Day 5: Peace in the Valley

Day 5 was fun day! Isn't that amazing?? We are so blessed: five days into living solely on our home storage and we get to have fun with our supplies without worry.

We made a pumpkin spice and white chocolate bundt cake, DD19 made vegan brownies, and researched how to make tortillas without shortening or lard since she won't use lard and she used the last of the vegan shortening to make cookies a week ago. I have long wanted to get a tortilla press (I know I know. Santa Ana California was just minutes away and I never bothered), simply because "in the day" I think it will be a lot easier to make tortillas than full on bread.

Bundt Cake

1 box of cake mix
1 box of instant pudding mix
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup sour cream*
1 T butter (this is to coat pan, I use spray)
sprinkling of flour (to coat pan)

Whisk water, oil, eggs and sugar together. Add cake mix, pudding, whisk together. Add sour cream and whisk til blended. note:  we have found that if you are using "pudding in the mix" cake mix, then you need to drop the sour cream addition down to a half cup, otherwise the cake has way too much moisture and it is soggy.

Cook bundt cake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes, check to verify it's done. note: when we use a silicone bundt pan we have to bake this for at least 65-75 minutes. When we used stoneware, it was 60 minutes. Silicone doesn't transfer heat to aid in baking. My friend Teri notes that you need to rub real butter all over the metal/stoneware bundt pan and then dust with flour in order to get your cake to come out cleanly from the pan.

Vegan Tortillas without shortening

1 cup whole grain flour (DD used white wheat, it's what we have)
2 T olive oil
1/4 c. water
dash of salt
flour or oil for surface kneading

1. Mix all ingredients in bowl, if too dry add a bit more water
2. Split into 4 balls
3. Roll out each ball until desired thin-ness
4. "flash cook" the tortillas: high heated pan (no oil needed), cooked quickly. obviously cast iron works best, but any pan will do. fry tortillas for about 30 seconds on each side but it's not a hard and fast time.

DD19 made these but didn't roll them out quite thin enough (gotta get that press lol!) but they were still good. I like it because it uses ingredients we normally have on hand as part of our food storage.

Today's blogpost is really short because (drum roll here): nothing disastrous happened. Isn't that wonderful? Day 5 Life Lesson: Our preparations allow us to live life peacefully. 

Knock on wood.

Vaya con Dios.

Day 4: The Barter

Today we engaged in our first barter. We have enough liquid dish soap (I might have some buried in home storage, but I haven't found it yet) and dishwasher detergent to last this week, but next week will be a challenge. So I decided to barter for both today just so I don't spend the rest of this week freaking out about "what if?"

I went the easy route and called my son to barter. At least I thought it was going to be the easy route, instead it turned out to be what I imagine will happen if I am bartering "for real, in the day." I explained that we were on this home storage challenge so I couldn't go to the store to buy these items, and I need to barter for something he needs or might need. He responded "but Mom, I don't need anything, I'm stocked up."

Now because he's my son, I could lay the Mom card down, and I replied, "well I need dish soap and detergent so I need you to think of stuff you MIGHT need or want that I would have so I can trade with you! <grin>" He thought about it and said "ok, actually I'm getting low on laundry detergent and I'm almost out of hamburger." So I brought a pound of hamburger and enough (for him) laundry detergent to last 2-3 months.

His initial response was telling though, and one of the problems inherent in a barter transaction: you have to find someone who needs or wants what you have. When I taught couponing classes I used to joke that I don't need to stock a lot of wheat, I'll stock a majority of rice; that way "in the day" I'll be bartering a 3:1 ratio with all those who have only stocked wheat." 

In any negotiation, rule #1 is, negotiate from a position of strength. That's why I chose to barter today when what I 'needed' was simply to salve my anxiety that I might need it next week. Next week I could possibly be negotiating from a position of desperation. 

On the point of desperation I'm going to remind you that you do NOT want to be out of toilet paper!! My family of 5 goes through a 1000 ct roll of toilet paper a day...just so you have a yardstick measure for your home storage. I told people when I taught couponing and now when I signed up for the challenge--I'm willing to barter with anyone for anything, except my toilet paper. In California, I would joke "they'd have to pry it out of my cold dead hands," now that I'm in a gun friendly state, I leave that sentence out, lol.

Today's barter taught me something I hadn't thought of before: establishing a network of barter-ees. I went to my son because I knew he had what I needed (since I'd stocked him up) but also because I knew he'd be willing to barter. When I signed up for this challenge, one of the requisites was you had to also be willing to barter within the group. They might have set that requirement with intention, but I think it was more accidental--done as a way to help you stay out of the store. Having a pre-designated group to barter among can be important, if only because it might save me from having to go door to door with my neighbors. 

Expanding it further, it also illustrates the importance of expanding your network including people outside your normal circle. I attend a church which has for decades, encouraged storing "the basics:" wheat, oil, sugar etc. It's only been the recent past where they have encouraged folks to store a 3 month supply of "real food and supplies." If my only network is within my church membership, I doubt I'm going to find what I need, unless I'm looking for wheat, lol. At least here in Texas regular folk are inclined to stock up a little, in California I'd be out of luck, period. 

I like storing barter items which don't cost me anything. Back in the day I used to get 45 coupon inserts a week, so it was pretty easy to build up a huge stockpile of things which make life easier for little cost, (toothpaste, shampoo, bar soap come to mind), things people don't normally think of for their food storage. These are items which I hope I could easily barter from my excess as it is unlikely "you" thought to stockpile them (current reality is I've gone through most of ours and we are just starting to rebuild.)

Life Lesson for Day 4: plan ahead so you can barter from a position of strength, focus on stockpiling food, but also include non-food items; establish a circle of barter friendly folk.

Vaya con Dios.

Day 3: The Spice of Life

I know one of the weak areas in our home storage are herbs and spices, but mostly spices. I just don't use either very much, so when a recipe calls for it, we generally have to go buy it. Ironically, DD19 and I had just been in a natural foods grocery store a couple of weeks ago and one of the magazines had an article on "basic cooking herbs:" Basil, Cilantro, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Sage, Chives, Thyme, Rosemary, Tarragon. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), but I figure it's a good indoor starting place. 

I was so excited to see this recipe by Chef Brad Petersen. Until I realized I had no paprika, and as I said, I'm so not a winging it kind of cook. I was really bummed, because I have everything else. I guess I can make it without it, but you know how it is....

Brown Rice and Chicken

2 chicken breasts, diced, uncooked
1 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T smoked paprika (I guess any kind of paprika would do)
2 T Tuscan sunset (herb blend, I guess any italian seasoning would do)
4 c. vegetable (or chicken) stock
28 oz can fire roasted crushed tomatoes
3 c. long grain brown rice, uncooked
1 c. corn, frozen (I'm thinking you could use canned, FD or fresh too)

1. Turn on electric pressure cooker
2. Brown chicken in EPC
3. Add seasonings to chicken and cook for a few minutes
4. Add in the rest of ingredients and combine
5. Place lid and lock lid in place.
6. PC on high for 20 minutes. (I think that's long, but evidently brown rice needs it.)

Anyway, a 1 pot meal. I was out of the tomatoes (in that quantity) as well, so it will have to wait for another day. I also don't have sourdough starter, so I couldn't make this wonderful looking bread:

Black Bean and Quinoa Bread

1/4 c. fresh ground black bean flour
1 c. hot water
1/2 c. sour dough starter
1/2 c. cooked black or red quinoa
4 T olive oil
4 T agave sweetener
2 t. salt
1 T yeast
2-3 c unbleached bread flour

1. Combine all ingredients and only half bread flour, placing yeast on top of the bread flour.
2. Add more flour until dough pulls away from mixer, then knead for 6 minutes.
3. Let rise on parchment paper lined pan or stoneware.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, then drop to 350F and bake for 20-25 minutes until done. This bread was done artisan style.

Again, it's the "one ingredient/spice/herb" that I don't have. I guess (chime in here bread bakers) I could just leave the sour dough starter out, and make just "regular" bread with bean flour and quinoa?

DD19 and I decided when we saw the list that we would start growing these herbs indoors and now I can see I need to come up with a basic spice list as well (welcome all comments!!) We purchased red kale seeds while we were at that store, so as soon as the store ban is lifted, we'll go purchase some potting soil and get the kale started.

Pretty slow day, but as the saying goes: "no news is good news."  Until next time, vaya con Dios.

Day 2: Waste Not, Want Not: Changing Mentality

Before I left for work yesterday, I made dinner and took out a frozen gallon of milk to defrost. When I came home from work 10 hours later, dinner was still out, and so was the milk. No one had bothered to put them away. Fortunately, they were still salvageable, otherwise both would have been wasted.

Lest you think that's a rant, it is not. It is simply a statement of our reality: we think there's always going to be more, so what's the big deal if a little is wasted? The new reality (particularly these next two weeks) is: there may not be more, or if there is more, it likely won't be what you are used to, so you might want to take care and make sure what you have lasts.

I think my family's habits--ignoring what if--is pretty reflective of the general populace, especially here in America. DH grew up in a family where there was abundance. I grew up in a family where both of my parents grew up in families which planned for "what if." I spent summers with my maternal grandparents: my grandfather literally raised everything the family ate during the year, with the exception of grains. My father grew up with grains being pretty much all they had, with the occasional supplement of vegetables. Both sets understood that what they had in front of them might be it.

So the lack of care, (I call it stewardship) to preserve and make things last, is not really surprising. A bit disappointing that my kids haven't quite caught on yet, but not surprising. I think it's not until it's gone gone that one appreciates what was squandered (life, materials, relationships, time.) If we are going to use these next two weeks as a training ground, then that mentality of "there's always going to be more, so we can afford to be careless" needs to change. I'm not saying we need to become misers, but there is definitely room for improvement and discussion.

Day 2 found me really craving fresh fruit and vegetables, something until Thrive freeze dried foods we lacked. We had stocked up about 4-5 liters of Bolthouse juice and that's helped abate the craving, but that won't last long. Once the challenge is over, I'll make more of an effort to home can fruits and vegetables (like my grandfather) but again, this will only last a year, and no amount of canning will ever equal fresh. The advantage to Thrive (and I'm not just saying this because I'm now a consultant) is that it is fresh fruits and vegetables, freeze dried (dibs on the slogan.) This means (1) I can have an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables stockpiled (2) because it's freeze dried it will last 25 years unopened and 1 year after opening, vs 1-2 years home canned. 

DD19 made lemon orzo soup the other night with Thrive celery and onions. We have both of those dehydrated, somewhere (see Day 1 blog!), but Thrive was right there in the living room (yeah, haven't gotten that far to put it away yet.) I was really, really surprised that the celery really tasted like fresh. If you hadn't told me it was freeze dried-reconstituted, I would never have guessed in a million years. 

I'm getting a bit off track. The point of my bringing Thrive in to the conversation ties in to not wasting food. Day1-blog I mentioned canning in quarts as I couldn't find my regular mouth pint lids/rings. This means if I don't want to waste the food in the quart I'm going to have to do a full meal of mainly beans, or 2 days in a row with beans and I'll be lucky if none of it is wasted. Sure, I could home can all in pints: except that's not what I have stockpiled, and I generally keep pints for meats (quarts are what my grandparents and mother canned in, what can I say--old habits are hard to break.) Unlike dehydrated, with Thrive, 1 cup of freeze dried equals 1 cup of fresh (the texture and volume via freeze drying results in very little volume loss) so I can use exactly what I need, rather than winging it. I'm not a wing it person when it comes to cooking, and after 20+ years, I'm conceding that DH will not voluntarily choose leftovers. Frankly, "in the day" refrigeration might be limited, so leftovers might not be an option.

Okay, Life Lesson for Day 2: make exactly what you need, not more, and be thrifty with what you have to reduce waste. Adjust the attitude: what you have today might be it, so rejoice and be glad. Then do something more :)

Think hard about how you are going to bring fresh fruit and vegetables in to your diet. Some of us have mason jars and equipment to home can. Most of "us" don't, so how are you going to acquire fresh or nearly fresh fruit and vegetables? I'd encourage you to consider Thrive, you can set up a "Q"ueue online and start getting a little bit shipped direct to your home each month. (Of course you could always get free food by eHosting an event, and you know I'm all about free food!)

Until tomorrow, vaya con Dios.

Day 1: Scarcity & Lack of Organization

So as far as I know we are not lacking for anything barring some emergency (like another slab leak, power outage etc.)

It is astounding then to experience what can only be described as "scarcity anxiety" this morning. Over things we don't even really use all that much, like, chocolate! Just the thought that there is "no more" is amazingly powerful, and this is just a drill people! It's a strange phenomenon to experience. I can see that we are going to run out of dish soap, so I'll have to go swap out with my son (how on earth did we go through half a bottle in 1-2 days??) We have about 30 ounces of vegetable oil left, and use vegetable oil for nothing but baking, hence the "oh my gosh we're going to run out before the challenge is over" emotion is unwarranted and puzzling. Somewhere in storage I have a bunch of olive oil so the world will not come to an end.

We planned on canning some white navy beans for DD19 this morning. We soaked them overnight and late last night I realized that although I had a case of regular mouth pint jars at my fingertips, I had no idea where my plethora of lids and rings were, and the store I was at on Saturday (the last free day before the challenge) didn't have any. 

So that meant this morning we canned in wide mouth quarts. Yikes! That's an awful lot of beans at one time to open up. I told DD19 that we can either make them in to baked beans or we can dehydrate them and repack them and then they will be instant white beans.

It reminds me that home storage unorganized is almost on par with "fake" food storage. My mother had miles and miles of what I called "fake food storage." FFS is when it looks like food storage but it's just a facade. For example, you can't eat safely that which you've stored (home canned food 50 years old-my mother's was canned in 1964!), or is so buried you can't find it (guilty) or a bunch of food you will never, ever eat or have no way to prepare (3,000 pounds of only wheat, oil, and sugar comes to mind; no grinder etc.)

I guess I need to get off my lazy keister and start getting stuff done. I was fanatical about organizing my food storage when I lived in California; my excuse now is (a) I was living in 3 times the space and (b) I wasn't working outside the home then.

Life lesson from Day 1: prepare for the mental anxiety--just accept it and let it go or come up with a plan B; and organize so that "in the day" you're not adding to your stress level unnecessarily because "you can't find that vital....whatever." 

Living SOLELY on home storage: the Pre-quel

My women's group at church is having a voluntary challenge: living solely on your home storage for two weeks. They issued the challenge a month ago, so it's not like you didn't have enough time to prepare and stock up (hmmm THAT sounds familiar!)

Anyway the challenge starts today (or maybe tomorrow, they said "this weekend") and we were fortunate this week to get a little more money than we had expected, so we were able to do a bit more stocking up yesterday. I'm already regretting not stocking up on chocolate ;)

My Thrive freeze dried food (https://www.thrivelife.com/texfreezedried) arrived last week, so combined with what we already had and had patched up the holes in our storage this past few weeks, we're good from a food standpoint. I'm really happy the Thrive freeze dried arrived in time, DD19 is vegan so we've got "real food" she will eat from preps now, (vs just basics) and helps round out the basic food supply.

I'm already noticing that it's not the essentials we're going to run out of, it will be the "things which make life easier." Like, Qtips. Allergy meds (down to 1 pill as of this AM). Nothing life threatening just stuff you don't think of.

If you elected to participate in the challenge, you are not supposed to go to the store for two weeks. You can call or email and barter something for what you need, but you can't go to the store. So sadly, we are going to have to "officially" start tomorrow AM (Sunday): I don't really want to go without allergy meds for two weeks.

We are really looking forward to it, and I'll be blogposting the journey here. We bought 4 gallons of milk yesterday: only DS16 and DH actually drink milk so hopefully they will be mindful and not wasteful. Otherwise when it runs out, they'll be using the Thrive instant milk. I'm hoping for their sake it's better than the powdered milk I already have. Who knows? This may be the moment when I convert DH to the idea of having a milk goat or egg laying chickens (ha ha ha.) Since I have to get allergy meds, we are going to get two more half gallons of almond milk for DD19: we will freeze one and we are going to dehydrate the other and figure out how many tablespoons of powder plus 1 pint of water = normal tasting. I'll blogpost the process and results also.

We should be good for the next two weeks on non-food stuffs: toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant, bar soap. We opened our last bottle of dish soap yesterday....but we should be fine for two weeks. We bought 4 loaves of bread yesterday; when it runs out I'll be baking bread again (everyone but me happy about that, lol. I don't mind baking bread I just haven't uncovered my bread pans or bread machine yet from the move a year ago!!) I guess I can experiment with artisan bread. Oh that reminds me, I better buy yeast today too or we're going to be eating unleavened bread!

I stocked up my son's freezer Wednesday, so he should be good for two weeks as well. He's not "officially" doing it, but it means when we see him this next two weeks, we won't need to be buying anything at a store for him. So he's unofficially doing the challenge even though he doesn't know it.

Stay tuned !!

Living Water Interrupted

Nearly three weeks ago we had heavy rains here in Texas (you may have seen the flooding in Baton Rouge Louisiana). So when the ground behind the house and in between the house and carport didn't dry out all the way, I didn't worry.

Then a week later we ran out of propane, and despite sunny hot weather the ground was a swamp. Hmmm I thought.

So I went investigating. Turns out there is a slab leak in the house. Took the only plumber in the county who does this work a WEEK to come out and say "yeah you've got a leak." No kidding. The water coming out of concrete was my first clue.

Then it's another week (tomorrow Monday) before he can get back with equipment to find the leak, and then a few days after THAT before he can MAYBE get it fixed.

So in the meantime I have shut the water off at the main. That means we all get up at 5am and everyone takes a shower first thing. Then the water goes off for the rest of the day. We go in to town and spend the day or use the restroom (the ground needs to be somewhat dry if the plumber ends up needing to dig.)

We have enough water in hand thanks to our preps, and since the water is shut off voluntarily it's not like we have NO water and are water challenged. So it has really been surprising how stressful it has been. I sent DH and the kids to my DS21's place for the weekend but it's too far for me to commute back and forth for my current work. So it's just been me here.

I've been very surprised how wearing the constant "do this not that" planning your every activity has been. Yesterday I slept normal amounts of hours and just dragged at work. So today I intentionally slept until I normally wake then moved into the living room and slept for another 2 hours in air conditioning (we can't run it all night that's another story.)

Planning when to do dishes and how fast, refilling water containers while the water's on/running etc. Small things like, I gel my hair: I don't like gelling it wet, and I usually let it air dry, which is way after the water has been shut off. Usually one just turns on the faucet to rinse of hands. Now it's pouring water and stop up the sink so you don't waste a pour. The reality that even for small things, water is cold; not such a big deal in Texas 104 degree summer, but 20 degree winter? And the constant worry that I'm just days away from the water bring shut off for real while the repair is made and how are we going to pay for the water bill (the actual bill, not the repair.) It wears on you.

In all this, I look at the bright side. We have options (I mean realistically even if the water was shut off for weeks we could travel to/from my son's every day although at that point from a cost standpoint it's cheaper to move us into Motel 6!), we have food and electric, DH has a gym at his office so he can shower there if need be, the rest of us can do bathtub since it's not too far to go to refill water, and we can do laundry in town.

It would be way worse if we were having this problem AND we were under water restriction like in California. At least I don't have the added worry of having to decide where I am spending my 4 gallons of rationed water per person/day.

Which brings me to prepping. The recommended "3 gallons/person/day" is NOT enough. Unless the S has truly HTF and you aren't leaving your home. 3G/P/P means you aren't showering, you are not doing laundry, not washing your hair, and digging a hole in the backyard to go to the bathroom, and that's IF you have a backyard. What if you don't?

I've said it before, I've got to figure out a way to get a composting toilet. And I'm going to get my barrels refilled and then find a way to get water cubes. But for now I'm grateful it's just an exercise in prepping water challenged, not the real thing.