food processor

Basil Pesto
Adapted from The Best Recipe  (An A+ cookbook that I highly recommend.) 

3 medium garlic cloves (unpeeled)
1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted (In a pinch, I've used almonds, walnuts, or even pecans)
2 c. packed basil leaves
7 T. extra virgin olive oil
Salt
1/4 c. finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Thread the garlic cloves on a skewer. Lower skewered garlic into a pot of boiling water. Boil for 45 seconds and then run garlic under cold water to stop the cooking. Remove from the skewer, peel, and mince.

Place basil in a freezer bag. Pound with something heavy (I use the flat side of my meat tenderizer) until the leaves are bruised. This step really intensifies the basil flavor.

Place all ingredients except cheese in work bowl of food processor; process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in cheese plus salt to taste.

Yield: Enough pesto for 1 lb pasta

Note: If you are using this pesto on pasta, save back a cup or so of the pasta cooking water and add it to the pesto. This loosens up the pesto just enough and the starch in the cooking water helps the whole thing "meld".

Penne alla pesto - yummers!

A Comedy of Accidents

I haven't posted in a while and you might be wondering if a stack of 5 gallon buckets of wheat fell on me or if I got stuck in my bunker. Surely you didn't think my silence meant I fell off the prepping bandwagon? Never! :)

What happened is a comedy of accidents due to my inherent klutziness.

The scene of the crime

One morning, I was working in the kitchen while my four children played in the living/play room. The gruesome twosome - a.k.a. Baby Dear and Sweetie Pie - decided that Momma had spent more than enough time away from them and so they gathered at the gate that separates the living room from the dining room. Have you ever heard two, mostly non-verbal, toddlers throw a simultaneous tantrum? No? You're missing out. It sounds something like the combination of a cat in heat, nails on a chalkboard, and an approaching freight train.

Motivated by their dulcet voices, I decided to cross over the gate - usually a simple maneuver - to end the screaming as soon as possible. What happened next is kind of a blur. I tripped on either one of the babies or a toy and fell to the ground with a thud similar to the felling of a redwood tree. I half expected one of my older children to shout "Timber!", but no, they ignored my slow motion descent to the floor. I ended up with my head in a toy chest, my ribs cradled on top of a toy dog kennel, and my left knee jammed onto Baby Dear's miniature John Deere tractor. I still have the tire imprints on my patella to prove it. I got the wind knocked out of me and it shook me up a bit, but I was otherwise fine. The toddlers bounced upon my inert frame while I recovered and all was well in their baby kingdom.

That evening, I started having pain in both wrists. The pain became searing over the next couple of days and my hands remain sore two weeks later. Hubby Dear diagnosed me with sprained wrists and possibly some fractures in my metacarpals due to a FOOSH (fall on outstretched hand). Whatever. All I know is it hurts.

I decided to forgo the recommended x-ray and take the wait-and-see approach. Wait-and-see doesn't require a co-pay, radiation, or spending time in a waiting room with four restless kids. In the meantime, I had some canning to do. Salsa, spaghetti sauce, you name it. It had to get done. I don't like peeling tomatoes in the best of times, but with two sprained wrists?? Fun times.

So I decided to add to the excitement by slicing through the nail on my index finger with my chefs' knife. Twice.

I'm still avoiding the x-ray, but I had to go in for a tetanus shot to be prudent. On my way to get the tetanus shot, I jacked up my right shoulder when I slid on some wet pavement.

I think I should just stay in bed for a few days, don't you?

More garden and prep updates to come, assuming I maintain the use of my hands and my sanity.

Gettin' Romantic at Cabela's

Hubby Dear and I recently celebrated 13 years of wedded bliss. My in-laws provided us with babysitting so the Hubs and I enjoyed a kid-free weekend excursion to the big, big, city.

Who needs chocolate-covered strawberries and diamonds? Nothing says romance like a trip to Cabela's! Browsing the guns and ammo under the watchful eyes of taxidermied polar bears is sure to ignite marital passions. ;)

It wasn't the only place we visited on our trip, but Cabela's was a highlight to be sure. This is what I came home with:

A can of Mountain House Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Quik Clot Trauma Pak, SAM Splint, Firestarter, and rope

Mountain House #10 cans are still in short supply. There were plenty on hand at Cabela's, though, so I picked up one. They only carried about four or five varieties, but there were plenty of them.
I added the Quick Clot Trauma Pak and SAM splint to our first aid supplies. The Quick Clot Pak is good for large wounds - even some gunshots - and the SAM splint is reusable, which is a plus.

I've been wanting to get one of these firesteels I have refillable butane lighters, matches, and now this as my means to light fires. I'll definitely need to practice using it.

The rope was kind of a random purchase. It isn't heavy-duty, so I won't be using it to rappel down a mountain or anything. You can never have enough of it on hand, though, and since I bought it, it won't be lost in Hubby Dear's Man Land (aka the garage).



Anyone else have strange "dates" with your spouse since the preparedness bug hit?

This Inflation Business Is Getting Crazy!

For 1 case of non-fat, non-instant dry milk (including shipping):

March 2011: $78.92

June 2011: $95.05

August 2011: $107.17


That is INSANE!! I don't know if the price increase is due to inflation in general or simply increased demand for preparedness products. What I do know is I don't like it!

In case you're wondering, I didn't buy the milk. Who knows what the price will be next month?

Can Your Food Supply Beat The Heat?

First, allow me a little SHTF gardening pontification:

Many preparedness-minded people have a pack of "survival seeds" socked away for TEOTWAWKI, thinking, "If SHTF, I'll just start gardening."

First of all, you can't just throw a random can of survival seeds in your fridge and expect to be able to produce enough food to survive, much less thrive, post-SHTF. We've been gardening in one way or another for 6 years and we are by no means experts. We are making remarkable strides in our skills and knowledge, but I wouldn't want to depend solely on our garden's production.

Second of all, are you sure your seed stockpile is full of varieties that will thrive in your area? Do you have good tools? How about ways to maintain your soil's fertility and to manage pest problems without petrochemicals? Are you physically capable of the labor it takes to turn virgin ground into a thriving garden? You had better know the answers to all those questions before you have to rely on your "Garden in a Can".

Hot, hot, hot

With that out of the way, let's bring this summer's heatwave and drought into the picture. Let's say SHTF has happened. Unless you are located in the Pacific Northwest or Antarctica, chances are your summer has been brutally hot. At the Harried Homemaker Acres, we have had TWENTY ONE days where the high has been over 100 degrees. This is great for using your car as a solar oven, but not much else.



Extreme Heat Warnings and Watches, July 20, 2011

Our garden has suffered, with the corn taking the brunt of nature's furnace . Keep in mind that this is with daily watering. What would have happened if we could not irrigate? Could we live on only our garden produce?

The answer, obviously, is no. Not even if we had a much larger garden and were master gardeners. We would be struggling and would be thanking the Lord that we had our food storage in place.

POINT #1: You've got to have food storage as a back-up.

If you look at the information available from the National Weather Service, you'll find some interesting charts and graphs. This July ranked in the top ten of hottest summers ever recorded in our state. When were the other ten?

A cluster of years in the early 1900s
A cluster in the 1930s
A small cluster in the 1950s
1980

Hot and dry weather seems to come in clusters, which brings me to point number two.

POINT#2: It would be best to have enough food storage in place to account for multiple years of poor harvests.

And don't forget this -

POINT #3: In hot, dry weather, your gardening technique matters.

I will always sing the praises of Square Foot Gardening, but it is a more intensive cultivation that requires additional water and soil fertility. In a drought, giving your crops extra space is extremely useful. Two books that I own that address this issue are Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times and The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times.

I particularly find the latter book inspirational. The author, Carol Deppe, promotes corn, bean, squash, potatoes and eggs as the basis for a survival diet and gives extremely detailed information on how to grow these crops/products. If you maintain a gluten-free diet, you'll especially appreciate her book. We aren't gluten-free, but still found a lot of useful information. It is one of those books that makes you think.

Even if you are a die-hard SFGer, it makes sense to tuck these books into your survival library and learn these techniques as a option.

How is your garden growing in all this heat? How drought-proof is your garden?

July in Review and August 2011 Preps

July in Review:

The Garden -

July has been a tough month. Like much of the nation, we've been under the grip of a heatwave that just won't let go. We have had over two weeks of temperatures well in the 100s and very little rain. When I walk across our now beige-colored lawn, it sounds like I'm stomping on corn chips.

Our poor garden has suffered as a result. We've been watering daily, but there's only so much 110 degree weather that a plant can take. Compare these photos to my last garden update.



The beans gave up the ghost a bit earlier than they would have. Thankfully, we harvested a ton of beans before the heatwave hit. That sprawled out mess towards the back of the photo and under Hubby Dear's finger is our potatoes. We had a lot of wind one night that toppled them over. They are still alive, however, and have even sent out new green shoots. We're just letting them be and keeping our fingers crossed.




Tomatoes refuse to set fruit in this kind of weather, and the fruit that they already have ripens slowly. The local paper reported that when nighttime lows are consistently in the upper 80s and nineties, it messes with the plant's metabolism. Same thing with the peppers.

We're still battling the occasional hornworm . Mini Me is traumatized for life after hornworm "juice" sprayed on her as Hubby Dear squished one of the little buggers.






Our corn has fared the worst of all. The second and third boxes have pretty much stopped growing. If we had planted our corn just a week or two earlier, it probably would have been mature enough to weather the blistering heat. Oh well.





Our Baby Pam pumpkins are ripening much faster than expected. They should have another month of growth, but the fruit is turning orange and the vines are starting to die back. We'll see what happens.





The blackberries weren't bothered by the heat. They just keep giving their glorious, juicy berries. The success of the berries is sweet consolation.

Hubby Dear has begun planting the fall garden. He delayed it slightly in the hope that it will cool down a bit and give the seeds a chance to germinate.

Other July Preps -

-Woohoo! We finally have a year's supply of wheat and pasta! I also bought oats, popcorn, sugar, rice, and flour and packed it all for long term storage in mylar bags and buckets.

-Speaking of mylar bags, I won't be buying mine from Emergency Essentials anymore. This last batch they sent me was more plastic-y, if that makes sense. I immediately noticed a difference in the way they felt. When I went to seal the bag with my iron, the bag melted and ripped instead of sealing. Not cool! I'll be buying my bags from a different vendor from now on.

-I have been busy preserving what produce managed to survive the heat. I've frozen green beans, green bell peppers, jalapenos, and blackberries. I've canned massive amounts of blackberry jam and some dilled green beans. I used my Excalibur to dry parsley I gathered from my herb garden.

-Miscellaneous food storage: I also added several cans of ghee, evaporated milk, vinegar, maple syrup and brown sugar.

-I added some more freebies to my BOB - floss, toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo and conditioner.

-I haven't killed the aloe plant I bought. In fact, it seems to be thriving. Also on the first aid front, I bought some cold packs and gauze for cheap using coupons.

-I'm loving my Bosch mixer! It easily handles multiple batches of whole wheat bread dough.


August Preps:

-I haven't nailed down exactly what I'm doing or purchasing. I definitely will continue to work on our food storage. I need to buy more oils, cereal for our three month supply, dry milk, and other food storage essentials. I should really be canning more meat, but I will wait until after my heavy canning months.

-We're going to keep plugging away in the garden. I'll be canning/freezing/dehydrating the harvest and posting about that. I'm praying that the heat lets up and that our tomato harvest is bountiful. Hoping for some cucumbers so I can make my grandma's cinnamon pickle recipe. You can keep track of my totals in the "Harvest 2011" sidebar on the righthand side of my blog.

-Hubby Dear and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary with a weekend trip to the big, big city. We're going to investigate the Cabela's store near the B&B we're staying at. Nothing says romance like fishing lures and ammo! ;)

-Not exactly a prep, but kind of, and very important: we start our homeschool year on August first.



How has the weather been in your locale? What have your done to prep this month?

One Thing To Do With Those Pecks Of Peppers

Do you remember how expensive produce was last winter?? Even in a normal year, I regularly have to pay between $2-3 per red bell pepper in January. That's both ridiculous and completely unnecessary.

Peppers from my garden

If you have access to a bunch of garden-fresh peppers, it couldn't be easier to freeze them for future use.

I like to cut the top off the pepper and then scoop out the seeds. Next, I cut the pepper in half and pop the pieces in a freezer bag. That's it! You can cut the peppers into smaller pieces before freezing, but I prefer to freeze halves so I can customize the size of pepper pieces for each dish. I simply grab the number of pepper halves that I need for the recipe and throw the rest back in the freezer. It only takes a minute or two of thawing before the peppers will be soft enough to cut with a chef's knife.

I also freeze jalapenos, poblanos, and other peppers using this method.

One of these days, I'll break out the dehydrator and try my hand it dehydrating peppers. But until then, to the freezer they go.

Fresh From the Garden: Cucumbers in Dressing

This is a recipe my mother-in-law makes frequently during the summer for family get-togethers. It's sweet, creamy, and has a nice zip from the vinegar and dill.

I used green onions, dill, and cucumbers from our garden. Hubby Dear teased
me that I was a slacker for not making the mayo from scratch, too! 

Cucumbers in Dressing

1 c. mayo
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
4 t. white vinegar
1 t. chopped fresh dill
3 green onions, chopped
4-6 medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced

Mix together the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Gently stir in the remaining ingredients and chill for at least an hour before serving.

Fresh From the Garden: Blackberry Cobbler

I apologize for the formatting issues you may see on this and other recent posts. I'm having issues with Blogger working, period, much less formatting correctly.
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I'm starting a new category of posts - Fresh From the Garden. These posts will feature recipes that are based on seasonal garden produce. Many of them will also be food storage-friendly.





Blackberries! We're getting inundated and I love it!


Now that I've canned 24 half-pints of blackberry jam*, I've started freezing pint containers of blackberries for cobblers. Here is a quick and easy cobbler recipe that my family really enjoys.




Fresh out of the oven and ready to devour



Blackberry Cobbler
Slightly adapted from this Betty Crocker recipe

2 1/2 cups blackberries
1 c. sugar
1 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 c. milk
A dash of vanilla extract
A stick of butter, melted


In a medium bowl, stir together blackberries and sugar. Let stand about 30 minutes or until fruit syrup forms. My firm, fresh berries needed a little help releasing their juice, so I had to gently press a few of them to get the syrup going. If you are using frozen, thawed berries, you may not need to do that. Preheat oven to 375°F.

In another medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and vanilla. Stir in melted butter until blended. Spread in ungreased 8-inch square pan. Spoon blackberry mixture over batter.


Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until dough rises and is golden.



*If you want to track my progress, check out the "Harvest 2011" box in my sidebar. I'm keeping a tally of what I add to my pantry or freezer from our garden.

Using Your Food Storage: Chicken Cobbler with Caramelized Onions

Hubby Dear was on-call from 5 pm Friday until 7 am Monday. That meant that every person that showed up at our hospital with ailments large or small was seen by him. Needless to say, we didn't see very much of him over the weekend and he was very worn out by this morning.

To thank him for his hard work providing for his family, I made one of Hubby Dear's favorite meals today. Chicken Cobbler with Caramelized Onions is rich, comforting, and, of course, can be made entirely from your food storage. I use refrigerated piecrusts as a time-saver, though of course you can make your crusts from scratch if you are so inclined.

My photography does not do this dish justice. Try it - you (or your significant other) won't be sorry!

Digging in

Chicken Cobbler with Caramelized Onions

1/3 c. butter (or canned butter or canned clarified butter/ghee)
2 large onions, diced (or 1 c. dry onions, rehydrated)
1/4 c. flour
1-12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 T. chicken bouillon granules (or 3 bouillon cubes)
1/4 t. pepper
3 c. coarsely chopped cooked chicken (or 1-2 jars/cans of chicken)
3 T. chopped fresh parsley (or 3 t. dry parsley)
1-15 oz. package refrigerated piecrusts (See recipe below to make from scratch)
1/2 c. finely chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese (freshly grated or the stuff from the green can)

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add onion, and saute 20 minutes or  until caramel colored. Add flour; cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Gradually stir in evaporated milk and chicken broth. Add bouillon and cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in pepper, chicken and parsley. Pour chicken mixture into a lightly greased 10 inch deep dish pieplate or a round casserole dish.

If you are using pre-made piecrusts, unfold them and press out fold lines. Sprinkle 1 piecrust with pecans and Parmesan cheese. Top with remaining piecrust. Roll into a 14 inch circle; press edges to seal. Cut into 1/2 inch wide strips. Arrange strips in a lattice design over filling, reserving any extra strips.

Bake at 425 for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Place remaining strips on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with cobbler.


Pie crust - makes two crusts
Adapted from a recipe from Crisco

2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening, chilled
4-8 tbsp ice cold water

Blend flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Cut chilled shortening into 1/2-inch cubes. Cut chilled shortening cubes into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle half the maximum recommended amount of ice cold water over the flour mixture. Using a fork, stir moisture evenly into flour.  Add more water by the tablespoon, until dough is moist enough to hold together when pressed together. Divide dough in two. Shape into disks, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for thirty minutes. Roll each disk out into  a 12" circle and proceed with recipe.

Review of Tattler Reusable Canning Lids PLUS My Best Blackberry Jam Recipe

Last month I bought 6 dozen Tattler reusable canning lids. I finally had a chance to put them to the test last week.




The typical canning lids available everywhere cannot be used more than once. They also contain BPA, which has been shown to be a health hazard. Not only are Tattler lids reusable almost indefinitely, but they also are BPA free. I was eager to give them a shot.

Each canning lid consists of a rigid plastic lid and a flexible rubber ring. The rubber ring takes the place of the sealing compound. You must also use metal canning lid rings but they are NOT included with the Tattler lids.

The procedure for using the lids is a little different. It is easy, but it definitely takes some getting used to.

1. Scald the lids and rings. Keep hot while you prepare your product.




2. Place the rubber ring on the lid and center the lid on your canning jar.




3. Barely screw on the metal ring. Make sure the canning lid is centered on the jar, then hold the lid down with one finger as you tighten the metal ring.




4. Once the ring is tight, unscrew it by 1/4 inch to allow for venting during processing.




5. Process the jars according to your recipe directions.




6. Once you have removed the jars from the cannner, carefully tighten the ring completely.

The trickest part of the procedure is tightening the ring after processing. The jars are extremely hot and even though I was using a pot holder, I still managed to burn my fingers.

So, do these lids work? After processing several jars of blackberry jam both with standard and Tattler lids, I would have to say yes. My first batch of 8 jars, all using Tattler lids, yielded three that failed to seal. I have never had a jar fail to seal in all my years of canning, and so I was really disappointed. However, I have learned from sad experience that if a product has received rave reviews and I have issues with it, it is more than likely operator error! I decided to try again.

My second batch of jam had 5 jars with standard lids and three with Tattlers. All the Tattlers sealed and two of the standard lids didn't seal. In my third batch, one of the standard lids didn't seal. I think the problem is more me than the canning lids! I'm thinking that maybe I didn't clean the rims and threads well enough before I put the lids on.

All in all, if you do a lot of canning, I think Tattler lids are well worth the investment. They are more expensive initially, but last practically forever. From a preparedness standpoint, they are essential. From an environmental and health perspective, they are great, too. I recommend them.

Here's the recipe I used to put the Tattler through its paces. It is my favorite rendition of blackberry jam. I prefer to crush my berries with a food mill so I can control the amount of seeds that end up in the finished product.


Blackberry Jam

Blackberries to yield 4 c. crushed - read directions below. I find it takes me about 50 oz. of berries.
7 c. sugar
1/2 t. unsalted butter (this will help reduce foaming)
1-3 oz. pouch liquid pectin

Process blackberries through a food mill fitted with a berry screen. Run the pulp through the mill twice to extract the maximum amount of juice. Measure out 3 c. of juice and add 1 c. of the pulp back to yield 4 cups total.

(Note: If you do not have a food mill, you can just crush berries with a potato masher. Your jam will have more seeds and texture, but it will taste just fine.)

In a large saucepan, combine blackberries, sugar, and butter. Over medium-low heat, heat the mixture until the sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. Increase heat to medium-high and bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in the pectin and boil for one minute. Stir, stir, stir! Remove pan from the heat and skim off any foam.

Allow jam to cool 5 minutes, gently stirring a few times. This will help keep the juice and fruit evenly distributed in the finished product. Ladle the jam into hot jars, maintaining 1/4 inch headspace. Add your lids and process the jam for 10 minutes in a 200 degree water bath.

Yield - About 8 half-pint jars

Why I'm Not Canning Green Beans This Year

We've harvested over 15 pounds of green beans from our garden so far. Assuming the garden survives the next week (the highs are projected to be in the 100s for the next seven days), we'll continue to get beans for several weeks.

Normally, I'd be canning all those green beans. Not this year. Here's why:

1. The beans don't develop all at once. We pick beans every other day and end up with enough beans to fill about two or three quart jars. While pressure canning green beans isn't hard, processing 2-3 qts every two days for weeks on end is kind of a drag.
2. My family really doesn't care for canned green beans. There are few things more depressing than to proudly serve my home-grown and home-canned green beans only to have everyone avoid eating them. Well, Baby Dear loves them, but everyone else only eats them out of a sense of duty.  
3. My family will eat frozen green beans - and they couldn't be easier to prepare. They stay a vibrant green and are definitely not mushy. They also maintain more of their nutrition since they are significantly less processed.

How to prepare green beans for freezing:

Getting ready to blanch the beans

1. Wash the beans and remove the stem ends. I remove both ends of the bean, but you can leave the little curly end on, if you prefer.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
3. Blanch the beans in boiling water for three minutes. Drain, then chill the beans in ice water for another three minutes. Drain. While it may be tempting, don't skip this step. You must blanch the beans to deactivate the enzymes in the beans. You'll end up with a much nicer end product with the blanching/chilling process.
4. Package and freeze.

Vacuum sealed and ready for the freezer 

As a person who has made preparedness her hobby, I get in this mindset that all my food storage has to be shelf stable. I still love to can and I believe that the majority of my food storage should indeed be shelf stable. Sometimes you just gotta do what you like and do what works for your family. We're going to eat these green beans with pleasure and be a bit more self-reliant in the process.


Are we the lone canned green bean haters out there? How do you balance shelf-stable vs. perishable foods in your food storage? 

Fall gardening

It's prime gardening season. The cucumbers are coming by the bucket-load, we're finally getting some tomatoes, and it's hot enough to bake cookies in the car. Time to plan and plant your garden for those chilly fall days!

Believe it or not, it's true.

This is our first real effort at fall-time gardening.  In previous years, we have either been too tired or disillusioned with garden failure to attempt it, but with things going as well as they are, we decided to jump in. I hope the following tips will help you if you're toying with the idea of gardening this fall.

Research, research, research!

The first thing we did, and the first thing you should do if you're considering a fall garden for the first time, is to find out what you can grow in the fall in your area. Your state extension service (usually connected with a land grant university) is a good place to start for this kind of information. Click here if you need help finding  your state extension service.

For example, a lot of you may be able to grow peas as a fall crop. Not us. It just won't work in our area because of our torrid summer temperatures. I didn't believe the warnings from the state extension service and tried it out last year with dismal results. I learned my lesson!

After our research, Hubby Dear and I decided that we would try and plant:

• Lettuce - We're planting the same Winter Density romaine that we had such great results with in the spring.  
• Salad Mix - This time we're going with Johnny's Wildfire Lettuce Mix. I was attracted to this mix because it has a higher proportion of red-leafed lettuces (ie. it's purty!)
• Spinach - This is a new crop for us. We're planting Red Cardinal.
• Beets - The beets we planted this spring made wonderful pickled beets. I'm hoping for a bountiful crop this fall. We're planting Red Ace, the same variety from the spring.
• Broccoli - This, as well as cauliflower, is something we've never tried to grow. We're going to direct seed it in our garden. Our state extension service both recommends direct seeding broccoli and cauliflower AND warns against it in the same document. I guess we'll see what happens! We're planting the Bay Meadows variety.
• Cauliflower - See broccoli. We're trying Amazing, which is supposed to withstand both heat and cold. If it grows, well, that would be amazing!
• Carrots - We've liked the Nelson carrots from our spring garden. We're going to try them again this fall.
• Radishes - Radishes can get pithy and/or very strong tasting in the heat of summer. We're trying a new variety, Crunchy Royale, and seeing how it does. 
• Cabbage - We loved the Farao we had in the spring, but it is a spring-only variety. We're trying the very non-poetically named Storage No. 4 for the fall.
• Swiss Chard - I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never even tasted chard, much less cooked or grown it. This will be a new adventure all the way around. We're growing Bright Lights, which looks like it will be a beautiful addition to our garden.  

Here is the resulting garden plan:

Personalize the plan for your garden - especially if you Square Foot Garden 

All the squares in orange represent existing plantings. If you look closely, you'll notice that we had to add in a few squares of "overflow" for our pumpkins and some of the tomatoes. These plants are not behaving themselves and sticking to their assigned squares and we haven't had the heart to pinch them back. We're just going to give them wide berth and plant around them.

You'll also see our strange checkerboard of cabbage in the southwest corner of our garden. First of all, that area was supposed to be strawberries. Every single last strawberry plant there died. Major bummer and quite the head-scratcher. (Our working theory is that Hubby Dear over-fertilized them. He fertilized Mini Me's strawberries in her box at the same rate and about half survived. Who knows what happened?) We'll try again next year, but this fall we thought we'd try cabbages there. We're planting them in the checkerboard arrangement because we found that our spring cabbage got so huge that it needed extra room.  

Beat the heat

In addition to selecting the right types of plants for your climate and the best varieties of those plants for fall gardening, there are a few things to keep in mind as you establish your fall garden during the hot months of July and August.  

1. Plant seeds slightly deeper than you would in the spring. Deeper soil will be slightly cooler and more moist, and that can increase your germination rates.
2. You're also going to want to plant more seeds than you need. Those hot August temperatures can stifle germination, so it's better to over-seed just in case. You can always thin out the extra plants later.
3. Lastly, don't forget to water, water, water, especially as the seeds are germinating.

Are you a fall gardener? Do you have any tips to share?



Can You Use a Mini-Van to Bake Cookies?

Like much of the nation, it has been darn hot around here the past few days. Day after day of 100 degree+ temperatures must have caused me to crack, because this afternoon I got the notion to try and bake cookies in my van. You've probably seen people on the news frying eggs on the sidewalk during heat waves. An egg just wasn't going to cut it; I wanted chocolate chip cookies.

A quick Google search led me to the Baking Bites blog where someone had already tried baking chocolate chip cookies in her car.  I "preheated" my van while I made the dough. I pulled my van out of the garage and pointed it towards the west-southwest, where it would get the maximum amount of afternoon sun. I used the Baking Bites recipe as a starting off point, adding in a few drops of double-strength vanilla extract and using regular size chocolate chips instead of the mini-chips specified.

Dished out and ready to bake

The Baking Bites recipe uses a slice and bake method to form the cookies. I chose to forgo this, relying instead on a cookie scoop like this to dish out equal amounts of dough. I gently flattened each cookie with my hand, hoping that would help the cookies bake evenly. The author of Baking Bites blog also lined her cookie sheet with parchment paper. I skipped this and simply sprayed the pan with cooking spray. The reason? I've watched enough videos about solar ovens to know that dark-colored cookware works best and white parchment would reflect the sun's energy. My old aluminum cookie sheets would have to do.

I placed a double layer of towels on the dashboard, placed my cookie sheet on top, shut the door, and crossed my fingers. The temperature outside was 100 degrees according to the National Weather Service, a brutal 108 degrees according to the thermometer on my deck and the perspiration on my body.


The baking begins!


Unfortunately, I didn't think to place a thermometer inside the van, so I'm not sure how hot it eventually got in there. I checked the cookies (from the outside) every 30 minutes. I didn't want to let the heat escape so I kept the door shut.

At thirty minutes - the cookies have spread out and look moist

One hour has elapsed - not much has changed, but they have spread out a little more

I'll spare you the photo at an hour and a half. It pretty much looked the same as at one hour. At this point I was wondering if this would really work.

When I went outside at two hours, I went ahead and opened the door and touched a cookie. To my utter shock, they were done!

Pallid, but cooked!

How do cookies baked in a mini-van compare to those baked in an oven?

When you cook in a mini-van (or any solar oven, for that matter) things don't brown quite like they do in a standard oven. The cookies on the left were baked in my oven; the ones on the right came out of the van. As for the taste test, I much preferred the ones from the oven, though I wouldn't turn my nose up at the mini-van ones. The Thinker actually preferred them.

 So there you go. You CAN bake in a mini-van.

Babies

I just love babies! They're so tiny and sweet. Sure, they take up a lot of time. You've got to feed them and clean up after them and sometimes, they drive you crazy. But they are just so darn cute...



Baby watermelon (Aptly named variety: Little Baby Flower)



Teensy weensie cucumbers (Alibi)



Precious little pumpkin (Another appropriate variety name: Baby Pam)



One cute cantaloupe (Minnesota Midget)



We found this egg in our raspberry brambles a few weeks ago.I don't know if the baby hatched out of this mystery egg or if something ate the contents.

What a joy it is to nuture a baby (or a garden) and watch it thrive!

Using Your Food Storage: Spicy Raisin Flats

Before I got married to Hubby Dear, I went through my Mom's recipe collection and copied all her best recipes into a little cookbook of my own. Not surprisingly, these old-fashioned favorites are some of my most frequently used recipes.

And then there's this recipe:

My copy of the recipe for Spicy Raisin Flats

I vaguely remember my Mom making these cookies when I was a kid, but it has been at least 20 years since I've cooked or eaten a Spicy Raisin Flat.  I remember them as dense, sweet, bar cookies full of warm, spicy flavor. And the best thing? They can be made entirely from food storage.

My original copy of the recipe was missing a few key pieces of information: how long they cook, at what temperature they cook, and the quantities of the glaze ingredients. I just winged it and it turned out fine. I've re-written the recipe for clarity and to reflect my "winging".

Warm out of the oven

My kids absolutely LOVED these cookies. The Thinker said they taste like Christmas.  See if you agree.

Spicy Raisin Flats

Spicy Raisin Flats

1 c. raisins
1 c. water
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 egg (or 1 T. dry egg powder + 2 T. water)
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1 c. powdered sugar
1-2 t. milk (can be reconstituted dry milk or even water in a pinch)

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine raisins and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer until only about 1/4 c. of juice remains. Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together shortening, both types of sugar, and egg. (If you are using powdered eggs, just add the water at this point.)

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and powdered egg (if using).

Mix the flour mixture in with the shortening mixture. Then add in the raisin mixture. Spread on a greased, rimmed cookie sheet and bake until set, about 15 minutes. These cookies are meant to be moist and soft, not crispy.

In a small bowl, slowly add just enough milk to the powdered sugar to make a thin glaze. Ice the cookies while they are still hot. The more glaze, the better these cookies taste. Allow to cool, cut, and serve.

Playing Taps for My KitchenAid and Other Miscellany

Back when I was a child bride, Hubby Dear loved to indulge me by buying kitchen equipment that we could not afford. I've never been one for jewelry, but I always want the latest, greatest kitchen gadget. For Christmas one year, he bought me the mixer of my dreams - a KitchenAid Professional 600

Rest in Peace, dear KitchenAid 

My KitchenAid served me well for over ten years. I was never totally happy with the job it did kneading bread dough; the dough seemed to just ride around and around the dough hook rather than get kneaded. Last week, I was making a double batch of EZ Whole Wheat Bread in it and things got truly ugly. First, I smelled a "hot" smell. I turned the mixer off for a minute or two, but I still had 7-8 minutes of kneading left, so I felt like I had to turn it back on. Big mistake. Smoke began pouring out and it quit running. I hoped that it would begin working again after a long cool down, but, alas, it seems like I killed it really and truly.

Hubby Dear and I debated fixing up my KitchenAid vs. buying a new mixer. From the research I did, it seems like it can be just about as expensive to fix a stand mixer as it would be to buy a new one. If I'm going to have to spend hundreds of dollars anyway, I'd just as soon get a new mixer, preferably one that is better for making bread. So I'm getting a Bosch

I don't think the Bosch will look very cute on my counter, but the fact that you can make up to 6 loaves of bread in it at once more than makes up for that! This month, many Bosch retailers are offering a $50 rebate, which helps make it more reasonable. Still, it's quite an investment. I hope it lasts me a decade like its predecessor.
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I bought an aloe plant this week, too. Much easier on the budget than a Bosch! ;)

Aloe vera

I'm not much on houseplants - if I can't eat it, I'm not interested in messing with it - but it seems like my neglect won't kill it.  As I read here, aloe plants need a bit of sun and very little water. I think I can do that. Here are some of the uses of aloe plants. I think an aloe plant is an excellent addition to our first aid supplies.  
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I was walking through the garden the other day and I ran smackdab into this:

Yuck! A Tomato Hornworm!

This is the first time we have ever had tomato hornworms in our garden. I can safely say that they are one of the most disgusting garden pests I have ever seen. Not only are they disgusting, but they are also very destructive. They can reduce a healthy tomato plant to a skeleton in 24-48 hours. Tomato hornworms are found most often on tomato plants (surprise), but they also like potatoes and peppers, which are members of the same botanical family.

Picking them off by hand is the preferred method of dealing with this pest. Yeah, um, no. I'm not going to do that. Have I ever mentioned that I have a serious phobia of caterpillars and butterflies? (Really. Long story involving a traumatic childhood incident.) This is the biggest, most foul caterpillar I've ever seen, and I have no intention of touching one if I can help it. Hubby Dear did remove it from the plant and then he sprayed our tomato plants with Neem Py (an organic-approved pesticide with neem oil and a bit of pyrethrin).

I was nervous that our outrageously healthy tomato plants would be consumed overnight, but when the next day dawned, everything seemed OK.

Last night, however, we saw three hornworms. There were two on two different tomato plants and one on our potatoes. Ick! Hubby Dear picked them off and then he dusted the tomatoes and potatoes with Bt, another organic-approved pesticide. Bt is actually a bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, that kills caterpillars. I'm crossing my fingers that this does the trick. I will cry if my tomatoes get ruined before we ever get to eat them, and by caterpillars to boot!


That's my week in a nutshell. What prepping/gardening/food storage -related things have you been up to?