Weekend Rounup: Gardening Edition

Don't have money for peat pellets? Plant your seeds in egg shells, tutorial here at Imagine Childhood via the Crafty Crow. Looks like a fun activity to do with kids.

Check out The Simple Dollar's garden preparation post. It covers all the basics of a return gardener.

And finally, Preparedness Brings Peace has a bunch of gardening links here


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Enjoy General Conference everyone, and don't forget to rotate your 72 hour kits!

Food Storage Friday: Chicken Gumbo

Our resident FHE specialist, Tiffany, is here doing a special food storage Friday guest post.

Ingredients: Spices, chicken broth, summer sausage, spaghetti sauce, canned corn, & canned chicken.

So there is chili powder pictured in this picture but we will NOT be using chili powder... I just love chili powder so much that my subconscious put it in the picture....sorry.

Spices: paprika, dry mustard (not pictured), dried basil, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, dried thyme leaves, dried oregano, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper.


Dump the spaghetti sauce in a pot or crock pot (which ever you prefer... if cooking in crock pot cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 4-6 hours. I have used both the crock pot and a regular pot and they both turn out the same.)

Next dump all the spices into the spaghetti sauce, stir.



and the corn.

Summer sausage is a great food storage item because you don't have to refrigerate it. I got really excited when I found turkey summer sausage. I don't eat any beef or pork so finding turkey summer sausage was like the find of the century for me.... but you can use beef or turkey whichever you and your family prefer.

Cut the summer sausage into cubes and remember to discard the outer paper.

You can add the summer sausage two ways: #1 just cut the summer sausage up and throw it in the pot or crock pot. #2 (which I like best) is to cook it some more in a pan. I add just a tiny big of oil and let the edges get brown. I like the little crunch that it gives to the sausage.

Then dump it into the pot as well.

then the canned chicken....

Bring the gumbo to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 20-40 minutes. The longer it is simmered the thicker the gumbo gets. If you let it get to thick just add water to thin it out again.

Serve gumbo over rice. You can also add a 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice to the pot as it is cooking if you would prefer.


Tiffany's note **I know there are a lot of spices that go into this recipe. If you prefer not to store all these spices in your 3 month supply you can do what I like to do. I save my empty spice containers, I then combine all the spices for one recipe into the empty spice container and label. Now you have all the spices for this recipe or any others that you would like, all together and you just have to dump it in.

Chicken Gumbo

1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
12-14 oz summer sausage, slice and cooked if desired
1 can (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 can (15 oz) chicken
1 can (11 oz) canned corn, drained
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
1 1/4 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked rice or enough for your family

Dump all ingredients expect rice into a pot or crock pot. Bring gumbo to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer gumbo for 20-40 minutes until flavors are infused. If gumbo gets too thick add a little water to thin it out.

Pour over rice (or you can put the rice into the gumbo if you would like), and enjoy!

Keeping your kits updated

Ever since we started this blog last June, we've learned lots of things from our readers. One thing that many people have mentioned to us is that they rotate their 72-hour kits every General Conference weekend. Since General Conference happens every 6 months without fail, this is a great way to remember to do it!

For those of you not familiar with the LDS faith, every 6 months we have a "General Conference" which is broadcast via satellite (from Salt Lake City) to members of the Church all over the world. It occurs during the first weekend in April, and the first weekend in October.

So, here at Safely Gathered In, we're going to start doing that as well. Every General Conference time, we'll remind you all to rotate your 72-hour kits and your car kits. Of course, if you just finished your 72-hour kit with us a few weeks ago you won't need to do it this time around, but if you've had your kits done for a few years, it's time to open them up and see what you find!

Things that should be rotated are: clothing (sizes), diapers (sizes), water, and food. The water and food doesn't need to go to waste - you can just put it in your pantry and eat through it in the next couple of weeks (provided it's still good). If you notice that some of your food still doesn't expire for another year or so, you don't need to replace it if you don't want to, since you'll be doing this again in 6 months.

During this rotation weekend, you should also check the status of your flashlights and batteries, and any other items you think may need updating or checking.

Of course, this doesn't have to be done this weekend, but you should do it in the next few weeks. Then, at the end of September, we'll be reminding you all to do it again. Remember, a 72-hour kit (or car kit) full of expired food and dead batteries probably won't do you much good, so it's important to update!