Promises, Promises . . . . . Germ Warfare . . . .

I am going to learn to not be such an "optimist" some day. The other foot has remained down on the ground, firmly planted, but we will survive it, just as we did the first few years of marriage.. the bugs already swirling around town might be another story!

Three weeks and I am finally feeling less crummy . . which brings me to something I feel is important.

What are we all doing to stay healthy?

I'm "only 59" not that old, reasonably healthy, compared to many in my stage of life, but three weeks and still counting, is a little longer to take to get over a simple cold! So I would like to refer you to this post on another blog. Click HERE. It could save you a lot of money, misery and yes, even your life. I have known people who have almost lost their lives or have, to simple bugs that are going around.

Please teach your kids, spouses and yourselves to

WASH YOUR HANDS.

• Use soap!
• Use warm water.
• Scrub as long as it takes to sing the birthday song in your mind.
• Dry them and then use the paper towel to open the door if in a public place. If there is no trash right by the door, carry it with you until you see a trash can, with the surface the touched the door handle folded in so that you don't touch it again.

This such a simple thing, that it must sound too insignificant but it isn't!

**I really trying to get some more posts together, but between being sick, babysitting grand kids or taxiing them and helping with a couple of weddings, I have been a little overloaded.**

The Other Foot Finally Dropped . . . . All Is Well, All Is Well

I need to preface this post that I just copied from my personal blog. It will explain a little journey we have been on for some months now. click here.

I Love to Be Needed . . . .Especially When No PooPoo Diaper is Involved!

This last week has brought a lot of reflecting and lots of sharing between Jon and I. Either he has learned to act a lot better or I am still of use to the sweet ole' guy.

We are now officially on our second round of being "newly weds" and living on our food storage with cinched up belts. Jon has suggested two notches. Isn't he too cute and funny? I do love my funny hubby! He doesn't realize we have already cinched up past that, preparing for the "just in case" scenario.

That may sound discouraging, but it isn't. (Give me a break, it's the "first" day.) for entertainment, we used to get some silly idea and be out the door in 20 minutes, or less to have some great free or really cheap fun . . . . no movies were ever dreamed of, not even matinees. I could pack a picnic lunch in no time! That included a baby after 10 months and cloth diapers. We can do it again . . . well maybe not quite as fast.

Jon's folks gave us money to go out on our second anniversary and we were so uncomfortable in a reataraunt that we didn't know what to do with ourselves . . . until ran into a family we knew from church and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Tonight's hot date is Jon watching football with his head on my lap, kind of, snuggling with two chihuahuas and me blogging before I send out the food storage info to my ward members. He just unknowly corrected me, he said he is "having quality time with his dog that just growled at him". Shall I let him read this before or after I post it? I think after? After, he doesn't know how to take it off the blog to preserve his dignity.

We were eating our food storage, but back then we didn't realize how little of it we had. Now, we have to walk around it, no matter what room we are in. I did have more in bottles, but we didn't have a freezer. I knew 3-4 ways to fix beans, now I have too many ideas to count and the Internet.

Now our biggest problem is how not to over feed our bottoms, not how to grow healthy babies. We now have grown children with good ideas and we can share and work together to make things work, like cars ;-D, taxi service, grocery shopping, splitting stuff so that we can use up larger, cheaper quantities and have nothing go bad.

So time to throw out the lemonade and bring on the lemon chiffon pie. Sure glad I froze up all those lemons last winter! See Below

Thinking Out of The Box . . .

Instead of making cheese over the last week, I decided to finish up doing something with all of the citrus coming off our trees in the back yard. Finish one project before starting the next ... blah, blah, blah.

I knew we would never eat all the tangerines, so I decided to bottle them. The quarts are kind of big, but they will bre a wonderful treat after chilling in the fridge next summer. Just cost me a few lids I didn't have on hand.

Everytime I looked at the lemons and saw the beautiful rinds, I felt so wasteful just throwing them. So one day for lunch I ate and made lemon zest with a bunch of them. I figured I saved about $10 in the half hour it took to eat lunch.

Can't stop there, can we? Next trip to the store I got oranges, with gorgeous rinds, of course. A bottle of orange zest runs about $5, now saved. While running around Costco on Wednesday, trying samples with the granddaughters (great entertainment and those little gals are great food critics ;-) , some limes, with gorgeous rinds, reached out, grabbed me, and just begged to be taken home with us. I've never seen lime zest, but come on, how often do we squeeze a little lime juice over our Mexican food? Close your eyes and just imagine the wonderful flavor if a little zest was thrown in the pot at just the right time?

When I learned how to make Copy Cat Orange Chicken (Panda Express style), that has no orange juice in it, only zest. Any one interested in that recipe, regular or pantry style?

I realized this could be used to make all kind of wonderful dishes, with food storage items. All three mixed would probably make the best polynesian merinade ever!

REPEAT: FREE Containers All Around Us

As I am trying to reclaim my own living room, I am finding myself going back and reminding myself! Hope this helps those of you who are suffering from food storage "overload".

MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2008

FREE Containers All Around Us

Storage containers can start adding up pretty fast. Being a proud tightwad, I started looking around and decided that I could recycle some of the containers that I bought food in all the time! You can all blame Mariah Maskey for this one … for those who don’t know me, she is my daughter and has nagged me for years to recycle more! Here are some of my ideas that are working for me.

Plastic Containers

• Plastic containers should have PETE or HDPE on the bottom of them.
  
• Next check the lids and see if they have a soft lining, usually made out of silicone or nylon to create a airtight seal when reused. If there is not a coating or gasket, I lay a sandwich bag over the top and screw the lid down.
  
• Smell it. If there is an odor that the dishwasher (top rack)doesn't eliminate it, you will need to soak it with clorox water. Dried foods will absorb smells and taste like the old food.

If the container has a small opening, I use the two funnels to fill it with and use foods like popcorn, dried veggies, cracked wheat. Just as long as it is not too fine or powdery and will pour out on its own weight. Those foods go into the wider mouthed containers. If I am planning to put it away for awhile, I drop in an oxygen packet before sealing.

Glass Jars

• I have successfully used the jars that sauces, fruit and jam come in.
  
• Once again, look for the gasket on the underside of the lid to create a good seal. If there is cardboard, add the sandwich bag to help create a good seal.
  

Some people try to reuse these jars for home bottling wet foods. DON'T DO IT! You can always find some one who has gotten by with it. I know an entire family wiped out by doing it. It isn't worth taking the chance!

FOIL POUCHES

• These can be used more than once as long as the foods are completely dry. Each time it will be a little smaller.
  
• You can seal and store foods that come from any source, not just the cannery.
  
• I have made half and quarter pouches for foods that I use more slowly so that they stay fresher. I am dividing up my seasonings into the quarter packets so they stay fresher for the years that it seems to take me to ue them up now.

I have pouches, oxygen packets and sealer that can be checked out and taken to your home if you want to use this method. It is $ .50 per full sized pouch (my cost). These are the same materials that you would use at the church cannery, in fact that is where the pouches and packets came from!

As I am trying to reclaim my own living room, I am finding myself going back and reminding myself! Hope this helps those of you who are suffering from food storage "overload".

REPEAT: Where In the World is Your Food Storage?

I am trying to reclaim my own living room and have been finding new places to put it all so that I can get to it for rotation. My poor husband deserves a big ole' "Atta Boy" for his patience in this process!

Where In the World is Your Food Storage?

NOBODY in the world knows better than the Huishes what a nuisance tripping over food storage can be!!! I am sure that is a safe statement. Nobody in the world has been happier that they went through the trouble of storing that same food in a way that it can be rotated, than the Huishes. We have relied on it more than once in our marriage to help us through hard times. Even our kids would get nervous when the empty buckets started to stack up. Right now, when you walk into our home, you face the current project of storing up for the “hard times”. Though I apologize for it, I shouldn’t. We are doing what the prophets have asked of us since ancient times.
I am swallowing what little pride I have left and showing some of the ways that I am finding to store these foods so that I can get to them and use them in our every day diet. Husbands, if you don’t help your wives with some of these ideas, I just might sic Jon on you … I hear his misery would love some company … yours!

This is our can wall. These can be added to any inside wall of your house. It is a free standing structure that holds its own weight. Sheet rock and you can hardly tell it is there. You do need to think it through before you build one so that you can easily mount doors to close it up. We didn't do that and are now trying to come up with a good way to cover the openings! All young children find them to be very entertaining, better than TV for a stand-in baby sitter when you're busy ... great for grandmas ... keeps them near the kitchen while you cook and you can keep an eye on them!







After years of storing food under beds in cases, I find I can no longer hold the bed up with one shoulder while digging through the cases to find what I need. Jon and I came with this system. We used a circular saw and power drill. The materials are 2 x 2's , some scrap 2 x 4's, and particle board with melamine coating ( we plan to use plain particle board with paint from now on).

This shows the side of the bed. There are several ladder type structures lined up and screwed to the top and bottom slabs. The structure fits inside of the bed rails so that we don't kick it ... and have room for our shoes when we take them off! ... you know in case of a fire ....











This is the the end of foot of the bed showing the ladder type structures.

When we drop the bed skirt, you can't tell there is anything under there. It even hides the shoes that seem to collect to be handy ... ;-) The bed is only 26" high with box springs and mattress.

The riser is to help the bed rails clear the cans for easy rotation.

If we decide to add another layer, we will probably eliminate the box springs so that it will stay about the same height. This is working so well and we wish we had thought of it years ago!