Class Review: Chef Tess at Honeyville

Floyd and I are fortunate to live within driving distance of the Honeyville Grain store in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.  We have attended several classes there, and really recommend them to anyone who can get there.

For those who haven't been to Honeyville for awhile, their new kitchen is up and functional.  It looks great, and functions so much better than the previous setup.  Having the camera/flat screen setup to see into the bowls being stirred and pots bubbling away makes a huge difference.

This past weekend we attended a class by Chef Tess  (Cheftessbakeresse.com).  The class we were able to get to was on healthy recipes for her 52 method meals in a jar.

We had attended one of her classes in the past, so we already knew that she sounds in person just like she writes for her website.  She is zany funny.  If you ever have a chance to take one of her classes, do yourself a favor go.

Apparently the word has gotten out, because the class was packed.  People just kept coming and coming and coming.  I've never seen that many people at a class there, nor have I ever seen that many people in the store at one time.  It was pretty crazy, but in a very good way.

One of the best parts of classes at Honeyville is the opportunity to sample.  Floyd likes to sample just because he thinks any class with food is a good class.  I like to sample so I can be sure whatever they are doing up there actually tastes good before I go home and attempt it myself.

We especially enjoyed the Pistachio Spiced-Peach Pie Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal.  I will definitely be making this.  We both also liked the Polynesian Sweet and Sour Chicken Baked Beans.  Both recipes are on her website.  

Another reason I appreciate sampling during classes is having the opportunity to try storage products before committing to a large quantity.  While sampling during this class I learned that I like freeze dried chicken, quick cook beans, granular Erythritol, potato pearls, and freeze dried peaches.  Yum!  All will be on my shopping list in the future.  I am not a fan of the texture of freeze dried beef, and that is very good to know before purchasing a #10 can (Floyd liked the beef "okay" but I'm guessing I will just sub chicken or turkey).

One of the things I love the most about her classes is her emphasis on food safety.  I am very much the same way, and I spend a lot of time double checking things I see and hear and read to be sure they are safe for my family.  I learned some interesting food safety/shelf life things as she answered questions, and I will definitely be following up about them with another post.

Chef Tess was delightful from start to finish.  We got there about 30 minutes before class time, and she was very graciously answering questions when we got there, and continued to do so until the start of class.  I'm guessing she did after class, as well, but we were shopping at that point.

Oh, I almost forgot!  Her new book is out.  The Gourmet Food Storage Handbook by Stephanie Peterson.  I only got to glance at it briefly, but I can tell you those books were FLYING off the shelves.  Seriously.  They were moving like crazy.  If you want a copy, you might want to get it quickly.

Ova Easy Egg Crystals

This was our first attempt at using an egg product as a stand alone.  We have dehydrated egg products in baking and cooking in the past, but never to scramble for breakfast.  The product could not have been simpler to use.  The smell was good.  The texture was very good.  The taste was very, very good.  It passed the taste test for every member of the family, including our picky-palate daughter and grandson, which is exceedingly rare.

I would absolutely recommend Ova Easy Whole Egg Crystals.  Wholeheartedly.

The only concern we have is the price, but definitely will buy more when we find them on sale.   I would much rather spend more for a product we will happily eat than less on a product no one likes.  Because of price concerns, I will probably use the other egg formulations for baking, but definitely will only use Ova Easy for stand-alone scrambled eggs.

PRODUCT REVIEW: HARMONY VALLEY VEGETARIAN BREAKFAST SAUSAGE MIX

First, I am working on getting a camera as ours broke.  Hopefully pictures to follow.

Having heard a horror story about how horrible TVP was, and how much money this person had wasted by stocking up on it before realizing they would never eat it, we knew we wanted to start small.

When shopping together at our nearby Henrys/Sprouts store, we came upon a packet of this breakfast sausage mix and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try TVP without spending a fortune (or opening a #10 can of something we would never eat again.  Goes along with the whole "eat what you store and store what you eat" motto.

First thought, upon opening the packet was that it smelled okay.  Not exactly like sausage, but no real off-putting odor.

The directions were super simple.  Blend the packet ingredients with 1-1/4 cups water, let sit for 15 minutes, then cook (they had microwave, oven and pan-frying directions.  I chose to pan fry (too hot to turn on the oven, and thought it would probably taste better than microwaving).  The mixture formed very easily into perfect round patties.  No nasty fatty yuck left on my hands as there would have been with pork sausage.  The patties smelled good while cooking, browned beautifully, and were easy to flip over and also to take out of the pan.

Taste test:
Floyd says:  It doesn't taste like sausage, but it isn't bad.  Probably would be better on an egg sandwich or in a scramble (we had ours as a side with pumpkin waffles).

I say:  Taste pretty good (I absolutely will not eat something I really dislike).  Texture was good.  No real off-putting taste.  Not sausage, but not bad.  I agree with Floyd that they would be better mixed into something.

I will probably try this again.  There is a recipe on the package for a green chili and sausage quiche.  I may try that.

We liked it well enough that we will try some of the flavored TVP products made for food storage.

Happy New Year

I am so excited about the new year.  Each year, we see our stores grow, our knowledge increase, and our interest and satisfaction in preparing continue.  It seems the more we research, the more we attempt, the more we successfully accomplish, the more we want to know, want to attempt and want to accomplish.

Some of my preparedness goals for the new year include:

• Store even more water.
• Find an organization/rotation system that really works for us.
• Obtain a pressure canner, and can protein sources.
• Obtain a dehydrator (or build one until we can afford the one we want).
• Utilize our Food Saver even more.
• Figure out our sun cooker and use it.
• Utilize educational opportunities (classes, web, videos).
• Continue to grow our storage.
• Increase our garden size and scope.
• Put our 72-hour or bug-out-bags together (much has been gathered but not put together)
• Make smart cost/benefit evaluations.
• Enjoy the process.

There is really so much more.  Will I get this all done?  .  Other than the purchases, I am confident that I will.  Why am I confident?  Past successes.  We have already stored much water, so I know we can and will store more.  So much of what I want to do is a continuation of what we have already done.  Stepping stones, building blocks, continuing on the path - whatever you call it the end result is the same.  Success leads to success.  And honestly, failure has also brought us to success.  For every failure, we have found a solution, or are determined to do so.

It really is easy.  If we can do it, anyone can.

As for the purchases, it would be lovely if a pressure canner and dehydrator made themselves available at a yard sale by some other means.  If not, they will come eventually.  We have plenty to do until then, as you can see.

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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.  

Prepping is Insurance

 By:  Floyd Michael

When our kids first found out that we were "prepping" one of them made a snarky comment disparaging people who were worried about the apocalypse. I explained that we live in California where there are earthquakes, and we should be prepared for those. She then said something to the effect of "What good does it do if there is an earthquake, the house falls on you and you are dead?" How do you argue with that? I explained that it was like having car insurance. You could theoretically go your whole life without getting into a car accident. If you added up all the payments you made you could think that was a lot of wasted money, or you could just be glad that you never had to make a claim. If you did get into a car wreck and were killed then you would not be around to care about getting your car replaced, and again you could think, money down the drain.

People purchase auto insurance in case they are in an accident and do live to need their car repaired. Prepping is similar. We can spend a lot of time, money and effort preparing for a disaster that never comes, or a disaster that comes but you do not survive it. Either way all of your preparation was seemingly for naught. In our family, we don't prepare for either of these extremes, we prepare for the in between. For the disaster that does come, that we do survive. In that instance, our efforts at preparation will definitely be worth the effort, time and money we have put into being prepared. So keep preparing, just in case.