Challenge To You!

I canned a bunch this fall from our garden, (recipes follow). When I took all those bottles to the storage room, I didn't have room to put them in because it was stuffed to the max. I haven't been able to organize very well and sometimes things get pushed back too far or I get duplicate things when I need other items.

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In October I did something I have wanted to do for a while. I took out all the short term storage items and put them together. I also made a special place for personal care and 1st aid items

I can already see a difference in it's effectiveness and it is all so clean! I am ready to get back into learning, gathering and sharing information again until it time to plant the garden in the spirng.

Challenge To The Reader - Clean Your Storage Room

I went to a food storage class once that the teacher asked what kind of an investment we had made into our food storage. She asked us to put write the amount of money on top of the paper she had given us for an outline of the class. After we had done that, she asked if we had invested that much money in art or jewelry how we would store it and take care of it. After her point was made, she said. "With this much of an investment, including it's benefit, your food storage room should be the cleanest room in your house."

I have tried to remember this, but I had stacked too many things all together and I had lost my effectiveness. I found spiders and dust that needed to be cleaned up and out.

This has been a labor of love over years of time. Our children have learned it well and all are gathering their food storage too. We have empty rooms now so I can be more effective in the storage of our food area. You may not have that option right now. In the past we have stored things under beds, in closets etc. you can store a lot of things in places like that. It is still important to keep them vacumed, in order and inventoried.

MIA and Storage Room Overhaul

Chapter 1 - I Have Had A Crazy Summer!

June - It rained all month - I was able to garden between rainstorms

July - I was sick

August - We had 2 new grandson's on Aug 9 and Aug 15

September - We canned like a crazy person - we did over 400 quarts of food.

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Chapter 2 - Overhaul

October - Time to clean out the storage room. We have had one storage room that is 12 x 16. I have put things in layers in there and as you can imagine, we could barely walk in the walking area. We had another storage area for household items and a large bathroom down there that could have held a hot tub! (In fact before it was a bathroom, we used it for a bedroom for one of our children - it is that big!)

Changes - Main Storage Room
All of these rooms are at the end of the basement hall so the doors all touch. If there weren't walls the rooms would be all connected.
I took out all of the stuff from our main storage area that wasn't long term. WOW! Everything in there is in buckets and cannery cans, these are things that are 40 years + storage items. We can walk around it andfind things.

Changes - Bathroom
I put 2 sets of shelves in to hold all the non food things, vitamins, paper goods etc. (I can find things!)

Changes - Old Storage Area
(Also used to be a bedroom for one of the kids)
Grocery store type items in here. These are all the canned things, pacakges, bottles etc. I can easily rotate and organized these items.

Did Someone Say Peaches!

We canned 4 bushels of peaches yesterday. We got 84 quarts. We would have had more, but the peaches were so great we had to eat some and save a few for eating. Only one time a year do you get fresh peaches and this is it!

FYI - For you new canners ----:>Normal output is 20-24 quarts of canned food per bushel of food.

I also did pickles this morning with cucumbers from our garden. All I have left to do now is tomatoes and finish the corn. It is supposed to get cold here next week so I think I will pick everything on Monday and can next week and then I will be done for another season.

Tuesday
59° F 30° F
Chance of T-storms
40% chance of precipitation
Then it is supposed to freeze everynight after that - I guess it will be October and really supposed to be getting colder.

I Am So Excited!

I have been working in my garden all summer and we have been blessed with an abundant harvest. I have canned 150 points of green beans, 280 pints of corn, 18 quarts of pickles, and 24 pints of V-8 juice. I still have more cucumbers to do, another bushel of tomatoes, more corn and lots of squash. We are canning cherry juice, apricot juice, plums and apples from our trees and peaches from Utah. Our storage room is looking filled up! WOO HOO!!!

Here are a few of the recipes:

Frozen Corn- This is from our youngest daughters mother in law - Elaine

Ingredients:
$ 6 c. corn sliced from cob
$ ½ c. water
$ 2 tbsp sugar
$ ½ tsp. canning salt - Plain salt
$ ½ cube butter
Bring to boil 2 - 3 minutes
Put in pan to cool. Put desired amounts into zip lock bags. Freeze.

Yummy Dill Pickles - Betty my darling friend

6 heads dill
6buds garlic
6 small red dried peppers
6 thick onion slices
1 qt. vinegar
2 quates water
1 cup uniodized salt
small cucumbers
1. wash cuc's
2. pack in quart jars
3. add 1 each of dill, garlic, pepper, and onion
4. combine vinegar,water, salt - boil
5. pour in jars
6. seal as regular pickles

FOR QUARTS WATER BATH 20 MINUTES

Apple Pie Filling - Also from Elaine
Ingredients:
$ 6 quarts apples peeled and sliced
$ 4 ½ c. sugar
$ 1 c. corn starch
$ 4 tsp. cinnamon
$ 1 tsp. nutmeg
$ 10 c. water - Cook above ingredients til thick
$ 3 tbsp. lemon jr
$ 1 tsp. salt - Add to the sauce

You can make sauce ahead of time. Fill jars with sliced apples the cover with sauce. Cold pack in canner for 20 minutes. Use one quart of apple pie filling per pie

Preserving Squash

I am harvesting things out of my garden - here are the instructions for squash.

Cut it up and clean out the seeds, then cook it for 40 min. at 375 with the skins on. Let it cook and then put it in freezer bags and freeze it, I usually put four pieces in a gallon size freezer bag.

3 Month Supply

I know there is lots of talk right now about the swine flu and the possiblities that it could bring. So I am offerening you a challenge -

Could you right now live in your house for 3 months without going out to purchase products, to be entertained or to get some exercise, diversion etc.? What would it take for you to do this?

Please take some time to start thinking about this right now.

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I am In the Garden

Our summers are so short - when the sun shines we are all outside.
Click here to jion me in my garden!

CROCK POT YOGURT - IT WORKS!

I have a yogurt maker but it has always been so complicated, I have to feel really motivated to do it. I tried Debbies recipe - listed at the bottom of the blog and it is great! I just blended my home canned peaches from last fall with a cup of it and it is like eating Ice Cream YUMMM!

Food Storage For 1 For a Year

I just got this from a friend and would love to know the original author so I can give the proper credit where it is due.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Exactly What Does a Basic 1 Year Food Storage

For 1 Person Look Like?

These are the MINIMUM Basic Amounts of Food Needed for Survival for ONE PERSON for ONE YEAR: BARE-MINIMUM LDS Church Food storage requirements for 1 adult male for 1 year Appx. 2,300 calories per day. (only 695lbs total)

Some people try to rationalize that we "really" don't need to store everything that we have been asked to store. The thought came to actually create a display to show 1) what does that one year basic survival food for one person look like (the amounts the First Presidency has recommended), and 2) how much does that really work out to be per day?

We took all those ingredients and by adding yeast (which we know is not on the basic list – but hopefully we have stored), we were able to make one loaf of bread and 1/3 cup of beans. That would be your food for the entire day.
Don't FORGET water!!!

Yogurt in a Crock Pot

Great instructions in resource articles below to make your own Yogurt - great instructions for preapredness resource - make your own crock pot - I will find the instructions for that and add it. I have done it before and it works!

Great Crock Pot Yogurt
Great Crock Pot Yogurt RecipeThis is Very Awesome!Homemade Yogurt in a Crock Pot--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized is fine, butdo NOT use ultra-pasteurized. (Debbie recommends starting with whole milk until you get the hang of yogurt-making)--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need tohave a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)--frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring--thick bath towelThe DirectionsThis takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home tomonitor. I used a 4 quart crockpot. This is so exciting. My fingers are shaking! Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours. Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in abowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened--- it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.Blend in batches with your favorite fruit. I did mango, strawberry, and blueberry. When you blend in the fruit, bubbles will form and might bother you. They aren't a big deal, and will settle eventually.Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.The Verdict.Wowsers! This is awesome! I was completely astonished the next morning that the yogurt thickened. I was so excited to feel the drag on my spoon. You can add honey for sweetening. This is so much more cost-effective than the little things of yo-baby I was buying.To thicken the best, add one packet of unflavored gelatin to the mix after stirring in the yogurt with active cultures. Some have had good success mixing non-fat milk powder in as well. The way I created fruit-flavored yogurt was by taking a cup or so of the plain and blending it in the stand blender (vitamix) with frozen fruit. Although this tastes great, the yogurt never thickened back up the way the plain did. I think maybe keeping the plain separate and adding fruit daily is your best bet. Or you can try the gelatin trick.I was able to achieve a Greek-style yogurt this afternoon by lining a colander with a coffee liner and letting the liquid drip out of the leftover plain I made. The remaining yogurt was as thick as sour cream. I do not know how this will work with soy milk and soy yogurt or rice milk and rice yogurt. I'd imagine it would work similarly, but I haven not tested this out.Article found at: Crockpot365. blogspot. com/2008/ 10/you-can- make-yogurt- in-your-crockpot .html

Zeer Pots

My friend Mala sent me this great link for "Zeer Pots." It is a method to keep things cool without refridgeration. http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Food_Water/090320.zeer.pots.html

Food Storage Friday - March 6

This week I am still working on my garden plans.
I bought seeds this week.
I received a newsletter from a local nursery that stated for the first time in 27 years gardening is making a huge comeback and they can't keep in their garden seeds. I decided I better to and get mine. I usually do it in March anyway because I have spring fever by then and it is fun to be in a nursery. I tried to find some herilom seeds because I plan to harvest seeds this fall.

We are in zone 4 so we have warm weather crops and cold weather crops.
The things that will be planted first (sometime in April are:Peas, lettuce, beets, radish, carrots, onions, etc.

The warm weather crops are things like corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, zucchini, and things I buy that are started like peppers and tomoatos.
I like to dry some of these things so I get extra to do that. I also get an extra bag for next year and tuck it in my basement. I also have a can of heirloom seeds that are canned in case of survival situations.

FOOD STORAGE FRIDAY - February 27

I have been planning our garden and yard this past week. I love this time of year to look at seed magazines and decide what is happening in our little garden.

For Food Storage Friday I have been studing what type of herbs I want to plant and that can live in a zone 4. Here is my list so far:

Basil - bite pain, cramps, nausea, indigestion, headache, fever, calmative

Dill - sedative, insomnia, gas, cramps,stress

Marjoram - nausea, toothache, sprains, joints

Mullein - skin irrations, burns, antiseptic

Parsley - blood sugar, bites, swelling, nerves

Peppermint - headaches, antiseptic, sinus/bronchial congestion. digestion, gas

Sage - depression, yeast or blood infection, congestion, diarhea, fever

Plants

Alfalfa - minerals, detox, builds blood, joints, diuretic (May plant along outside fence area)

Cayenne Peppers - antiseptic, sore throat, bleeding, ulcers, pain

Onion - sprins, respirtory congetsion, diabetes

Garlic - antibiotic, anti viral,adust blood pressure,

Dandelion - digestion, liver, blood sugar

There are other plants as well, but they can't be grown here, so I will need to either have ahouse plant or stock up on the herb.

Aloe Vera - speeds healing, antispetic, digestion, burns, skin ailments

Cinnamon - antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal, diabetes, ulcer, nausea, ulcers, cramps

Cloves - toothache, nausea, gas, mild depression, insect repellent

Ginger - great to take baths in when sick

Nutmeg - diarhea

Oats - nervous exhaustion, depression, shingles, eczema

Olive Leaf - antibiotic,anti viral, enerby, lower blood pressure

Headed for St. George, Utah

This weekend our #2 daughter is blessing our #3 grandson. We are leaving snowy Idaho to find the sun! It is 14* right now here and 43* there. I post again on February 23. See you next week!

FRIDAY - Disaster Education - Brush Fires in Australia

This article is from a friend in Australia. It is tragic. It gives you a feel for the situation and how fast something like this happens. I always think this information is good to tuck in the back of my mind to recall if I ever need it to keep my family safe.

The end of the world reached the Victorian mountain town of Kinglake on Saturday, February 7.

Burnt out cars, many containing charred bodies, litter the road leading up to the town which now consists of a handful of still standing shops and hundreds of blackened piles of ash which used to be home to Kinglake's 1,500 residents.
As Victoria burnt on Saturday, a raging inferno raced through the state's central highlands, killing at least 12 in Kinglake itself and 10 in Kinglake West, leaving the once-idyllic community a charred ghost town.
Among the tragic stories to emerge from Kinglake were of a young boy and a girl burnt alive inside their home.
"The kids perished, their mother got out but she couldn't get the kids out," Kinglake resident Mary-Anne Mercuri told AAP.
Ms Mercuri also spoke of sisters in their 20s whose bodies were found in the front of their rented house.
"Two young girls around the corner from me were found in the front of their house. There's no way they could have got out. They would have tried to escape but there was nowhere to go."
The mother-of-three said that when the fire arrived it felt like exploding red burning bullets were being shot horizontally at them.
"These big burning chunks started falling from the sky, there was a lot of power behind them. I guess they were exploding parts of trees," Ms Mercuri said.
"We are lucky to be alive."
Her friend, Mandy Darkin, described the terrifying moment the fire arrived at Kinglake without warning.
"I was working at the local restaurant and we were all carrying on like nothing was going on but then word came that we should go home," the mother of five said.
"Soon after, I looked outside the window and said: `Whoa we are out of here, this is going to be bad'.
"I could see it coming. I just remember the blackness and you could hear it, it sounded like a train.
"I raced home in my car, straight into the driveway, placed all the kids in the house and within two minutes it was here and it was as dark as midnight at 4.30pm."
The 25km journey by road from Whittlesea to Kinglake is a cross between a trip into a war zone and a natural disaster zone.
The typical sunburnt landscape of southeast Australia gives way to a fire-burnt one with black scorched trees and earth.
Property after property is destroyed, burnt out cars line the side of the road, some sit stranded in the middle of the street, while a dead horse, carcass still smouldering, blocks the sporadic traffic.
The remains of two cars which collided head-on in their frantic bid to escape the blaze lie mangled on the road, and a five-car pile-up reveals the desperation of residents fleeing for their lives when the fire arrived.
It is believed six bodies were found in one car.
A media convoy being escorted to Kinglake was delayed at one stage as emergency crews removed another body from one of the burnt-out cars.

Thursday - Inventory

I am posting this on Saturday because our son had an emergency appendectemy (? on spelling) on Thursday.

I ordered another case of popcorn. We love popcorn, it is easy to keep rotated. When you store popcorn, you need to make sure it is sealed well as it will either collect moisture or loose it depending on your climate. I also am getting another case of marshmallows. I know it should be in the morale booster section, but we do use it for popcorn so I am ordering another case now. We use a hot air popper, we really don't like the microwave kind - this is much cheaper anyway.

But I also have a popcorn popper that is used on campfires and it works!

If needed you can also pop it the old fashioned way on heat with oil in the bottom of your pan.

WEDNESDAY - Recipe Day

See information in previous post about all the great things popcorn is for your storage program.

It is so hard to communicate through writing all of the thoughts I have about this. I think because we have lived in finaincial crisis in our past, the morale booster aspect is vital when you are under long term duress. The great thing about popcorn is that it counts towards your grains in your diet. It is an easy thing to store and be able to have to help lift morale.

Here are some fun popcorn recipes. You will see grocery items that are not a part of your basic foods. (I have bolded those items.) However these are things I have purchased and have on hand as part of our storage inventory. You can see that most of the items are part of your basic storage requirements. Butter is used in many of these recipes. You may want to consider purchaing some canned butter for this purpose.

Pink Sugar Popcorn
6 quarts popped popcorn
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 cup water
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp red food coloring
Mix sugar, water, butter and salt in heavy saucepan. Bring to boil and cook for 4 minutes, Remove from heat and add vanilla and food coloring. Stir and pour over popcorn. Mix.

Old Fashioned Pink Popcorn
6 quarts popped popcorn
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbls butter
1 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
several drops red food coloring
Cook to soft ball stage, add vanilla and coloring. Pour over popcorn and spread on wax paper to set.

Red Hot Popcorn
4 quarts popped Pop Corn
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup red cinnamon candies or cinnamon flavor
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Melt butter in medium saucepan; stir in sugar, corn syrup and cinnamon candy. Heat to a boil; continue boiling, stirring constantly, until candy is dissolved completely. Boil without stirring for 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda.Pour over popcorn, mixing well. Allow to cool completely on foil or buttered wax paper. Break apart and store in tightly-covered container. Makes about 4 quarts.

Popcorn Pastels
For a dramatic evvect, make 2 batches in contrasting colors.
4 quarts popped pocorn 1 2 cup sugar
2 cup light corn syrup 2 Tbs. butter
2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3-4 Tbls. Jell-o 1 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 250* Place popcorn in a large 4 inch deep buttered baking pan. Keep warm in oven. Cut 2 large pieces of wax paper to fit 2 cookie sheets and butter them.
In large saucepan combined sugar,m corn syrup, butter, salt, cream of tartar. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until mixture reaches 250*. Stir in jello and cook until reaches 260*. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Stir in quickly. Remove popcorn from oven and pour mixture over popcorn. Reduce oven to 200* and bake for about an hour, stirring 2-3 times. Turn onto buttered wax paper

Jello Popcorn
1-3 oz. pkg. Jello
1 cup sugar
1 cup karo syrup
Bring to full boil, remove from heat and pour over popcorn.

Honey Popcorn
2 cup melted butter
2 cup honey
Blend and pour over
3 quarts popped corn

Mix well

Popcorn Clusters
3 quarts popped popcorn 1 cup sugar 2 cup molasses
2 cup dark corn syrup 1 tbs butter
1 tbs vinegar
Mix popcorn and peanuts in large bowl. Combined remaining ingredients in large saucepan, cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add popcorn and peanuts, return to heat and cook, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Mixture should be sticky. Spread out on buttered baking sheet and cool enough to handle. Shape into bite size clusters. Wrap individually and store in loosely covered container.

Toffee Crunch
2 quarts popcorn 1 cup butter 1 2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup 2 tsp soda 2 tsp salt
Spread popped corn and nuts in shallow pan. Place in preheated oven of 250*. Combine butter, sugar, corn syrup and salt in saucepan over medium heat, stirring only till dissolved. Boil till mixture reaches 248* (firm ball). Remove fro heat and stir in soda. Pour mixture over corn and gently stir to coat. Return to oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to coat all the corn evenly.

Candy Popcorn - Sweet and gooey! Kids love it!
4 quarts popped popcorn
1 2 cups candy (jelly beans, gumdrops, candy corn, candy canes)
3 cups mini marshmallows
1 1/3 cup sugar 2 cup butter
3/4 cup light corn syrup 1 tsp vanilla
Stir together popcorn, candy marshmallows and peanuts and set aside. Combine sugar, butter and corn syrup, bring to a boil and book for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and a few drops of food coloring if desired, pour over popcorn mixture, mix well. Set out on wax paer and break into pieces when hardened or make balls.

Popcorn with Peanut Butter
2 quarts popped popcorn
1 tbs peanut butter
2 tbs butter
Salt to taste
Melt together. Pour over popcorn & mix well.

Butterscotch Popcorn
8 quarts popped popcorn 1 c light corn syrup
1 cup peanut butter
Use favorite recipe for Butterschotch syrup (Uses brown sugar and canned milk)
Combine syrups, peanut butter, heavy saucepan. Cook over med heat to 225* or soft ball. Pour over popcorn, mix well.

Yummy and Chewy Peanut Butter Popcorn
3 quarts popped popcorn 1 cup sugar 2 cup honey
2 cup light corn syrup
In heavy saucepan, combined sugar, honey and corn syrup. Boil hard for 2 mins. stirring constantly. Remove fro heat, add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir well and pour over popcorn. Spread on wax paper to set.

Peanut Butter Popcorn Bars
12 cups popcorn 1 cup corn syrup1 cup sugar 1 cup Peanut Butter Butter 13"x 9" baking pan. In medium saucepan, over medium heat, combine corn syrup, sugar and peanut butter. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low, simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add popcorn; tossing gently to evenly coat. Press into pan; cool. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered.

Marshmallow Peanut Butter Popcorn
4 qts popped corn
2 cup butter 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter 20 large marshmallows
Pour popcorn into a large bowl. Combine butter, sugar and marshmallows. Cook for 1 min at a time in microwave until the mixture is melted. May take several times.
Stir in peanut butter until well blended. Pour the mixture over popcorn and stir to coat the corn before it cools

Gooey Caramel Corn
1 cup brown sugar 1 cube butter
30 large marshmallows 2 quarts popcorn
Mix and cook until marshmallows are melted, pour over popped corn.

Yummy Caramel Corn
1 cube butter 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup 2 quarts popcorn
Melt Butter, add sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil. Pour over popcorn. If you want more of a candied corn, use 2 sugar and 2 corn syrup.

The Best Caramel Corn!
2 1/4 cup bown sugar 6-8 qts popped corn
1 cube butter 1 cup white karo syrup
1 can Condensed Milk 1 tsp vanilla
Bring just to a boil, stirring constantly. Pour over unsalted popped corn. Enough for a canning kettle full. Stays soft and chewy and is yummy

Butter Molasses Caramel Corn
2 cups sugar 2 cup molasses
1 tsp .salt 1/4 cup water
1 cube butter
Mix and cook to 230* or soft ball stage. Add 1 tsp baking soda. Stir in, pour over popcorn

Divine! Chewy not Sticky Caramel Popcorn
4 quarts popped popcorn 2 cup sugar
2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup condensed milk 3/4 cup corn syrup
optB1 cup pecans and 1 cup almonds

Baked Caramel Corn
6 quarts popped corn 2 cups brown sugar
2 cup karo syrup 1 cup butter
1 tsp salt 1 tsp soda
Boil over low heat for 5 mins. then add baking soda. Stir well. Pour over popped corn. Put on 2 cookie sheets. Bake 200* for 1 hour. Stir every 15 mins.


Worlds Easiest Popcorn Balls
3 quarts popped corn 1 pkg marshmallows
1/4 cup butter
In a large saucepan, cook marshmallows and butter or margarine over low heat until melted and smooth*. Pour over popcorn, tossing gently to mix well. Cool five minutes. Butter hands well and form 2 1/2 inch balls. Makes about 14 balls. *Add coloring if desired. Mix well

Holiday Popcorn Balls
6 tbs. butter 3 cups mini marshmallows
2 of 3 oz pkg of Jell o 3 quarts popped corn
In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Blend in dry Jell o. Pour over popcorn and mix well. Make into balls.
Use red Jell o for one batch and green Jell o for another for festive popcorn balls.

Jell-o Popcorn Balls
1 c. sugar
1 c. white syrup
1 (3 oz.) pkg. Jell-O
6 quarts popcorn
Cook until Jell-O dissolves (not to soft ball stage). Pour over popcorn and make into balls. Very good

Chile Cheese Popcorn
2 quarts popped corn 1/4 cup butter melted
1/3 cup powdered 1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic salt
In a large bowl, toss all ingredients until well mixed.

Mexicali Popcorn
3 tbs butter
2 tbs dry taco seasoning mix
2 tbs chopped dried onions
2 quarts popped corn
Salt to taste
Pour melted butter and seasonings over popcorn.

Tuesday - Learn a New Skill

I am working on grains right now.

How many grains do you really need?

Did you know that with the amount recomended for wheat you would have enough flour to make 2 large bisquits per day for a year. If you would rather make bread, 300 lbs = 600 cups of flour. My recipe takes 4 cups of flour to make a small loaf. That will make 75 loaves or about 1 1/2 loaves per week per person. Whatever you have in addition to that is what you can add to your menu. You have to decide if that is enough for you and your family members.

What can you make with wheat?You can make bread, rolls, cookies, pies and other bakery items. It just doesn't have to be bread. Wheat is the most often discussed grain because it is the back bone of your storage programI have the wheat I need so I am focusing on other grains.

This week I am thinking about popcorn.

Here is a little information about popcorn:

Popcorn is one of the greatest things to have in your food storage because of several reasons:

1 - It is a great food to eat under stress.

2 - It helps to balance out your PH when you are sick.

3 - It's hard to believe a snack food that tastes so good can actually be good for you!

4 - Popcorn is a whole grain food which makes it a high-quality carbohydrate source that is not only low in calories, but a good source of fiber.

5 - Popcorn is low in calories -- only 31-55 calories in one cup of unbuttered, and when lightly buttered, one cup still only has 133 calories.

6 - Popcorn has no artificial additives or preservatives, and is sugar-free.

7 - Popcorn contains energy-producing carbohydrates.

8 - Popcorn is ideal for between meal snacking since it satisfies and doesn't spoil an appetite.

9 - Popcorn inspires creativity. While there's no doubt hot buttered popcorn is pleasing to any palate, popcorn also can be enjoyed when combined with seasonings, spices and other foods like raisins, fruit and cheese providing a nutritious, delicious snack.

FRIDAY - Learn Something New

Since the recipe this week was about bread, I think I will share something I learned last summer. I learned how to cook bread on the barb-que grill. It worked!
The heat is pretty intense so it must be pre heated and then tuirned down. I put my bread on a cookie sheet on the grill part. I closed the lid so the heat would be maintained and cooked it. It took about 8 mins longer than my oven, but it worked! I did burn my first 2 batches until I got it adjusted. The problem is the direct heat coming from the bottom. The flames must be kept at a minimum while the bread is baking.
When it was done, you could smell cooking bread all over the neighborhood and soon there were people knocking at my door!
I would suggest practicing this to get a feel for it. This is a fun project!

THURSDAY - Inventory Needs

I bake all of our bread so we go through quite a bit of the basic ingredients.
Looking at my inventory, it is time to buy more yeast.
Yeast can be kept in your deep freeze and is viable 5-7 years frozen.
There are 12 containers in each case and each package of yeast has 32 oz.
32 oz will give me 48 batches of 2 loaves of bread or 96 loaves of bread.

My recipe uses 1 tbsp. of yeast for every 2 loaves of bread.
Each person on average on our current diet eats about one full loaf of bread per week.
However if we were in a survival situation , that would increase to at least double.

It is time to order more yeast. I give a few to our children, so a case works great for me.
It is much more economical to buy it in large bags than to buy it in packets or smaller bottles.
You will have to check around your area to find the best prices.

Without yeast you can still make bread, but it would be flat bread. You could obviously survive, but normal bread would help morale and is more of what most of us are used to.

I will share later on various ways to cook bread, should you not have electricity.

WEDNESDAY - Food Storage Recipe

I have the best bread recipe. It requires very little kneading if you didn't have a mixer. It works great with white wheat too. This recipe actually won a Gooseberry contest.

Homemade Bread

Heat 2 cups milk (or use 1/3 cup powdered milk in hot water)

Add 3 tbls sugar, 1 tbls. salt , and 1/3 cup oil

Mix 1 tbls. yeast in 1/2 cup water

Add 3 1/2 cups flour to the milk mixture and mix very well - this is very important if you are kneading by hand as it gets the gluten started.

Add yeast mixture and mix well.

Add 3 1/2 cups more flour and knead until well mixed and dough is smooth.

Put in greased covered bowl and let rise until double.

Punch down

Let rise again (This helps it to be lighter)

Punch down and put in bread pans.

Let rise.

Cook at 350* for 30 minutes.

Monday - Clean a Storage Shelf/TUESDAY - Learn a new skill

We took a wall out that was hooked into the rafters. (Of course we didn't know that when we started.) But because of being able to see the sky in 0* weather I didn't have electricity to use the computer. So nothing was posted yesterday and my cleaning up project wasn't a food storage shelf. Next week I will be back to the food storage shelf project.

FRIDAY - Learn Something New Day

I found a most interesting site about water purification.
Check it out, I am going to research it further.
http://www.sodis.ch/

THURSDAY - Inventory Day

Clorox is the item for this week. I was doing a load of white things and needed a bottle. It amazes me sometimes that I go downstairs to get something and there are only a few left.Clorox is pretty improtant for laundry, water purification, disinfecting etc. I try to keep at least a bottle available per month. I don't use that much now, but if we were in a crisis/survival situation, I would use more.
I have read that after 18 months it looses it's strength. I have personally opened bottle s up that are 3 years old that have been sealed and in a dark room, that is still just great!

WEDNESDAY - Recipe Day

If you had a family member who had serious diarrhea, or was dehydrated for some other reason, do you know how to replace the fluids and electrolytes in their body?

This is a recipe for Pedialyte:
one-half teaspoon table salt
one-half teaspoon potassium chloride (lite salt)
one-half teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons sugar dissolved in 1 liter (a little over a quart) of water

The above is the recipe for homemade Pedialyte, taken from Web M.D.
Unsweetened (NO SUGAR!!) Kool-Aid can also be added to this, to making it a tad more palatable to children.
Do NOT add sweetened Kool-Aid, this adds too much sugar, and makes the very exact balance of salts and sugar off.

This recipe is a really good thing to have on hand. You can measure all the dry ingredients and store them all in a one liter bottle (dry). Then if you need it, in an emergency, just add clean water, shake the bottle well, and use. Great thing for 72 hour kits. You can also mix up several batches of it, put in zip lock baggies, and store in a one liter bottle (dry). That way, it's all ready for emergency use.This recipe works to re hydrate animals as well...just don't add Kool-Aid to theirs.

TUESDAY - Learn A New Skill

I am always on the lookout for preparedness type articles. I learn so much from them. So many people with so much knowledge.

5 - HOW OLD CAN A BEAN BE?!
5 - HOW OLD CN A BEAN BE?The following comes from a newsletter putout by the Wooden Spoon, December 2006.“In a recent cooking class at The Wooden Spoon we were discussing the shelf life of legumes, which is recommended as 6-8 plus years. True confessions were coming from our students, some of whom inherited their mother's food storage . . .“We determined on an experiment.“Charleen Clark told us that she knew she had beans that were at least 40 years old, and accepted the assignment to go home and see what she could do with them.[She] added 1/8 tsp. baking soda and 1 tbsp. cooking oil to a cup of beans while soaking them in three times as much water. She put the beans to soak on a Saturday morning and left them for thirty-two hours, until she observed that the forty year old beans were beginning to sprout! Charleen drained the rinse water, cooked the beans, and brought them to class.“Christine Van Wagenen, teacher and cook extra ordinaire, put her discriminating palate to the test and sampled a bean and declared the results to be a marvel.~~~~~~General Information About Beans:Nutritious, filling, versatile, economical, and tasty - sounds like the perfect food!SortingSorting means picking over the dried beans before cooking them. Remove small rocks, pieces of dirt, beans with holes, badly misshapen or wrinkled beans and those greatly undersized or discolored.RinsingWashing is not part of the packing process because water would rehydrate the beans. Do not rinse beans until you are ready to soak or cook them. Even then you do not have to rinse beans if you're going to soak them. Any field dust will be removed and discarded with the soak water. If you cook the beans without soaking, rinse them after sorting.SoakingSoaking is not essential in bean preparation. Beans are soaked to begin rehydration and reduce cooking time..During soaking, beans increase two to three times their dried size. Enough water must be used to keep the beans covered while soaking. Once rehydrated, beans cook in 1 to 3 hours, depending on the type of bean.Cooking Without SoakingTo cook beans without soaking, use twice the amount of cooking water specified in the recipe. Combine the water and rinsed beans in the pot and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. The beans rehydrate while cooking so you will have to watch them carefully and add more water whenever necessary to keep them covered.Things to avoid when cooking dry beansAdd only after beans are softThe following items will toughen uncooked beans and noticeably increase cooking time. * salt / unrefined sea salt * miso, tamari and soy sauce * sugars * acidic ingredients, including tomatoes, vinegar, and lemon.Baking soda?Many recipes call for baking soda to speed cooking and soften beans by increasing alkalinity. Use it only if you have extremely hard water. Baking soda will produce mushy beans, and deplete minerals.~~~~BEAN NUTRITIONPROTEIN:Dry beans are the richest source of vegetable protein (21-27% when cooked). Combining beans with a small amount of animal protein such as meat, cheese, or egg or small amounts of grain (corn, wheat, or rice) will create a complete protein equal to that of meat and other animal sources. Protein is important for human health because it supplies the materials for building and repairing body tissues – muscles, bones, glands, skin, and teeth. Beans consistently rank lowest of all foods in cost per gram of protein, according to the USDA.ENERGY: Beans have long been valued as an energy source. Complex carbohydrates in dry beans digest more slowly than simple carbohydrate foods thereby satisfying hunger longer. One half cup of cooked beans contains 118 calories or less.VITAMINS: A normal serving of cooked dry beans supplies as much as 40% of the minimum daily requirement of the B-vitamins, thiamine and pyridoxine, and significant amounts of other B-vitamins. The B-vitamins are important in contributing to healthy digestive and nervous systems, skin, and eyes.MINERALS: Iron to build red blood cells, calcium and phosphorus for strong bones and teeth, and potassium, which is important in regulating body fluid balance, all plentiful in dry beans. Beans are high in fiber, contain no cholesterol, and are low in sodium. Sodium content is low so, when cooked without salt, they are good in low-salt diets.

MONDAY - Clean A Shelf In Food Storage Room

I am rearranging my storage room. This is taking me a little longer than planned so I am not quite done with the area I am working on. I am arranging each area like the grocery store does. Right now I am working on the oils. I can see that I need to purchase some more oil. I read an article by Enzio Bushe about WW11 conditions and oil is such an important thing. I feel like I need to get a little more. I have rearranged it so it is easier to rotate. I am posting the article at the bottom of the blog. ARTICLE 4

Friday - Drop off Canned Goods List - Tomatoes

I honestly haven't done this since the first of December. I am ready to get myself reorganized!

Today's topic - Tomatoes

I have 2 recipes a week that use 2 cans of tomatoes.

That translates into 8 cans a month or 48 cans a year, x 2 = 96 cans for these two recipes for two years. I like to have extra's as well. Bottom line I need to order another case of tomatoes. I did can tomatoes in the fall, but our summer weather was so weird & I didn't get enough tomatoes for what we need and as I like to keep my supplies up.

I try to keep an extra case so as we use it we don't go under our 4 cases needed for the years supply. I have used 1/2 of the extra case so I need to get another. When I have that I will move the 1/2 used case upstairs and rotate the newest one to the back.

My food storage is my mini grocery store. I use most of the stuff down there through the year. We don't go through as many beans and a few dry goods like that, but the canned goods are things we use all the time. It needs to be rotated anyway so it all works out great.

Deep Cleaning Our House

Pix before - boxes just piled on top of each other.

Pix after - plastic buckets I picked up at garage sales and clearance sales. So much more room - gave me the ability to put all our non food items in another location all together and a different place than our food storage. It will be so much easier to track and rotate.

This really doesn't seem like something that fits into preparedness, but it really does.

Several years ago there were about 8 families in our neighborhood that did a 3 day without water/electricty experiment. It was fascinating and the things we learned were amazing.

One of those things was about clutter.

After about a day of not having conviences the clutter drove everyone nuts. I can see why the pioneers lived so simply. My house isn't cluttered in the living area's. But the storage area's tend to get this way. After when we evaluated, every person made this comment on their form independent of the other participants.

If I could offer some advice on your preparedness, things to do list. It would be to go through your house and room by room declutter and dejunk it now. That is what I am doing this winter. I am decluttering.
So far I have moved the water, redone the non food storage room - items like TP, personal care, etc., cleaned up the holiday room, dejunked a bedroom downstairs, redone my Christmas storage, now I am working on the family room. Then the storage area and our food storage room. The basement needs it the most so that is where I have started and where I will be for the next few weeks.

Changing Water!

WOO HOO I got our water all changed out! That was a huge job. We had a bathroom downstairs that was used occasionally for years. We had stored all of our water in that area. Now that our fmaily is growing, that bathroom is being used more and more. I had to get the water out. So we moved it to the little storage area across the hall. It is winter in Idaho and very cold, so this was tricky. but I wanted to get it done so I can continue deep cleaning our house. It took three days but it is finished and looks clean and wonderful. We have about 300 gallons stored in this area. There is more in other parts of the house, but this is our drinking water.

A friend of mine told me he had water stored for 20 years and had never changed it. He got some and drank it and it was FLAT. He tried to areate it by shaking and never could revive it. He is changing out his water too.

I try to change ours out about every 2 years. The clorox ration needed is listed at the end of the blog.