Q&A Week - Tuesday - All About Water

It's Q&A week here at Safely Gathered In! We're interrupting our regularly scheduled posts to answer some of the great questions we got during our giveaway week in June.

First of all, Provident Living has some great information about water storage - check it out!

I am curious about how much bleach per liter or gallon of water.

You should add 8 drops (about 1/8 tsp) of liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water. Only plain household bleach should be used to purify water (no additives or scents).

How often would you recommend rotating tap water stored in glass containers? And how long would you recommend rotating water stored in plastic bottles? If you had to leave in a hurry, and could only take as much food as your could fit in the trunk of a car, what would be the most important part of your food storage to take (besides water)?

First of all, I personally wouldn't recommend storing water in glass bottles. In fact, I don't like storing ANY of my food storage in glass (this includes canning jars. While canning is awesome, I just get nervous when I see a shelf full of glass bottles. If that tipped over or fell.... whoa). But anyway.

If you store water in plastic and in glass, I would recommend you just rotate the water in both at the same time. According to the Provident Living website, you should empty and refill your water containers "regularly". Hmmm.. that's pretty vague. Personally, I think once every 6 months should do the trick, but check on your water more often than that to make sure it looks and smells okay. You should be storing all your water in food grade containers only.

I was wondering if it's ok to store water in the garage? We live in Idaho Falls where the winters are freezing cold and below and the summers aren't too hot(Probably 80-90 range), but not cold either.

The temperature of where you live doesn't really affect the water you are storing - however, some water storage containers are not conducive to weather extremes. Make sure you do some research about your water storage containers to be sure they can stand the temperature differences. Don't forget to check on your water every so often to make sure it's still good, and don't forget to rotate it either.

Also, water containers should not be placed directly on the ground because chemicals from the cement or concrete can seep up into your water. Something simple like a few 2x4 's can solve that problem.

Hmm, why is water storage such a pain?

This question may have been asked a little jokingly, but I think it's perfectly legitimate. Water storage is tough! I think it's hard for many reasons:

- Water is heavy and once it's in buckets or jugs, it's hard to move around

- It takes up lots of space

- People are confused about how or when to purify water

- It takes up lots of space

- You have to buy special containers to store it in, and there are many to choose from and people don't know which ones to get

- It's overwhelming, just like food storage!

- It takes up lots of space :)

My question is, how do you come up with ideas for meals? I stuggle even using recipes! I'm very much looking forward to your cooking classes coming up.

Hannah - What I do is think of a meal my family loves, and then I find ways to tweak it to make it food storage friendly (using all non-perishables). Sometimes it's pretty easy (just using canned veggies instead of fresh, etc), and other times it takes a bit more thought. For example, when I made the food storage-friendly Fried Rice, I had to tweak a few things that we do when we make the dish normally. I completely left out the egg and onion, and I used canned veggies instead of fresh or frozen.

Q&A Week - Monday

It's Q&A week here at Safely Gathered In! We're interrupting our regularly scheduled posts to answer some of the great questions we got during our giveaway week in June.

Working on my long-term storage and am making great progress, but I am wondering about vitamin C...you know, I'd rather not have to worry about scurvy in the event I actually start living off of my long-term food storage food. So, what do you suggest for long-term storage of vitamin C? Thanks!!!

It's always a good idea to store multivitamins as a part of your longer-term storage (or at least with your three month supply). Multivitamins will help give you the nutrition you will need in case you are living off your food storage alone, especially if you don't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

I have several #10 cans of the hot chocolate mix, and I really don't care for it. Any suggestions on making it taste better?

I'll admit - I love the cannery hot chocolate mix!

You could try storing some of that powdered coffee creamer - that could help with the taste. Or, if you like peppermint, you could store things like candy canes or peppermint hard candy, and then break it up into pieces and add that to your drink. Any other suggestions from our readers? Leave a comment if you have some ideas!

I'm really curious as to how you might use canned salmon. It was on sale for a great price and I bought a half a dozen. I opened one about a week later and yuck! It had skin and bones in it and was really gross. I expected it to be more like canned tuna.

Great question - I have a few cans of salmon in my food storage, too, and I've been meaning to create a recipe with it to share on the blog. I'm really glad that you pointed out to me that there could be skin and bones - that really does sound unappealing and I'm glad I was able to check before I was halfway through my recipe.

On my last trip to the grocery store, I checked out the canned fish items and noticed that some of the canned salmon said "No skin, no bones". So yes, salmon is a GREAT food storage item - you'll just want to be sure to buy the right stuff!

Do you have a favorite bulk pasta supplier? We eat lots of pasta at our house! Sometimes it's all that our little ones want to eat. Thanks for such a great blog!! I especially enjoy the recipe tutorials.

I don't have a favorite bulk pasta supplier, but we do LOVE pasta! It's such an easy and versatile food storage item. I usually just wait for it to go on sale and stock up then.

Have you ever cooked beans WITHOUT soaking them?

I rarely soak my beans - I just don't think of it far enough in advance. Really, soaking beans only helps them cook faster. I usually just pour my beans into a pot, cover them with a few inches of water, and let them simmer for a few hours (keep an eye on them to make sure the water doesn't boil out). Then flavor them and use them however I need. Many people also cook beans in their pressure cookers, from what I hear.

What foods would you recommend in storage for sickness (eg H1N1 or other unexpected virus)? I have canned soup, jello, bananas in freezer, rice as well as usual food storage items. If all the family were really sick & no outside help available with meals, what would be nourishing and really quick & easy to prepare? Thank you!

It sounds like you have a really good idea for what food storage meals to eat in case of sickness. For me, ready-made canned soups would be the way to go. My three-month supply menu plan already incorporates lots of canned soups for the lunches - there is so much variety for those these days! You can get low-cal soups, low sodium, etc. so that it's not such a bad thing to eat them often (and remember.... if you're living off your food storage alone, the most important thing is survival). Jello, bananas, and rice sound great too. For more rice recipes, check out our recipes page and you can search by main ingredient (rice). Many of these meals are easy - just cook the rice, open a few cans of veggies, and bake. Delicious and simple.

What made you decide to start a blog on all this preparedness stuff?

Hannah - Really, there wasn't one specific event that gave me the idea to start a food storage blog. Food storage was always something in the back of my mind - you know, that thing that just kind of nags at you because you know you should be doing it, but you just keep making up excuses for why you can put it off. My excuse was that we're poor (my husband is a medical student) and we're young. I had always thought of food storage as a commandment for other people - middle age people with kids and a house and money. However, the food storage thoughts just kept nagging at me, and I decided that if I was going to do it, I needed to jump in with both feet. So, I talked to Abbie about starting a blog where we could share our food storage progress and help other people along the way. We figured that a blog would help us stay organized, and it would also keep us motivated... and it has!

Saturday: Rotating your food storage?

First off, next week is Q&A week here at Safely Gathered In. During our giveaway week at the beginning of June, we asked YOU what some of your biggest food storage questions are, and we'll be answering them next week. We got so many great questions that we won't be able to answer them all in one week, but we'll answer as many as we can! And whatever we don't get to, we'll answer during another Q&A week later this summer.

To rotate my food storage this week, I made a casserole to put in the freezer. I'm having a baby any day now, and it will be nice to have some ready-made meals stored up. This week I made Easy Chicken and Rice from our recipes page. Since I was rotating (not restricted to pantry-only food), I added some cheese to the top, and I used frozen chicken instead of canned.

What did you make this week from your food storage? Post about it on your blog and leave your link below!

Note: Please remember that this rotation link is to share what meal you or your family cooked out of your food storage this week. Links promoting merchandise or websites will be deleted. Please link directly to your 3-Month Supply Rotation post.

Basic Cooking Skills: Meatloaf

Every other Thursday we will post about different basic cooking skills. Knowing how to prepare meals from scratch is a very important step in becoming self-reliant, which in turn is a crucial component of being prepared. Being able to cook meals for your family will give you confidence, more family togetherness time, and lower your food budget=more money for food storage! If you have a basic cooking skill you'd like to learn, email us! These meals contain perishable food items as this is a different series than our food storage recipes.

Two factors that apply when feeding my family are: how healthy a meal is--and how many dishes it dirties. This meal is a three dish cleanup. Pretty nice.



Ingredients: ground beef, egg, ketchup, onion, bread crumbs, chili sauce, red currant jelly, salt and pepper


Combine the jelly and the chili sauce in a small saucepan on the stove over medium heat to melt the jelly.


Chop up a half cup of the onion. When you have extra onion, you can chop it all up and freeze it in a freezer bag, or wrap the remaining uncut onion in plastic wrap and then in a plastic bag and stick it in the fridge. You want the extra layer of protection the plastic wrap affords so the onion doesn't stink up anything else in the fridge. Onions that have been refrigerated are less potent, meaning, you won't cry as much when you cut them.



Dump all the ingredients, except for the chili sauce and jelly, into a bowl



Mix it all up. To really combine all the meat, you have to take off your rings/any other jewelry and dig your hands in. Just don't forget to wash your hands really well afterward. Raw meat can carry a lot of bacteria and parasites that are only killed after being well cooked.


Pick up the meat mixture and put it into a loaf pan. You can do one large, or two medium and freeze the extra pan.


When your jelly/sauce mixture has melted and combined,


Pour half of the sauce over the raw meatloaf




Bake



Keep the remaining half of the sauce warm, and then pour it over the baked meatloaf. This is a great meal to stretch your buck---you only need a pound of meat to feed an entire family.


Sweet and Sour Meatloaf
Favorites


1 (12-oz) jar red currant jelly
1 (12-oz) jar chili sauce

1 pound ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup ketchup

To prepare sauce, combine red currant jelly and chili sauce in a saucepan. Heat until jelly is melted and well-blended.

For meatloaf, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, chopped onions, salt, pepper, egg and ketchup and mold into a 5 x 9 loaf pan. Pour half of sauce over meatloaf and bake for 1 hour at 400 degrees F. Heat remaining sauce and serve with meatloaf.

Another Whole Wheat Bread in a mixer Recipe

Are you getting tired of wheat bread recipes? Well, I've got one more for you and it's another winner. It uses hot water to really speed the process along. I like speed when it comes to bread.

Ingredients: whole wheat flour, oil, honey, salt, water (not pictured) and yeast

Dissolve the yeast into warm water

In the mixer combine the hot water with about half of the flour.

And mix.

Then add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl: honey and oil

salt

and finally the yeast mixture. The hot water will have cooled enough by now to not kill the yeast, but it will be warm enough to speed the yeast along.

While mixing, continue to add flour until the dough comes away from the sides of the mixer.

You want the dough to be tacky---but not sticky. Meaning, when you stick it with your finger, it sticks to it a little, but doesn't leave any dough on your fingertip.

When you reach that point, set the timer and let the dough knead in the mixer for ten minutes. While you are waiting, go ahead and spray the insides of your bread pans with cooking spray so the finished loaves won't stick.

It looks like it's ready to jump into the pans, eh? Slow down there dough!

Dump the dough onto a clean counter top that you've sprayed with cooking spray or a little oil. You don't want to introduce any more flour.

I used a knife to cut the dough into four equal pieces

And shaped them into four loaves

And I'm not kidding you, this is after 30 minutes of sitting on the counter!

Cook in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and delicious.

That was so easy, it was almost like cheating.

More wheat bread recipes: Whole Wheat Bread in a Mixer

Whole Wheat Bread by Hand

Whole Wheat Bread in a Bread Machine

Grandma’s Whole Wheat Bread
Liz Freestone

5 cups hot tap water
7 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup honey

2 Tbsp salt
5-6 cups whole wheat flour

Add yeast to warm water—set aside. Put hot water and 7 cups flour into a mixer and mix well. Add oil, salt and honey, mix well. Then add yeast and remaining flour—5 cups, then more until the dough does not stick to the sides of the bowl.

Beat 10 minutes

Oil counter top and divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans (she used Pam). Raise to top of pans (about 30 minutes if done in warm oven).

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Makes four loaves.

One year ago on SGI: How To Plan Your 3 Month Supply

Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your 72-hour kit, your 3-month supply, and your longer-term storage. If you are new to our blog, don't worry! You won't be left behind. Just start up where we are and follow along. You will eventually have everything completed! Once the 72-hour kit is complete, we'll be putting together emergency car kits again (week by week). Once those are done, we'll gather the 72-hour kits again. So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!

This week for your 72-hour kits, add a flashlight and batteries to each pack. Each person should have their own. You may want to consider a windup flashlight so you won't even have to worry about batteries expiring or going dead - this could save you lots of money in the long run. On the right side of the page we've added an Amazon link to a windup battery that has good reviews - just a suggestion. You should be able to find them in most stores, too.

How is your three-month supply coming along? DON'T forget about the importance of storing water. You really should have 2 weeks of drinking water stored for your entire family. Abbie recently did a great post about how to store water in plastic bottles - check it out!

We're still gathering wheat this month for our longer-term storage. You can buy it already canned up in #10 cans from LDS Catalog. Price includes shipping.

Inspirational Thought

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude after own own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
-- Series I. Self-Reliance

Saturday Roundup: Are you rotating?

I've been making lots of good, plain old oatmeal this breakfasts this week in order to rotate some of our food storage (sorry I don't have a picture!). I know it's not exactly our "3 month supply" (it's technically in our "longer term storage"), but it's been great because we eat it with fresh berries, which are in season now here.

What did you make this week from your food storage? Post about it on your blog and leave your link below!

Note: Please remember that this rotation link is to share what meal you or your family cooked out of your food storage this week. Links promoting merchandise or websites will be deleted. Please link directly to your 3-Month Supply Rotation post.

Food Storage Friday: Peanut Butter Pie (Guest Post)

This Peanut Butter Pie is soo darn delish AND soo easy to make ANNNND I will now ALWAYS have Oreos on hand. (husband is not fighting me on this!)

Start off with a couple Oreos-probably 30 or so. Give them a good crush. I used a mini food processor, however a Ziploc and a rolling pin would work great.

Anyway you do it, make it look like this.
Okay so this was totally a slip up. I just wasn't thinking. But you can take some shortening and melt it. You just a need a little something to make the crumbs stay together on a pie shell.
Add this butter/shortening to the cookie crumbs.
Now when I make this again (and I will!) I won't use this deep of a pie plate, however husband got this beautiful pie plate for me and I hadn't used it yet.
Now you will need to make the Pie part. When using powdered milk to make pudding you need to use less water or it doesn't set up. I made about 2.5 cups of milk. I made the jello pudding with 1/2 of the water suggested and had the other milk to work with. Once the pudding is set up a little bit add some peanut butter. This is really just up to you as to how peanuty you want it. I started with 1/2 of a cup but ended up added 1/2 more.
Mix your powdered milk with water.
Add in the pudding.
Add in the peanut butter and combine well. I had already added some peanut butter in this picture and the pudding was too thick so I added more milk.
This is how it looks once all combined.
Pour into pie shell. YUM! Refrigerate for at least 4 hours to allow it to set up. It will more firm.
When I was at the store getting the Oreos for this I had what I think was one of more brilliant ideas. Refrigerator pie + Magic Shell = Deliciousness!!!!!! After the pie had been in the fridge for 4 hours, I added the Magic Shell and put it in the freezer. This is optional, but if you have it on had I would Really recommend it. Enjoy!!!

• Crush Oreos and press into pie shell.
• Make milk with powdered milk and water.
• Combine pudding with less milk.
• Add peanut butter and mix well.
• Pour into pie shell and refrigerate.

One year ago on Safely Gathered In: Jerky Curry (cooked without electricity!)

How To...Whole Wheat Bread by Bread Machine

Another way to make bread is in a bread machine.



Thanks to Stephany S. for letting me borrow her machine.




It's super sweet!




I just used the recipe from the bread machine manual. Ingredients: whole wheat flour, powder milk, water, oil, brown sugar, salt and yeast.



I ground my wheat on the finest setting because the recipe actually called for bread flour.



This is the neatest part of a bread machine I think, all the ingredients go straight into the bread pan---one pot cleanup!

The little hook is a the kneading hook. If you have a bread machine though, you probably already knew that.


Add the ingredients in the order listed in the recipe, after removing the bread pan from the machine.




Set the machine according to what type of bread you are making. I choose the whole wheat quick bread. I used instant yeast in order to get it done in less than 3 hours--again, if you have a bread machine you already know this stuff.



When you turn on the machine, it will make weird kneading noises which will drive the dogs crazy. Just so you know.






When the bread is done, a timer will sound and you can pull the bread out and let it cool on a cooling rack.




How easy was that? I dumped the ingredients, turned on the machine and went on errands. When I came back--fresh bread!




Delicious too!


Whole Wheat Bread

1-1/2 cup + 1 tsp water
3 Tbsp oil
2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp powdered milk
4-1/3 cups whole wheat flour
2-1/2 tsp yeast

Add ingredients into bread pan in order listed. Cook according to your machine's directions.
Eat. Eat more.



One year ago on SGI: How to Make Croutons

It's Tuesday!

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your 72-hour kit, your 3-month supply, and your longer-term storage. If you are new to our blog, don't worry! You won't be left behind. Just start up where we are and follow along. You will eventually have everything completed! Once the 72-hour kit is complete, we'll be putting together emergency car kits again (week by week). Once those are done, we'll gather the 72-hour kits again. So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!

This week for your 72-hour kits, add a change of clothes for each person. A few months ago, Abbie wrote a great article about making family t-shirts for your 72-hour kits. It's a great idea, so click on the link to check out her advice and pictures. Also, consider the weather. Twice a year (October and April), we remind everyone to update their kits (update the food, clothes, etc), so summer-y clothes should be fine for your kits for now (depending on where you live). When you rotate in October, you can change sizes and outfits if you need to.

How is your three-month supply coming along? The best way to gather food for your three month supply is to make a plan. Write up menus and recipes that appeal to your family, and gather three months' worth of these meals. Want a ready-made 12-week grocery list and meal plan? We've got one available in our new e-book.

We're still gathering wheat this month for the longer-term storage. Not sure how to cook with wheat? Check out our recipes!

Motivational Monday

“Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I
know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.”

Lord Chesterfield
1584-1656

Weekend Roundup

I made granola this week, eating it with yogurt and fresh fruit. Oh, it's SO good.


What did you make this week from your food storage? Post about it on your blog and leave your link below!

Note: Please remember that this rotation link is to share what meal you or your family cooked out of your food storage this week. Links promoting merchandise or websites will be deleted. Please link directly to your 3-Month Supply Rotation post.

Food Storage Friday: Tortillas

Brittany here. Tortillas are so versatile, don't you think? Not only can you use them for burritos, enchiladas, and quesadillas, but you can use them for virtually any sandwich when you've run out of bread. Not that that's ever happened to me. That being said, I am not a connoisseur when it comes to what makes a tortilla truly authentic, although I confess I do prefer my tortillas to be soft and tender as opposed to dry and tough. Call me crazy.

Anyway, I thought I'd attempt a homemade version and see how it went. All things considered, it went pretty well.

Ingredients: flour (I used bread flour, but the recipe actually called for all-purpose), salt, baking powder, oil, and water.


Mix 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt together in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons oil and 3/4 cup water. Stir and then pour out onto counter to knead.

Knead for a few minutes. Now, here's my confession. The recipe called for lard, but I didn't have any and didn't want to buy any. I understand that the lard is what truly makes a good tortilla. So I substituted the oil on a whim. It worked out okay, but if you have lard, I'd definitely use that. You can replace the lard with shortening, which also would probably work okay.

Allow the dough to rest for about ten minutes and then cut into portions and roll into balls--I made eight.

Heat a skillet to medium and roll out a tortilla. Make it as thin as you can (and maybe you can make yours more circular than mine). Mine were about 1/16 of an inch on the counter, but they were still too thick for my preference after I cooked them.

Place the tortilla in the warm skillet and allow to cook for about 1 minute on each side or until lightly browned and bubbly. Roll out another tortilla while one is cooking. Transfer to a plate.

These tortillas turned out to be pretty darn good, especially warm. Serve with cheese, sour cream, salsa, and black beans while rotating, or whatever floats your boat. I think I'll do breakfast burritos tomorrow. Yum!


Tortillas (recipe adapted from www.allrecipes.com)

2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 T. oil (or 1 T. lard)
3/4 c. water

Mix dry ingredients and add oil and water. Knead for a few minutes until a smooth dough is formed. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Divide into 8 sections and roll into balls. Heat a skillet to medium heat. Roll out balls into 6-8 inch circles and place individually on skillet, cooking about one minute on each side. Remove to plate. Serve warm, or store in airtight container.

Makes approximately 8 tortillas.



One year ago on SGI: Granola Bars

Basic Cooking Skills: French Fries

Every other Thursday we will post about different basic cooking skills. Knowing how to prepare meals from scratch is a very important step in becoming self-reliant, which in turn is a crucial component of being prepared. Being able to cook meals for your family will give you confidence, more family togetherness time, and lower your food budget=more money for food storage! If you have a basic cooking skill you'd like to learn, email us!

I love fries. I could eat them every day. I just thought I would announce that.

Fries that you get at most restaurants are fried (not so much healthy for every day consumption) and much more expensive. You can buy potatoes fairly inexpensively and they are so versatile: baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked potato soup, and fries. You can buy one bag and use it over the course of several weeks for many different meals.


Ingredients: potatoes, salt, oil

I usually will cook up, one potato per adult, a half a potato per child.

Or all of them if I open the pantry and they look like this.

Gee, these potatoes are a little past their prime wouldn't you say?


Seriously.



Give all your potatoes a good wash. My mum has a potato scrubbing brush--I scrubbed it over really well with my fingers. Potatoes are always dirty so it's important to wash them well. This is a great job to give to a child/teenager/spouse. You can't really mess up scrubbing a potato.




I like using my fingers so I can pop off all the sprouting 'eyes' from the potatoes with my fingertips.



Dry the potatoes off with a towel




And look the potatoes over for any dark spots. Especially if you've had the potatoes for a while.


If your potatoes have dark markings on them, or are sprouting, don't worry. They are still edible. Just carefully cut away the bruised spots and pop off the sprouts.



If when you cut away the dark spots, it is dark underneath, keep cutting until there isn't any more dark. The rest of the potato is fine. At least, I haven't died yet. If you have to toss a whole potato, that's okay too.



Most of the time, if you use your potatoes in a timely manner, you won't have to worry about the "maintenance." When your potato looks fine cut it in half lengthwise.


Then turn the potato cut side down for stability, and slice it into wedges.



Now depending on how you like your fries you can do two things. One, keep them nice and thick for steak fries, or keep slicing them until they get to the size you like. Mountain Man loves a good steak fry. I'm partial to the skinny minny.



If you see a dark spot, no worries



Just nip it off quick with your knife



After you've cut up all your potatoes, layer them on a cookie sheet and drizzle with oil (olive or veggie). You can line your baking sheet with foil if you want, but keep in mind the oil will probably sink down around the foil so you'll likely be washing the pan anyway.



Sprinkle with salt



Use your hands to toss the potatoes around so they all get covered with salt and oil



Bake at 450 degrees F. Pull out the pan and stir it around every once in a while so the fries get evenly browned. Cooking fries can take any where from 40 minutes to an hour, depending on how many potatoes you are cooking and how brown you like them. Be sure to keep checking and stirring them so they don't burn. It's a good idea to start your fries first, and then make the rest of your dinner while they are baking.



It's a great side dish, kids love 'em and you won't feel guilty about eating them because, potatoes are a veggie right?

One year ago on SGI: How to make Strawberry Jam (canning method)

How To...Make Whole Wheat Bread by hand

Since we're collecting wheat this month as part of our long-term storage, we've decided to dedicate a couple of days to the making of whole wheat bread. Today we are making whole wheat bread by hand--no machine necessary!



The ingredients: Yeast, water, salt, honey or sugar, whole wheat flour, oil



Start off by dissolving the yeast into warm water






Then add some sugar or honey



and salt (or is this the sugar?)




and a few cups of the whole wheat flour. Freshly ground is best because it's warm and...fresh---but you can use store bought or flour that's been storing in your freezer.





Mix it together with a spoon until it's all combined, then cover with a warm damp towel




Let rise for an hour in a warm place




Add some hot water to this dough



and oil



and more sugar (not salt) or honey





And finally a couple more cups of whole wheat flour




Mix it as much as you can with your wooden spoon




And then turn it out onto your floured counter top to knead. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Set the timer because what feels like ten minutes, will probably only be two.






Put the kneaded dough back into the bowl (keep it dirty for crying out loud!) and cover. Let it rise for another hour.





While you're waiting, grease two loaf pans with shortening




Punch the dough down, when it's done rising, and shape into two loaves.



You can check out how I shape my bread loaves here.



Put into a greased loaf pan, and let rise again for another hour. You need all these risings (3 total) to develop the gluten in the wheat. With a mixer, the gluten is developed by the...well, mixing. But you couldn't possibly mix enough by hand to develop the gluten totally, which is why when you make bread by hand, it will almost always need to raise multiple times.


Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes


Until golden brown




Brush the tops with shortening if you like a soft crust or if you like shortening (all who agree say "Aye!")





Whole Wheat Bread--made by hand
recipe by Jeri Shelton

1 Tbsp yeast
2 cups warm water
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp honey (or 2 Tbsp sugar)
4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup hot water
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp honey (or 2 Tbsp sugar)
2 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast in 2 cups warm water. Add salt, honey and four cups of flour to yeast mixture. Mix together until smooth (will be a very thick batter). Cover with a warm moist towel. Let rise until light and bubbly--about one hour.

To this mixture add the hot water, oil and remaining honey and flour. Mix thoroughly--gradually add more flour (1 to 2 more cups) until dough becomes manageable to knead on counter. Dough should be soft and tacky (not sticky and not stiff or dry). When it reaches this point, knead for 10 minutes.

Put dough back into bowl and cover. Let rise another hour until double in size. Punch down and form into loaves. Put into greased loaf pans and let rise until doubled. Back at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Remove from pans and brush tops with shortening for soft crust. Eat. Groan with pleasure.

One year ago on SGI: How to make Strawberry Jam (freezer jam style)

Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your 72-hour kit, your 3-month supply, and your longer-term storage. If you are new to our blog, don't worry! You won't be left behind. Just start up where we are and follow along. You will eventually have everything completed! Once the 72-hour kit is complete, we'll be putting together emergency car kits again (week by week). Once those are done, we'll gather the 72-hour kits again. So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!

We just finished gathering our emergency car kits a few weeks ago, and we're moving on to the 72-hour kits!

This week, gather some backpacks or something similar to actually pack everything in. Keep in mind that you may be on foot if you ever needed to use them. Many people like to use Tupperware bins, and I think you can get some on wheels that would probably be great. Abbie and her husband each use big backpacking backpacks, and their kids have regular backpacks. I've also heard of people using wheeled luggage. This week, decide what you want to use and go get it! You could probably find some great stuff at the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

How is your three-month supply coming along? Do you have a 3 month recipe plan? I also like the store 3-4 months' worth of cleaning supplies and other hygiene needs (t.p., diapers, wipes, feminine products, etc).

We're gathering wheat this month for longer-term storage. Not sure how to cook with wheat? Check out our wheat recipes!

And finally, we had a week of giveaways last week - thanks to everyone who participated, and congrats to the winners! Not all the winners have contacted us, so please go check to see if you were one of the lucky ones! If we don't hear from you by this Friday, we'll have to find new winners!

Motivational Monday

“The first step [in food storage] is to begin. The second is to
continue. It doesn’t matter how fast we get there so much as
that we begin and continue according to our abilities.”

Presiding Bishop H. David Burton

One year ago on SGI: Motivational Monday

e-book winners!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our last giveaway of the week.  We got some GREAT questions and I'm really excited to start answering them!  We got some really good ideas for posts and tutorials, and I can tell that Abs and I are really going to be learning a LOT more about food storage this summer.  Thanks!  If you still have more questions, feel free to comment on this post!

Also, thanks so much for the supportive comments about our e-book.  If you didn't win one (or even if you did!), and you'd like to get one, just click on the link that's currently on the left side of our page.  Like we said before, we have a promotional rate going (just $5), so you may want to take advantage of that.  Click HERE to learn more information about our e-book.  Probably the greatest thing it has to offer to everyone is the printable recipes section , which contains all the recipes we published during our first year.  Also, many people will find the shopping list helpful - it's a full shopping list for your three month supply, using our recipes.  There are 7 different dinners, 7 lunches, and 21 different dinners.  If you were living off your food storage alone, you'd rotate through this schedule 4 times, and it would be a complete 12 weeks of eating three meals a day.

And now, the part I know you are ALL waiting for... the winners!  We used Random.org to generate 5 numbers between 1 and 91:

Comments 45, 69, 50, 11, and 6!

Congratulations, J!

Congratulations, TMM!

Congratulations, Jennifer!

Congratulations, Rick and Cheryl!

And congratulations, Joyce!

Please email us at safelygatheredin (at) gmail.com with an email address for us to send your e-book to.

This e-book is for personal use only.  If you'd like to share one with your friends, please buy them each individually (i.e., if you'd like to make 3 copies of your book [or any part of the book] to share, please buy 3 copies).  For bulk orders (10 or more), please contact us for bulk rates.

One year ago: Weekend Roundup

Friday's Giveaway - SGI e-book! ***UPDATE: Contest Closed! ***

It's the last day of our anniversary week - thanks everyone so much for entering our contests, for your great comments, and for reading our blog! We love writing this blog; we are learning so much about food storage and emergency preparedness along with you! Thanks everyone for your encouragement and your emails over the last year.

In celebration of our one-year mark, we've compiled a 79-page e-book, complete with some of our best articles, information, and recipes. Yes, RECIPES! In printable format! Ideal for your food storage, because if the power goes out it will be difficult to get onto the internet!

The e-book will be send to your computer immediately as a pdf download. You can print up this e-book, keep the pages in a binder, and keep it with your food storage (or your cookbooks!). You can print the whole thing, or just the recipes, or just the articles, or just the emergency preparedness info... whatever you want!

Here is a list of what's included in the e-book:

• Food Storage Quotes and stories (from our Monday posts)
  
• Information on the three-month supply (and rotation methods)
• Longer-term storage (storing options, and specific info about wheat, rice, beans, oats, and other items)
• 72-hour kit information (articles, list of items)
• Emergency Car kits (list of items)
• A section on water storage and preservation
• Other related food storage and emergency prep articles that we've shared over the year
• ALL our recipes from the last year, including rotation ideas for EACH recipe (fresh ingredients to add if you're eating the meal just to rotate it)
• A complete 3-month menu plan, which coincides with our recipes
• A complete shopping list for your 3-month supply (using the above menu plan) **This was made especially for the e-book, and will not be published on our blog!
• There is also a blank shopping list for you to fill in, as well as a blank 3-month menu chart, so that you can customize your own 3-month supply plan if you want to (or you can just use our list, since we've done all the work for you!)

FIVE (5) lucky readers will win a FREE copy of our e-book, and then tomorrow (Saturday) it will become available for purchase, right from our blog's home page. Normally, the e-book will cost $7, but for one week we'll be having a promotional rate of $5.

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this post asking US a question! Do you have any burning questions about food storage? Emergency preparedness? What I'm making for dinner tonight? Any questions about the e-book that we can answer for you? Ask us! I'm sure we'll get some great ideas for future posts, or maybe we'll do one huge Q&A. Or a week of Q&A's.

If you don't have any questions, that's ok too. Just write something so you can enter the giveaway!

One comment per person, please. This giveaway will close tomorrow (Saturday) at 2 pm EST.

Cansolidator Winner!

Thanks everyone for your comments!  I'm so jealous of everyone who has big pantries or basements to keep your food storage in!  Someday I'll have a basement... I hope!

We had 244 eligible comments, and used Random.org to find us a winner!

Comment #187!

Congratulations, Garden of Egan!

Please email us at safelygatheredin (at) gmail.com to claim your prize.

Stay tuned for our last giveaway, which will start later this afternoon!

Thursday's Giveaway - A Cansolidator!! ***UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED***

Yep, we're giving away another Shelf Reliance Cansolidator Pantry!! 

We probably don't have to tell you how great this thing is - we've reviewed it in the past (both of us), and we've also given a few away.   And now YOU could own one!  This baby can rotate up to 40 cans, all on one shelf.  Don't miss out!

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is comment on this post, answering the following question:

Where is the majority of your food storage?  In the guest room closet?  Under beds?  In the basement?  In your pantry?  Let us know!

This giveaway is open until tomorrow morning (Friday) at 9 a.m. EST.  One comment per person, please.

A big thanks to Shelf Reliance for sponsoring this giveaway!  Feel free to check out their site for more shelving options (and food storage!)

Reusable Tote Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered our Wednesday giveaway, the reusable tote bags!  We had lots of fun reading your comments, and now I have a great big list of places I'd love to visit!  You all have been everywhere!

We had 91 eligible comments, and as usual we used Random.org to generate 2 numbers for us.

Numbers 6 and 73!
Congratulations, Dee!

And congratulations, Lindy!

Please email us at safelygatheredin (at) gmail.com to claim your prize.

Stay tuned for today's giveaway!

Wednesday's Giveaway--Reusable Grocery Totes****UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED*****

You're going to need help carrying all that food storage home from the store, so we've decided to help you out with some reusable grocery totes.

These grocery totes are inspired from the muslin bags I used while spending a month in Greece. Each week we would walk back from the laiki (the open air market) carrying our produce and any other treasures in simple muslin bags.

I've tried to recreate that feeling with these bags. It makes a crazy grocery visit a little sweeter to have these bags remind me of a warm summer breeze and sweet smelling fruit.


Two (2) people will win a set of three reusable grocery totes. Handmade and printed with a silver dish motif. And machine washable--what more do you want?

To enter, leave a comment on this post and answer the following question:

Where/when was your favorite vacation and why?

What? That has nothing to do with food storage? Huh? Who's in charge of this giveaway anyway?

One comment per person, please. This contest closes tomorrow (Thursday) at 9 a.m. EST.

Bread Mix Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered our bread mix giveaway from Food Storage Depot!

We got 125 eligible entries, and we used Random.org to generate two random numbers between 1 and 125...

Numbers 43 and 100! 

Congratulations, Nicki!

And congratulations, Becca!

Please email us at safelygatheredin (at) gmail.com to claim your prize!

And everyone else, don't fret... there are still 3 more days of giveaways left, so come back soon!

Tuesday's Giveaway - Bread Mix *****UPDATE CONTEST CLOSED****

Today's giveaway is being sponsored by Food Storage Depot, an online store that specializes in (you guessed it!) food storage.

TWO (2) lucky readers will win sample packs of Aunt Kate's Bread Mix. Aunt Kate's Bread Mix is perfect for your food storage - all you have to do is add yeast and hot water! For those of you who just don't consider yourselves bread makers, this will be an easy way to feed your family, especially in an emergency.

I just tried some of Aunt Kate's Wheat Bread Mix, and it was really, really good. So easy to make, and filling too. And I'm not a huge fan of wheat bread, but this bread was great.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment on this post, answering the following question:

Have you ever done an official "inventory" of your food storage?? Do you know exactly what you have? We've mentioned doing inventories several times over the last year. I'll admit, I've done it a few times in the past but then I've never kept up with it, so over this last weekend I did it again and actually made a spreadsheet on my computer. I'll share more details in a post in the next couple of weeks, but I'm so glad I did it! And now I'm curious if YOU have ever done it!

One comment per person, please. This contest closes tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9 a.m. EST.

Thanks again to Food Storage Depot for sponsoring this contest! Be sure to check them out for your food storage needs!

One year ago on SGI: It's Tuesday! (week #1)

And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who entered our first giveaway of the week, from Survival Outpost!

We had 140 comments, and used Random.org to find the winner.

Number 125!
Congratulations, Kelsey!  Please email us at safelygatheredin (at) gmail.com to claim your prize.

We'll be posting today's giveaway soon, so stay tuned!

Happy Anniversary to Us! And some prizes for you...***UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED

It's our one year anniversary here at Safely Gathered In, and we're celebrating by having a week of giveaways!! Come back often this week and check out our daily prize.

Today's giveaway is a Crank Powered 12v Cell Phone Charger from Survival Outpost- perfect for your car kit or your 72-hour kits. This small, lightweight charger can provide power to more than just your phone - it can be used for a PDA, iPod, GPS receiver, and pretty much anything else that uses a cigarette-lighter adapter. Very handy! I know I wouldn't want to be caught in the middle of nowhere with a dead cell phone - especially in an emergency!

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment on this post telling us the status of your 72-hour kits. Are they completed? Halfway done? Not even started?? (FYI - next week we'll be gathering the 72-hour kits step-by-step here on our blog, so it's ok if you don't have yours done yet. You can follow along with us!)

One comment per person, please. This giveaway ends at 10am tomorrow, EST, (June 2) and the winner will be announced tomorrow morning before our next giveaway.

SurvivalOutpost.com is an Austin-based on-line business specializing in Preparedness Supplies and Survival Equipment for individuals, families and businesses. The SurvivalOutpost.com philosophy is to balance reason with readiness, and to encourage knowledge, independence and self-sufficiency as tools to survive in an increasingly uncertain, unpredictable and interdependent world.

Thanks to Survival Outpost for sponsoring this great giveaway!

One year ago: Welcome to our blog!