All Things Prepping, Simple Living, Back to the Basics [Survival Today, an on going thread]

vanity | 2/26/18 | CottonBall

[CottonBall]

I’ve been missing the vast amount of information on prepping, survival, camping, simple cooking, the old ways of doing just about everything – all the things nw_arizona_granny knew so much about and shared with us, along with numerous other posters with a vast array of skills and knowledge.

We have our various related-threads here, a recipe thread, a gardening thread, and even a prepper thread. They are all great and I don’t mean to take anything away from those and the hard work their owners put in.

But I was missing a place to talk about ALL those things, to get the camaraderie that we used to have on granny’s thread.

I learned how to can on those threads! The pressure canner was not my friend, I thought, but I bought one and stared at it for a month, intimidated. Then I read the directions for another month. But with the help and encouragement of posters on granny’s threads, I jumped in and now have my very own food storage room in the basement with lovely jars of shelf-stable meats, vegetables, and fruit. When we moved, I fashioned my food storage room – and insisted upon having a basement – from what I learned on her threads. Getting started gardening was from her threads. Making my own cleaning products….the list is endless.

So I thought I would take the chance and start another comprehensive prepper thread and see how it goes. I used to have granny’s ping list since I made one of the threads for her, but alas, with numerous computer changes, I cannot find it. So please pass this onto any posters you think might be interested.

We’ll just keep it running until..whenever. Granny created a new thread at 10,000 posts or so. I do like the idea of having ONE thread to go to – because often I cannot find or keep track of the weekly threads. I won’t be posting lots of recipes or tidbits myself – to any mods concerned about the size of this thread. I’d just like a place to chat, post questions, post ideas, make new prepping friends.

Here are granny’s threads, if anyone wants to peruse them:

nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #1

nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #2

nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #3

[CottonBall]

Sounds like you got yourself a real grocery store nearby! What’s up with your knee? Can you get in one of those little motorized carts that they have, the ones I see people try to run us over with ;)

I stopped at the discount grocery last week. I’ve never seen those before but apparently they are common in Tennessee. Sometimes they are called salvage groceries. Many times the foods are out of date or close to it. Anyway, I couldn’t figure out what smelled so bad in there, until I came around the corner and they had flats of strawberries. Old strawberries! yuk! They smelled atrocious. Sometimes the deals there are amazing, and it’s just items that were overstocked at a regular store. But you have to be very very careful. I am amazed they are allowed to sell some of the things, Especially the ones that are out of date.

[CottonBall]

I just noticed the name, I wonder what makes it genovese-style? The parsley? I was kind a looking for basil or something. Or maybe salami :-)

[KJC1]

I didn’t know this thread existed. Glad someone bumped it into view!

[CottonBall]

Here’s another healthy soup. I found a recipe for a riboletta years ago, and make it all the time. Seems like I spend half a day chopping vegetables. But I figure it has to be healthy. One can always leave out the bacon and the extra bread and the Parmesan as well. It still has plenty of flavor, from the herbs and the veggies and especially the tomatoes.

This is more like how I make it, with pancetta which I substitute bacon for
https://afoodcentriclife.com/ribollita-hearty-tuscan-vegetable-soup/

This looks to be a healthy version
http://totallifestylemanagement.com/healthy-italian-food-tuscan-riboletta/

[CottonBall]

To relate to prepping, I think soups are going to be one of our main stays when times get bad. First they are pretty inexpensive to make. Second you can make them easily over an outdoor fire. Even if you don’t have a big witch’s cauldron .. Third you can make a lot, a minimum of labor for several days of eating.

[V K Lee]

Are you saying once you’ve had surgery there can never be another to help with making things better?
EGADS! Our lab tech had surgery for CTS last year and was disadvantaged for several months.
She, thank goodness, has been pleased with the results.

Have attempted to control the pain with exercises,
https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/exercises-carpal-tunnel-syndrome#1

Perhaps that blue emu pain cream might help
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Blue-Emu-Super-Strength-Topical-Cream-12-oz/39882333
Football players swear by this stuff and are seen shouting its praises in TV ads all the time.

Another pain cream is Ted’s Pain Cream
https://discover.tedsbrainscience.com/products/pain-cream-1/c.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw8r_XBRBkEiwAjWGLlKsT9tHFd_JeuDn1gAYQauooZcdihIu124HkojkGvXUYP3VsDoMishoCjX0QAvD_BwE
The technician mentioned this one.

Surgery here is not an option. Feel the same about the optional laser eye surgery. LOL glasses seldom cause pain unless you poke your eye out. :-/

[Bob Ireland]

***ping to post #763***

Tnx

[CottonBall]

I’ve tried all the various medicines and creams, but thanks. What works best for me is to alternate heat and ice. Mainly ice. Actually what would work best would be for someone to follow me around and tell me to quit using my arms :-)

Yeah, the problem with the surgery for tendinitis and nerve compression is that it creates scar tissue. Which is what the surgery aims to reduce. So it’s a catch 22 situation.

I would say good call on the eye surgery. What the ophthalmologists don’t tell anyone is that much of the time eye surgery causes a dry eye situation. Which can be incredibly painful! And chronic. I had eye surgery for something else, something necessary, and the dry eyes afterwards have been horrendous.

lol on poking your eye :-). I have worn glasses for decades, and it’s only been a problem when I wanted to play at the beach. So I just don’t do that. I don’t care much for the salt and the sand anyway. Oh, and rain. So I bring a hat. Minimal issues.

[CottonBall]

well howdy!

welcome!

[bgill]

Those little motorize carts won’t hold a month’s worth of stuff. Don’t have the budget to waste driving 4 towns away for a jug of milk and a loaf of bread every other day.

Growing up, we had what was called a bent can store. Always a game of guessing what’s in the no label can. But they were cheap. Eventually, you could get pretty good about guessing.

[V K Lee]

Hope you save your bacon grease! We use it for sauteing, pan frying, among other things. Raymond's mother (Everybody Loves Raymond) treasured her jar of pancetta/bacon renderings and when Frank tossed it she went berserk; almost bopping him on the head with a cast iron skillet.
Save Your Bacon Fat

Not a soup but in a pot. Prepare and cook pinto beans. While cooking, add Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage (casing removed) and sausage cut into bite size pieces. Serve with hot cornbread. Yummy!

[CottonBall]

For the first time ever I saw a guy in a little motorized cart at the grocery store pulling a big cart. Or maybe he was pushing it. It looked incredibly awkward and he had to be pretty strong to do that.

[CottonBall]

Oh yeah, I always save bacon grease. But I actually save it for the cat :-) one of my cats is allergic to grains plus has struvite crystals. So I make her own food. I have to add fat to the lean chicken and although the recipe calls for butter she prefers bacon grease. She’s discovered she’s a southern cat after all.

Yummy recipe, I love smoked sausage. It adds a wonderful flavor to anything it is in. I made lima beans and Barley the other day, and threw in smoked sausage pieces.

I haven’t used too much bacon grease for our own cooking. I just feel kind of guilty when I do. But there is a BLT salad recipe that uses the grease in the dressing, and I don’t skimp on that one.

[V K Lee]

“She’s discovered she’s a southern cat after all.”

Bless her heart. A southerner who arrives with natural claws.
:-)

[Albion Wilde]

chocolate ice cream is eaten with Fritos

Amazing!

[Albion Wilde]

Do you find the potatoes take on a strange texture when frozen and then thawed?

I've had pretty good luck with Yukon Golds frozen in chunks, and the soup can be refreshed with stirring when reheated. Idahos tend to get mealy.

[Albion Wilde]

The basic “starter” for many Nothern Italian savory dishes like soups, stews or pasta sauces (especially from Genoa) is garlic, celery and carrot sautéd in olive oil.

[Iron Munro]

V K Lee, CottonBall:

Thank you both for your feedback. That coffee can footstool cosy in post 770 is a really neat and unusual idea.

To carry the idea a little further, if it was made with a velcro or zipper closure it would provide a way to store actual full cans of coffee
or other prepper foods for people pressed for storage space.

Or maybe even a secret space for valuables?

[Albion Wilde]

Mmmm! Those ribollita receipes sound delicious, except for the kale in the "healthy" verson -- I absolutely cannot abide kale. I love cooked escarole, though, and it's much more authentically Italian. I love a nice big dish of escarole wilted in garlic and oil with lemon juice. Which, in South Philly's Italian Market, they simply call "greens." Sometimes they add the canneloni to the steamed and sautéd escarole ("scarru"), and that's called "beans and greens."

[Iron Munro]

Oops.

Typo in post 798 - should have referenced post 777 not 770.