Yes, I Truly Am Back, and Here’s What I’m Doing Today!

My kids went back to school today. Well, my oldest did. I home school my youngest, but school started for him as well. With this mind-blowing amount of free time, can you guess what I’m doing today?

EVERYTHING!!

Laundry, organizing and inventorying my food storage, baking bread, and prepping some white beans for canning. See?

I made just one loaf of bread since one of my boys, the best bread eater, is back at school.

It will be done soon!

I received some food storage a couple of weeks ago which I never even opened! Well, today I opened it, added it to my food storage app (which keeps track of my inventory and progress), dated the cans and box, and put it away, nice and neat, so my food storage closet doesn’t get overrun!

Finally, I sorted and washed some Great Northern beans, and now they’re soaking. I’ll can them tonight after dinner so they can sit in the pressure canner overnight, cooling.

I’m going to start a long-awaited sewing project, and dinner’s still to come (I’m making my friend’s fabulous homemade chicken noodle soup recipe for the very first time.). It looks like today is going to be a wonderfully, productive day!!

Tomorrow? That’s another story! I’ll probably be so exhausted that I’ll laze around the house all day. 🙂

What are you doing now that the holidays are over and life is returning to normal?

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My Harry Potter Closet Under The Stairs Is Clean! For Now…

I don’t know if you remember or not, but when I started this blog, I posted a picture of what my food storage area actually looked like (see original post here).  It is temperature controlled and safe, but it was a MESS!  See?

 

 

*Before* picture of my infamous Closet Under The Stairs.

 

I wanted to keep it real though, so I posted it, as embarrassing as it was.  I also promised that I would eventually clean it.

 

Several weeks ago, I finally did it!  And I took pictures to show all of you.  It’s still packed, but it’s organized in such a way that I can rotate the food I use regularly with my long term storage, which I don’t need to access as often, in the back.  Take a look.

 

After clearing everything out of the closet, which was faster than I thought with the help of my boys, I started with a clean slate and reorganized the entire closet. First, I put in the things I wasn’t planning to rotate right away: my wheat, beans, and other grains. Next, I organized my dehydrated and freeze dried food and my “just add water” meals.

 

Then I put in the items I plan to access regularly: my grain mill, honey, flour, sugar, etc.  I also put our “bug out bags” (aka 72 hour kits) in a place we can grab and go, if needed.  In addition, I put some store brand “Sterno” to use as emergency fuel for cooking in an easily accessible place.

 

Then I organized my jams, jellies, and other home canned goods for easy access. I also used an old book shelf for food I rotate regularly.

 

See? I also have some of my regularly used supplies on top of the bookshelf (food grade hose, gas shut-off tool, etc), so I can easily access them.

 

Is it my ideal food storage compartment?  No.  But who has the ideal everything in life?  I make do with what I have, and I’m very grateful to have it.  You may be thinking, “Great!  She’s a crazy prepper!” and will ignore everything I say from here on out.  If so, that’s your prerogative, but there is wisdom in storing food.

 

Food storage like mine has become a thing of the past for most families, but it didn’t used to be that way.  Families used to regularly store food to get through the winter and pantries were rarely completely bare like ours often are now.  We are used to shopping daily or several times a week for food.  Did you know that grocery stores usually stock enough food for 1 day or less for the entire community they serve?  Food storage is vitally important for all who want to eat when things go wrong (tornadoes, snowstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.).

 

As much as I love my readers, neighbors, and friends, I can’t feed you if things go wrong.  Take a minute or two today and evaluate how long you would be able to feed yourselves and your families if the grocery store ran out of food.  Would it be months, weeks, days, or hours? 

 

Make a plan today to get one more day’s supply of food than you currently have and build on that.  If you do this each and every week, in six months, you will have almost a 1 month supply!  If you do it once every other week, you will have a 2 week supply after 6 months.  Plan for the worst, but expect the best.  That’s my mantra.

Do you have any long term storage?  If so, what are your favorite things to stock?

If not, why not?  If you had one, what would you like to stock in long term storage?

 How do you organize your food storage, both long and short term?

 

I Have A Super Power: Speed Cooking

Who wouldn’t want that super power?  It is a necessary one in my house, because I tend to procrastinate.  Speed cooking helps me prepare delicious, healthy food at bargain basement prices and fast food speed.

 

How do I accomplish this feat, speed cooking, when I am a mere mortal?  My handy, dandy pressure cooker.  I *LOVE* my 8 quart stainless steel non-stick pressure cooker.  It was a bit pricy when I bought it several years ago, but Amazon carries several for very reasonable prices.  (Here’s an affiliate link to an 8-qt stainless cooker and another one for an 8-qt aluminum cooker.) I know I’ve mentioned it before, when I showed you how I used it to make my Cafe Rio inspired beef (see that post here), but the truth is, that post doesn’t show you the full potential of a pressure cooker.  Using a pressure cooker will cut your cooking time to about 5-30% of the time it takes to stew the same dish.  So, instead of cooking beans for 8-12 hours, you cook them for 25 minutes max!

 

Cafe Rio Beef cooked in a pressure cooker, served with cilantro lime rice, Cafe Rio Black Beans, and tomato-corn salsa!

 

My most *FAVORITE* way to use my pressure cooker is cooking beans, especially black beans.  It is super fast!  If I didn’t soak my black (turtle) beans over night, I simply pressure cook them for 20-25 minutes after rinsing the beans.  If I am on the ball and soaked the beans, they’re ready in a mere 4-6 minutes!   And the great thing is, you can use your pressure cooker to make any kind of bean at super speed!  I use this chart for cooking times as they vary depending on the kind of bean you use and whether or not you soaked the beans before cooking.

 

Want to possess this super power yourself?  Take a look at my photo step-by-step, and you, too, can be a pressure cooking super hero!

 

I measured out just over one cup of black (turtle) beans, which is about 1/2 pound of dry beans.

 

I rinsed the beans well and made sure there were no rocks, sticks, or other debris in the beans. While I don’t find things often, I have on occasion found a small rock, which is not something I want to bite into!

 

I put the beans in my pressure cooker and covered them with water. I used almost 5 cups of water, since I had a little over 1 cup of beans. Generally, you use 4 cups of water for each cup of dry beans.

 

I put the lid on my pressure cooker, making sure it was locked in place, and turned the heat on high. Once the cooker was pressurized (see the red “button” popped up on the right), I turned the heat to medium-low to maintain the pressure inside the cooker.
* * * Your pressure cooker may have different instructions or safety features. Please make sure you read and follow the instructions that came with your pressure cooker. * * *

 

After 25 minutes, I turned the heat off and let the cooker depressurize on its own. There is a safety release valve, which I’ve used before, but I wasn’t in a hurry today, so I let it depressurize on its own. Then I removed the lid. Here are the cooked black beans in the cooking liquid.

 

I drained the beans, and now they’re ready to be used in any recipe I desire. Or I can eat them as is. They have no seasoning, so I will need to add a little salt, but they are ready to go!

 

One of my favorite things to do is make a big batch of beans and then freeze the excess in one cup portions, above what I plan to use that day.  Then I can pull them out when I need them and have perfectly cooked beans ready to use in all sorts of recipes!

 

Remember, I started with just over 1 cup of dry beans, and I ended up with just under 4 cups of cooked beans.

 

Here in southern California, it’s about $1 for a 15 ounce can of beans, which contains 2 cups.  I bought my beans in bulk (25 pounds for $15).  One cup of dry beans is about 1/2 pound, so they cost me about 30 cents, and I ended up with the equivalent of 2 cans of beans.  So I saved about $1.70, plus or minus a few cents when you consider the cost of water and gas (for my stove).  Plus, I can control exactly what is in my beans, including the amount of salt.

 

So, there you have it!  You can be a super hero, too, and save money to boot!

Have you ever used a pressure cooker?  If so, what’s your favorite thing to cook in your pressure cooker?

If you haven’t, does this make you want to try one?

 

 

* * * This post contains affiliate links.  For more information about them, please visit my About page. * * *

 

Laurel Laurie Staten Nguyen Newhall, CA