In the kitchen at home or in the great outdoors, my husband and I believe that having the right tools makes all the difference (i.e., “fun” versus “frustrating”).  We like to use dutch ovens, a Camp Chef 3-Burner Stove, and the new toy, a Camp Chef Outdoor Oven.  We have added a “dutch oven table” to our supplies and really like how it makes it easy to cook with dutch ovens at home as well as in the campground. If you’re interested in any of these items, be sure to check www.amazon.com or www.costco.com first since they tend to have significant savings on these things. 

Here are some menu highlights from this campout:

For lunch one day, we baked individual pizzas.  I brought homemade dough (with part whole wheat flour) from home in a ziploc bag, and then rolled out crusts at the campsite.   Everyone was able to customize their own crust with toppings of their choice, including cheese, pepperoni, sliced mushrooms, pineapple and red and green peppers.  The peppers were dehydrated and easy to pack in a plastic bag for the campout.  I just rehydrated them at the campsite and they cooked up beautifully.  We cooked the pizzas in the Camp Chef Oven and they turned out great. 

After a successful day of fishing, we grilled trout on the propane stove (with grill box on top). 

Don’t be too impressed, fishing in Pine Valley is cake! It’s perfect for kids and impatient adults.  If you fish from the middle of the dam and use Velveeta, the fish will bite as soon as the bait hits the water (literally!).  Anticipating a catch, I brought along a plastic bag with a mixture of 1 cup flour and 1 cup cornmeal seasoned with Garlic Pepper  to dredge the fish before grilling.  We served the fish with instant brown rice boiled on the cooktop of the Camp Oven. 

We used the dutch oven to cook up traditional Dutch Oven Potatoes (we used fresh, but could have used dehydrated potatoes and onions)  that we enjoyed with grilled barbecue chicken and salad.  For dessert, we tried a dutch oven apple cobbler for the first time.  I used a quart jar of home-canned apple pie filling and topped it with a box of white cake mix, some whole pecans and a cube of butter sliced over the top.   This was a surprise hit.  We all thought it was delicious.  Another night, we used the dutch oven to make a pot roast with carrots and onions, and used potato flakes from food storage whipped with cheese and Garlic Supreme for a simple side dish.  I’ve decided Garlic Supreme is the third essential seasoning with salt and pepper.  I am keeping a shaker of it in my camping supplies because it is so handy for adding flavor to so many recipes.  We had Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler for dessert that night. Yum!  I love the dutch oven cobblers because they are so simple, but they make a special camping treat that I look forward to as much as s’mores. 

As we prepared these meals, I thought about how food storage ingredients and the right tools can really make an unexpected situation much more bearable.  Food storage items are very versatile.  Think of what the pioneers could do with just flour, cornmeal, salt, and oil.  For camping, I love how easy dehydrated foods are to pack and transport.  Camping is a fun excuse to play with what you are storing and find new ways to use these ingredients.

Camping helps us to assess our preparedness supplies as well.  Dealing with an emergency or disaster situation can be a lot like camping.  There may be no electricity for cooking, light, or warmth.  So preparing for a camp-out helps you to think about whether the batteries still work in the flashlights, or if the propane tanks are full.  We store charcoal for dutch oven cooking as an alternative fuel also. Check your storage of water, blankets, rope, mantles for your lantern, first aid supplies, etc.

Take time this summer to get away and enjoy nature’s peace, and use the experience to plan for peace in the time of an emergency.

I hosted a Preparedness Night last month.  The goal of our night was to give an overview of preparedness principles, and to motivate those in attendance with new ideas for their food storage and preparedness goals.  For any Preparedness Coordinators out there who may be organizing a similar event, I thought it might be helpful to see some ideas I used.  (I know I appreciated the ideas I found online.) The internet is a wealth of preparedness resources, so I spent some time researching ideas and came up with a “BEE” PREPARED theme.  I advertised the event with posters and flyers that read like this:

“Our Church leaders have been buzzing about preparedness for decades now, so how prepared is your hive?

PREPAREDNESS NIGHT & POTLUCK DINNER

DATE / TIME / LOCATION

Sting your preparedness goals with sweet ideas to help you feel more self-reliant.  We will have a guest speaker and great handouts on food storage, gardening, first aid and emergency response that will help you stick with your goals.

HONEY, BEE THERE OR BEE…UNPREPARED!!

Please bring a potluck dish to share using at least one ingredient from your food storage.”

The decor for the night was VERY plain (after all, we’re talking about back-to-basics type principles and food storage just isn’t very glamorous!) On the walls I taped posters with quotes on preparedness and a large beehive.  I had the following displays and handouts set up on tables for guests (They were actually in a different order down the tables, but anyway, here they are…):

I copied 4 Family Home Evening lessons on preparedness so that families could get their members on board with preparedness goals.  These lessons had great information on the reasons to prepare, and inventories to get them started.  I also put out sign up sheets where guests could include their names under given skillsets (like construction,  medical training, education, etc.) that could be useful in the event of a disaster so that we can mobilize and help one another. There was also a sign-up to be included in a preparedness e-mail list.

DON’T BEE HUNGRY (food storage):  You can see some of this display in the photo above.  (I’m sorry there aren’t better pictures to post.  I was busy answering questions that night and forgot to take more pictures.)  The display included #10 cans, food storage buckets with gamma lids, a FoodSaver vacuum sealer, half-gallon mason jars to demonstrate the jar attachment for the vacuum sealer, jars of jam and jelly, and food storage cookbooks. 

Handouts included copies of Wendy DeWitt’s fireside burned to DVD and printouts of her “Everything Under the Sun” booklet (everything-under-the-sun-20081), and  a 52 Week Food Storage Plan (http://pgward.org/ep/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/weeklypurchasingplan-new.pdf),

BEE GREEN (gardening): Vegetable seed packets, a color photo of my trash can potatoes, and these quotes on small easels made up the display: “There are blessings in being close to the soil, in raising your own food, even if it is only a garden in your yard and a fruit tree or two.  Those families will be fortunate who, in the last days, have an adequate supply of food because of their foresight and ability to produce their own.–Ezra Taft Benson, October 1980.”

“An almost forgotten means of economic self-reliance is the home production of food.  We are too accustomed to going to stores and purchasing what we need.  By producing some of our food we reduce to a great extent, the impact of inflation on our money.  More importantly, we learn how to produce our own food and involve all family members in a beneficial project.  No more timely counsel, I feel, has been given by President Kimball than his repeated emphasis to grow our own gardens.  Here is one sample of his emphasis over the past seven years: ‘We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property.  Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees–plant them if your climate is right for their growth.  Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard.’ –Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, May 1976, p. 124″

The handouts for this table were a local planting guide (you can get these for your area from a local university extension office or nursery), and directions for trash can potatoes: trash_can_potatoes .

BEE THRIFTY (“Fix it up,wear it out, make it do or do without!”):On this table, I had smart shopping tips, instructions for couponing (matching coupons with weekly sales), and I asked a woman in my ward to display her quilts and handmade children’s clothes to demonstrate thrift and industry.

BEE WARM (Fuel storage, blankets, and light):  On this table, I had blankets, flashlights, glow sticks, and (I intended to have…) charcoal, an oil lantern, and propane cans.

DON’T BEE THIRSTY (water storage): On this table I had a case of water bottles and a sign that said, “If this is what your water storage looks like, you are going to be thirsty!”  I had a printout for building water drum racks for your garage and also a printout from www.surewater.com that showed upright water storage tanks as one option for home water storage. (The Family Home Evening Lesson packets had info on calculating amounts of water to store.)

BEE READY:  For this display, I asked my friend to bring her awesome 72 hour kits to display.  She organizes her equipment into 5 gallon buckets–one for kitchen / food items, one for bathroom items, and one for first aid items.  I will try to get a copy of her lists to post the contents of her buckets.  I also copied this printout of an excellent 72 hr. kit checklist: http://pgward.org/ep/archives/120

BEE HEALTHY:  This table included information on first aid kits, reminders to store an extra month of prescriptions and vitamins. (One of our guest speakers gave detailed information on what to include in a home first-aid kit.)

The guests milled through the information on the displays and picked up handouts, then we enjoyed the potluck dishes made from food storage items (everything was delicious!).  Our guest speakers, a search and rescue EMT and a County Emergency Response Coordinator, wrapped up the night.  I have received good feedback from the event, and felt like it was a great jumpstart to preparedness goals.

In my classes, I’ve mentioned how I love to store things in half-gallon glass jars.  I use my FoodSaver jar attachment to vacuuum out the air and extend the lifespan of dry goods this way.  This method works great for preserving contents of #10 cans after you use just a little bit.  And, you can suck the air out after each use and maintain the freshness. 

I have spent a fair amount of time hunting for the best prices locally and online to buy glass jars in bulk.  Since they can be heavy, the shipping costs rule out any bargains to be found online.  So, I am extremely excited to find that Lin’s in Southern Utah will special order any size of jar for me (and you) at only 10% above their wholesale price.  The prices are fantastic!  The larger the order, the better price they are able to give you, so order with a group for your best deal.  I ordered 20 cases of Ball half-gallon jars (6 jars per case) at $6.88 per case plus tax.  You just can’t beat that price.  There are similar savings on all other sizes of canning jars as well. 

If you don’t live near a Lin’s, talk to the customer service desk at your local grocer and see if they will special order jars for you.