Review: Chef Tess 7-in-1 Holiday Cookie Mix/Honeyville Dehydrated Butter

It pains me to give a poor review to anyone or anything.  I like to post (or say) the positive, and just ignore the negative.  I mean, just because I don't like something doesn't mean that someone else won't enjoy it.  However, as we started working diligently to become prepared, I wished so much that there were more reviews and comparisons to be found.  I did not want to have to try every powdered milk, dehydrated/freeze dried apple, grain mill, etc. in order to find the best tasting, best working, etc.  Surely those who went before had already done the trial and error, and I could save time and money by gleaning information from them.  I found fewer reviews and comparisons that I would have liked, so decided I would post my own results so others would have the benefit of my experience.

I found the recipe on the Honeyville website, and have seen links to it on Pinterest, etc.

We want to use and rotate our storage items so it seemed a good place to incorporate some of our lesser-used items.

I followed the recipe/directions exactly.  It was super simple, with a short list of ingredients.  The mix went together well, blended super easily.  I actually whisked it together in a huge bowl, then poured it into a large storage container.  I shook to mix the ingredients before each use.  It looked much like a commercially prepared cookie mix and seemed very consistent and well mixed.

The recipe does work.  It does turn out cookies.  Simply add water to the mix, and with very little muss or fuss you get pretty cookies.    

I first made a batch of the master cookie, the moist buttermilk.  It looked good, had good consistency, but we did not care for the taste.  At all.  Threw them away.  In this family, cookies do not go in the trash.  Ever. (okay, unless I don't hear the timer and they burn, then they do get trashed....it happens)  Out of the four people home at the time, no one would eat them.

I decided perhaps a hit of chocolate would help, so I made the Raspberry Coated Cocoa Crinkles.  I did have to use slightly more water than the recipe called for, but that was not a problem.  The cookies looked gorgeous.  But taste - not so much.  Not one of the four testers would eat them after the first bite.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures (I didn't realize at the time I would be blogging).  They were very pretty cookies, especially the chocolate ones.

I think it is the dehydrated butter we don't care for.  If you use it regularly and like it, you may very well like these cookies.

Does anyone have a brand of dehydrated butter that they like better than another?  What about dehydrated margarine or shortening?  Sounds like some taste testing and comparisons are in order.

Elixir of Life - Water

From Floyd...

This is for people just getting started preparing, and wondering what is the first step. Well, if you have a lot of money just type "emergency food" into your browser and you will find many sites that you can go to and simply order a year supply of prepackaged meals. However back in the real world that is not likely your situation. So let's start off a little more realistically. 

You can't start today and be prepared for every thing by tomorrow. Start small and build your way up.  How?  Think of what you would need for a local, short term emergency.  Here in California we think earthquakes, but for you it could be tornadoes or flooding.  In a short term "bug-in" or hunker down and stay put situation, it is recommended that you have a minimum of 72 hours of supplies. Most people have 3 days worth of food on hand. You might not be fixing gourmet meals but you have probably have cans of veggies, baked beans, tuna, enough to get you through (please be sure you have a hand-operated can opener).  But how much water do you have? If the water was out for a few days because of broken water lines or contaminated municipal water supplies, would you have enough?  We take the faucet for granted. Turn the knob and water appears as if by magic. Some of you are thinking "I don't like the taste of tap water so I buy bottled water." That's a start, but how much do you have on hand at any one time? A few bottles in the frig, a couple of the gallon jugs or even a flat of the bottles will not cut it. A healthy adult needs a minimum of one gallon of water per day. More if they are dehydrated or the temperature is high. That is just for drinking and food prep and does not include water for washing up. Before we started preparing we were trying to reduce the amount of plastic we were using (we believe in the old reduce, reuse, recycle thing) so we bought a Brita Water filter. It was a good idea and we still use it, but you need tap water to put through it.  We now we use the filter for our daily drinking water and also store several gallons for "just in case."  We have several 5 gallon containers on the floor of each of the bedroom closets, several 1 gallon jugs in the back of the cabinet in the kitchen and individual bottles in the garage. Remember, you can live longer with out food than you can with out water.  

Stay prepared.  

Note from Dawna:  Don't forget to date and rotate your water.  Commercially bottled water should be stamped with a date.  We put notes on the containers we fill ourselves so that we will know when they need to be rotated.  Also, be sure to use containers made for long term water storage.