Making Homemade Applesauce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lOjSV6XQc0

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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Today we will show you how we made homemade applesauce. I had to make something as I had just got my food mill in preparation for the boy coming and I wanted to be able to make baby food (at the time I did not realize how long it would take to get him to the stage to actually eat baby food). This recipe did not turn out as good as I had hoped, but it is because I used too much water.  Take that into consideration and DO not add water like I did in the video.

Ingredients

  • Apples
  • Cinnamon
  • Sugar (if needed)

Procedure

  • Select the apples
    Get apples that are sweet, like Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Winesap, McIntosh, Yellow Delicious, or Mutsu.  You’ll get about 12 to 16 quarts of applesauce per bushel of apples. Count on 12 or 13 quarts per bushel.
  • Wash and chop the apples!
    Chopping them is much faster if you use one of those apple corer/slicer – you just push it down on an apple and it cuts it into segments. don’t peel the apples!
  • Cook the Apples
    Put about 1 inch of water (I used either filtered tap water or store brand apple juice) on the bottom of a huge, thick-bottomed pot. Put the lid on, and the heat on high. When it gets really going, turn it to medium high until the apples are soft through and through.
  • Sieve the cooked apples
    This is where I messed up, I did not strain the apples and just dumped the mixture in my food mill. It made a lot of good juice, but it was more like thick cider.
  • Season
    Put the applesauce into a large pot. Add cinnamon to taste. You should not need to add any sugar.

The applesauce does not need any further cooking, but you can can it if you want.
Pints for 8 minutes at 6 pounds (0-2000 ft) Quarts for 10 minutes at the same pressure.

PRN Episode #14 Brett Braaten

PRN Episode #14 Brett Braaten
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In today’s episode David interviews Brett Braaten, author of Homeland Insecurity:  Failed Politics, Policies, and a Nation at Risk.

Brett brings his no nonsense, insider’s account of the current state of national security to help your
group decide whether they, their families, and their country are truly safe.

Braaten’s career as a writer and speaker is informed by 30 years of
experience as a federal agent with U.S. Customs and the Department of Homeland Security.

David has reviewed Tom’s book here: http://www.prepperbookshelf.com/homeland-insecurity/

The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.

If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure.

 

Use Your Fridge as a Whiteboard

 

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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I had to work this Fridge Inventory Tip video when the wife was asleep.  Not everyone can use this, and to be honest, I would only do this on my freezer (but since my freezer is covered with half completed projects, this was easier than cleaning up my workshop for a quick video.

Anyway, if you want an easy fridge inventory tip, a dry erase marker will work on many freezer finishes, and this may be a good way to keep track of what is in your freezer.

Just be sure you use a dry erase marker or your wife may cut you.

This fridge inventory tip can work for other refrigerator colors other than white, but be sure to test the finish in an area that you have a hard time seeing, as you don’t want to write a bunch of stuff on the fridge door and not be able to clean it off.

I have to be careful with this, you see I have a 4 year old that if he saw me writing on the fridge with dry erase markers he would think he could do it with sharpies.

FIY here is another tip, if your child writes on your fridge with permanent marker, you can write over his art with a dry erase and it will lift off the first marks…..

Knots: Bowline (Including Tying One-Handed)

Knots: Bowline (Including Tying One-Handed)
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I had an interesting childhood – my Dad and I were a lot alike, and when I was growing up he jumped with both feet into the world of rope courses – he single-handedly built several small courses in Tennessee which, coupled with his work as a Park Ranger fed my infatuation with survival techniques and self-reliance.

I spent a lot of time as a pre-teen and teenage years tying knots and lighting fires and I want to spend more time getting back to that as I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and want to refresh my skills with you so I am ready when Tell gets big enough to keep the rope ends out of the dirt long enough for me to teach him.

I am going to start with the bowline, the bowline is one of the four basic maritime knots (along with the figure eight, reef knot, and clove hitch) and is a very simple knot used to form a fixed loop in the “bitter end” of a rope (the working end). It is an essential knot for an outdoorsman to know, especially if you climb or sail.

Like the majority of “good” knots, it is easy to tie and untie. Also like many good knots, if tied improperly it can collapse (capsize).

Anytime you tie a knot in a rope you reduce its strength through bending, the better the knot the less strength you lose, and a properly tied bowline retains about 65% of it’s strength. Because of this the FFA recommends to tie down light aircraft. More importantly, the bowline is commonly used as a rescue knot for conscious individuals that fell into holes or off cliffs. (because of this I will show you how to tie one using a single hand in-case you are injured or want to show off)

Procedure for Tying

Most people learn to tie a bowline using a mnemonic aid.

If you think of the end of the rope as a rabbit, the loop as the rabbit’s hole, and the standing end of the rope above the loop as a tree…

The rabbit comes up through the hole, round the tree from the right, and back down the hole.

It is very important that the loop is formed correctly, with the bitter end on the top of the loop.

If you reverse the loop (shown in the video) you will make an Eskimo bowline, then when the bowline is put under pressure the bowline will slip.

One Handed

If you have the rope secured so you can make it taut, you can tie this knot one handed.

Simply hold the bitter end in your hand.

Lay your palm on the top of the rope (the tendency is to use your wrist which is easier, but will probably trap your hand)

Twist your hand down on the left side of the rope, down, under and back up on the right side of the rope. This makes the loop.

Use your fingers to pass the rabbit around the tree from right to left.

While still holding the end of the rope, pull it and your hand through the loop

Tighten.

With practice you can do this easier than you can tie the rope one handed.

Let me know if you want to see more knot videos, I am probably going to do some anyway, but the detail and amount of will depend on you.

The Morrow Guide to Knots: for Sailing, Fishing, Camping, Climbing

How to Keep Brownies from Sticking to the Pan

 

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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This is a very simple tip.  My wife loves cooking homemade brownies.  She uses it as a teaching tool in her special education class to teach cause/effect, math, and life skills.

Unfortunately if you are not careful a homemade brownie will stick to the pan. Luckily pinterest showed me a better way.

If you grease your pan normally, but then spread parchment paper over it, and then pour the mix over the mix the brownies are very simple to remove.

The paper will not stick to the pan, nor the brownies.

This homemade brownie tip is short and simple, but that does not mean it is not useful.  I know that it saves me a lot of time cleaning out the pan because I don’t have to scrape out little burnt bits of brownies from the pan.

I will understand if you need to practice this tip over and over to ensure you get it right.  You may have to make several brownie batches to ensure you get it just right.  I have a homemade brownie mix that may make this even better.

If you want a healthier (healthier being relative) I have a recipe that uses blackberries in the brownie mix.