Christmas is over and a new year is coming. You won’t be starting your New Year’s resolutions until tomorrow and so for your New Year’s celebration you can make a bunch more goodies. (It has been scientifically proven, by me – sort of — that any calories that you ingest on New Year’s Eve won’t follow you into the new year…really).

The one thing that I like about all of the new candy recipes and goody recipes, that are posted on my web site www.apreparedhome.com, is that everything can be taken right from your food storage. Nothing calls for fresh food – all of it can be stored for extensive amounts of time — even the butter. I try to buy my butter and margarine when it is on sale for a really good price and then keep it in the freezer. If I forget to take the butter and/or margarine out ahead of time to thaw for a recipe, I have found a really easy way to make it usable without having to use a microwave; just use a grater. And you thought that graters were only for grating cheese.

Another good thing about making candy and goodies this time of year is that the grocery stores have caught on and generally have what you need on sale so that you can buy a year’s worth to build up your food storage and to save money at the same time. Sugar is a really good example of this and so is butter. I found butter on sale for on $1.49 a pound the other day! Yes, I bought a bunch because all of the other butter was for $3.00 and $4.00 a pound! Do the math – I saved a lot of money and I have butter for a whole year (or margarine, whatever you prefer, or find on sale.)

Soda pop is also a terrific buy right now. I bought 20 2-liter bottles for only .69 cents each! Compared to the usual $1.29 price, I saved over $12.00! Translated into food storage talk, that would be enough money to purchase a 25lb. bag of sugar and 50lbs. of salt! Have you noticed that I have been using a lot of exclamation points? Get prepared and SAVE MONEY!!!

I know that money is tight right now, with the economy slowing down and Christmas just getting over with, but that is an even a better reason to take advantage of bulk buying sale items to get prepared. Santa brought me two cases of tuna fish and my husband two cases of Minestrone soup. But you don’t have to wait until next year for Santa to start helping you with your food storage – you can do that on your own starting right now.

With all of your resolutions this year, please make building your food storage and getting prepared right at the top of your list and then work on it on a daily, or at least a weekly basis. If you do, you will truly have a happy and prepared New Year.

In the meantime, try this food storage friendly recipe and go to our recipes for more wonderful candy recipes given to me by a wonderful friend Judy (and not one of them uses beans!)

LICORICE CARAMELS

1 can sweetened condensed milk ¼ t. salt
1½ c. light corn syrup 2 t. (or less) anise (licorice) oil
1 c. butter 1 t. (or less) black food color
2 c. sugar

Lightly spray or butter a 9” square (or 7xll”) baking pan – glass is best. (Update: can line with sprayed foil, then lift out after they’ve set up.) In a heavy 4-quart saucepan, combine condensed milk, corn syrup, butter, sugar and salt. Place over medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.

Cook, stirring constantly to 235º or 236º. Remove from heat and stir in flavoring and food color and blend well. Without scraping, pour into prepared pan. Allow to stand at room temperature several hours. Cut and wrap. Be prepared for black teeth when you eat them!

(Visit our Recipes page for more candy recipes.)

Last week, I went shopping after work. Why after work when I’m tired and I just want to get home? Well, there was a very good reason. It was going to storm on Friday, my day off, when I would normally do my shopping and running around. Am I just a wimp and don’t like to brave the cold? Absolutely! That and I’m not a risk taker and I just don’t want to take the chance of being stuck somewhere in bad weather.

This brings up a good point about being prepared – whether you are home or on the road. Are you prepared for bad weather? Do you have some winter boots in the trunk of your car? How about an extra blanket? Not just a small silver emergency blanket, but a nice warm quilt that you don’t need on your bed anymore. How about an emergency kit? Does it have chemically activated hand warmers in it? Do you have a nice warm knitted beanie cap? How about an umbrella? Umbrellas aren’t just for rain you know; they can also be used for protection against piercing winds and heavy snowfall. What kind of gloves do you have in your car for an emergency? Gloves may make it easier to use, but did you know that your hands will actually stay warmer if you are wearing mittens? It’s true because your fingers share the warmth with each other.

I ask these questions because these are the same questions that I ask myself each time that I drive anywhere in bad weather, especially on cold mornings (the weather forecaster on my computer said that is was 12 degrees Fahrenheit, but that with the wind chill that it really felt like 4 degrees – I believe it!) I can say yes to all of these questions except for the mittens. All I have are gloves, but my goal is to get a good set of mittens just to leave in the car.

Just because I am staying home does not mean that I am exempt from the cold or disasters that might strike. Power outages here and there are playing havoc on several states back east and there are thousands of people who are without power – and they are pretty darn cold and miserable. Ask yourself some questions to see if you are prepared for a winter freeze. Do I have an alternative heating source? Do you have enough fuel for your alternative heating source? Is my alternative heating source and fuel safe (very important question)? Do you have enough variety of food on hand that you don’t have to go out shopping, or would you be forced to go on a diet? DO YOU HAVE WATER? Do you have a reliable form of communication if your cell phone battery goes dead? How about medications? Can you survive for a week or more if you were unable to go to the pharmacy?

We have such extreme temperature fluctuations in Utah that we need to be prepared for, both hot and cold — the cold just has my undivided attention right now. Please make sure that your car is really ready and full of gas when you go somewhere. Make sure that your house can truly be a place of refuge, no matter what, and make sure that you are fully prepared mentally, physically and spiritually – those three elements will help make any disaster more bearable. And to make life in general more bearable check out the Homemade Hot Chocolate recipe and stay warm deliciously!

I can’t go another Christmas without sharing my mom’s English Toffee recipe. I have such good memories of she and my dad and us kids making lots and lots and LOTS of toffee every Christmas season when I was young. One year I thought that I was living in a candy factory – it was heaven. We even had a second fridge that its sole purpose (at least during the Christmas season) was to cool the candy. As soon as the candy could be broken up, the cookie pan was recycled and the process started all over again. We had no less than eight or nine cookie sheets in use at any one time. If ever there was a time that I came close to chocolate and toffee overdose, it was then.

English Toffee
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup water
8 oz. milk chocolate candy bar (a good quality milk chocolate bar, the thin ones are the best)
½ cup chopped or ground walnuts

Combine butter, sugar and water in a heavy saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Then cook uncovered, while stirring constantly (very important), until mixture darkens slightly, about 290 degrees. You don’t want to overcook because it will get too hard, but if you undercook it, it won’t set up.

Pour onto a buttered cookie sheet (use butter not Pam) and let the toffee mixture spread out to about a ¼” or slightly less. Immediately lay broken pieces of the candy bar, evenly spaced, over the top of the hot mixture. Carefully spread the chocolate over the mixture as it starts to melt, and sprinkle the top with ground walnuts. It is helpful if you pat the walnuts lightly into the melted chocolate so that the nuts won’t fall off when you serve the finished product.

Cool in the refrigerator. (You can cool it on the counter, but it takes too long for me. I’m too impatient.) Break into serving size pieces, but be careful when doing this because sometimes the chocolate will separate from the toffee. If that happens, don’t stress – it is still edible.

If you will notice, ALL of the above ingredients are food storage items, including the water (two gallons of water, per person, per day for a two-week period) and it is a fairly easy recipe to make and it is certainly a mood lifter. Even if it doesn’t turn out perfect the first time (don’t worry it will), the results are still incredibly tasty.

The other thing that I like about this recipe, and this time of year, is that it brings the family together. All of the family can help make this recipe even the youngest member of the family can butter the pans. Doing activities as simple as cooking and creating together helps families grow closer together. Having strong relationships and a good network of people who care about you and your well being is vital in truly being prepared. Hopefully you are part of a close network and you support others too. That is the greatest gift of all – giving the gift of self.

Merry Christmas everybody.

One of my first memories of Christmas is making Christmas tree ornaments. Not your mother’s “I’ll treasure this little aluminum foil star/toilet paper roll tube forever” kind of ornament, but the “This is not going to last until Christmas” kind of ornament. Every year when we were young, we made our Christmas tree decorations out of sugar cookie dough. After using our reindeer, bell, angel and star cookie cutters, baking the cookies and letting them cool off – for maybe all of five minutes, we would then smear different colored frosting all over our ornaments. After decorating them with sprinkles or colored sugar crystals, we would wrap them up in cellophane and hang them on the tree. It was beautiful!

I don’t think that I have ever seen a more beautiful tree since – it was very colorful and very full - we didn’t hold back on the ornaments. I don’t care what theme your tree is, the cookie Christmas tree theme is the best, and the tastiest. Of course it was only completely decorated for the first day. After that the decorations would start to mysteriously disappear. Within a week the only decorations that were left on the tree was the popcorn that we had strung and the cookies that were “so high” – above the approximate height of the tallest child (me). It’s no wonder that I love Christmas, and I got presents too!

If you want to start this tradition in your home, here are two really good Sugar Cookie recipes to get you started.

Sugar Cookies #1
1 cup shortening (or ½ cup shortening and ½ cup butter)
1 cup sugar
3 ½ cups flour
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder

Cream shortening and butter together. Gradually add sugar and continue to mix until completely creamed. Add eggs and beat well. Blend in sifted dry ingredients and vanilla. Roll ¼ inch thick. Cut the size or shape you want (reindeer, bell, angel and star), place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 350º oven for 8 minutes. Cool, decorate and hang.

Sugar Cookies #2
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
4 to 4 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
4 tsp. baking powder

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift the dry ingredients together (I don’t take the time, you can) and then mix into the creamed mixture. If too dry, sprinkle with a little water. Roll out about ¼” thick with floured cookie cutters. Bake at 375º for 6 to 10 minutes.

Try both recipes and see which one you prefer – I’ll happily eat either one of them.

I was thinking about the propane tanker that wrecked on the freeway in Salt Lake City, Utah, the other day.  The first thing that I thought about was how many of the 700 households that had to be evacuated, took their 72-hr. kits with them?  Next, what would those evacuees have done if there had been a devastating explosion?  What if it wasn’t propane that was being hauled, but a much more deadly, aggressive chemical, or even a deadly pathogen/disease?  Did they have a plan?  Were they afraid?

Wow, something to think about!  More questions: How many of the families, that were displaced, were not at home but instead were spread out at work and school and had to find each other and make plans?  How many families had emergency plans that they had prepared ahead of time.  How many had the resources to take care of themselves with the unexpected expense of getting a hotel, or did they just stay in the emergency shelter.  In my family, we have a lot of special medical needs and we wouldn’t do well in a shelter sleeping on the floor or on the cots.

After thinking about all of the concerns that must have been running through the displaced neighbors heads, I came to the conclusion that “it” (meaning whatever disaster you are involved in) is going to be either somewhat uncomfortable OR disastrous – depending on how much thought and planning you have put into your family disaster plan.

Growing up as a young girl, whenever I thought about using 72-hr. kits, I imagined everybody burdened down with their kits and trudging along on some long road that never seemed to end.  It always seemed that the road was rocky and always going up hill.  Of course I had no idea where I was going, but I was trudging away and I was miserable.  Now that I am older I look at being prepared and 72-hr kits quite differently.  No longer am I trudging on an endless road, but instead I am well prepared and I can drive down that road.

72-hr. kits are not for long-term survival, but more as a stopgap until you can evaluate your situation.  A good way to think of a 72-hr. kit is as a packed bag ready for you to go on an unscheduled adventure.  How well you plan to pack for the potential adventure will determine how much fun (or not) you will have.  But remember if you are going to go, don’t go empty-handed – take your kit with you.

The economy is a little tighter this year and I know that many people are going to be very cautious about how they spend money this Christmas.  Helping your family prepare for an unscheduled adventure by helping them to build their 72-hr. kits will really make a lasting difference.  It will show how much you love and care for them — and your gift will never go out of style, be the wrong color, or the wrong size.

To make things even easier, I’ll bet that the emergency preparedness stores won’t be as crowded as the mall.  Just think about it.

I am afraid that I might anger some hardcore bottlers and canners with this article.  I hope I don’t.  Actually, anyone who knows me knows that I am a pretty heavy duty canner and bottler myself.  Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to look at, but it also gives me a sense of security that I can take care of my family and keep them well fed.  That being said, let’s go on to some things that maybe we shouldn’t bottle.

My friend gave me a recipe to bottle butter for long term storage.  She asked me if I had bottled butter.  I told her I hadn’t.  I have always tried to keep a case or two of butter and/or margarine in my freezer, so I really didn’t see the value in it.  I thought that it might be kind of fun or interesting to say, “Yeah, I’ve bottled butter before” but not that much fun.

I have also heard about people who bottle their bread and cakes to store for long term storage, but to make the bottled bread safe, you must add lemon juice to increase the acidity level.  That just makes the bread taste bad and bottled bread has a peculiar texture.  I like freshly made, light, fluffy, yummy tasting bread.

I decided not to bottle my breads, cakes or butter because I just didn’t see the value in it.  Fresh baked bread just tastes better, but when I read an article about the dangers of bottling bread and butter I became downright concerned for those who do.

Bottling vegetables, fruits, and meat can be very safe, and economical, if you take the right precautions and follow tried and true recipes that have been tested by the USDA or other reputable companies like Ball and Mason.  But there are some things that you really shouldn’t bottle.

There are only three things that need to be present to cultivate botulism: low moisture, low acidity and little or no oxygen.  You can’t add lemon to increase the acid content of butter, which does have water in it, and there is no way of knowing if you have killed all of the germs when sterilizing the bottles.  If you haven’t, you can actually be helping the bacterium Clostridium botulinum to breed in your butter, and as you know, botulism is a potentially fatal illness.  So again I ask, “Why take the chance?”

When preserving food for my family to eat at a later date, I want to take every precaution to keep them safe.  I like to store things at the most basic level so that I can use them for a variety of dishes.  I store flour, sugar, salt, yeast, baking powder/soda and dried eggs and I freeze my butter so that it doesn’t get old.  That way I can make my bread and cakes fresh and enjoy my butter without worrying about the little microbes or bacteria that might be enjoying me later.  Here is a link to an article published in the Provo Daily Herald about food storage scares.

If you really want to make a cake and use something bottled, then follow my mother-in-laws wonderful “Any Old Bottle of Fruit” Cake recipe and I think that you will be very satisfied, and the bottle will be easier to clean.

“Any Old Bottle of Fruit” Cake
1 quart of any bottled fruit, juice and all
2 cups of granulated sugar
1 cup oil
4 cups flour (not sifted)
4 teaspoons soda – mix in with fruit
1 teaspoon salt
1teaspoon cloves
1teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup nuts (optional)
1 cup raisins or chocolate chips (optional)

Blend or chop fruit and place in a large mixing bowl with sugar and oil. Add sifted dry ingredients, and if desired, nuts and /or raisins/chocolate chips. Mix together well and pour into a 9×13 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the middle. Cool. Frost with Cream Cheese Icing. Hurry and take a big slice before anyone knows that the cake is done, or you won’t get any because it is that good.

Cream Cheese Icing
¼ cup butter or margarine
3 oz. package of cream cheese
A pinch of salt
2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, adding a few drops of milk or cream, if necessary, to make the icing a spreading consistency. Spread over cooled cake.

Waffles, eggs, and sausage were made for Christmas morning. How do I know this? Because that is what my family has eaten every Christmas morning for the last 40 some-odd years that I can remember. I would classify that as a tradition, and it is not one that I plan to change any time soon.

I asked my dad why that was such a special breakfast and he said: “Because your grandma always made it!” I think that she was just a smart mother and was filling her family full of protein to try and counteract the Christmas morning sugar rush. Dad doesn’t think that is the reason. He thinks that it was just because it was tasty. We’ll just let him keep thinking that. We moms know better (even if we’re the daughters).

Everyday Waffles
1 ¾ cups flour
3 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 beaten egg yolks
1 ¾ cups milk
½ cup salad oil or mild olive oil (if you are trying to be healthier)
2 stiffly beaten egg whites

Combine yolks, milk and oil; stir in dry ingredients just until moist. Gently fold in whites, leaving a few fluffs. Cook in a hot waffle iron and serve hot. Double or triple this recipe – trust me you will use it.

Homemade Sausage
1 lb. lean hamburger (or pork, if you prefer)
1 ¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground sage
½ tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Mix together, preferably the night before so that the flavors are more developed. I fry these little patties of yummy sausage on a medium low heat. Because I use leaner meat, I cook it slower so that it doesn’t get too tough. If you use a fattier meat, like ground pork, you won’t have that problem (but it isn’t as healthy that way).

My dad taught me that the only way to eat waffles, eggs and sausage is to put a pat of butter between the two or three layers of waffles, put the soft-yolk easy-over egg on top of the waffle and then pour the syrup over the egg and the waffle. Serve the sausage on the side.

I about forgot the syrup. Here’s the recipe I use: 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup water, a dollop or so of corn syrup and drop or two of Mapleine flavoring. Bring to a boil and make sure that all of the sugar is melted. Pour over your eggs and waffles, or pancakes – or whatever. Just make sure you enjoy yourself around the table with your family and friends. Merry Christmas.

Don’t you just love gift cards? I know I do. It’s the perfect size, the perfect color, and nobody ever wants to re-gift them. So when I received an e-mail cautioning me about buying gift cards this season, I was a little sad. The e-mail stated that there were several large chain stores that were either closing all, or at least some, of their stores after the Christmas season. The author of the e-mail said that depending on the stores situation, the gift card money might be lost.

When I looked at the list of stores that were on the watch list, the only concern I had was for all of the people that would be losing their jobs because most of the stores were ones that I couldn’t afford to visit any way. But it got me thinking. It is quite obvious that I think that it is important to build up a good food storage and to be prepared – so why not use a grocery store gift card for Christmas gifts to help a loved one build their food storage this year? If you decide to do that, I want to be on your gift list!

I’ve told you in the past that my in-laws give my husband and me each 10 pounds of hamburger every year and I look forward to it – each and every year. If you don’t want to give a grocery gift card and you want to wrap something, then how about a case of tuna, or Tomato soup, or Cream of Chicken soup, or even a couple of cases of macaroni and cheese. I even heard once about some parents that gave each of their married kids a processed and wrapped pork each year. Wouldn’t that be a great gift? I want to be able to do that for my kids someday.

You don’t have to give food if you don’t want to. There are lots of safe gift cards and certificates that gift receivers would be happy to get. What a thrill to get a gift card to a gas station, or how about a gift certificate to a preparedness store to build a better 72-hr kit? How about a roll of stamps? Use your imagination.

The more that I listen to the news and read the newspaper and listen to my friends and coworkers, the more I see people’s tastes, wants and needs change. I don’t hear as much talk about extravagant vacations as I do about the really good deal they found at the grocery store last week and how they were able to stock up. A neighbor admitted that whenever she starts to get nervous about the economy, she goes down and buys something for her food storage. If you like to spend money when you’re nervous, that is certainly a better solution than going out and buying another pair of shoes that you really don’t need.

The one thing that I loved about the e-mail that warned me about buying the gift cards – and I’m not making this up — is that the author said that you would be better off buying food storage instead of gift cards! I was so happy! Food storage is the new fad! I was cool before it was cool to be cool!

Now go buy something edible and storable.