observations in my pantry

[Holly]

I had a friend over to help organize my pantry. It had gotten to be overwhelming to me. Canned foods everywhere in the house. I tried a number of times to get it together, 5 minutes tops was all I could stand - just too much to even look at.

She was a wonderful help, got the shelves all lined up. It has given me new vigor to get the remaining items organized. Not so overwheming at this point. Still need to search out where I stashed stuff and put away.

A few things she observed - meats, I don't have enough - would last maybe 2 months for 2 if I was careful. That was an eye opener.

Another thing she mentioned - regarding the dry milk - If I were not able to obtain more - what I have would be needed just for cooking and baking. Not for individual consumption. Not something I had considered - the need for milk in cooking and baking.

Well we all seem to buy something we look back and wonder what we were thinking.

Box cake mix appears to be my goofy buy. Oh, the frosting to go with those 32 box cake mixes. I guess I was afraid of not having something sweet to eat.

In our normal household, we don't eat cake. After the first slice it just sits in the frig till I toss it.

She suggested making as if it were pancakes. I did that this morning. What a wonderful surprise, it turns out great and is something we would eat. Bag them up, frig them, pull one out and dab a bit of frosting on. Just enough to satisfy the sweet need.

Of course, its going to take me a few years to go through 32 boxes.

Just feel like sharing today.

Holly

 

[Dinghy]

Hi Holly, You're lucky you have somebody to help you! I'm always on my own when it comes to that. I have a few y2k things that will never get used too. Soy milk and powdered milk. Even the cats don't like the soy milk, and my family absolutely will not touch powdered milk. I tried sneaking it into tomato soup, but they could tell it was in there and wouldn't eat it! Still haven't decided what to do with it, and don't know if it's even any good. My meat supply is dwindling too. None of the stores have had any good meat sales lately except chicken leg quarters, and I'm really tired of canning them! We have tuna and salmon, but don't really eat a lot of them normally. It's hard deciding what to buy especially if space is limited. We've had such a damp year that a lot of my cans are starting to rust even with the dehumidifier, so I hate to even buy any more.
Those cake mix pancakes sound good. I'll eat chocolate for breakfast any day of the week!!!

 

[HoofTrimmer]

You are blessed to have someone to give you advise on you pantry needs. Thanks for the heads up on the milk for baking and cooking needs. That was also something I have not stocked for. My pantry is a little lopsided too. I plan on getting everything organized very soon. As soon as my pantry is painted!

HoofTrimmer

 

[ejagno]

Can you send her down here Holly? LOL

I have canned foods absolutely in every crack and crevice of this house. My pantry is the size of a small linen closet and I hate it. We have a bar in my dining room which is open to my kitchen and I want DH to tear it out since we aren't big drinkers anyway and make it a 6 ft pantry instead.

As for the cakes I have them canned as well in pint wide mouth jars. It started out as an experiment and the kids love it. My 13 year old comes in from school and goes straight to my room under my bed and grabs one for his afternoon snack. I have brownie, strawberry, coffee cake and bannana cake. I'm going to try canning cornbread in this manner and see how it works. We don't eat it alot but we do like it with chili. Keep in mind that the feds haven't approved this method yet since it is canned by actually being baked in the jars.

My family isn't particularly crazy about powdered milk either but a friend (who works for the milk company) told me to add vanilla to it. I added the vanilla and chilled overnight and the next morning they thought that I'd actually went out and bought some whole milk (we usually drink skimmed). They were in heaven. Hehehehehe, they still don't know the truth. Now I have had some that was just plain nasty but it was stored too long and in a very humid area so that was why it was so bad. If it's yellowed you may just want to chunk it and buy a new box and try it. I wish we could can homogenized milk from the store!

Meat is something that I've slacked off on by itself. I began realizing early into canning that by canning the meat then having to go back and prepare the meal meant virtually doing double the work. From then on I prepared it just as though I was serving it for dinner with the exception that I would only cook it 1/3 of the normal time. I would then put it in the jars and process the recommended amount of time. If I want spaghetti, chili, beef tips and gravy, pork chops or any other kind of meal it's ready to just heat and eat........and I only handled it once. Yes, it's very time consuming but if you do this in batches then it's alot easier. I base my cooking sessions on whatever I find on sale. I found the ground chuck at a super price yesterday so I bought 25 lbs. and spent the day and most of the night cooking and canning. As a result I now have enough canned spaghetti, and chili to last quite a while. I also had bought 2 briskets which was trimmed, boiled and cubed into a winters supply of corn soup and vegetable soup. (P.S. - I'd hit the mother of all sales last week on all of the vegetables but hadn't had a chance to do anything with them so this turned out perfect) I bought a huge chuck roast on sale and it's now a years supply of beef stew. After Christmas last year the hams were reduced to $5 per whole ham and I've used that to season my vegetables and eggs all year. Speaking of which, these meals have been a blessing during those crazy and hectic holidays because I DON'T HAVE TO COOK.

 

[MaxTheKnife]

Dinghy, I have a powdered milk story for you.

Years ago, when I was just a young lad, my Dad took an interest in our grocery bills. At the time (about 1969), milk was one of the most expensive things we bought on a regular basis. Dad found out that powdered milk was a little cheaper than fresh milk and bought a bunch of it. He also like the idea that you could mix it up as you went along and there wasn't much chance of losing any to spoilage. He also liked to make clabbered milk to drink and wanted to try powdered milk for that (it worked pretty good if you like clabbered milk).

Now, us kids (me, my brother and sister) decided right away that we didn't like powdered milk. It just didn't seem right to us. He made us try it and was totally disgusted with us because we said we didn't like it. Well, it DID taste funny next to fresh milk. No one will deny that. However, my Dad was one to always get his way, and in the end he did.

Mom always bought several wax coated half-gallons of milk a week. They didn't put it in plastic jugs back then. Plastic was too expensive! Anyway, Dad pulled a long drawn out sneaky on us kids. And he even fooled Mom too! At least, that's what she told us. He started watching the milk level in the current jug of milk and when it got to the half-way mark, he'd mix up enough powdered milk to bring the jug up the the 3/4 full mark. When it got down to the 1/4 full mark he'd fill it up to the 1/2 mark with powdered milk. And so on.....

Now, after a few weeks of this he finally sprung it on us! One morning at breakfast he jumped up and very dramatically and loudly proclaimed "ALL OF YOU LIKE POWDERED MILK"!!! Then he sat back down and continued eating his breakfast. He had this smug look on his face and all of us kids were trying to figure out what was wrong with our Dad NOW? He finally told us what he'd been doing and wanted to know if any of us had noticed any change in the milk. Well, we all had to admitt that we hadn't. I guess it's kind of like that boiling frog thing. Since he sneaked it in on us slowly, we really didn't notice it. And you know what? To this day, I'm a big fan of powdered milk! Yep, that's right!!!

My family doesn't use fresh milk at all because none of us drink it. And you know, it's interesting to note that the human animal is the only one on the planet that continutes to drink milk after they're weaned at infancy. It's just not natural. Now I like to drink buttermilk from time to time. It goes real good with beans and cornbread and is really good for the friendly bacteria in your gut. Once a twice a year at least. I know this was kind of a long story Dinghy. I just like telling stories is all. And as for your family not liking anything you cook with powdered milk in it... Well, you need to try my Mom's method of dealing with that attitude. When we didn't like what was for supper, SUPPER WAS OVER! Oh yeah, that's how it went. We learned real quick when to keep our mouths shut. I rekon that's the end of my story.

 

[Deemy]

Dinghy, you can stop the rusting by dipping the tops in wax. Holly, lucky you! Someone to talk to and help each other in prepping! So many of us are trying to do it by ourselves and some without spousal support! I just move about three years ago and needed my stash to help us get through a rough patch. DH finally got a fruit celler in basement so I finally got started agin but I doubt at this point if we have enough for two months but least it's started again! I don't care alot for honey but it keeps forever and is a natural food item. I can handle it in tea and tea is gotten just by walking outside and gathering! sugar I do have and just got a fantastic buy on salmon so that's good. Have lots of canning lids! I have found that you can use lids twice...been afraid to try three times.

 

[theoutlands]

Hunh - *my* kids love powdered milk. I don't care for it straight, myself, but it works when used for baking.

BUT!

With two dairy goats, it's a moot point!! lol

 

[closet squirrel]

Just got back from prep shopping. Every 2 weeks(payday) I spend about $5 on prep food that we probably wont eat. I get things like canned or powdered milk, honey, shortning, weird stuff like powdered eggs or butter powder. I try to think of things I will need to bake and cook with if there is no refrigerator. Just stuff from the grocery store. Then I spend another $5 on stuff that we eat sometimes, but not alot. I get 2 pounds of dried beans, popcorn (the non microwave kind), cornmeal, grits, and 2 jars of salt. Plus a box of canning lids. I do this every 2 weeks and it really adds up.

I am a crazy coupon shopper so the rest of my preps I get with coupons. Pasta, rice mixes, mac and cheese, canned soup and fruit and vegatables, tuna, canned meat, chili, ravioli, marinade, gravy, bbq sauce, pasta sauces, canned tomatoes, canned beans, cereal, salad dressing, mustard, taco stuff, hamburger helper, etc - that stuff is all free. So are health and beauty stuff like shampoo, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste and brushes, shaving cream, razors, bandaids, tylenol, tums, soap

I outgrew the pantry and moved to the basement in sheves. It is so fun putting that stuff away and organizing it. I feel good every time I go down in the basement and look at it.

 

[funnyfarm]

Hi Holly,

A friend gave me this recipe years ago. My Grandson had to do a demo in class and chose to demo CAKE MIX COOKIES cause he bakes them himself when grandma doesn't feel like doing the whole chocolate chip mess thing. Really fast and easy to make and they taste great (soft cookie).

1 box cake mix, 1/2 cup oil, 2 tablespoons water, 2 eggs, 1 cup chocolate (or any flavor) chips, 1 cup of nuts. Mix all together, drop by teaspoon and bake on ungreased cookie sheet 350 degrees 8-10 minutes. Fast, easy. delicious.

 

[Gingergirl]

Well, I've become so discouraged that I cleaned all the equipment out of the kitchen and took the day off. With the help of DD2 I have put up about 80 quarts of fruits, vegetables, pickles, and preserves...not including a smattering of dehydrated vegetables and herbs. I am so far behind, I have no hope of meeting the supply I usually consume every year.

I'm also discouraged with the usual complaints from the family about the abreviated dinner menus, the lack of usable kitchen/stove space, and my unavailability to attend to their immediate demands. (In my defense, the house is reasonable clean, laundry up todate, and all the errands that they could have warned my about a month ago BEFORE canning started have been done.)

Its not like they don't like any of the stuff I put up. DD2 would eat the canned peaches all day. DH hoards the dills. DD1 nearly lives on the beef stew and grape jelly.

Okay, now I have vented. I guess I'll start on the salsa in the morning.

 

[closet squirrel]

GIngergirl.
pay no attention to them, its not like you are gonna eat all that stuff yourself.

 

[Gingergirl]

closet squirrel,

I did have a moment of thinking that while I had my arms around my hoard I would say "mine, all mine. Go get your own."

What a pain to be a prepper Mom. Bad combination I think.

 

[Dinghy]

Good story Max! I'll have to try and sneak some powdered in the jug if it's still good and see what happens. I don't drink any milk, so to me it's all yelchy! I make a lot of meals that my son doesn't eat. He wants almost every meal to be Italian food. I have always told the kids if they didn't like what I fixed, they know where the cereal is! Now that they're grown I worry even less. If they don't like it, they can go downtown and buy their own food! My husband will eat anything I fix, so he's the one I cook for.
The only prep thing I've bought this week so far is peanut butter. 18 oz. Peter Pan 3/$3.00. We use a lot of peanut butter, especially at Christmas. I make a lot of peanut butter cups and Hershey Kiss cookies. I loaded up on walnuts last year when they were on sale, and they're starting to taste funny. Guess I won't buy as many this year.
Our store hasn't been having good sales at all lately. There might be one thing that I want, like the peanut butter. Last week it was canned potatoes 3/$1.00, but they never had any when I was there. I got a rain check, and they still didn't get any in this week yet.
Deemy, I might have to try waxing the can lids. I've started to not put the cans as close to the wall where the dampness is coming in. Since we've had so much rain this year, there are places getting wet that never did before. Now that I know where it's doing it I can keep a closer eye on everything.

 

[goatlady2]

Since nuts contain a lot of oil they do tend to go rancid but keeping them in a freezer puts a stopper on that process.

 

[Rald]

powdered milk...

I always have a cup of hot milk at bedtime right after taking my night meds. I use the powdered milk and really like the taste once it has been heated. I have used it on cereal but just cannot tolerate the taste. Mixing it half and half with 1% milk helps a little.

Another way I use the powdered milk is to make a hot cocoa mix:

Serves 18

1 Cup powdered milk
1 Cup non-dairy creamer
3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup baking cocoa

Mix well and store in an airtight container.

For one serving, combine 3 tablespoons of the mix (adjust to taste) with 3/4 Cup boiling water.

Variations: Try adding one teaspoon cinnamon or 1 tablespoon of coffee crystals.


I try to always keep some mixed up for my grandchildren.

Ann

 

[Lynn]

Dinghy

I had a friend that passed on that used to make the peanut butter cups , she was always going to give me the recipe.

I found one in a book that was awful. Could you please post yours?


We mix up hot chocolate from powered milk also. It's yummy. Plus you save a lot of money.

 

[Dinghy]

Unfortunately I don't use a recipe for my peanut butter cups. I used the one that came with the candy molds and we didn't like it. The center was too dry for our liking. The best way that I can tell you to make them is this... start with one pound of confectioners sugar. Add a stick of margarine or butter, doesn't really matter which. Then throw in about 1 cup of peanut butter. Mix it all together, then taste it. You want it to be nice and creamy and have a good peanut butter taste. If it isn't quite how you like it, add more of something. If it's too creamy add more sugar. Too dry add more margarine or peanut butter etc. It just takes some experimenting. If you taste test it, you aren't likely to goof it up. When I used the recipe I just thought that's the way it had to be for them to turn out. I put them all together before I tasted them. WRONG!! It will either be too dry or too creamy and that can be fixed, there isn't any other way you can goof it up. I use the candy molds that they sell at Walmart. They should have the chocolate there too, but I never looked because I buy mine at our grocery store. They should have directions somewhere on how to use them. You can even just make them into eggs and hand dip them, but that's a lot messier!
Hope you try them and have good luck.

 

[Lynn]

Thanks, you cook like I do. I almost always have to tweak a recipe. I think I'll be lazy and put them in a brownie pan. My friend used to make the balls. The recipe that I had tried was really dry, doing it your way how can i lose

 

[ejagno]

ABOUT THE POWDERED MILK

issue of taste that alot of us seem to be having. Here is another tidbit that I found and thought that it definitely worth sharing now.............remember, now is the time to get all the kinks out of our food storage systems and methods. LOL

To make the reconstituted richer milk: Measure 14 cups water into a gallon-sized
pitcher-I use the big one from tupperware. Add 5 cups dried milk and i can
evaporated milk. Mix and chill. You may find you and your family really like
this! I got the recipe from www.hillbillyhousewife.com-a great site! Really basic
foods that are TNT.

 

[Dinghy]

That is a great site. I've copied a lot of the recipes already. Thanks a bunch!

 

[Albuburbia]

We don't eat much cake, either, but I have about a dozen cake mixes, and the little tubs of frosting to match. I usually take leftovers to work, for the masses to consume.

There was actually a smidge of logic in my buying it, though. I figure it for comfort food. Think about your group of people being isolated and on limited rations, and somebody's birthday arrives. Or anniversary. Or a made-up celebration, "we've survived a month after ... "

Don't toss it!