Friday, January 23, 2015

Food Storage Record Keeping Made Easy

I don't consider myself a Prepper..   
stocking up on food is and always has been a way of life for me.  
I grew up on a farm and we stored enough food to make it to the next growing season.  Moving to Urban living is no different to me, I still grow a garden and the things I can't grow I buy in quantities when on sale.
I do keep spare water because I've seen the times when a water main broke and we needed stored water to drink.
I've also saw times when ice storms has knocked out the power for weeks at a time and the store shelves were bare.
With out our food storage we'd been a bit hungry.
so if that makes me a Prepper, then so be it.

The reason I'm showing you a glimpse of my storage is to bring to mind how hard it is to keep track of what you do have.
Do you really think you can remember all that you have stashed away and the expiration dates without a record?
I can't
Not without a record of some kind
And that's what this blog is all about, I want to show you what and how I keep up with everything.
If you are using Google Chrome then you probably know all about how you can keep up with everything from browser to browser to different computers.. bookmarks follow you on all your signed in computers.
Did you know Google also has a Drive you can use to store pictures and documents?  Yup and it also follows you on all your devices.
But the neatest part is Drive also has a spread sheet
BINGO
That's what you can use for your storage records.. make changes anytime you add or remove and item and no matter which computer you're on you can access it and even print off hard copies.
Now you ready for the next BINGO?
If you own a Kindle Fire you can also access those pictures and records.. some people say you can't but you can.
Go to Amazon app store and download their ES3 app.
Sorry the center of the app didn't show up but you can read what's under it and see the shape.. it's a light blue with ES3 written inside.
Using that app you can download Google Drive and all your records.
There's my records on my Kindle Fire
You can add or remove on it too, just like on your computer.
Same as on my computer
Neat huh?
If you're like me, when I come across a good deal at the store, say on syrup, I like to know how many I have stored in the basement.
I don't want more then we can use before it expires so I print off a hard copy of my list and keep it in my wallet.
I guess you could take your tablet to the store but that's not something I care to do when a printed copy works just as well.
I'm so in love with this that I'm planning on making up lists for my two freezers.. and who knows, I might even start a list of my upstairs pantry.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

JALAPENO SALT AND PEPPER



My family is addicted to jalapeno salt and pepper
It's delicious on just about everything.. the first time I made some I added salt to keep it from clumping but adding extra salt to some foods wasn't a healthy idea so I now make some with black pepper too and this is working out great..
Use the jalapeno salt when cooking and the jalapeno pepper on already salted foods.
The other day I found some nice looking jalapenos at a local Mexican store for 99 cents a pound and I bought 11 pounds of them.

Cut into long slices and dried in my Excalibur dehydrator over night at 135 degrees

I use my herb/coffee grinder and after I fill each salt shaker half full I top one off with salt and the other with black pepper then I dump each one back in the grinder for a quick pulse to make sure their blended.
A word of warning 
be sure you wear a face mask when doing this because the fine powder will get breathed into your nose.. when you take the lid off the grinder it looks like a green cloud floating up and around you.
 if you don't own a mask then wrap a wet rag around your face.