The $65 Knitted Dishrag

I learned to knit a couple of months ago.  Yep.  Feeling downright domestic.  So I though it would be kind of fun to make knitted washrags for some folks (including family members) for Christmas this year.  Here's the first one:

Cast on 30 or so stitches, size 8 needles, worsted weight cotton yarn, and knit knit knit until it looks like a dishrag then cast off.  Easy, right?  Well, it only took me 5 HOURS to finish it.  Way back like 10 years ago when I had a job I think I made around $13/hour (of course I'm worth far more than that now), but using those figures this here dishrag is worth around $65.00!  That's quite the dishrag there.  I ended up using it and my kids call it the "special washrag".  As in, "Can I wipe the table with the special washrag?"  I've made a couple more since, but it's not speeding up much, so, dear family and friends, if you get a dishrag from me for Christmas you better LOVE IT!  And don't be using it to wash your dishes either!  I want it framed so when I come visit I can admire all my hard work. :)

By the way, have you entered my giveaways yet?  Enter here: WaterBOB water storage, FoodSaver GameSaver Deluxe

Bloody Butcher Corn Cornbread Muffins

Hey, have you entered my giveaways?  Enter here: WaterBOB water storage, FoodSaver GameSaver Deluxe  Now on with your regularly scheduled post.

My corn is dry.  You know it's dry when the kernels wiggle like loose teeth and come off the cob fairly easily.  Getting the kernels off the cob is not hard.  You can knock them off with your fingers or to speed up the process you can rub two corn cobs together.  Do it over a clean surface as the kernels don't know where exactly you want them to land, so they end up all over the place.  Even more so if you let your kids do it. :)

Once the kernels were off, I cleaned them up by shaking them outside in the wind and using a strainer to get a lot of the chaff off them.  Then I put some through my grain mill with the corn/bean auger in it and ground it into cornmeal.  I thought it would be more red.  It turned out kind of purple.

Purple cornmeal is good.  Then I made my favorite cornbread muffins with it.

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour (or 2 cups total white)
1 cup sugar
2 TB baking powder
A little salt
2/3 cup oil
6 TB butter, melted
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large mixing bowl.  In another bowl combine oil, butter, eggs, and milk, then add wet mixture to dry ingredients and mix.  Spoon the batter into greased or paper lined muffin tins and bake 20 minutes or so.  Makes 24 delicious muffins that your kids will be glad to have so they can eat less of the chili you're serving and still get full.  You know how that goes.

The muffins turned out kind of purple.  Imagine that.  Purple and golden.  Kind of like LSU.  Yeah, here's the LSU muffins I made from Bloody Butcher corn.

There is a certain satisfaction in turning something from a seed into a meal.  Just don't ask my kids how many times at dinner I mentioned that we grew those cornbread muffins . . . :)

FoodSaver GameSaver Deluxe Giveaway!

In the spirit of giving, today I have another fun giveaway for you!  But first a word about this giveaway's sponsor:

Ready Made Resources specializes in emergency power supplies and emergency preparedness supplies and has been in business for 15 years.  They have a walk in store in the Smoky Mountains that is co-powered by solar and wind as well as their online shop.  Seriously helpful folks here.  And until November 30th they're also having a fantastic 25% off sale on their Mountain House freeze dried foods and free shipping on cases--check out their ad on the right sidebar!

Now, you all know I love my FoodSaver.  It is an amazing machine.  I use it for packing food for the freezer and foods I've dehydrated to prolong their useful life.  I use it to pack clothes for our Emergency Kits.  You should see the compact package it makes when you vacuum pack diapers!  I know you all want one or know someone who does.

Well, the folks at Ready Made Resources are feeling just that generous and have offered to send one of my readers a FoodSaver GameSaver Deluxe that retails in their store for $149.95.  Okay, I'll admit it.  I want it.  My 10 year old FoodSaver's got nothing on this machine.

Here's the Product Information:
 
FoodSaver® V2440 Advanced Design

The FoodSaver® Advanced Design series. It improves upon favorite FoodSaver features like Hands-free operation -- now at the touch of a button. It introduces never-before-seen features like variable speeds for different size bags and canisters, and food-specific settings that ensure a secure seal for dry or moist food. It even has a CrushFree™ Instant Seal feature so that, for the first time ever, you can immediately stop the vacuum process when vacuum packaging delicate foods. And it is Sleeker because it combines function and beautiful form with features like an easy-to-use and easy-to-clean flat Touchpad Control Panels.

Product Features:

• Improved Hands-free Operation – Vacuums, seals, and shuts off automatically with a single touch
• Improved Easy-clean Antibacterial Drip Tray – Removes easily, dishwasher safe. Extra deep and antibacterial
• Improved Built-in Roll Holder and Cutter – Simplifies making custom-sized bags
• New Extra-wide Sealing Strip with Non-stick Coating – Provides extra secure, airtight seal that’s two times wider
• New Two Speed Settings – Optimize vacuum speed for different size bags and canisters
• New CrushFree™ Instant Seal – Immediately stops the vacuum process to prevent crushing
• New Easy-lock Latch – Latches lid tight, securing bag for vacuuming and sealing
• New Adjustable Food Settings – Change seal level for type of food – moist or dry
• New Control Panel – Easy to clean and makes vacuum packaging easier than ever
• New Pen Storage – Stores pen under lid for dating and labeling bags
• New Canister Mode – Achieves the best vacuum on canisters and accessories
• Accessory Hose Storage – Keeps Accessory Hose handy and protected
• Port – Allows vacuum packaging with FoodSaver Canisters and Accessories
• Full-sized Vacuum Channel – Catches overflow liquids and fits any size FoodSaver Bag for maximum versatility
• Indicator Lights - Tracks sealing progress
  

So here's the instructions to sign up for this giveaway.  You are welcome to leave a comment on this post, but it won't count toward the giveaway. :)  To enter, you'll need to fill out the form.

For your first entry, put your name and email in the form.  This is required for entry in the giveaway.  If you don't want to put your real name in the name slot, I guess that's okay, put whatever you like to be called in that space.  The winner will be contacted by email, so put an email you actually check in the email spot.  You email won't go anywhere else.  Promise.

Additional entries are available for the following:

1. Become a follower of Adventures in Self Reliance (you know my posts are worth reading!)
2. Follow Adventures in Self Reliance in a feed reader (or by email feed subscription)
3. Share this giveaway via a post on your blog (make sure to link to the giveaway and leave the link to your post in the form)
4. Twitter a link to this giveaway (include @momof3angels in your tweet and put your twitter username in the form)
5. Share this giveaway by some other method like facebook or email your friends

The giveaway will end on Thursday, December 17th at 5:00 pm MST and the winner will be contacted by email for their shipping information.  If you respond quick, you should be able to have this FoodSaver in hand by Christmas!  Good luck!  (And yes, I'm having fun with the form generator.)

WaterBOB Emergency Water Storage Giveaway!

I thought it would be fun with the holidays approaching to do a few giveaways on the blog and help promote some self reliance/preparedness related businesses in the meantime.  So we're just going to get started right now with the first giveaway.

I've heard of people who plan to fill their bathtub with water in the event of an emergency to have more water stored.  Now, I know of people whose tubs are probably clean enough to drink out of, but not mine.  And what about debris or your dog getting into your bathtub water storage?  How much use is that water then?

CampingSurvival.com has graciously offered to send one of my readers one of their best selling products that addresses the water storage in the tub issue, the WaterBOB.  This is an easy to fill expanding water bladder that uses your bathtub as the support structure.  It can be filled in approximately 20 minutes (depending on waterflow in your house) and holds up to 100 gallons of water.  Constructed of heavy duty plastic that is FDA compliant for food storage, the waterBOB keeps water fresh and clean for up to 4 weeks.  It also comes with siphon pump to get the water out easily as you need it.  For more information on the product and to see the (cheesy) video that shows the WaterBOB in action, you can visit the WaterBOB website. :)

Now, of course this works best if you know the disaster is coming, like a hurricane or tropical storm.  This would be a great addition to your already stored water, and would also be useful for apartment dwellers who can't store a bunch of 55 gallon drums of water, but could fill their tub in an emergency . . .  And I sure could have used some extra water storage when we had to have our water main replaced a couple of years ago--I knew we would have the water turned off, but it took a day and a half longer than I had anticipated to get the job done and the water back on!  And I also know people in hurricane country that could use a Christmas gift!

So here's the instructions to sign up for this giveaway.  You are welcome to leave a comment on this post, but it won't count toward the giveaway. :)  To enter, you'll need to fill out the form.

For your first entry, put your name and email in the form.  This is required for entry in the giveaway.  If you don't want to put your real name in the name slot, I guess that's okay, put whatever you like to be called in that space.  Signing up for this giveaway will also sign you up for campingsurvival.com's monthly email newsletter that highlights their new products, sales, etc.  Really a useful bit of information, and it's only once a month.  You email won't go anywhere else.  Promise.

Additional entries are available for the following:

1. Become a follower of Adventures in Self Reliance (you know my posts are worth reading!)
2. Follow Adventures in Self Reliance in a feed reader (or by email feed subscription)
3. Share this giveaway via a post on your blog (make sure to link to the giveaway and leave the link to your post in the form)
4. Twitter a link to this giveaway (include @momof3angels in your tweet and put your twitter username in the form)
5. Share this giveaway by some other method like facebook or email your friends

The giveaway will end on Friday, December 4th at 11:59 pm and the winner will be contacted by campingsurvival.com for their shipping information.  Good luck!

Using a Wonderbox Style Insulated Cooker

This post has moved to my new blog location.  Click here to go to Using a Wonderbox.

Building a Wonderbox Style Insulated Cooking Box

This post has moved to my new blog location.  Click here to go to Building a Wonderbox.

Honeyville Grain is Having a Sale

One of my favorite preparedness stores, Honeyville Grain, is having one of their best sales of the year right now, so I'm passing along the coupon code in case you all feel like stocking up on any of their products.  15% OFF YOUR ENTIRE ORDER from Thursday, November 12, 2009 through Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 6:00PM PST.  Simply enter the coupon code VETERANS during checkout. 

Their shipping is always a low flat rate of $4.49 per order, and this 15% discount makes their products very reasonably priced.  I've always had good quality and service from Honeyville in the past, so they've got my recommendation if you find something there you like.  This is where I get my bulk gluten flour and 6 grain cereal.  Oh, their French Vanilla Hot Cocoa is delightful.  Now I'm wishing I had some . . .

Freezing and Dehydrating Corn: Choose Your Own Adventure

You know I could post this as two posts, but the only difference between freezing and dehydrating corn is the last step, so for simplicity I'm just doing one post with two possible endings.  Kind of like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.  You read those didn't you?  I really liked the original #8 if I remember right.  I figured out how to get through the wild west town, I believe it was Deadwood City, without dying and then just chose the same adventure every time I read it so I never died.  Yep, I'm that adventurous.  Anyway, back to corn.

First thing you'll need is a bunch of corn.  However much is fine.  Depending on the variety of corn you grew, it can lose it's sweetness pretty quick after it's picked.  There's an old saying that goes something like "don't pick the corn until the water's boiling".  That never works around here, so we just get what we get when we get it.  It's also best for flavor to pick your corn first thing in the morning or late in the evening, not the middle of the day.  Ummm, yeah.  I pick it after I get the kids to school.

Shuck your corn and wash off all the little stringy corn silks as best you can.  Some folks are real particular about getting the strings off (me) and some don't really care much about getting every little string (my kids).  Then boil up some water and blanch the corn on the cob by dropping it in the boiling water for 6-8 minutes.  Mine didn't want to stay down so I put a bowl on top of it to keep it in the water.  (this new blogger typing thing is going to take some getting used to)



Pull the corn out of the boiling water (I use tongs) and put it into some cold water.

Once it's cooled off, you can cut it off the cob.  There are some fancy tools out there to get the corn off the cob.  I'd like one.  I just use a knife and cut down the cob in strips.  I do it on a cookie sheet so it will kind of hold the cut corn kernels and I can get a pile of them before moving to the next step.  Don't cut too deep or you get nasty tough cob bits in your corn.

Now you have your corn cut off.  If you'd like to store it in your freezer, continue reading.  To dehydrate it and store it on a shelf, scroll down a little more.  (You won't die with either choice, I promise.)

FREEZING:

Scoop the cut corn into freezer bags or vacuum seal bags in a quantity that looks like one meal's worth for your family.  A little less for a couple, a bunch for a big family.  Or you can measure and do each bag at about 2 cups and have around a pound of corn per pack.  Whatever works for you.  Seal your bag, sharpie your date on it and put it in the freezer.  Easy.

DEHYDRATING

Put your cut corn on your dehydrator trays and dry until it's hard and crispy.  Remove and store in a jar, vacuum pack bag, bucket, whatever you like to use to store your dehydrated goods.  Mark the date on it.

This dry corn is for rehydrating in soups and whatnot, not for grinding into cornmeal.  If you want to dry corn for cornmeal, just let it dry on the cob without doing any blanching like this.

There you have it.  Choose Your Own Adventure #379: Corn ;)

It's My 1 Year Bloggiversary! And another crazy idea . . .

I was thinking of doing something spectacular to celebrate the fact that one year ago today I wrote the first post on this blog. But I really can't think of anything, so I'm just writing a post--my 157th post.

I am amazed that I've had this much to say and still don't feel like I've covered near enough subject matter. I love that my blog has followers and readers outside of my family which I really didn't expect. I love that I've been able to learn from you all as well. I've had a lot of fun with this project this past year, and hope it's proven helpful for some of you. So thank you for making it as enjoyable as it has been and for stopping by to read my crazy adventures and leave your comments! It wouldn't be the same without you.

And just for fun, here's another crazy idea I had that I'm milling over: I took tap and ballet classes when I was a kid and loved it. I'd really like to get my girls (8 and 5) into dance class, especially tap. The only dance class in town is not really to my liking and teaches mostly "cheer" type dance. I know there's a place 20 miles away that teaches classic tap and ballet, but I really can't afford to put both my girls in their classes AND spend the time and gas money to get there and back at least once a week plus the cost of shoes, outfits, etc. So I'm dreaming up how I can use our shop as a Mom and Me tap studio for me and my girls and we'll just have class once a week or whatever by ourselves. The problem is that I really don't remember all that much about tap dance although I think it would come back pretty quick with a little instruction, so I've Netflixed a couple of DVD's on beginning tap and if I end up doing this I'll probably buy one or two of them, get a portable DVD player somewhere, light a fire in the stove in the shop once a week and have class. Just another crazy idea . . . as if I didn't have enough going on. But you know this would take care of some of my own exercise goals as well. Anybody a self taught dancer or used dance DVD's to learn to dance? I'm open for ideas. We'll see where it goes.

Canning Peaches

Well, I don't know about you, but canning season was crazy around here. Consequently, I did a lot of canning/freezing/drying and mostly remembered to take pictures, but had no time to post any of it! So this fall and winter, you just never know when a random canning post is going to appear.

Today we'll be canning peaches. Yummy. The first thing you need to do is get some peaches. There are lots of different varieties of peaches, but they come in two types: cling and freestone. If you've got a choice, you want a freestone variety. They are much easier to work with. The cling peaches are called that because the flesh "clings" to the pit, and so has to be freed by a pitting spoon or some such measure requiring a great deal more labor than just starting out with a freestone peach. A freestone peach has a pit or "stone" that comes "free" from the flesh (separates) easily. So if you're looking to plant a peach tree on your property, I'd look for a freestone variety.

After you've got some peaches, get them washed up and pretty. Now we'll skin them.

Skinning a peach is really quite easy. Get some water boiling in a pot. Dip the peaches in the boiling water for a while. The book says 30-60 seconds, but I've left them longer with no ill effects. You can tell when they're ready to come out because the color of the skin changes--the red will dull a bit--you'll see what I'm talking about when you do it.
Then take them out of the boiling water and put them immediately in cold water. I have a really cool metal basket thing (you can see the handles in the above picture) that allows me to put a basket of peaches in the water and then pull them all out and transport them to the sink. Slick. Much better than fishing one peach at a time out of the pot of boiling water, but that works too.
Now the skins should slip off the peaches easily. These are kind of mini peaches, but hey, they were free, so I'm not complaining.
If your skins do not slip off, you might have cling peaches, or your peaches may not be ripe enough. The skin of underripe peaches does not come off easily and causes a great deal of frustration! If you have underripe peaches, just wait a couple of days for them to ripen up a bit before canning and save yourself the trouble of peeling them with a knife.

After they are peeled, use the dent along the side of the peach as a guide to cut the peach in half and remove the pit.
Now you can leave them halved or cut them in slices, whichever you prefer. I like slices, but halves are faster, so I have some of both in the storage.

Put the cut peaches in a bowl containing 2 quarts of water and 2 TB FruitFresh or EverFresh or some similar product to prevent browning.

Meanwhile, get your boiling water canner, pot of lids, and syrup heating up. Syrup is a ratio thing. 1 sugar to 4 water is a light syrup, 1 sugar to 2 water is heavy. I like 1 sugar to 3 water. Use whatever you want to measure the sugar and water as long as you pour it in the pot according to the ratio.
I have a friend that skips the syrup and just puts 1/4 cup sugar in each quart jar after she's filled it with peaches and then pours boiling water over the top of it all to fill the jar. She claims it's less messy than using syrup. Might have to try that next year.

Now, put the peaches in your jars and pour the hot syrup over them to the bottom of the neck. Free the air bubbles. There's a tool for bubble freeing, but I just use a butter knife and poke it in about 4 times around the edge of the peaches and do a little squeeze/wiggle with it to get the air out.
Wipe the rims of the jars clean, screw on your hot lids and rings and process the jars in the canner. 25 minutes for pints, 30 minutes for quarts. Pull your jars out when they're done and put them on a rack to cool. My rack is my way thrifty oven rack upside down, one side supported by an upside down plate.
Enjoy! Especially lovely to look at on the shelf and delicious over vanilla ice cream . . . :)

More Sun Oven Cooking

Last night's dinner: Ribs and rice cooked in the Sun Oven. Amazing. You need one of these. And I'm a dealer for them. Shoot me an email or use the link on the right side to order :)

Cookies in the Sun Oven

I've borrowed a Sun Oven from a sweet friend, and since it's been sunny, I've been out experimenting with it a bit. I got it out Monday, intending to cook some bread in it since I was baking bread anyway, but it had never been out of the box, and the instructions say to let it heat up and then cool down and wash the interior before baking in it (you know, to burn off the "new" fumes), so that's how Monday's baking went--all the bread just went in the regular oven.

Tuesday was nice and sunny, so I busted the sun oven back out to bake some cookies. Here it is all set up in my yard:
After 20 or so minutes, it had heated up to about 310 degrees. Really. All you skeptics out there that think it would take two hours to heat up a solar oven, it really did heat up in 20 minutes. Here's the thermometer:
And just for good measure, here's a photo of the back of the sun oven with the height adjustment leg to enable you to aim it right at the sun. EASY.
I made my husband's favorite oatmeal cookies and put a pan of them in the oven. The cooking chamber isn't extremely large. I used a smallish pan instead of my regular cookie sheets.
This cookie recipe is 350 for 10 minutes, so I checked at 10 minutes and the cookies weren't quite done (of course, since the heat level was lower than 350).
Here's how we looked at 15 minutes. Done. Actually a little overdone--they were a bit dry. Not burned, just a bit dry. I pulled the second batch out a little sooner with better results.
That's steam coming out the top of the door when I opened it. Yep, it gets that hot in the oven.
The cookies were delicious, and cooking in the sun oven was easy. I'm definitely sold. I'll be trying something else this week before I have to give the oven back. :)

Emergency Kit Giveaway

Here's a quick heads up about a giveaway my friend Lisa at The Survival Mom has going on this week. She's just redesigned her site and is celebrating with a giveaway for an emergency kit that retails for over $100! Now you know how I feel about emergency kits off the shelf--they're rarely all inclusive, but this would make a fantastic start to your 72 hour kit/bug out bag/evacuation kit or would even make a great gift for someone you know who needs some prep help! :)

Drying Corn

I planted some corn this year that was supposed to dry and be ground for cornmeal. I didn't read that it has a 110 day growing season, which we barely have here, and I didn't plant it right at the beginning of the season, so when it wasn't dry by the first hard frost, I called my extension agent who told me it was okay to leave the ears on the stalks through the frost. So I did. Then a couple of weeks later, I pulled the ears off the stalks and pulled the shucks back to expose the corn kernels which STILL were not dry. It was really cold that day, so I just tossed all the ears in the wheelbarrow and drove them to the shop where they could stay "inside". However, they weren't going to dry all piled on each other, and the shop gets pretty darn cold which is not conducive to drying corn ears. I knew the ears had to come in the house where it was warm enough for them to dry, but there's quite a few of them and my house is only so big (well, actually it's pretty darn small), and the places I'd like to have a bunch of corn hanging around are even more limited, so you know that saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention"? Well, I took some clothesline and strung it from nail to screw to nail to different nail to another screw that were already sticking out of the rafters in my furnace/freezer/storage room in sort of an ADHD spiderweb pattern. Really random--I just didn't feel like pounding my own nails in to make it all nice and neat. Then I clothespinned the ears of corn to it. Now they are happily drying in my storage room using space that I didn't have anything else in (and I thought there was no such space in my house).
Okay, that picture kind of stinks if you haven't been in my storage room--hopefully you can make it out. The corn is really dark red--it's called Bloody Butcher corn. Don't you think RED cornbread or RED corn tortillas will be fun?