What Kind of Prepper are You?

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Thrift Store Oil Lamps

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Ham and Jacob's Cattle Bean Soup

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Canning or Bottling Apricots

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The Get Something Done Contest

So, we're half way through National Preparedness Month.  Have you done anything to get better prepared?  What have you been putting off?  Filling up some water jugs?  Putting shelves up?  Getting a first aid kit put together?  Getting the stuff you bought last shopping trip onto the shelves?  Learning CPR or other skills?  I know you've got something.  I do.  Mine is getting little boards installed on the front of my shelves in my food room so if there's an earthquake everything doesn't just slide off onto the floor and break.  Assuming I've got an open spot on the floor, that is.

Anyway, in honor of National Preparedness Month we're going to have a little fun while we're getting something done.  I've got some prizes that I'm sure you'll enjoy that I'm going to send to a few lucky winners.  I haven't decided how many.  And I might find something else I want to share while I'm in my food room . . . I know you want to win something, so here's how it's going to work.

You have a little over two weeks left of National Preparedness Month and I want you to get something done.  So to be entered in the prize drawings, here's all you have to do.  First, leave a comment on this post letting us know what you've been putting off that you're going to get done by the end of September.  Then go do it.  At the end of the month, I'll ask how things went.  Leave a comment on that post that you got your something done.  Now, I totally understand that plans can change in two weeks--you might not have been able to accomplish the thing you set out to do, so let us know what you DID get done and you're entered anyway.  Fair enough?

Here are the prizes so far:

Brunton/Gerber Survival Combo with Gerber knife and Brunton compass and fire striker.

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving--my personal favorite.

45 piece Emergency Kit with lots of stuff in it.  Perfect start for a car, home, or office emergency kit.

I'll see if I can round anything else up while I'm hanging out getting boards installed in my food room. ;)  So leave a comment and make it happen--what are you going to get accomplished by the end of the month?

Tattler Lids Giveaway Winner and Other Stuff

No, I have not dropped off the face of the planet.  Yes, I know I had a giveaway here that I said would end Wednesday night.  I promise it did end Wednesday night, it just took me until Sunday to get the winner notified, so without further ado . . . . .

Congratulations to koikeeper in MN who is the winner of the 6 dozen Tattler Reusable canning lids!  And a big thank you to the Tattler company for sponsoring this giveaway!

Now, for further news, things have been the usual crazy here lately.  Our little town fair was last week and I am in charge of the exhibits where people bring their quilting, woodwork, needlework, art, photography, canning, garden produce, etc. to be judged and displayed.  It it always nice to see what other people have done and spend a few days surrounded by beautiful things, but it really does take most of my time for about 4 days.  Oh well, it's only once a year.  So that is why I was AWOL last week, but now I'm back.

In the garden news, we had a totally unexpected light freeze on Saturday morning.  That is about a month earlier than usual.  It killed off the tops of the tomatoes and peppers, and about a third of the squash leaves.  However, it looks like there is enough of each plant still alive that they should keep producing for a while.  Would have been really bad if it had been a harder freeze as I haven't gotten enough out of the garden yet to feel it's been worth my time and effort this year.  I might have had to get mad!

In other preparedness news, I'm teaching a class on dehydrating this Saturday at a preparedness fair in a neighboring town.  They only gave me 40 minutes to teach and I'm sure I could talk and demonstrate for at least twice that long, but it should be fun.  Turbo Dehydration class!  There are also some other classes being offered I want to take and some are while I'm teaching, so I'm drafting sweet husband for the morning so he can go to the classes that are the same time as mine.  This looks to be a well organized and educational preparedness fair and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.  Hopefully people are able to come and learn and leave ready to DO something.  It's always good to learn something, but even better to DO something.  So I'll be putting together the dehydrating class agenda this week and doing a little extra dehydrating so I've got some yummy samples (deer jerky is in the dehydrator now smelling absolutely delicious).  If you've got any ideas on topics you would like covered if you were going to attend a dehydrating class, feel free to leave me a comment!  We'll probably cover some of them on the blog also.  :)

Apricot Freezer Jam

I can't believe that with all the posts I've done on this blog I haven't done one on freezer jam yet. Freezer jam used to be my staple jam over cooked jam.  It is easy easy easy and I've never had a batch fail, even when I had to go change diapers or break up the quarreling children in the middle of the jam session.  Seriously, freezer jam is the best for busy mom types who have way too many little people distractions to stand over a pot of jam continuously stirring while it heats up for 15-20 minutes then immediately put it into hot jars and into the canner.  With freezer jam, you don't have any of those absolutes on timing and you don't have anything hot your kiddos can get themselves into trouble with either.  So I used to do almost exclusively freezer jams until my freezer got filled with other stuff and my kids got a bit bigger where they can take care of themselves and their own problems if I can't right away.  Now I do more cooked jams, but some things are just plain better tasting as a freezer jam than a cooked jam.  Strawberry is one.  Apricot is another.

I got some apricots from a friend.  They were small and hard even though most of them weren't green anymore, so normally I would have let them sit in the box and ripen for another day or two.  However, this time I was going out of town and didn't have time to let them get more ripe.  So I made the jam with them as they were.

What you'll need:
Apricots (or other fruit if you're doing a different flavor jam) Enough to make 3 cups smashed fruit.
A box of pectin (I like MCP in the yellow box)
4 1/2 cups Sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, 1/2 cup lemon juice as called for in the recipe in the pectin box.
A pot or bowl to mix it all in.  You won't be cooking it, so any bowl will do as long as it's large enough to hold the smashed fruit and sugar.

First, wash your apricots.  If you're not using your apricots right away, don't wash them.  Water gets in the top and the inside turns brown if you wash them then wait until tomorrow to make the jam.  Yep, experience.

When the apricots are washed, you'll need to get the pits out.  If they're nice and ripe, you'll need a knife, but if they're still stiff they'll tear open without damaging the fruit.  To pit an apricot, find the little crack that runs down one side.  Sorry the picture's kind of fuzzy, but you can see the crack on the left side.

Then either cut through that crack and around the other side or pull it apart at the crack with your thumbs or fingers.  Toss the pit in the trash and your apricot is ready for the next step.

Now, if your apricots are nice and ripe you can put them in a bowl and mash them with a potato masher.  Mine weren't soft enough for that, so I used my food processor.  You just want to pulse chop them--don't liquefy them.  After they are mashed or chopped, measure the amount called for in the recipe.  Mine was 3 cups.  Add the lemon juice if called for now and mix it up.  I added the 1/2 cup lemon juice the recipe calls for.

Once the fruit and lemon juice are mixed together you can go get the legos out for the kids or whatever--the lemon juice will keep the fruit from going brown while you take care of whatever you need to.  If there's no pressing concerns, move on to the next step.

Add the pectin a little at a time and stir it in.  Some pectin brands have you cook the pectin on the stove in some water--that's why I like MCP, there's NO cooking to make their freezer jam.  The instructions say to stir it every 5 minutes for 30 minutes to dissolve the pectin, but this is totally flexible.  You can set a timer for every 5 minutes if you want or not.  Stir it every so often until it's been at least 30 minutes since you added the pectin.

Now you're ready for the next step.  Add the corn syrup.  The corn syrup helps keep the jam from crystallizing in the freezer.  Then add the sugar.  You can add this a little at a time or all at once.  It's easier to stir it in if you add it a little at a time. 

Now the instructions say to stir it constantly until the sugar dissolves, but guess what?  If you don't stir continuously, nothing burns to the bottom of the pan!  I usually treat this about like the pectin--I'll stir some then let it sit then stir some more.  You'll know the sugar has dissolved when you take a taste of your jam and  it's not crunchy.  Pretty simple.

Once the sugar has dissolved, you're ready to put it in jars.  A canning funnel is great here for a little less mess.  You can also use other containers like tupperware, etc.  Just leave a little space for expansion as the jam freezes.

Put lids on the jars or containers and let them sit at room temperature for a few hours (the instructions say 24, but I've put it in the freezer sooner than that without trouble), then put the full ones in the freezer and the half full one in the fridge so you can have it on your toast in the morning.

There you have it.  Freezer jam.  So simple--give some a try, especially if you get hold of strawberries or apricots.  Yum.

Friday Funny: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Had a friend send this to me and had to share. Enjoy!

And now you know why the chicken crossed the road! Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone--more Preparedness Month fun and games next week!

Reusable Canning Lids Giveaway!

Okay, now you've read the review on Tattler's Reusable Canning Lids, the Tattler company has also graciously offered to sponsor a giveaway, and what better way to start National Preparedness Month than with a giveaway right?

The winner of this giveaway will receive THREE boxes of regular size reusable canning lids and THREE boxes of wide mouth canning lids.  That's 72 lids to get canning with!  If you only have regular or wide mouth jars, share the lids you don't need with your neighbors.  And for those of you who don't can, you can still win and either give the lids to a friend or use them for a barter item, right?  This giveaway will run for a week, until next Wednesday night.

Okay, for any of you new readers, here's how the giveaway works.  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.  I need your email to contact you if you win.  Your 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. "Like" Adventures in Self Reliance on Facebook (it used to be called "become a fan")
6. Share this giveaway by some other method like facebook or post it in a forum or email your friends--whatever you want to do works here.

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, September 8th at 11:59 pm and the winner will be contacted for their shipping information.  If the winner does not respond within 3 days, we will choose another winner.  Good luck!