Category: cooking/baking

It’s a good thing you can’t hear my voice when I sing. Continuing with the cool morning, warm afternoons, with overall cooling trend. Also supposed to be clear for the next couple of days. That’s a lot of clear, dry days in a row. My grass is crunchy and the grass over the septic field at the BOL is probably completely dead. That’s not good.

I did a couple of the things on my list, but avoided drywall mud again. It’s messy and I have to move stuff to do it, as well as diving deep in the garage for the tools… so I’ve been putting off what is a short and straightforward job. I have to get better at this. Picked up my stuff yesterday, with some stuff for the BOL, and a couple of household things. I’m stacked up on “pet stain and odor” remover. Damn dog.

Now to move a couple of things along, and then collect my stuff today. More stuff for the BOL, as well as some gub stuff. I won some mags and refills for the hole puncher. I’m stopping at an estate sale this morning to see if I can’t get some more. This sale also has a bunch of pews and a few dozen cans of freeze drieds… guy had some of his priorities straight.

The brand of FDs is unfamiliar to me, but matches the typical “buy this and you’ll be set” exploitive strategy employed by pretty much everyone but Auguson Farms and Mountain House. In other words, it’s all carb heavy, but still under caloried, and about half is breakfast or side dishes rather than main courses– with no real main courses except the few additional Mountain House cans. “Mac and Cheese with meat” is not dinner. A serving of meat, with a side of mac is. Soup mixes and oatmeal, cereal and pasta dishes are not really the best way to spend money on freeze dried foods, and are just in the kits to bulk out the days they can claim, and to extract extra money from your wallet.

Little protein and no fat isn’t going to keep you working in the fields all day. That’s one of the reasons I save all my bacon fat in jars. Fat is good energy and helps you feel full. The Oregon Trail cookbook I read has a surprising number of recipes that start with “melt 5 pounds of bear fat”. Heritage breeds of pig have about twice the fat of modern piggies (iirc), and the fat was more important to the household than the meat in the old days.

If you don’t have fat stored, you might want to reconsider that. You can buy ghee, lard, bacon fat, and beef tallow in the store and they all keep a really long time, especially if you put them in the fridge or freezer until they are needed. Fat can be used to preserve food too, as ‘potted’ meat for example. Saving your own is not only easy, but you paid for the fat when you bought the meat, so why NOT keep it?

Stacks don’t have to be separate from your normal life, and it’s a lot easier if they are just part of it. Put some back for later…

nick

Cool then hot. When you’re hot you’re hot, so cool you’re hot… I feel like singing today. No idea why. Anyway, yesterday was as expected and today will probably be too. Unless the forecast squeezes just a little rain out on us.

I did get a bunch of things done yesterday, but they were all little, and at home. I put off pickups until I had my pickup back, and just stayed home and chipped away at stuff.

I broke down the brisket, and cooked some. 3 pounds in the crock pot with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and four onions sliced thin. 6 hours later, it was filling the house with good smells. Unfortunately, the beef fat I was rendering on the stove didn’t smell so nice. I did get 2 cups of tallow at the end of the day, and I’d have just thrown that fat out. There was almost a cup in the crock pot too, but I didn’t render that.

As a side I made a recipe for dinner rolls from a magazine put out by our local electrical co-op at the BOL. Every month they feature other co-op members’ recipes. They were quick and easy, even from scratch. Unfortunately, the gamma seal lid on my bucket of flour failed, and the bucket went wet and rotten. I had a backup, so I opened that and made the rolls. That’s the second bucket of flour to turn into stinky glue.

My storage conditions sux teh bunnies, so I’m glad I don’t have even more breakage, but gamma lids are supposed to be good. They aren’t fool proof, and I’m the fool to prove it. Use a real lid for long term, and gammas only for the bucket you are working out of.

Moisture is my biggest problem with long term storage of anything, followed by sunlight. I’m the opposite of a cool dark place, and it shows.

Still, nice to know I can make light fluffy rolls with simple ingredients and only a little time. I think we’re most likely to be eating flat bread during any prolonged event, just because you don’t have the time for rising dough, or the energy for long baking. Just look at what poor people around the world eat, and it’s mostly flat bread.

I may try them with bacon fat instead of ‘solid vegetable shortening’ next time, just because I’ve got more bacon fat, but I try to make a new recipe as closely as possible the first time.

Late in the day I got my truck back. I’m $1500 lighter, but the A/C works again, and the oil got changed. There is a list of things that need attention, but most of it isn’t critical or in the budget for this year. In a couple more years it will be an antique and then maybe I’ll do a half arsed ‘restoration’ for D2. I can’t replace it for $100/ month, and that’s about what I’ve been spending on it. Plus, it’s a simple and reliable design, without all the tracking, ads, and “driver assistance” that I don’t want.

Today I’ll be doing those delayed pickups. And more stuff around the house. I have two specific missions for W as birthday requests, so I need to get them done.

Of course there are all the usual things on the list too, and stacking. Busy busy me…

nick

Hot and humid. Wet or not. But hot and humid is most likely. It was crazy humid yesterday. I was sweating in the shade, just standing still, and even with A/C, when I was working, I soaked through my T shirt. Nasty. Very glad it was late this year, and relatively moderate.

Did my stuff yesterday. Did the kid stuff, then did some pickups, then did my other thing. Took all day. Came home and made dinner. Tried a new (to me) technique for cooking steak in a stainless pan, with asparagus and corn on the cob for sides. Steak was the $10 prime NY Strip that’s been on sale this week. Nicely marbled. Pan frying took it past the very rare I’d normally like, but the flavor was really nice. Dang youtube. I learned something. Well, I learned it now that I tried it and actually DID it.

A lot of prepping is like that, you THINK you are learning it, and to some degree you are, but until you actually try DOING it, you can’t be sure. I burned the garlic bread, but the steaks were delicious. In this case, I slotted some new knowledge in alongside of some existing knowledge, ie. how to cook stuff in the kitchen, and then I pulled that out of my brain and actually tried it. The success was mainly due to it being an extension of existing skills and knowledge. The more base knowledge and experience you have, the easier it becomes to slot that new stuff into memory, and to execute when you actually have a chance to try it out.

Build a good base and you’ll have a better chance for success when you need it.

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I’m going to try to sleep in a bit today, then clear a bunch of stuff out of the house, and hopefully out of my storage unit. It would be good to clean one out. And I’d like for my wife to see a change in the house when she gets back.

Always be working, always be stacking…
nick