Food storage for beginners

With the recent and ongoing power outage in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan's 3rd largest city, I feel compelled to write a post on affordable food storage for beginners, as that is the level we were at when we started storing food - it had to be cheap and easy.

Here are some things to think about:

1. Pasta, rice, and wild rice, if left soaking in water long enough, will become soft. Rice is the better use of the water because you can add a little to start with and then add a little more as it gets soaked up. Pasta uses water but then what's left over isn't as awesome for drinking as fresh water.

2. Cans last almost forever. It's a good idea to rotate what's in your cupboards just to be safe. If you don't have anything in your cupboards, watch for things like 2 for $ or 3 for $ deals. Tomato sauce is a great one to have on hand because it makes everything awesome, even rice. Stewed tomatoes are almost better because they have liquid in them, which, in an emergency, would allow you to use less water for the rice.

3. Canned fruit is another smart buy, not only because it has vitamin C but because it is loaded with liquid. The more you can eat that is wet, the less water you'll need to drink.

4. Juice in tetra-paks is another item that is shelf-savvy. They last for a very long time and would allow you to further conserve water. Juice, too, is often on sale for really cheap, like 99 cents a litre, or sometimes even less. When it's that cheap and you would have normally picked up 1 litre for $2 or $3, pick up 2 or 3 litres for the same price. Store it.

5. If you know you're going to use something in your cupboard, buy a replacement for it and rotate it so that the oldest product is at the front of the shelf.

6. Protein storage is not impossible. Canned beans are fantastic for this. Busch's Beans even taste great cold, I think. Your other easy option would be dehydrated eggs. They don't exactly taste awesome scrambled like fresh eggs do, but you can put a teaspoon or 2 here or there and you won't even notice them. You could even mix them in with your tomato sauces if you found the idea of eating them plain vile.

7. A cheap camping stove is a really good idea. I'm talking literally the single burner that screws into the top of a bottle of propane. Those suckers heat stuff REALLY fast. I don't even think we went through a whole small bottle of propane on our honeymoon and we had hot beans with almost every meal. Also, it's easy to store the burner and a couple bottles of propane at home, and it's cheaper than a big bottle of BBQ propane, which is hard to acquire if you're poor and don't have a car (like we were when we went on our honeymoon). An alternate, which only works if you're willing to chop down your trees and share your food, is to make friends with the closest neighbour who has a fire pit. Another thing to keep in mind about propane is that you should keep it and use it outside, well away from your house. Chances are good you'll never have an incident with it, but it is odorless, accidents happen (especially if all hell's breaking loose and the apocalypse is striking), and you might thank me for that reminder in the end. And.... last thought on fuel: You probably shouldn't rely on your natural gas BBQ for an emergency situation. It might be awesome every other day of the year, and less of a PITA then propane, but if gas goes out with your power, you'll be glad for your portable alternative.

8.  Make sure you rotate something sweet in your food storage. Chocolate is good, something like pure chocolate chips, because chocolate doesn't really expire. It's still good to rotate it anyway but it will last for a very long time as long as it's kept dry and cool. Cookies are good too - Oreos have all kinds of preservatives in 'em (they make me itchy, which is lame) which means they'd be a good choice for longevity. Ritz crackers have the same sort of longevity. M&Ms are also known as pretty decent energy food, although lacking in nutrition. Things like nuts are good to have on hand for energy and mix well with chocolate, but only if you eat them often enough to go through them as they will go rancid faster than canned or sugary goods. Rum cake, if it's not against your religion, seems to last forever and is awfully tasty. It would make a nice treat in a crisis. I'm also under the impression that fruit cake, the Christmas kind, also lasts forever...

8 1/2: Foods high in acids and sugars have longer shelf lives. Maybe see how long a jar of pickled eggs will keep if you like pickled eggs (I do) or other pickled protein.

9. Whatever you do, don't stock up on an overabundance of junk food. It might seem cheap and easy but in a crisis situation you need real food and as best proper nutrition as possible in order to think straight and function properly.

10. It's not a bad idea to have a bottle of bleach on hand as well as it is useful for disinfecting things.

I guess the key to effective food storage is to find things that are cheap, healthy, and keep for a really long time. If you're stuck in an emergency, you probably won't care that you can't have T-bone steak and fresh veggies as much as you might think if you have a good selection of canned goods and a method with which to heat them. Remember too that variety is important - you don't want tomato sauce dishes for an entire week and you won't want beans for an entire week. But if you  have 5 or 6 kinds of canned veggies, 5 or 6 kinds of canned fruit, well, then you have options. And it might not be awesome if it goes on for more than a week, but when you think about the people who live near you who weren't prepared, you'll be glad you slowly acquired some basic food.

Where'd Jen go?

Week before last was super. People came to visit from out of town. I danced in a stellar show. We had breakfast in the back yard....

I also got super sick. And started a new job.

The new job is going well. The sick... is finally getting the antibiotics it deserves.

And my friend who was in Africa was allowed to leave the hospital finally too. I suspect she still has a long row to hoe but things are on the up and up. Her daughter is doing well too.

When I stop needing 2 hour naps after work interspersed with usage of entire boxes of kleenex, I might blog just a bit more.....

perfect sprinkler

Today I weeded the flower beds. While I did this, I tried out my awesome new sprinkler on the garden. (Mine is actually a lower-end model than the one I've linked to - maybe Gardena stopped making my model? Did I mention Gardena is the most awesome way to water things?) Not only does my awesome new sprinkler oscillate from one side of the garden to the other, the width of its spray is the EXACT length of my vegetable garden. It took a while to get it set so it wasn't spraying my neighbours, but now it is perfect. I weeded, the sprinkler sprinkled, and at the end I turned the water off, having accomplished the tasks of weeding and watering - at the same time.

This, my friends, is magic.

On another note, we've figured out how to get my friend and her daughter home and not starve them on the way there. This also adds to the feeling that today might just be magic.

Happy Saturday everybody.

abominations and violations

I hardly know where to begin this post.

I am thinking about a friend who is overseas. Specifically, she is in Africa. But not the Africa with safaris and really expensive resorts.

My friend went over to start a non-profit to try and do something really good for the food security of the people of Africa.

Instead... someone who said he would help her tried to steal from her online banking on her laptop. The bank froze her assets until she returns to Canada.

This was over 2 months ago.

Yes, that is right. My friend has been living the African Dream. She has no money, and she lives in a room guarded by armed guards with video surveillance. Her host family is looking after her... but they are no longer interested in having penniless guests. (Yes, my friend has her young daughter with her.)

She said they've mostly been eating ground beef, and occasionally they can get ahold of the back of a chicken, and once in a blue moon she's been able to trade English lessons for an egg or two. No veggies. Fruit is plentiful but the trees are all owned... and she is not the owner.

She spent most of the first month in hospital with malaria. She wasn't all better when they let her go. Her daughter is also sick now. But that's not the worst of it. She has some sort of bacteria or fungus that is causing her legs and feet to spontaneously break out in ulcers. My best guess based on what she said the doctors told her is Buruli ulcer disease. She was taken to the hospital and the doctor removed one of her ulcers, about the same diameter as a pop can, without anesthetic. Keep in mind that ulcers can go down quite deep too. She has had no painkillers, and no antibiotics. When the dressing is changed, her wound is simply lavaged with saline, which she said they also use to "wash" the needles. I'm not entirely certain if that means the needles are sterile and getting a saline flush, or if that means they're re-use needles.

I've made arrangements to get her home on the earliest flight out. It leaves Tuesday night. This has left the Bank of Jen very close to bankrupt. She is going to need some cash for the trip home though - not just to potentially bribe the immigration officials when she leaves but to for food for the two of them on the journey home. They will be en route for more than 24 hours.

This post was going to be about the abomination and human rights violation that passes for a Beninoise hospital and medical system (I hope I have the adjectival form of Benin correct, apologies if I am wrong). Instead it is me wondering where to get the money to wire to my friend to get her home safely and get she and her daughter to a proper hospital.

Yes, this has been keeping me up at night.

the garden is in

The garden is in. Carrots, peas, beans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, and new this year, asparagus.

Hooray!

Food for thought

This is important and you should read it.

why I no longer like bananas

I think this afternoon at work we might be meeting for chocolate covered bananas. This is the story of why I am bringing my own snack.

The first time I was in New Zealand I met a young man who I quite fancied. I decided to spend New Year's at his flat in Wellington. New Year's Eve was to be a big party, which was kicked off by a couple of bottles of chocolate dishwasher vodka, one having been made with plain milk chocolate, the other with banana flavoured chocolate.

The night, I'm quite sure, was long and fascinating. I have no recollection of going to the party. I don't know how I managed to get a back eye yet not break my glasses. And needless to say, the vodka didn't stay down.

I now have an unfortunate association of chocolate bananas and vomit.

The nice young man who I fancied is currently engaged to a lovely young woman. And I am happily married to someone else. I don't know if he still likes chocolate dishwasher vodka or not. Me? I've stayed away from it ever since, and I really don't party much ever anymore. I think the closest I get to going out and partying is being the hired bellydancer at the shisha lounge.

dead animal day

Today has been what will probably be normal for quite some time.

I ate breakfast. It was awesome (leftover homemade Mexican pizza, thanks Russell!). And then all of a sudden it wasn't awesome anymore and I didn't even want to look at food, least of all the awesome lunch I was making.

Then, later, I picked up some salad dressing for said awesome lunch. After dousing salad in dressing and taking a few bites, thinking it tasted funny, realized dressing was 2 years expired (good thing to know if I ever get stuff at the campus inconvenience store again). It had enough preservatives and vinegar and sugar in it that I decided to enjoy the rest of my salad anyway. It wasn't really all that enjoyable. I spent most of my afternoon trying to get the taste out of my mouth and trying not to think about what it would taste like if it came back up. Eeew.

And now. Well, 2 minutes ago, actually. All of a sudden, I'm no longer queasy and am ravenously attracted to dead animal, specifically raw fish. And it's so not going to happen before my dance rehearsal, although I do need to figure out something to eat between now and then. Which, given that I'll have maybe 5 minutes to get my stuff together once I get home, may prove nearly impossible if I actually want to be on time, and I do.



I guess I'd better drink lots more water before I leave so that queasy doesn't come back before I get home and find something awesome to eat........

things'n'stuff'n'things

I had a blast last weekend in Regina with my Mum. Mum is awesome!

Now it is Monday night. I have bags of stuff to unpack, laundry to do, a garden to hoe, after work work to do... it is what it is.

I might still be tired. Or maybe just tired of this splitting headache/backache....

but overall I'm very happy.

Friday fun time day

Today after work I'm going to meet my Mum in Regina for a super fun time. And she finally gets to hear about her surprise. It's going to be awesome. And shopping. Awesome. I want to leave now. The next hour and 45 is going to take FOR EVER. I'm already not concentrating very well on work.

Is it time yet?

How about now?

Now?

Reasons to Live

I've been thinking a lot about a handful of people I know who either have tried to kill themselves, have thought about killing themselves, know someone who took his or her own life, or wallow in the dull, gray pit of depression, either sometimes or all the time. For me, from me, this is for you.

Reasons to Live

1. I promise there is at least one person who loves you so much that the shock of your death would cause that person to vomit enough to need to go to the ER.

2. If you have an internet presence, and most of us do these days, somebody who you've never met before reads your posts. You have an effect on the life of a stranger.

3. Businesses you regularly patronize have staff who would wonder where their regular customer went.

4. There are people in your life who love you and who you can trust. If you are reading this, I am one of those people. I love you. And I promise that if you ever choose to confide in me, I will walk with you when I can, not judge you, and continue to let you know that I love you.

5. There is no such thing as good or bad, right or wrong when it comes to being a certain way. Those terms are subjective and dependent on one's sociocultural environment, on a micro and macro scale. I know that letting go of labels foisted upon us by others isn't easy, but we can do it.

6. Everybody has insecurities of some sort. People who don't are lying or in denial. You are not alone.

7. If we ever need to admit that something is wrong, hopefully we find an army of friends and family willing to be there with us. And if that is not the case, all you really need is one, maybe two people.

8. If you die now, you'll miss out on years of possibility.

9. Take a deep breath or 10. Put some rocks in your pockets (trust me, it helps). Find one good thing that happened in the last week. Focus on that good feeling.

If you need to seek help, it is okay to ask someone to help you with that. Chances are that person will be glad you asked.

If you or anybody you know needs counselling, I have a handful of contacts scattered across Alberta (and a great resource base to draw from) and a couple in Saskatchewan. My e-mail address is jbarrett@sasktel.net

I am also certified in Grief Support, if you would like somebody to walk that path with you.

The Doctor

The Doctor said he'd give me a reference. I think that's pretty sweet. I'd give him one too, although I realize it doesn't work like that.

Instead, I thought about giving him cough in a petri dish, as cough of uncertain etiology is one of his most frequent types of consultations. Only thing is, apparently Giant Microbes only accepts payment via credit card. I don't have a credit card. And I don't want one either. If you'd like to lend me yours for this purpose, let me know. I have cash.

In the meantime, it's only 1 more day until I meet Mum in Regina. And my husband comes home tonight, which is pretty awesome too.

That is all.

waiting.... waiting....

I seem to be not blogging every day but every other day. I think this is okay because sometimes I don't have a thing to say.

Yesterday's revelation was that, according to my aunt who attended a seminar on the topic, 93% of basic communication is conveyed through body language and tone. She and I both figure this is why neither of us do particularly well on (or like) the telephone! How the heck are you supposed to understand somebody if you can't see them when you're talking to them? And how are you supposed to focus on the conversation when, with the exception of your cognitive understanding of how technology works (and let's face it, most of us really can't explain current telecommunications systems) talking on the phone is pretty much the same as having a conversation out loud with somebody who's talking in your head. And y'know what that's called? Yeppers. Crazy.

I have very little to add to that. My weekend with Mum is coming up soon and I'm quite looking forward to it. Otherwise, same old same old.....

sleepy

Yesterday I decided I'd drive Russell to the shop before he left for out of town work. He had to arrive at 4:30 am.

Yesterday that sounded like a very good idea.

And I did get an awful lot of work done before work.

But the rest of my day has been almost useless. I am tired. Really tired. I kind of want to just go home and go to bed. It's nice out and I don't even want to walk home. I just want to take the bus. Maybe even nap on the bus.

yesterday and today

My Thursday night show at Lounge 306 was a hit with the crowd - I had quite a solid applause at the end. Awesome! And my new costume stood up to the challenge too, which is always a relief.

Yesterday was quiet. This is probably why I have nothing to say. Today is much the same.

I might clean out my office in between bouts of work today. But I also have to dig in the garden because I'm not home next weekend and the weekend after that is the long weekend, also known as time to plant the garden.

hrm.....

new shampoo day 2

It's the 2nd day after washing my hair. My hair feels fabulous and there are no oat bits left.

I remade the recipe with a couple of variations on the cornstarch theme. I think that will work much better.

I'm dancing tonight. I'm quite excited about it. I really hope there are people there....

new shampoo day 1

Well.... I had a lot of oat bits in my hair today. And I brushed it after putting on a black shirt. Uh huh. So... I think this batch, since it did so well with my hands, is going to become a body wash and I will try the recipe again but with cornstarch instead of oat flower. Also, I could probably half the amount of essential oil and still have very happy hair.

My hair, oat bits aside, feels fabulous and sniffing the awesome lemony-lime while falling asleep with a wet head last night was pretty fantastic.

new shampoo

Last week, I tried new shampoo and conditioner. It promised to make my naturally wavy hair all curly and stuff.

The new shampoo smelled so strongly of chemicals that I could barely stand to be in the shower with it. And it made my hair straight. Not just straight. Straight and excessively greasy. And it got progressively worse. It didn't actually *clean* my hair.

So I dumped it.

I found a recipe for homemade shampoo on the internet and based on that, here is what I've done, to be tested tonight:

I had an empty 400 ml bottle with a pump. This is fantastic.

I added to it 2 tbsp baking soda, about 6 heaping teaspoons of oatmeal (ground to a fine flour in a coffee grinder), and about 60 drops each of lemon and lime essential oils.

I tested it on my  hands, after adding water and vigourously shaking it. My hands smell like awesome and my skin feels like awesome.

I'm pretty optimistic that this will be my new all in one hair wash product.

Oh, and the best part? The cost of making it was almost zilch. If you only added one essential oil or no essential oil, you'd probably be looking at about $0.25 a bottle.

So take that P&G and.... well.... okay. I know Proctor & Gamble won't care one bit if I never buy their shampoo again. But I care. And hopefully you'll be brave enough to give it a try too.

(I also have a recipe for laundry soap that I LOVE, and whenever I run out of toothpaste (we have a very large stash) I will try making some homemade toothpaste that doesn't taste like bad. Apparently the secret is mint essential oil. Who knew?)

For Michael and Clare, whatever island you may be on...

An old friend of mine has very recently become engaged. This is quite exciting.

I met my friend one day in Wellington, fairly randomly. He complimented my pants.

Years down the road we still write letters. We did meet once, a couple years after the original meeting. It was awkward. I still think he's awesome.

Today I was greeted with the joyful news that he is engaged to a wonderful woman. I suppose I say this rather presumptively - I know of her via the world of social networking. She has a beautiful smile. More than that though, she has a beautiful energy that I can sense, intrinsically tied to the energy of my beautiful friend.

He has had other relationships over the years, and traveled with at least one of them, but she has truly been the only one with such a bright, lovely light.

I am very excited for both of them, and wish them a very long life together full of light and love.

Bellydancer for hire

I have a gorgeous new dance costume made by an awesome designer in Giza (you know, where the pyramids are).

If you know anybody who's looking for a bellydancer for hire, drop me a line at jbarrett@sasktel.net

If you're looking for more than one bellydancer, check out Al Amar Dance Theatre for information on the company I dance with.

And if you're a dancer looking for an awesome costume, check out Adel Mahmoud Abdo Mohamed's work. He does custom costumes, the workmanship is excellent, the timeline between ordering and receiving costumes is speedy, his customer relations skills are supreme, prices are reasonable... and the best part? It fits like a glove. I don't need to do any alterations at all.