When Camping Spots Attack..........

Ok, so I HATE camping! Totally and completely. I didn't always feel this way, when I was a kid I thought it was the greatest thing ever, but that was back when I didn't plan, pack, cook, clean, or care about dirt. Now I'm the mom and seriously, WHAT can be fun about living in the dirt and trying to feed your family out of an ice chest? But I digress.....

There is one upside to camping for me and that is that camping supplies, by their very nature, are emergency perparation items, SO when I found myself unavoidably forced to go camping last week I resolved to at least stock up on a bunch of emergency preparedness "necessities."

I figured if I was going to have to camp, I was at least going to be as comfortable as possible so we went to Cabelas and practically bought out the store's camping section. I'm not kidding. We had THREE sales guys helping us load all our stuff on a big pallet cart. They were so excited I could tell they were looking at all the stuff we were buying and thinking "Well our jobs are secure for the rest of the year!"

Not to make anyone jealous but we got 2 tents (one is 10x20!), a nice, large cooking stove with accessories, a kitchen complete with a kitchen sink :), a shower WITH hot water, a giant shade screen to fit around our picnic table and kitchen to avoid bugs, 2 double high air mattresses with sleeping bags that convert to a bed set so you aren't squished into a narrow sleeping bag, plus a host of other things. Yep I was going to be camping in style and getting prepared at the same time, or so I thought.

So we traveled all the way down to Arches, UT for our little adventure and truthfully I was excited to try out my new stuff. It took us four hours to set up camp but I figured it would be worth it. We were camping with all of my extended family, some in tents, and some had rented RV's that were in adjacent sites to our group site. You can see from the picture how awesome our spot was. Day one went great, I LOVED my kitchen and the new "beds" were so comfortable I slept like a baby all night. Day 2 was still going well when the men and older kids decided to go on an evening hike about 7pm, leaving us women folk at camp with the little children.

My sister and I watched the 2 littlest boys playing in the sand while the other kids were off playing somewhere nearby. We chatted at the picnic table enjoying the relative peace and quiet when all of the sudden we were hit with a wall of sand traveling up to 100 mph! We watched in horror as our 2 little boys were swallowed up by the sand. I ran to my 4 year old and did the only thing I could, I wrapped him up in a human cocoon to keep him safe while my bare arms and legs were pelted mercilessly by the flying sand. My mind was in a panic wondering where my other kids were but it was impossible for me to move the wind was so strong. As soon as it let up the littlest bit I picked up my son and ran for the tent thinking I would put him in it and search for my other kids. However I saw that the poles had come loose and were flying dangerously in the wind, it was about to collapse. I had to instead put him under the semi covered "porch" of tent number 2 and tell him to stay there with his eyes closed. I had no choice but to leave him to find my other 2 kids. I struggled against the sand and wind screaming their names but the storm was so loud no one could hear me. I started to panic. I had no idea where they were and no way to find them. I bumped into one of my nieces who yelled over the storm that she thought they made it to one of the RVs. I ran over there and opened the door. There was my 6 year old, on the floor of the RV curled up in the fetal position crying. My 8 year old daughter had found him tumbling down the road like a tumbleweed and rescued him. She sobbed to me, "I was with cousin Jacob too mom but I couldn't save them both. I had to save my brother. I don't know what happened to Jacob."

I think the storm (I hear they are called a microburst) lasted probably less than a minute but it felt like SO much longer. When it was all over everyone was safe but our camp was decimated. All of my stuff survived but only because we were on the side more sheltered by the trees, my siblings were not so lucky. Three tents were literally torn to shreds and their poles bent beyond repair. Everything we owned had sand in it. Even my camera which had been in my tent, in it's case, was full of sand. My sister's family spent the night in their van as nearly everything they brought was destroyed. The next day we packed up and left.

So what does this have to do with food storage? Well I learned that most of today's camping equipment is meant to be used in the cushiest of circumstances, in nice weather, in a nice campground. Of course you can buy extreme weather items, but who does that? Almost everything I own would be of no use unless conditions were basically beautiful.

I will say that when the weather was good everything functioned wonderfully. The hot showers were AMAZING and cooking was a breeze. I even brought my canned hamburger and made tacos. My siblings thought that was one of the coolest things ever, no need to refrigerate the meat, and didn't even have to cook it, just reheated it.

However, I'm no longer deluding myself into thinking that we could use our camping gear for any kind of long term, rugged emergency situtation. I'll have to consider that and make up a new plan. In the meantime, I am grateful that although I came by this knowledge the hard way, the only thing that was lost is replaceable. We feel so blessed that the people we love most were safe and in the end we were all reunited. After it was all over my mom said to me, "Why would God let this happen to us?" but all I can feel is gratitude that He protected us all when it did.

Canning Chicken with Re-useable Canning Lids

So I tried canning chicken several weeks ago but I'm only just now getting around to blogging about it. Pesky Spring Break vacations and such have kept me from my blog :)

So I wasn't initially going to bother canning chicken. I already store the store bought chicken in a can, which I don't mind the taste of, and it stretches pretty far. However, curiosity got the better of me as so many people sing the praises of home canning chicken. To make it interesting I decided to can boneless thighs and I used re-usable canning lids.

If you haven't heard of re-usable lids they are made by Tattler and supposedly you can use them over and over rather than having to throw them out after each use like the metal ones. I've been wanting to try them out for awhile because no matter how many lids I store, I'll eventually run out. Re-usable ones seem like a smarter way to go.


To start off, I boiled my lids and their rubber ring, just like you would with regular lids. The white lid you see in the pot is just like the regular metal canning lid, although it's not metal. The red ring you see is a rubber gasket that provides the seal. It is also re-usable.


You do not need to precook the chicken. It will cook as it boils in the canner. I put 1 tsp of chicken bouillon in the bottom of each jar. This is not necessary but I was interested in having really good broth for chicken soup. I cut all the fat off my boneless, skinless thighs, and then put them into the jars. There is no need to add any liquid. You should not pack them down tightly but they cook down quite a bit during the canning process. Next time I will put more in than I did this time. Make sure that you leave an inch of head room though.


Now the jars are ready to go into my canner. You can see in this photo the three jars in front showing the three steps to putting the lids on. First make sure your jar rim is clean. Then put on the rubber gasket. Next place the white lid on top. Finally, put on the metal ring. Tighten as you normally would, then turn BACK a 1/4 turn. That is the only thing that was different about using these lids.

I had my first canning accident as I put in my first jar of chicken. I had no sooner put it in the canner then I heard a giant CRACK! Ugh, the bottle had cracked and the bottom came off completely. It was my own fault, I had let the jars get too cool and then put them in the hot canner. I had to throw that whole jar away. Bummer. I ran hot water on the rest of the jars before putting them in the canner. Thankfully there were no other problems.


Here are my jars of chicken all done hot out of the canner. See that liquid? That is pure chicken broth baby! YUM! Ok, I know it doesn't look that appetizing. In fact my MIL came over, looks very skeptically at my jars and said, "Um, can I ask what that is?" I tried to answer as matter of factly as possible. "It's canned chicken." She said, "But you aren't going to eat it like that?" "Well, you certainly can, it's fully cooked, but I'll most likely be shredding it for enchiladas and such." She responded, "Well, you really are Miss Betty Homemaker aren't you?" LOL! I know we preparedness people look like freaks to the outside world. I'm totally ok with that.


So now for the bad news. I had a 50% fail rate on my re-useable lids. Half of them did not seal. However, I'm pretty sure that this was user error. I think I might have loosened them too much before putting them in the canner. So I'm going to give them another shot because I really like them. I definitely like the whole concept. I've used several jars of chicken since canning them and I just put the lids and rings in the dishwasher, and they are ready to be used again.

Here are a few of the items I have made with my canned chicken. It has been super convenient and really yummy. I absolutely love just grabbing a jar of chicken and using it in meals.


The first thing I made was chicken noodle soup so I used the broth and everything. I just dumped the whole jar into the crockpot and shredded up the chicken. It was really good, flavorful soup.









I also made homemade toquitos. Wow, they were so awesome! Usually these would be a lot more work but all I had to do was drain the chicken, shred it with a fork, and add it to my recipe. Awesome!




Finally tonight we had homemade chicken pot pie. Again, it would have taken a lot longer without the convenience of just grabbing the jar and shredding the chicken. Absolute perfection if I do say so myself. :)







I'm definitely a fan, and will continue to can both hamburger and chicken. I have a date to help my SIL can her meat too so I'm sure that she'll be converted soon as well. I find that the chicken goes a long way. We've only used 3 quart jars so far and we are feeding 8 people. I'm planning my canned meat as part of my 3 month supply since it does need to be rotated regularly. Canned meat expires in about a year.

Yet Another Attempt at Butter

Ok, I know my blogs on spreadable butter are endless but a friend gave me another recipe to try. If you can get past the "ick" factor it's actually pretty good! Here's the recipe:

1 lb shortening (I used butter flavor Crisco)
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 evap milk OR sweetened condensed milk

Whip the shortening and the salt until light. Add the evap milk a little at a time and blend.

I like it with the sweetened condensed milk better. It more closely resembled sweet cream butter, but my kids preferred the evap milk.

I know it's hard to get past the thought of eating Crisco, but if you can, the actual taste and consistency was pretty good. My biggest worry was that it would not melt. That's my hubby's biggest criteria. If it doesn't melt, he won't even try it. I put it on toast though and it melted right in just like butter.

Anyway, it's not the perfect solution yet, but it's one more idea. Plus, it's made of stuff I already store and it is shelf stable which is a plus.

Canning Hamburger

Ok I finally did it. I set some time aside and canned hamburger. I've been putting it off because I just couldn't imagine wanting to spend the time canning it when I can just throw it in the freezer. Well how WRONG I was! I'll tell you why later, but first let's get to the process.

First I fried up a bunch of ground beef from Costco. I'm not sure how much I started with but it was lean ground beef. You do not want to can high fat ground beef. I drained the meat well before putting it in the jars. You can cook this up with onions and other seasonings and can it like that. I did it plain just because then I can use it however I want later. Next time though I think I will fry it up with onions. I almost never use ground beef without onions.

Next I took sterile quart canning jars and I put one beef bouillon cube in the bottom. Some people use just water, some people use beef broth, but this is just the way I did it.

Next I added ground beef. I filled up the jars but did not pack them tightly. I think I might try packing in a little more next time because my jars didn't seem to hold as much meat as other people's. Once the meat was in, I filled the jars up with boiling water, leaving 1 inch of head room. Then I carefully wiped the rims and put the lids on.
Now I had read some people put raw hamburger in the jars since it cooks as it cans. I decided to try one jar like that. I packed it full of raw hamburger and then put a tsp or so or beef broth flavoring on top. There is no need to add liquid to these jars so I just put the lid on.

Next I placed them in my pressure cooker. I can fit 7 quart jars in my canner. This is the first time I have used a pressure cooker and I was a little nervous. I took my gauge into my local county extension office to get it calibrated but I have heard horror stories about pressure canners exploding so I made all my kids stay out of the kitchen. :)
When canning hamburger it needs to cook at 11 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes. If you are doing pints then it's 11lbs for 75 minutes. I had to pretty much stand next to the pressure cooker for 90 minutes as the pressure didn't stay completely steady the whole time and I had to make minor adjustments to the heat. This was the only really time consuming part.
After the 90 minutes are up you turn off the heat, however, it does take a while for the pressure in your canner to subside. You just have to wait, although you don't need to babysit it anymore. Once the pressure is gone, you can remove the lid and carefully remove your jars. They should sit on your counter for 24 hours to cool. You can see it the picture the difference between the precooked meat (on the right) and the raw meat (on the left). The precooked meat looked MUCH more appetizing and had a lot less fat in it. Still I was trying to reserve judgement until I tried it.

The next morning I checked on my jars and you can see that the grease had coagulated in a ring. The raw meat jar looked truly disgusting. I also wasn't sure it has sealed properly so I put it in the fridge to use right away. All of my other jars looked great!
Just FYI, I decided to do another batch of pint jars and to actually rinse the meat to see if I could get rid of that ring of fat. I suppose it doesn't really matter but it just didn't look very yummy. It worked since they had virtually no white ring but again, not sure it mattered other than aesthetically, and it might even have been a bad thing as some of the flavor no doubt washed away as well.

Ok, so, we did try to eat the jar that began as raw meat, and I say try because I never did manage to even get it out of the jar. It was a like a rock solid little meat loaf in there. After gouging at it with all sorts of implements with little success of dislodging the meat, I gave up and threw it in the trash, jar and all. Guess I won't do it that way again. It could have been extra hard because I had it in the fridge but it looked so revolting to begin with that I'm not even going to try it that way again.

I have also used some of the other meat. It's SO terrific! I couldn't tell the difference between that and meat cooked up fresh. Plus the convenience of just grabbing a jar, draining it, and fixing dinner was indescribable. I'm forever forgetting to take meat out of the freezer in the morning so this is a huge blessing to me. Plus if we ever lost power for very long, I would lose all of my meat in the freezer. Canned meat will last at least a year. Longer if stored correctly.

One other note. Most people say you can fit 1lb of hamburger into a pint jar, and 2lbs into a quart jar. I didn't get nearly that much into a jar. In fact I would say it was about half that. Maybe it's because I didn't pack it tight enough, or maybe they were talking about precooked weight, but just wanted to let you know that my experience was different.

I'm not going to can all my meat. After all, you can't use it to make hamburgers :) but I'm going to keep enough for my family for 3 months. I haven't canned any of my hubby's elk yet. I'm waiting for a month to go by, then I'm going to eat some more of this meat and make sure that the taste stands up over time. I'm hopeful though.

Give it a try if you are at all interested. It's just one more tool in your preparedness box!

15 Minutes of Fame

You remember that my favorite food storage website was collecting food storage only recipes? Well I submitted like 7 hoping they would choose at least one so I could qualify for a PDF of all the recipes. Good news! This week they are featuring one of the recipes that I sent in! For this week it's right there on their homepage. After this week I think it will show up on this page: Wheat Applesauce Cake This is likely to be my one and only shot at 15 minutes of fame so go check it out.

Also, I added another page to my blog today that includes a list of supplies you might not realize you should be storing, or have on hand, in case of desperate times so check that out too.

Finally, I spent a couple of days this week canning hamburger. It was SO awesome! I took lots of pictures so next week I will post all about it and how to do it. Plus, my hubby went elk hunting again and bagged a big one. He brought home at least 100 pounds of meat. We did manage to squeeze it all into our outdoor freezer but I'm going to spend this week canning a lot of the hamburger from that too. Can't wait to share with you - once you try it, you'll be addicted!

My Favorite Food Storage Books

Added a new static page today that lists all of my favorite food storage books and why I like them. Hopefully you will find them as useful as I have. You can find the link near the top of my blog.

New Handout Pages

So I taught a class this week (again) on living off food storage. It was the first time I taught a class to a non-food storage group though, and it was to a group of people who actually know me so it was a little more nerve racking than usual. I had a LOT of fun though! I was thinking this was the last time I was going to teach this class as I was getting a little tired of doing it over and over but after class someone asked me to come teach another one in her ward. I happily agreed. I guess this is a subject I just don't get tired of.

I have several handouts that I give out to my class that I realized I have never posted on my blog. Blogger now lets you create static pages to your blog so I decided to create a few, one page per handout. I just published the first one, it's entitled "What You Are Not Storing But Should Be" You will always find the link to it at the top of my blog. I'm going to add one more page each week until I have them all up. Hopefully that will be useful to people.

I'm considering just starting a website. That has actually been a goal of mine but I just can't imagine where I will find the time. Still, it's a worthwhile goal. I would like one that answers all the basic question of food storage and that no matter what stage of preparation you are in, you would be able to find the info you need without getting overwhelmed. I already have it all mapped out in my brain, I've just got to figure out when I can set aside a large chunk of time to do it. You all will definitely be the first to know!