Vic303

You gotta catch them fish if ya gonna eat 'em!

We recently added some new TVP items to our pantry to try out, from BePrepared.com (aka Provident Pantry). Great folks to do business with, btw. So no complaints on the transaction itself.

 

We had an older can of this in the pantry that had a code of some sort 09/03, which I took to be a month/year code though we did not buy it that long ago--maybe 5yrs ago? Regardless, I knew the contents should be fine, but as the older can, it should be rotated (eaten) first. Product reports on their website indicate about 1 year of storage life after you open the can, so that alleviates one concern I had, which was a short life after opening. Plus if I want I can vacuum bag some and pop it in the freezer too.

 

Instructions were to place in a skillet and cover with water, simmering for 10min (until water is gone I guess). I did this to about 1/3c dry sausage crumbles. Note: They're fairly tasty if chewy, in their non-hydrated state. I covered them with some water and simmered until the water was gone. I did add some onion flakes to the water, as I was planning on dumping a mess of scrambled eggs into the sausage. Once the sausage was done, I dumped in the egg (with fresh ground pepper) mixture and cooked it all to done.

 

Monkey2 thought it looked good and begged a bite. He said he liked it! I ate the rest, and it WAS good. Sausage had some texture (would've been better if I had dried them out a bit after rehydrating), and the flavor was good. It tasted enough like sausage to convince my palate. I don't as a rule, dislike TVP, especially if it is quality TVP (not the stuff they used to feed us in school!). It did need a fair bit of salt to taste perfect to me, but I am a bit of a Salt Vampire....

 

Now to see if there are any gastric side effects to note, but that will take a few hours to percolate through the system. Planning on testing this on Dave tomorrow!

I know a prepper who might be close enough. PM me the info and I will send it to him.

On a front loader you need to run a cleaning cycle regularly. Bleach and hot water cycle, with ZERO fabric in it. Once it ends, then make sure every time you use the washer and the cycle ends, OPEN the door and keep it open. You have to dry the gaskets to reduce any chance for mold. Also if you look at the schematic for it, you can usually remove the kickplate at the bottom front of the unit, then you can open the drain pipe to clear out the trap which is just before the impeller (which forces the water uphill out of the discharge pipe). This will make your washer run much better and extend the life of the motors.

 

PUMP CLEANOUT

Hope you had a wonderful day with your family!

Uh, the capacity of most ereaders should be unlimited. You don't put the books on the ereader, you put them on your SD cards and insert the SD cards into the ereader. I have over 1300 books on a single 2gig SD card. They have SD cards up to 64 gig that I have seen and I bet there are even greater storage level ones out there...

GP, that 3rd one is a true classic!!

It's a lot tougher to be frugal when you are doing the low carb thing to manage diabetes in the family...

Winter?? What's that?? It was 85degF at 06:30 this morning. We are on day 40?? I think of consecutive 100+degree days with zero rain. I've forgotten what rain looks and feels like...

 

Winter in NTX means you do not have to turn on your A/C. Winter in NTX means you don't HAVE to turn on your heat, either--we did not use heat at all last winter, even during the 19deg high week. The house just never cooled below 55degF.

 

There are really only two seasons here... Summer, and Not Summer. Summer lasts up to 10 months of the year, and Not Summer lasts 1-4mo depending on the year and solar cycle. Another way to think of the seasons here is as A/C Required, and A/C Optional.

Hey...some of those sound useful!

I'll be drying 4-5 pineapples this week.

The family names I am wanting info on are:

Klamm, Stearns (both in the Kansas area)

Millar, Floyd (Northern Ireland mostly) or Millar (NOT miller.) in the USA/Canada

All my grandparents were dead before I was born.

Today we reinforced the lesson of "Do not poke the snapping turtle!" at the local drainage park. Lotta ditch parks in NTX ya know... We also confirmed the location and identification of a Brown Turkey Fig tree and that the fruits are in fact edible. We also said hi to the wild beehive we walk past regularly. Now if only I could figure out a way to get at the honey in that wild hive...it's inside a stone fence support.

Nope. Mine all died before I was born.

I just finished drying a large rubbermaid tub full of apples. Just cored and sliced--no peeling here. Ran them thru the dehydrator in daily batches until I FINALLY got done. I'd guess it was a bushel+ of apples.

I got tested at my old job years ago. No one believed I was an INTP, but it's true. I just learned as a kid life was easier if everyone thought I was an extrovert...

http://www.pickyourown.org/

 

 

 

Nice site with lots of useful info.

I suppose I ought to get my AA up and running. I have deferred doing that expense, since I have a working Presto. But I have a tiny of discretionary $$ now and ought to take the plunge.

You DO know, that armadillos are a leprosy vector, right?

Another one with good prices:

http://www.bulkfoods.com/baking.asp

No, you're supposed to store canned jars without the bands--too tight and you can disturb the seal. I like to leave them on, but loose. That way when I open the seal, I can close the jar for storage in the fridge (salsa in particular).

 

Now Darlene, how on earth do you remove the lid without damaging the thin metal? I have to PRY mine off, and they all get dented or bent.

I'd say get the Ball book, and if you want the AA canner, GREAT! I wishI had one, but my Presto was free, so it works for me. I suggest you look on ebay for an AA canner a bit cheaper. You may find one there. Also check out your local garage sales for jars, as well as the local Salv.Army/Goodwill stores. Rings & lids can be had at Walmart cheap. On jars be sure they are REAL canning jars (ball or mason or kerr) and not chipped or cracked. New can be had at walmart for pretty cheap too. I prefer widemouth jars. Funnels are cheap in a 4pack at walmart, and I took the biggest & hacksawed off the bottom, to make a wider opening so stuff like salsa or chunky spag. sauce would flow through.

 

I don't use a jar wrench, I do wish I had a jar rack or at least a proper jar lifter. The grill tongs work...sort of! I did buy a huge tamale pot to use as a waterbath canner. $20 IIRC.

Too bad that only shoots those little plastic pellets, UKGuy!

What you REALLY want is one of these...


It shoots something other than those little plastic pellets...!