Have you seen this cooking freak?!

Alton Brown has a really good show called Good Eats on Food Network.

Sure it's fun, it's informative, educational but most importantly almost everything he makes is from scratch. Using basic components he teaches how to make food and at the same time why it becomes food.

Most of his recipes are aimed at fun, tasty or popular recipes but almost all of them include concepts that are useful for a prepper, how to use yeast and why it works, how to make pickles, making soup stock, BBQ, smoking foods, brisket... I could go on but you just need to go check it out if you haven't had the experience. Shoot, he even understands sourdough and cast iron pans, I'd love to show him how to cook nettles and cattails, he's already familiar with dandelions though.

While I love to learn things, Good Eats is one of the few programs on TV that entertain me at the same time I learn things.

There was a recent post on LifeHacker about Depression Cooking, I'd love to see his take using today's concepts and locally sourced foods. I think it would have to be about 4 episodes to do it justice, though I could easily see a full season. Bread(again), cheese(again), jerky(again), sausage(again), sprouts, yogurt; well maybe he's been in our back yard all along and we just didn't see it.

Honest, his brisket recipe (while traditional and not innovative) really works like a champ, it's what worked for 100+ years and he's right to push it, screw the health issues for a treat. His clay pot smoker works great here and while I have my own food dehydrator, his box fan dryer would be an awesome addition in the summer when I have the fan on anyway.

Rick

Cheap prep foods

I can tell you that beans and rice are the perfect 'prep' food and I might be right, but if I don't tell you how to cook and serve these potentially nasty guys you'll be swearing at me when the time comes. Rice and beans both need a large amount of water to prepare them, you can probably (caveat emptor), use lower quality water to rehydrate both but your final preparation needs to be at temperatures higher than 170 degrees for pasteurization purposes.

Rice has a lot of uses; you can make a milk substitute, which I really don't go for but my kids like it with chocolate, yeah I'd fall for it too. As a breakfast cereal with honey and cinnamon it's tasty even if it's unusual. Adding soy sauce, meat and some vegetables and it's a main dish. Bake rice with a couple eggs, cumin, and some form of tomato and you have a great brunch.

To me, storage beans mean pintos. I know there are a bunch more but I store pintos for my family. I soak them atleast 12 hours before I try to cook them. In most cases I make refried beans, but they work well added to a soup, on tortillas, or in most any soup I try to make. The key is to make them palatable, they need to be boiled long enough that they are tender, adding spices even if it's just garlic or salt .

Lentils and split peas cook a lot faster, they can be added like herbs in the last 30 minutes or when rehydrating dried meats/vegetables.

Rick

It's time to rip up your lawn

I'm not saying you have to completely abandon your nice green lawn, though I have. Pick some places in your yard and plant some ornamental peppers; herbs like cilantro, sage, basil. Plant them in places where the automatic water system will take care of them at the same time they water the lawn. Cucumbers can fit easily in a flower bed and meander their way among flowers slowing the loss of water. Pumpkins and summer squash have the same effect while adding some new colors to the beds.

I love to grow potatoes, but I think I've finally figured out that I shouldn't grow any that I can buy locally. They're not an overly attractive plant (which makes them perfect for a guerrilla garden) and it rarely produces more than $1-2 of produce per plant. They do store well so I can't take them completely off the table. Many things I grow can't be used as fast as they grow and unless I have enough to preserve them, they may go to waste during their peak.

The most important thing to remember is to grow what you eat, just like you should only store what you eat. Okra grows like an weed here, but I don't know what to do with it, I can add it to stuff I cook, but I have to lie to the kids. I can pickle it but they're not something I've grown a taste for. I can fit it into things I guess, and I know you can dry and roast the seeds for a coffee substitute but...

Grow food that produces food that you'll eat in a volume that makes it worth your effort. Red sparkler radishes are a great example, those little red roots are awesome in my wife's opinion, I don't care for them at all and so last year when some wanted to go to seed I figured I could get some seed off them. But then I found out how good the seed pods were, and there's 10-20 times the volume of the little red thing under the soil. They taste great raw, you can stir fry them, they can be used just like fresh peas, if you keep size in mind. Oh, and they really aren't that bitter, but you will notice a radish taste. I now grow radishes just for the pods and grab 10-15 just for my own dinner. This year I will try to pickle them, since I'm planning on such a large bed, they would fit in well with pickled beans, onions, garlic, peppers.

Last but not least are my thoughts on the ultimate fruit. Tomatoes need some extra physical structure to support the plant, a cage of some sort is worth the effort. I prefer an indeterminate plant that will provide fruit over time as it fit's better into family meals. Determinate plants are really nice if you plan to can your produce as they tend to ripen at the same time allowing you to harvest and use the fruit (and possibly replant the area). Good tomatoes are really a place where I think I make my money in the garden. If I buy a container of cherry tomatoes for $3 we might eat half of it, then toss out the rest, loss $1.50. If I can pick 10 a night for a salad or let the kids go out and graze for a snack, it only cost me a one time cost seed of $2, plus care, I'm so far ahead it's not funny.

Rethink your yard, don't waste your money and time on the green stuff that you can't eat, grow stuff you can enjoy on your plate. If your neighbors used to be impressed by your nice green grass think how impressed they'll be if you have food and they don't.

Rick

Do you have old grinding wheel?

I want an old style, LARGE (24+" dia.) grinding wheel, with or without a platform. I can sharpen knives, scissors, axes and most any other tools with the stones or files I have but a good old fashioned wheel fits into my preps as a useful skill. I can polish any newer blade with my stones, but a good wheel can turn an old worthless blade into a new tool. Being able to reprofile an old blade with a mechanical wheel mounted to a bike, foot treadle or even a large oversized weighted wheel make a lot of sense if you're cutting back from the standard 6/8"grinding wheel in a $50 bench grinder.

I have some cash, but I'd like to offer forever sharpening as a trade, that means your direct decedents, any or all of them, that can claim your line will get free sharpening off the wheel, as long as it's in use and I will guarantee it for my personal lifetime. As a bonus, the stone will be named after your surname. (shipping is a bitch, but I promise it at cost).

Let me know if you have a nice stone that I can work with, we'll make a deal.

If you're looking to sharpen your own knives and other tools I'll leave you with a couple of suggestions.

1. There's so much involved I can't do it in a short post.
2. Get a fine diamond plate sharpener (the larger the better) and try to slice off the top of the stone in equal amounts, ie. top and bottom of the blade. This is far from what you deserve and what I can provide, but it's been a long week.

Rick

Cheap, free, barter, sell and job opportunities

Just a couple websites you need to keep in mind during these times.

Freecycle is a place for people to offer items that they don't want, to other's for no charge. If you've got something you hate to throw away that could be useful to someone else it's likely to be picked up within a day. It's a great way to recycle something you don't need. Check in frequently and you might find something you've wanted but just couldn't justify buying. It's even acceptable to request an item as many people don't think they're 'trash' is worth offering, but don't beg frequently, unless you're offering even more often.

Craigslist is a very liberal website offering anything people may want, some of them aren't legal in your state. Please understand you'll find some well-marked adult areas, but the job listings, for sale, barter and housing sections are very worthwhile. I don't see any gun listings there, but there is a lot of camping equipment.

I'm sure there are more sites like this, do you have some suggestions?

Rick