That sounds like one of those meme questions: *If you were stranded on a desert island and had a choice of only one seasoning to bring, what would it be?*
I like my little *To Bring* list down there. It's been extremely helpful, and I'll need it again when I go do plaster jackets or poke around the Okeefenokee Swamp or take off for the Keewenaw Peninsula again. So I'll keep updating it as I go, whenever I realize there was something else I should have written down.
Like these:
-Thermometer. Considered it, left it behind. Should have brought it.
-More 2" *Durapore* brand silk tape. It's quite hard to find, usually needs to be ordered, and it's the only tape with glue I'm not very allergic to. I have to tape my duragesic patch on, so I always need this.
-Egg whites. I brought egg salad, but sometimes I need a hit of pure protein for the blood sugar.
-Blood sugar test kit. Brought it, just didn't list it. Something I really don't want to forget.
-Dry mustard.
And thanks for your comments! True Hurricane Preps might have a few more items, but not very many. So any time any of you are facing a Big BugOut, send me an email. I can help others fine tune their own lists too, and have done several times now. Fun!
I try to bring more of the lightweight items with me, and purchase heavier ones at the destination. Weight inside your vehicle makes an amazing difference in fuel consumption. I packed just enough sugar to keep Walter supplied with coffee on the road, for instance. It's heavy, it's cheap, it's okay to spend a few cents more buying it at Walmart in Missouri if we run out, rather than packing cheaper Sam's sugar from home.
Of course, a trivet's never lightweight. But cooking in the Isuzu and the hotel room both, it's been a *Must.* It would have been easy to put a very hot dish on something plastic and melt it; or something less stable, and end up getting burned again. No no no.
We've bought some things here by now. Worcestershire sauce. I finally ran out at home, so I didn't mind buying it here. (Two many duplicate bottles start to irritate me.) Eggs, to put Worcestershire sauce in and nuke up some scrambled eggs. Poultry seasoning. And replacements of our regular foods, just like at home. Ran out of milk and cream.
The gray cooler on the right is a 12V cooler. We bought a $17 converter so we could plug it into the wall socket. The blue cooler needs ice, though. Every day Walter takes the elevator downstairs to the lobby and fills 2 1-gallon ziplocks with ice, double-bagged. That way we don't have to dump water out of the cooler all the time. The ice cooler has the veggies and fruits and so forth, items that don't need as constant a cold temp to stay good. The 12V cooler keeps our meats and dairy fresh.
Today we had ribs, cooked in the tiny $18 *camping* toaster oven; and little red potatoes, baked in the nuker. Salads. For me, a broccoli flower cooked in the nuker with a little water. It came out much better than I expected. Tasty! Nice green leafies to help with healing! An excellent excuse for whipped butter, together with my little bitty allotment of red potato.
Walter was floored. He just didn't believe I could cook ribs and things with the equipment we have here. To his amazement, the ribs and potatoes were delicious. Hmph! After 15 years, you'd think he'd know better.
See how tiny this toaster oven is? It barely holds that meat loaf. When I made the (boneless back meat) *ribs,* I sauced 'em up, wrapped 'em in foil, put 'em on the trays - I have two matching trays, one scarfed from another dead toaster oven - and stacked them, one atop the other. Cooked them at 300 degrees in the tiny oven for three hours. Oh they were good! And oh, did I NEED some hot fresh food!
And just why are we doing this? At the hotel alone, the food savings for us two people are over $100/week, and we've been here 2 1/2 weeks already. That's a good $300 to date, just at the hotel. On the road it's more.
I'm making the meat loaf now. Yes, that's two big entrees in one day, but I had to use up the ground beef and pork. It was a cooler thing. When I get sick I can fall too far behind in life's chores, including cooking meat that will go bad if I wait too long. That's no fun for anyone.
I'm not sure how this batch of meat loaf will turn out. I left out the bread crumbs because my blood sugar's being a nuisance and I'm not healing right. Plus I just ate a potato. I did use lots of grated sweet onion and onion juice, and grated carrot, and an egg. A head of garlic, pressed; Worcestershire sauce, turmeric, poultry seasoning, and salt. And almost as much ground pork as ground round. Hopefully it'll be juicy and tender even without the starchy carbs.
I think my meat loaf is done. Brb.
Yeah, that's done. Well, probly. I believe this requires a taste test to be completely sure.
Oh, YUM! Thank you, Chris!
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6 comments:
Looks good enuf to eat!
A SHOVEL. Did you bring a shovel. I don't know why, but you might need a shovel. And flares?
Yum. Too bad that meat loaf for one isl such a big production. BTW, I'm curious about the tumeric -- last I heard, it contains magic that wards off Alzheimers. I'd never thought that a whiff of the curry mix would go with a meatloaf.
Ur...bad timing to visit here. It is late and I'm still stuck here for a couple more hours. My salivary glands went into hyperdrive at the sight of that meatloaf.
I wonder how pencils taste with a dab of ketchup...
k, everybody keeps talking about a 72 hour emergency kit--what would YOU put into one of those??? Something to put in a backpack and throw into the trunk of your car at a moment's notice?
Did you pack Walter as well?
Joyce, I had a collapsible shovel I recently returned to Walmart because it didn't work right. If I'd replaced it by now, I may have brought it along.
They come in handy, amazingly much. That goes triple for folks who may like to swipe the occasional rock or roadside plant to bring home.
Flares? That's probably a good idea. So is a fire extinguisher.
Granny J, I'm starting to *downsize* my farmwife type cooking approach. That makes it a little easier to tolerate the time and work involved in cooking things like meat loaf. And when a person has only been a *recreational* cook, as opposed to being the one responsible for the daily feeding of a family, it helps. It's entirely up to me, if I'm in the mood for cooking or not.
The turmeric goes well in just about every type of savory dish one can imaging. Oddly enough, I'm not fond of curry, not a bit. Too much turmeric gets sort of bitter. But the right amount goes great with chicken, for example.
It's way loaded up with magnesium, too. Good for people with heart problems.
DC, I would LOVE to cook for you. I know, absolutely, what an appreciative *audience* you would be. And we very clearly have lots of similar tastes in food.
HA! Funny you would ask, Joyce. See, for one thing, as Chertoff so kindly sneered at us at Wilma's Ground Zero, three weeks is a far better emergency time frame than 72 hours.
So in a sense, what you're looking at IS my 72-hour kit.
For the ill and disabled this is even more important. Meds. Pack lots and lots of meds.
Even in 72 hours, there's no way I could fit what I need into a backpack. That said, the things we brought - excluding the appliances - fit into two large leather shoulder bags.
John, it was more like Walter packed ME. When it came down to it, he did all the driving. I mostly slept in the back, all packed up in my bedclothes, feet up on my footstack.
I'd come to here and there, and stick my head up and say Hi. That was usually the exact right time to get a nice sandwich together for Walter, then go back to sleep.
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