Cooking Rice or Pasta with Little to No Water

Many of the meals in the U.S. rely on the delicious addition of pasta or rice to soak up all of the great meat juices or gourmet sauces. Pasta is a great filler for a meal, is loved as a comfort food for many, and is a significant part of the recommend 350 pounds of grains, per person per year that self-reliant persons have on hand for their family. The problem, though, is that the preparation of pasta usually requires a significant amount of water and fuel to make properly. While few of us would ever consider this thought when cooking among running water and on the modern appliances we enjoy in our kitchen, this fact presents a challenge if we are ever in need of making some drastic modifications in these cooking and eating habits in the future.

Cooking a Frog

In one of my elementary school classes we were actually taught how to cook a frog. (Not literally, but our teacher gave us specific instructions.)  For those of you who don’t know, cooking a frog requires patience and time. You simply can’t just plop a frog in boiling hot water, it will just jump out (albeit quite injured). Instead you need to plop the frog into a pot of cool water, and then slowly let the water heat up from there. Doing so will cause the frog to grow accustomed to the increased water temperature and it will not jump out. Before you know it, you’ve got cooked frog with very little resistance.  Many of us are preparing for a moment such as the first method of cooking a frog.  We have this immediate response of jumping out of the hot water and surviving for another day. But too  many of us are preparing for a singular event of disruption in our lives rather than that which we are much more likely to endure—one of slow and steady inconvenience until we eventually find ourselves cooked, so to speak.

Gidgets and Gadgets

 

GadgetsI have to admit, I love gadgets that make my life easier. I’m always on the lookout for preparedness type gadgets that will make my life easier even in a “survival mode.” I figure you might as well make use of the technological advances we have now to survive without traditional technology later. So here’s a list of some of my favorite “gadgets.” You can do an internet search to find any of these items.

Another Pressure Cooking Hit—Leg of Lamb

 

 

To me Easter Sunday requires a great family meal, but for me it has to include some lamb.  However, after fighting a cold for nearly two weeks and knowing that I had a full day of church ahead of me, I just couldn’t see my way to cooking it the “normal way.”  So I pulled out my trusty pressure cooker and commenced my magic.