Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Blog Review: The Survivalist Blog
This post has moved--Click here to go to The Survivalist Blog Review
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Tattler Reusable Canning Lids
We do a lot of canning here. And the thought has always followed that in an emergency situation, canning things would be impossible without a good supply of canning lids. The jars and rings can be re-used, but the lids are supposedly a one time use deal. So we stock canning lids in the food storage. A bunch of them. But even those will eventually run out and then canning as a preservation method is done.
So one day, sweet husband got searching the internet (which is usually a dangerous thing) and found Tattler Reuseable canning lids and of course we had to give them a try. The Tattler company was gracious enough to send me some wide mouth and some regular mouth lids to review. I used them to can blueberry jam. I'll post the blueberry jam tutorial later, today we're just discussing the very cool lids.
The lids come in 12 packs, just like regular canning lids. Tattler also offers bulk pricing on them. Each lid is two pieces, the white plastic "lid" and the rubber ring gasket. You will need to have the screw on metal band that came with your jars if you bought them new. The bands are also available from Ball/Kerr as boxes of lids with bands. If you've been canning for a while you probably have plenty of the bands around.
The Tattler lids are available for regular or wide mouth jars and fit all standard canning jars like Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest, etc. And at approximately $7.00 per dozen regular mouth and $8.00 per dozen wide mouth, it will only take 2-3 uses to make them less expensive to use than the standard canning lids.
So here's the instructions for using them:
Prep your jars as usual (wash, sterilize, etc.). Put the Tattler lids and rubber gaskets in a pot of hot water and heat almost to boiling. The box says "scald lids and rubber rings".
Now, their box says to leave the lids and rings in the hot water until you're ready to use them, but the little printout instructions they sent said to take the rings out and let them cool before using them, leaving the lids in the hot water. I didn't read the box until after, so I took the rings out and let them cool. I'll have to try the next batch leaving the rings in the water.
When you've got your food in your jars, wipe the rims of the jars, stick the rubber rings on the lids and put the lids on the jars. Use the screw band to tighten it all up. So far so good, right? Pretty much like using any other lid except for the part of having to assemble them before putting them on the jar.
Now, here's something new. After you've got the lid screwed on, turn the metal band back 1/4 inch. That's one quarter of an inch, not one quarter turn. It doesn't turn back very much, just a little bit.
Now the jars are ready to process in your canner. These lids are supposed to work for either water bath or pressure canning. I'll try pressure canning something with them another time. Jam goes in the water bath canner, so that's what we did. Process your food however that food is supposed to be processed. This jam was in the canner for 10 minutes.
When the jars are done processing, here's the other change. TIGHTEN the lids up when you pull the jars out of the canner. Regular lids you don't tighten when they come out of the canner, but these lids you tighten.
Let them cool at room temperature and the lids kind of suck down. I was a little thrown off by there being no "popping" sound, but they did look sucked down when they were done cooling.
To open the bottle, use a butter knife (nothing sharp) and stick it between the rubber ring and the jar and you'll break the seal. I had to take a lid off already because I wanted to give some jam to a friend, but didn't want to give them the lid. Really, they wouldn't know what to do with it. Okay, maybe after reading my post they would, but that's not the point. The point is I took a lid off.
To use it again, Tattler recommends putting the ring on the opposite direction that it was the last time you canned with it. You can see the little grooves the white lid leaves in the rubber ring if you look close--those will let you know which way to set the rubber ring next time. The next two pictures show the rubber ring taken off the lid and turned over to show the grooves. You can see the grooves better in real life than they are showing up in the pictures. You might have to get your reading glasses out, but you'll be able to tell which way the ring went so you can turn it over next time. (If you click the pictures they enlarge and you can see the grooves a little better.)
All my jars sealed fine. I've got them in the food room with the other jams and jellies now. Impressive. Why didn't I hear about these lids sooner? If I'd purchased them when I started canning it would have saved me a ton in purchasing lids over the years. And fewer old lids in the trash can. Plus it solves the problem of running out of lids in the emergency supplies.
Having canned for a long time, there are a few things I'll have to get used to when using these lids.
1. I can't just sharpie the product and date on the lid since I'll be re-using it. I had to get labels out.
2. I'll have to can some things with regular lids to give as gifts since I really don't want to be giving my special lids away.
3. I'll have to find a new method of storing my jars since right now I have way more jars than reusable lids, so screwing a lid on each jar to store it isn't going to work.
4. I need a tote or something to keep the reusable canning lids in since I don't know how many times I'll be able to just put them back in their original box before the box falls apart.
None of those things are worth too much though when you consider the longevity of the Tattler Reusable Canning Lids and not having to worry about your lid supply if there is no more grocery store deliveries.
A few more notes about the lids that might be of interest: They are BPA free, made of FDA and USDA approved materials, dishwasher safe, and indefinitely reusable. The rubber rings are supposed to last 20 years or more before needing replaced. Definitely worth looking into.
I'll be canning a few more things with my samples, then picking up some more of these for our canning supplies. What do you think?
So one day, sweet husband got searching the internet (which is usually a dangerous thing) and found Tattler Reuseable canning lids and of course we had to give them a try. The Tattler company was gracious enough to send me some wide mouth and some regular mouth lids to review. I used them to can blueberry jam. I'll post the blueberry jam tutorial later, today we're just discussing the very cool lids.
The lids come in 12 packs, just like regular canning lids. Tattler also offers bulk pricing on them. Each lid is two pieces, the white plastic "lid" and the rubber ring gasket. You will need to have the screw on metal band that came with your jars if you bought them new. The bands are also available from Ball/Kerr as boxes of lids with bands. If you've been canning for a while you probably have plenty of the bands around.
The Tattler lids are available for regular or wide mouth jars and fit all standard canning jars like Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest, etc. And at approximately $7.00 per dozen regular mouth and $8.00 per dozen wide mouth, it will only take 2-3 uses to make them less expensive to use than the standard canning lids.
So here's the instructions for using them:
Prep your jars as usual (wash, sterilize, etc.). Put the Tattler lids and rubber gaskets in a pot of hot water and heat almost to boiling. The box says "scald lids and rubber rings".
Now, their box says to leave the lids and rings in the hot water until you're ready to use them, but the little printout instructions they sent said to take the rings out and let them cool before using them, leaving the lids in the hot water. I didn't read the box until after, so I took the rings out and let them cool. I'll have to try the next batch leaving the rings in the water.
When you've got your food in your jars, wipe the rims of the jars, stick the rubber rings on the lids and put the lids on the jars. Use the screw band to tighten it all up. So far so good, right? Pretty much like using any other lid except for the part of having to assemble them before putting them on the jar.
Now, here's something new. After you've got the lid screwed on, turn the metal band back 1/4 inch. That's one quarter of an inch, not one quarter turn. It doesn't turn back very much, just a little bit.
Now the jars are ready to process in your canner. These lids are supposed to work for either water bath or pressure canning. I'll try pressure canning something with them another time. Jam goes in the water bath canner, so that's what we did. Process your food however that food is supposed to be processed. This jam was in the canner for 10 minutes.
When the jars are done processing, here's the other change. TIGHTEN the lids up when you pull the jars out of the canner. Regular lids you don't tighten when they come out of the canner, but these lids you tighten.
Let them cool at room temperature and the lids kind of suck down. I was a little thrown off by there being no "popping" sound, but they did look sucked down when they were done cooling.
To open the bottle, use a butter knife (nothing sharp) and stick it between the rubber ring and the jar and you'll break the seal. I had to take a lid off already because I wanted to give some jam to a friend, but didn't want to give them the lid. Really, they wouldn't know what to do with it. Okay, maybe after reading my post they would, but that's not the point. The point is I took a lid off.
To use it again, Tattler recommends putting the ring on the opposite direction that it was the last time you canned with it. You can see the little grooves the white lid leaves in the rubber ring if you look close--those will let you know which way to set the rubber ring next time. The next two pictures show the rubber ring taken off the lid and turned over to show the grooves. You can see the grooves better in real life than they are showing up in the pictures. You might have to get your reading glasses out, but you'll be able to tell which way the ring went so you can turn it over next time. (If you click the pictures they enlarge and you can see the grooves a little better.)
All my jars sealed fine. I've got them in the food room with the other jams and jellies now. Impressive. Why didn't I hear about these lids sooner? If I'd purchased them when I started canning it would have saved me a ton in purchasing lids over the years. And fewer old lids in the trash can. Plus it solves the problem of running out of lids in the emergency supplies.
Having canned for a long time, there are a few things I'll have to get used to when using these lids.
1. I can't just sharpie the product and date on the lid since I'll be re-using it. I had to get labels out.
2. I'll have to can some things with regular lids to give as gifts since I really don't want to be giving my special lids away.
3. I'll have to find a new method of storing my jars since right now I have way more jars than reusable lids, so screwing a lid on each jar to store it isn't going to work.
4. I need a tote or something to keep the reusable canning lids in since I don't know how many times I'll be able to just put them back in their original box before the box falls apart.
None of those things are worth too much though when you consider the longevity of the Tattler Reusable Canning Lids and not having to worry about your lid supply if there is no more grocery store deliveries.
A few more notes about the lids that might be of interest: They are BPA free, made of FDA and USDA approved materials, dishwasher safe, and indefinitely reusable. The rubber rings are supposed to last 20 years or more before needing replaced. Definitely worth looking into.
I'll be canning a few more things with my samples, then picking up some more of these for our canning supplies. What do you think?
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Mountain House for Breakfast: Breakfast Skillet Wrap Review
Remember Monday's post on our Mountain House dinner? Well, the next morning we had freeze dried Mountain House breakfast that the sweet folks at Mountain House sent us to sample. The kids wanted oatmeal, so we heated up water for mom and dad's Mountain House Breakfast Skillet Wrap and for the kids' oatmeal and for the dishes and washing up. All in the same pot.
Same deal as last time. While the water's heating, start cleaning up camp or change a diaper or get the kids' shoes on or just hang out. Once it's boiling, tear open the easy open pouch. The pouch is flared at the bottom to hold itself up on your table or lack thereof.
After getting the measuring water thing wrong last time, I put on my thinking cap and found something to measure with this time--one of the kids' 12 oz. Nalgene cups. It just so happened this pouch needed 12 oz. of water, but there are enough ounce marks on the side of the Nalgene bottle to measure if I needed a different amount of water.
Add the water to the pouch and mix it all up.
Seal it with the ziplock seal at the top of the pouch and let it sit for 8-9 minutes while you get your fishing gear together and hunt down the kids at the fort they're building in the woods. Come back and open the pouch.
This time it was the perfect consistency to spread on a tortilla, so sweet husband and I had breakfast burritos. He added salsa, I ate mine as it came out of the pouch. Again, I thought there was plenty of food for both of us. I guess if you eat a whole lot, one pouch would only fill one of you, but for the average folks, one pouch is good for two servings.
I stuck the pint jar of salsa there for scale--these were not your average tortillas. You can't even see the plate under it. We got two servings like this out of one Mountain House Wraps pouch.
Now, just because it says to put it on a tortilla, doesn't mean you have to. This would have been perfectly fine just on a plate with a fork or eating it right out of the pouch. It had scrambled eggs, hash browns, pork sausage, peppers and onions in it. Satisfying enough to head out for a day of fishing. :)
Here's the quick benefits of using Mountain House freeze dried foods:
1. You don't have to pack much in your cooler. Just make sure you have enough water packed or a source for water.
2. They are EASY to cook. No slicing, dicing, getting your hands covered in raw hamburger, etc. Boil water, add water, wait, done. Left lots of time to be doing other things.
3. They cook up pretty darn quick. Not much waiting for your meal.
4. Not much for dishes. Actually almost none if you eat out of the package.
5. Not much waste either. Once the food was eaten, all we had to throw away was the package it came in.
6. You don't have to worry about them going bad by the end of the week. Super for long term trips where the meat in the cooler (like sausage) is always iffy by the end.
Mountain House meals are available from Mountain House or from most outdoor retailers.
Same deal as last time. While the water's heating, start cleaning up camp or change a diaper or get the kids' shoes on or just hang out. Once it's boiling, tear open the easy open pouch. The pouch is flared at the bottom to hold itself up on your table or lack thereof.
After getting the measuring water thing wrong last time, I put on my thinking cap and found something to measure with this time--one of the kids' 12 oz. Nalgene cups. It just so happened this pouch needed 12 oz. of water, but there are enough ounce marks on the side of the Nalgene bottle to measure if I needed a different amount of water.
Add the water to the pouch and mix it all up.
Seal it with the ziplock seal at the top of the pouch and let it sit for 8-9 minutes while you get your fishing gear together and hunt down the kids at the fort they're building in the woods. Come back and open the pouch.
This time it was the perfect consistency to spread on a tortilla, so sweet husband and I had breakfast burritos. He added salsa, I ate mine as it came out of the pouch. Again, I thought there was plenty of food for both of us. I guess if you eat a whole lot, one pouch would only fill one of you, but for the average folks, one pouch is good for two servings.
I stuck the pint jar of salsa there for scale--these were not your average tortillas. You can't even see the plate under it. We got two servings like this out of one Mountain House Wraps pouch.
Now, just because it says to put it on a tortilla, doesn't mean you have to. This would have been perfectly fine just on a plate with a fork or eating it right out of the pouch. It had scrambled eggs, hash browns, pork sausage, peppers and onions in it. Satisfying enough to head out for a day of fishing. :)
Here's the quick benefits of using Mountain House freeze dried foods:
1. You don't have to pack much in your cooler. Just make sure you have enough water packed or a source for water.
2. They are EASY to cook. No slicing, dicing, getting your hands covered in raw hamburger, etc. Boil water, add water, wait, done. Left lots of time to be doing other things.
3. They cook up pretty darn quick. Not much waiting for your meal.
4. Not much for dishes. Actually almost none if you eat out of the package.
5. Not much waste either. Once the food was eaten, all we had to throw away was the package it came in.
6. You don't have to worry about them going bad by the end of the week. Super for long term trips where the meat in the cooler (like sausage) is always iffy by the end.
Mountain House meals are available from Mountain House or from most outdoor retailers.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Mountain House for Dinner: Review of Wraps and Macaroni and Cheese
The folks at Mountain House sent me some samples of their freeze dried meals to try, and really I was pretty excited. I've had some Mountain House before and actually had compared it to a couple of other brands of "backpacker" foods and for flavor and texture, the Mountain House was my favorite.
So in order to give these samples the true test, we took them camping instead of eating them in the kitchen. We had a Macaroni and Cheese double serving entree and one of the new Mountain House Barbeque Sauce with Beef Wraps that you can put on a tortilla or a bun or just eat plain if you want once it's reconstituted.
The first thing you need to eat Mountain House meals is water. I did not try to eat either of these dry, but I'm guessing it wouldn't work too well. The instructions tell you how much water each package requires and then tells you to heat the water up to boiling, so bust out the camp stove and pot and get some water boiling.
I didn't bring any measuring cups, so I just used a mug and kind of guessed. I also wanted a little hot water for washing the bowls after, so I'm heating too much water here. While your water is heating, find whatever you need for serving, or just hang out and play cards with your friends.
Once the water is boiling, open your package and take out the oxygen absorber. This little packet is totally harmless as long as you don't eat it. It just helps keep the food fresh and dry in the package. Each food pouch had an easy tear strip at the top and flared bottom so it could sit on your table or the ground or whatever and hold itself up. Nice.
The dry stuff looked like this:
Then add your water and mix well. The package tells you how much to add. Like I said, I didn't bring a measuring cup--I just kind of guessed on how much water was 2 cups for one and 1 1/2 cups for the other. Now it looks like this:
After the water is mixed in, seal the package using the little ziplock strip at the top and let it sit for 8-9 minutes (follow the directions on the back, if you happen to get one that says some other amount of time, believe the package over me). Go put your jacket on, help the kids tie their shoes, get the campfire started, observe nature, or whatever else you need to do while you wait.
When your 8 minutes are up, open the pouches and serve. The two serving macaroni and cheese served all three of our kids plus had some leftovers for me and dad to finish up. The "one 16 oz. serving" wrap package served both me and sweet husband with some left for him to have seconds. So two Mountain House meals served our whole family of 5. And we dished out into bowls, but you could really easily just eat it out of the package so all you'd need is a spoon. That would save you some dishes also.
I didn't guess right on the water amount for the wrap package. It was a little watery when it was done, so we had it in a bowl and dipped our tortillas in it. Quite a lot of spice for me, but husband really liked it. If any of you know me, I'm abnormally sensitive to spicy foods, so it's probably the perfect amount of flavor for the average person. The Macaroni and Cheese was a lot of cheese and less macaroni, but was quite tasty with a little salt or salsa added to it (I did the salt, hubby and son did the salsa). We were totally satisfied for the evening hike.
Here's the quick benefits of using Mountain House freeze dried foods:
1. You don't have to pack much in your cooler. Just make sure you have enough water packed or a source for water.
2. They are EASY to cook. No slicing, dicing, getting your hands covered in raw hamburger, etc. Boil water, add water, wait, done. Left lots of time to be doing other things.
3. They cook up pretty darn quick. Not much waiting for dinner.
4. Not much for dishes. Actually almost none if you eat out of the package.
5. Not much waste either. Once the food was eaten, all we had to throw away was the package it came in.
6. You don't have to worry about them going bad by the end of the week. Super for long term trips where the meat in the cooler is always iffy by the end.
I have some Mountain House foods in my emergency kit. They are lightweight and easy to prepare and taste pretty good. You just have to have water and it's best if you have a way to heat that water. Mountain House meals are available from Mountain House or at most camping outfitters--even my Walmart camping section has some. As a side note, I haven't tried all the flavors, but really like the Turkey Tetrazzini. Do you have a favorite flavor?
So in order to give these samples the true test, we took them camping instead of eating them in the kitchen. We had a Macaroni and Cheese double serving entree and one of the new Mountain House Barbeque Sauce with Beef Wraps that you can put on a tortilla or a bun or just eat plain if you want once it's reconstituted.
The first thing you need to eat Mountain House meals is water. I did not try to eat either of these dry, but I'm guessing it wouldn't work too well. The instructions tell you how much water each package requires and then tells you to heat the water up to boiling, so bust out the camp stove and pot and get some water boiling.
I didn't bring any measuring cups, so I just used a mug and kind of guessed. I also wanted a little hot water for washing the bowls after, so I'm heating too much water here. While your water is heating, find whatever you need for serving, or just hang out and play cards with your friends.
Once the water is boiling, open your package and take out the oxygen absorber. This little packet is totally harmless as long as you don't eat it. It just helps keep the food fresh and dry in the package. Each food pouch had an easy tear strip at the top and flared bottom so it could sit on your table or the ground or whatever and hold itself up. Nice.
The dry stuff looked like this:
Then add your water and mix well. The package tells you how much to add. Like I said, I didn't bring a measuring cup--I just kind of guessed on how much water was 2 cups for one and 1 1/2 cups for the other. Now it looks like this:
After the water is mixed in, seal the package using the little ziplock strip at the top and let it sit for 8-9 minutes (follow the directions on the back, if you happen to get one that says some other amount of time, believe the package over me). Go put your jacket on, help the kids tie their shoes, get the campfire started, observe nature, or whatever else you need to do while you wait.
When your 8 minutes are up, open the pouches and serve. The two serving macaroni and cheese served all three of our kids plus had some leftovers for me and dad to finish up. The "one 16 oz. serving" wrap package served both me and sweet husband with some left for him to have seconds. So two Mountain House meals served our whole family of 5. And we dished out into bowls, but you could really easily just eat it out of the package so all you'd need is a spoon. That would save you some dishes also.
I didn't guess right on the water amount for the wrap package. It was a little watery when it was done, so we had it in a bowl and dipped our tortillas in it. Quite a lot of spice for me, but husband really liked it. If any of you know me, I'm abnormally sensitive to spicy foods, so it's probably the perfect amount of flavor for the average person. The Macaroni and Cheese was a lot of cheese and less macaroni, but was quite tasty with a little salt or salsa added to it (I did the salt, hubby and son did the salsa). We were totally satisfied for the evening hike.
Here's the quick benefits of using Mountain House freeze dried foods:
1. You don't have to pack much in your cooler. Just make sure you have enough water packed or a source for water.
2. They are EASY to cook. No slicing, dicing, getting your hands covered in raw hamburger, etc. Boil water, add water, wait, done. Left lots of time to be doing other things.
3. They cook up pretty darn quick. Not much waiting for dinner.
4. Not much for dishes. Actually almost none if you eat out of the package.
5. Not much waste either. Once the food was eaten, all we had to throw away was the package it came in.
6. You don't have to worry about them going bad by the end of the week. Super for long term trips where the meat in the cooler is always iffy by the end.
I have some Mountain House foods in my emergency kit. They are lightweight and easy to prepare and taste pretty good. You just have to have water and it's best if you have a way to heat that water. Mountain House meals are available from Mountain House or at most camping outfitters--even my Walmart camping section has some. As a side note, I haven't tried all the flavors, but really like the Turkey Tetrazzini. Do you have a favorite flavor?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Book Review: Survivalist Family by Joe Fox
Joe Fox from Viking Preparedness recently contacted me about a book he had written called Survivalist Family: Prepared Americans for a Strong America
. I'm sure he's glad to see that I'm finally getting the review up. Life has been nuts lately, but I've finished the book and have to say I really enjoyed it.
This book covers preparedness with a family in mind. It is not doom and gloom, but does point out some very real possibilities for situations a family might need to prepare for. Then it systematically walks you through the steps to take to get your family prepared.
Here are a few of the things I really liked about it:
I tend toward a bit of ADD, so the length of 195 pages and the fact that it wasn't written in super fine print and it included pictures were all a bonus. But don't let the relative shortness of it fool you--there is a ton of good information in it. In fact, it cuts through all the fluff and gets down to the nuts and bolts of getting prepared so that there's real action information all through the book. You'll probably want to keep a pen and paper handy so you can jot down the ideas that you get while you're reading.
The tone of the book was very personable. It was more like having a conversation with a friend than reading an instruction manual. A conversation about getting prepared with a very knowledgeable friend.
He discusses practical ways of getting your spouse and family involved, an area often overlooked in the preparedness book genre.
He covers the basics in an organized manner, but as someone who has been prepping for a while, I didn't get bored silly reading about the basics. I'd say this book is perfect for the serious beginner, but there is enough beyond the basics information in the book that anyone can get something out of reading it. He covers making a plan, camping, evacuating, water, food, medicine, firearms, tools, and communications all with the family unit in mind.
He does not advocate spending tons of money on preparedness gear. His emphasis is on doing something, and he offers some cheap alternatives to standard preparedness gear. See why I like this book? Totally up my alley.
Now, if you are one who will let formatting or a handful of typos deter you from gleaning valuable information from a book, you might have a hard time with this one. I'm huge on spelling and grammar in my own work, but am willing to let it slide when I'm reading another person's work. I really just want to know what they have to say that I can learn from and after reading Joe's book, I've already got some areas I plan to work on more with his advice in mind.
So definitely a keeper, and it's not so expensive that you can't get one for yourself and give one to a friend who is interested in preparing their family as well.
Survivalist Family: Prepared Americans for a Strong America is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. If you want a signed copy, you can get it from Joe at www.survivalistfamily.com. Enjoy!
. I'm sure he's glad to see that I'm finally getting the review up. Life has been nuts lately, but I've finished the book and have to say I really enjoyed it.
This book covers preparedness with a family in mind. It is not doom and gloom, but does point out some very real possibilities for situations a family might need to prepare for. Then it systematically walks you through the steps to take to get your family prepared.
Here are a few of the things I really liked about it:
I tend toward a bit of ADD, so the length of 195 pages and the fact that it wasn't written in super fine print and it included pictures were all a bonus. But don't let the relative shortness of it fool you--there is a ton of good information in it. In fact, it cuts through all the fluff and gets down to the nuts and bolts of getting prepared so that there's real action information all through the book. You'll probably want to keep a pen and paper handy so you can jot down the ideas that you get while you're reading.
The tone of the book was very personable. It was more like having a conversation with a friend than reading an instruction manual. A conversation about getting prepared with a very knowledgeable friend.
He discusses practical ways of getting your spouse and family involved, an area often overlooked in the preparedness book genre.
He covers the basics in an organized manner, but as someone who has been prepping for a while, I didn't get bored silly reading about the basics. I'd say this book is perfect for the serious beginner, but there is enough beyond the basics information in the book that anyone can get something out of reading it. He covers making a plan, camping, evacuating, water, food, medicine, firearms, tools, and communications all with the family unit in mind.
He does not advocate spending tons of money on preparedness gear. His emphasis is on doing something, and he offers some cheap alternatives to standard preparedness gear. See why I like this book? Totally up my alley.
Now, if you are one who will let formatting or a handful of typos deter you from gleaning valuable information from a book, you might have a hard time with this one. I'm huge on spelling and grammar in my own work, but am willing to let it slide when I'm reading another person's work. I really just want to know what they have to say that I can learn from and after reading Joe's book, I've already got some areas I plan to work on more with his advice in mind.
So definitely a keeper, and it's not so expensive that you can't get one for yourself and give one to a friend who is interested in preparing their family as well.
Survivalist Family: Prepared Americans for a Strong America is available at Amazon
and Barnes and Noble. If you want a signed copy, you can get it from Joe at www.survivalistfamily.com. Enjoy!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Augason Farms Breakfast Pack Giveaway
Today we have a giveaway from the fabulous folks at Augason Farms. Augason Farms is part of the Blue Chip Group companies and is the maker and producer of the Morning Moos milk alternative we taste tested a little while ago. They've come up with a sweet product for food storage convenience and apparently it's still new enough that it's not on their site yet, but here it is, the Breakfast Pack.
Oh, excuse my dog. Here it is without her nose in the picture:
Here's how it works. It is 6 #10 cans of food storage friendly breakfast foods that can be mixed and matched for a variety of meals. All packed up in one case and ready to go. The more I thought about this the more I liked it. It isn't perfect, but it makes meal preparation easy and figuring out what you're going to eat relatively effortless plus you can avoid some of the appetite fatigue you'd get from eating plain oatmeal for breakfast every day for a month. Here are the 6 included cans. Scrambled Egg Mix:
Vegetarian Meat Substitute bacon flavored bits (yeah, that's a fancy name for TVP or textured vegetable protein):
And Potato Shreds (hash browns).
Pancake mix:
Freeze dried strawberries:
And creamy wheat cereal (fancy name for germade or farina):
Each product can be used alone or mixed together to make things like omeletes, pancakes with strawberry syrup, bacon muffins, creamy wheat cereal with strawberries, and with just a couple other ingredients can open the meal possibilities up even further--breakfast burritos, scrambled eggs and toast, etc. How slick is that?
Augason Farms has offered to send one of these complete breakfast packs to one of my readers! And I'm resurrecting the form for this one.
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. 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 email your friends
The giveaway will end on Saturday, May 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!
Oh, excuse my dog. Here it is without her nose in the picture:
Here's how it works. It is 6 #10 cans of food storage friendly breakfast foods that can be mixed and matched for a variety of meals. All packed up in one case and ready to go. The more I thought about this the more I liked it. It isn't perfect, but it makes meal preparation easy and figuring out what you're going to eat relatively effortless plus you can avoid some of the appetite fatigue you'd get from eating plain oatmeal for breakfast every day for a month. Here are the 6 included cans. Scrambled Egg Mix:
Vegetarian Meat Substitute bacon flavored bits (yeah, that's a fancy name for TVP or textured vegetable protein):
And Potato Shreds (hash browns).
Pancake mix:
Freeze dried strawberries:
And creamy wheat cereal (fancy name for germade or farina):
Each product can be used alone or mixed together to make things like omeletes, pancakes with strawberry syrup, bacon muffins, creamy wheat cereal with strawberries, and with just a couple other ingredients can open the meal possibilities up even further--breakfast burritos, scrambled eggs and toast, etc. How slick is that?
Augason Farms has offered to send one of these complete breakfast packs to one of my readers! And I'm resurrecting the form for this one.
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. 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 email your friends
The giveaway will end on Saturday, May 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!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Saratoga Farms Freeze Dried Peas Review
We tried out some of Saratoga Farms' Freeze dried peas from The Ready Store last week, so here's the report.
Freeze dried is different from dehydrated. Dehydrating uses heat and air flow to remove the moisture from a food. Freeze dried foods are frozen, then put through a process of quickly thawing while moisture is removed resulting in a dried product looks very much like the original product in shape and size. The texture of the final product is less dense than it's dehydrated counterpart and usually "crispy". The peas were in a #10 can. They will stay good stored in the can for years. I don't know how many, but they'll last a long time. The can says they're good up to 6 weeks after opening the can. I'd say if it was stored in a cool dry place it would probably be good longer than that.
They were actually really tasty right out of the can. Dry and crunchy. My little helper had a hard time staying out of them.
We followed the instructions: Mix 1/2 cup of the dry peas with 1 cup warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes and drain off excess water.
It didn't work. The peas were still dry at the centers. So I put them in a pot with some water and heated it up. I didn't bring it to boiling, but got them hot and then they rehydrated fully.
I'll be honest with you, my family are not pea lovers. The only way to eat peas around here is right out of the garden. They don't like them frozen or canned or in casseroles. Okay, hubby will eat creamed peas and potatoes or peas slathered with cream of mushroom soup, but that's about it. So as far as eating the peas, they were not a huge hit. There was nothing really wrong with them, they tasted fine, they were just cooked peas. Hubby thought they tasted a little old--they certainly weren't right out of the garden. However, they would be fantastic mixed in a soup or with a casserole. Just don't try feeding that soup or casserole to my kids. I'll just let them eat the peas dry.
Dry on the left, cooked on the right--you can see the color changed also as they rehydrated. I cooked up 1 cup of freeze dried peas. According to the can it should have made 1 cup of peas, but it was actually closer to 1 1/2 cups of cooked peas.
As required by the FTC, I received samples from The Ready Store in order to write my review. I am an affiliate of The Ready Store (click through their ad on the sidebar). The opinions expressed in this post are mine.
Freeze dried is different from dehydrated. Dehydrating uses heat and air flow to remove the moisture from a food. Freeze dried foods are frozen, then put through a process of quickly thawing while moisture is removed resulting in a dried product looks very much like the original product in shape and size. The texture of the final product is less dense than it's dehydrated counterpart and usually "crispy". The peas were in a #10 can. They will stay good stored in the can for years. I don't know how many, but they'll last a long time. The can says they're good up to 6 weeks after opening the can. I'd say if it was stored in a cool dry place it would probably be good longer than that.
They were actually really tasty right out of the can. Dry and crunchy. My little helper had a hard time staying out of them.
We followed the instructions: Mix 1/2 cup of the dry peas with 1 cup warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes and drain off excess water.
It didn't work. The peas were still dry at the centers. So I put them in a pot with some water and heated it up. I didn't bring it to boiling, but got them hot and then they rehydrated fully.
I'll be honest with you, my family are not pea lovers. The only way to eat peas around here is right out of the garden. They don't like them frozen or canned or in casseroles. Okay, hubby will eat creamed peas and potatoes or peas slathered with cream of mushroom soup, but that's about it. So as far as eating the peas, they were not a huge hit. There was nothing really wrong with them, they tasted fine, they were just cooked peas. Hubby thought they tasted a little old--they certainly weren't right out of the garden. However, they would be fantastic mixed in a soup or with a casserole. Just don't try feeding that soup or casserole to my kids. I'll just let them eat the peas dry.
Dry on the left, cooked on the right--you can see the color changed also as they rehydrated. I cooked up 1 cup of freeze dried peas. According to the can it should have made 1 cup of peas, but it was actually closer to 1 1/2 cups of cooked peas.
As required by the FTC, I received samples from The Ready Store in order to write my review. I am an affiliate of The Ready Store (click through their ad on the sidebar). The opinions expressed in this post are mine.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Emergency Kit in a Bottle Review and Giveaway
I got some goodies in the mail from The Ready Store last week, so I'll have some reviews coming up of some fun products as I get them tested out. I've got their ad on the left sidebar--check them out when you get a minute. But first, I'd like to share the love a little after a quick review of one of the items: the ReadyBottle Emergency Kit.
This kit contains basic emergency preparedness gear all neatly packaged in a 32 oz polycarbonate water bottle. It is really a cute packaging idea and a fun gift or stocking stuffer for someone wanting to get started on an emergency kit or who could always use a few extra parts and pieces to add to what they have. When we first saw these bottled type kits a few years ago, always practical sweet husband said, "That doesn't work. You won't have water in the bottle when you need it if you keep all the stuff in the bottle, and what are you supposed to do with all the stuff when you put water in the bottle?" True. So what I'd do with a kit like this is empty the bottle out and put all the stuff in a bag, backpack, emergency kit, or car kit, then use the bottle for water. I also would not bet my life on an emergency kit that can fit in a 32 oz bottle. Really. Add to what is in the bottle or use it to supplement a kit you are already putting together and you'll be better off.
Here is what is included: 32 oz water bottle with little carabiner, 5 function whistle/compass/matchbox, waterproof matches, emergency blanket, emergency poncho, random bandaids/antiseptic wipes/pain pills (first aid), light stick, mini LED light with batteries, 2 handwarmers, 12 function swiss style knife. No, it's not a Victorinox Swiss Army knife, just a knockoff and I haven't used it, but looking at it would guess it's functional without being a really good knife. Same for the rain poncho, flashlight, and the water bottle itself. They will work and do the job for you, but not the highest quality. Seriously though, the whole kit couldn't be $26.75 if it had really expensive high end components. So still a really good deal.
Yes, all the stuff did fit back in the bottle when I was done with the picture. Now for the giveaway. One of my amazing readers can win this bottle of fun for themselves or to give to a loved one. I'm going to run this one a little different than I have in the past. I still love you forever if you share a link to this giveaway on your blog or facebook or twitter or whatever and really you know you want to read whatever fascinating bit of blog post I happen to write so following the blog or subscribing is always a good thing. But for this giveaway, I just want a comment. And not just any comment, but I want to know something you'd like to do or learn to be better prepared and more self reliant. Or something you're planning on learning or doing. Or something you planned to do but haven't gotten around to yet. You could also tell me something you've done that you're proud of. And maybe we'll get some fun ideas of projects to try around here as well (not that I'm really lacking in preparedness project ideas of my own, but I want to know yours). That's it.
Oh yeah, we'll run this giveaway for a week, ending next Wednesday night, April 14th at midnight MDT, and I'll ship it anywhere USPS ships, but we'll have to check shipping restrictions if it's shipping to another country and those out of the United States may be asked to help offset the extra shipping costs depending on where you live. Got all that? Good luck! :)
This kit contains basic emergency preparedness gear all neatly packaged in a 32 oz polycarbonate water bottle. It is really a cute packaging idea and a fun gift or stocking stuffer for someone wanting to get started on an emergency kit or who could always use a few extra parts and pieces to add to what they have. When we first saw these bottled type kits a few years ago, always practical sweet husband said, "That doesn't work. You won't have water in the bottle when you need it if you keep all the stuff in the bottle, and what are you supposed to do with all the stuff when you put water in the bottle?" True. So what I'd do with a kit like this is empty the bottle out and put all the stuff in a bag, backpack, emergency kit, or car kit, then use the bottle for water. I also would not bet my life on an emergency kit that can fit in a 32 oz bottle. Really. Add to what is in the bottle or use it to supplement a kit you are already putting together and you'll be better off.
Here is what is included: 32 oz water bottle with little carabiner, 5 function whistle/compass/matchbox, waterproof matches, emergency blanket, emergency poncho, random bandaids/antiseptic wipes/pain pills (first aid), light stick, mini LED light with batteries, 2 handwarmers, 12 function swiss style knife. No, it's not a Victorinox Swiss Army knife, just a knockoff and I haven't used it, but looking at it would guess it's functional without being a really good knife. Same for the rain poncho, flashlight, and the water bottle itself. They will work and do the job for you, but not the highest quality. Seriously though, the whole kit couldn't be $26.75 if it had really expensive high end components. So still a really good deal.
Yes, all the stuff did fit back in the bottle when I was done with the picture. Now for the giveaway. One of my amazing readers can win this bottle of fun for themselves or to give to a loved one. I'm going to run this one a little different than I have in the past. I still love you forever if you share a link to this giveaway on your blog or facebook or twitter or whatever and really you know you want to read whatever fascinating bit of blog post I happen to write so following the blog or subscribing is always a good thing. But for this giveaway, I just want a comment. And not just any comment, but I want to know something you'd like to do or learn to be better prepared and more self reliant. Or something you're planning on learning or doing. Or something you planned to do but haven't gotten around to yet. You could also tell me something you've done that you're proud of. And maybe we'll get some fun ideas of projects to try around here as well (not that I'm really lacking in preparedness project ideas of my own, but I want to know yours). That's it.
Oh yeah, we'll run this giveaway for a week, ending next Wednesday night, April 14th at midnight MDT, and I'll ship it anywhere USPS ships, but we'll have to check shipping restrictions if it's shipping to another country and those out of the United States may be asked to help offset the extra shipping costs depending on where you live. Got all that? Good luck! :)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Great Powdered Milk Taste Test and Review
Sorry for the trouble, but this post has moved to our new blog address. Click here to go straight to the Great Powdered Milk Taste Test and Review. Thanks!
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Mom Tool: Leatherman Squirt P4 Review
In my front pocket every day (well, except when I'm wearing a dress) is a handy dandy little tool. It looks like this:
It's a Leatherman Squirt P4
--a little "fits in your pocket or hooks to your keychain" style leatherman (only 2 1/4 inches long total) with the whole gamut of useful tools like pliers, wirecutters, file, knife, screwdrivers, awl. Heavy duty Leatherman-quality tool in a compact size. I've had mine for about 3 years and put it through a lot of abuse and it's still in great shape (except for the finish that got banged up when I tried to use it as a hammer once--just go get a hammer if you need one, this tool isn't a very good hammer).
Serious mom usefulness for cutting the dumb little ties that hold price tags on, filing the rough spot off your kids' coat zipper so they'll zip their coat up all the way, cutting boxes open and slicing apples in the car, unscrewing battery compartments, and untying the bouquet of balloons that the kids just asked you to tie together (no, I didn't just cut all the balloons with the knife like I wanted to do, I actually used the pliers to untie them).
The blade could stand to be a little bigger (it's only 1 1/2 inches long), but then it would be a regular leatherman and you'd have to carry it in a sheath on your belt which belt I do not wear or in your purse which is already heavy enough and if you're like me it gets forgotten at the house far too often. This little baby goes in your POCKET so it rarely isn't with me. And it comes in Gray, blue, red
, or pink
. I could seriously be a leatherman salesgirl just for this tool. :)
They have a scissor version (the Squirt S4
) and an electrical version (the Squirt E4
) with wire strippers, but I wouldn't give up my pliers for scissors especially when the pliers have the wirecutters which cut most things I need to cut and I'd rarely use wire strippers either. So you see, it is an amazingly useful little tool every mom needs. And I suppose it would still be useful if you're not a mom, I just call it my mom tool because it so often is used in my mom duties. Yep, you need one. ;)
It's a Leatherman Squirt P4
--a little "fits in your pocket or hooks to your keychain" style leatherman (only 2 1/4 inches long total) with the whole gamut of useful tools like pliers, wirecutters, file, knife, screwdrivers, awl. Heavy duty Leatherman-quality tool in a compact size. I've had mine for about 3 years and put it through a lot of abuse and it's still in great shape (except for the finish that got banged up when I tried to use it as a hammer once--just go get a hammer if you need one, this tool isn't a very good hammer).
Serious mom usefulness for cutting the dumb little ties that hold price tags on, filing the rough spot off your kids' coat zipper so they'll zip their coat up all the way, cutting boxes open and slicing apples in the car, unscrewing battery compartments, and untying the bouquet of balloons that the kids just asked you to tie together (no, I didn't just cut all the balloons with the knife like I wanted to do, I actually used the pliers to untie them).
The blade could stand to be a little bigger (it's only 1 1/2 inches long), but then it would be a regular leatherman and you'd have to carry it in a sheath on your belt which belt I do not wear or in your purse which is already heavy enough and if you're like me it gets forgotten at the house far too often. This little baby goes in your POCKET so it rarely isn't with me. And it comes in Gray
, blue, red, or pink. I could seriously be a leatherman salesgirl just for this tool. :)
They have a scissor version (the Squirt S4
) and an electrical version (the Squirt E4) with wire strippers, but I wouldn't give up my pliers for scissors especially when the pliers have the wirecutters which cut most things I need to cut and I'd rarely use wire strippers either. So you see, it is an amazingly useful little tool every mom needs. And I suppose it would still be useful if you're not a mom, I just call it my mom tool because it so often is used in my mom duties. Yep, you need one. ;)
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