Preparedness Week 3

Well, is everyone keeping up?  I think the hardest thing from last week that I tried to do was to not spend my change.  I should really work on this.  We really need change in our 72 hour kits. Sister Grayson has sent me a link to a site called http://www.sevenyearsofplenty.blogspot.com/   (Thanks Denise) This is an excellent site.  I would like to share two ideas from her site to help us with our food storage endeavors.  (I am sure I will find more)

 (keep reading after these two ideas for this week's preparedness assignment)

Freezing Lemons or Limes

Weekend tip - Whole lemons and limes can be frozen. Just place them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer.

When you need fresh lemon or lime juice, simply defrost the frozen lemons or limes in the microwave for a few seconds, (or submerge in cold water for about 15 minutes).

The texture of the lemon or lime will likely be mushy once thawed, but the juice will still be perfectly fine for use in your favorite recipes {tip brought to you by "Still Tasty.com"}.

Hash Browns

Cooking Potatoes and freezing them is a great way to extend the shelf life. Frozen potatoes can keep from 10-12 months. This is a great, basic recipe. Sometimes I even use hash browns to make a crust. After cooking them, I put them in a pie pan, drizzle with butter, and toss together. Then press into pie pan and cook for 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees. Then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and add an egg mixture consisting of about 3 eggs, diced ham, a little milk, salt and pepper, and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Yum! Or use the hash browns in your favorite way. Here is the basic hash brown recipe.

Hash Browns

3 large Potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup melted butter
Season All, to taste
In a saucepan, place potatoes in salted water. Bring water to a boil and cook for 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain potatoes and spread them out on a buttered baking sheet. Brush tops of potatoes with butter. Sprinkle with season all. Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until

For this week, I would like for everyone to really contemplate a garden for this year.  I am going to try to do a small garden.  I read one article and it said that we should start out small if it is our first garden.  It is kind of like excercise,  if you start out trying to run five miles on your 1st day you will be sore all over and will never want to do that again.  So if you are like me, let's start out small and learn from others and our mistakes or mine anyway. (I always have a few) Then, next year maybe we can go larger.   If you are a seasoned gardner you are welcome to give us some tips of the trade.   The first step will be to find an area in our yard that will get a lot of sun.  We will work on this for the next few weeks so start thinking of where and what you would like to grow.