Living the Pantry Lifestyle - There is always more to learn

I probably began my interest in preparedness as a child being raised by parents who went through the Great Depression.  Most of the people I met from that generation definitely had a preparedness mentality.  They knew what it was like to have the economy crash and suffer great shortages with the dust bowl raging in states where crops usually grew.

There was much suffering in those years but I can't imagine what it would be like these days should there be a great economic collapse of that magnitude as well as a dust bowl causing harm to crops.  For even as late as the 1930s and 1940s, if one did not live on a farm, they usually had close friends and relatives who did... or they had enough land in their backyards for a small Victory garden.

Today, according to statistics, a large percentage of people are located in cities. I think it is the same in other countries where so many young people over the past century moved to cities from the farms.  I have noticed from my reading and research, just how much knowledge was lost in these moves.  These days, I wonder how many people could live as one did in the early 1900s.

My interest in preparedness led me to becoming an Admin on a preparedness forum in the 1990s and it was there that I met many like-minded women, mostly (but not all) Christians who felt like God was leading them to learn all they could about being prepared for various situations.  Many of them became (and still are) friends, some that I met in person and others with whom I have planned a tea party in Heaven.

One of my closest friends was a woman who falls under the latter category.  She went to be with the Lord a few years ago and I still miss her wisdom.  She was quite a character and she was a perfect compliment to my more quiet and sedate way of living.  She used to tell me often that she believed God was sending us through "little t" tribulation to learn how to prepare others for the "big T" Tribulation.  

I'm not sure how long people would survive in the "big T" Tribulation but I do think we have been experiencing the birth pains for awhile.  Doesn't it seem they are now coming closer together and the changes in society become bigger each year?  Of course, COVID really changed the entire world.

I am often thankful for the lessons God led us to learn during those years of difficulties and less income.  In many ways, it is more of a way of living than just having skills.  For instance, we have skills we normally would not have learned if we paid to have work done instead of learning how to fix something.

We loved going to various restaurants and trying new foods... well, the kids and I liked to try new foods but Hubby... not so much.  He tended to enjoy his old favorites. However, when we had less income available for restaurants, I learned to copy favorite dishes to serve at home at a fraction of the cost.  I had always liked to cook but I became a very proficient cook and baker, as did my daughter.

There is always something new to learn, whether it is a recipe, learning a way of stocking the pantry, learning to garden and to preserve food... lots of things to learn and with the Internet... lots of ways to learn.  We just have to be discerning.  Just twenty years ago, who would have thought we could learn new stuff while holding a tablet in our hands and watching TV on the tablet?  

[I know I'm digressing but does anyone else think of Star Trek the Next Generation when reading on the Kindle?]

Now, as far as my pantry preparedness is going... this past week, I was writing out my shopping list for our monthly stock up day (how is it the beginning of another month already?) when I decided to check my canned goods to see if there was anything missing or that needed to be replaced.  It is a good thing I did because I hadn't realized I had purchased a couple extra cans of ground beef when I already had a couple put back.

They will definitely get used but I'm glad I had taken the time to see what was on the shelf so I added one can of beef and one can of pork to the grocery list.  I already have a few cans of chicken on the shelf.  Although these have a long shelf life, I am already beginning to rotate them into meal plans now so I best know how to use them.

It was smart of Kroger to sell their canned Essenhaus meats in a display along side their various Essenhaus dried noodles.  For both their canned meats would make excellent chicken and noodles or beef and noodles.  I already had those meals in mind in rotation.

Essenhaus canned meats are processed the same as Keystone meats in the can with only sea salt added.  While I have never pressure canned meat, the consistency is suppose to be the same as the home canned meats.  I'm told they work well to make any recipe that cooked beef, chicken, pork, and ground beef would be used.

So, because of this, I am once again looking through the cans on my pantry shelf and looking to see if I have available what it would take to make a meal, for that is why I have a pantry!  I do have the usual items like dried noodles and other pasta, rice, canned potatoes (which taste best when sauteed in some oil or butter first), and other food like various regular and baked beans.

But I am doing some research on YouTube to see how others use canned meat.  I hear the canned cooked pork makes very good pulled pork sandwiches when something like Sweet Baby Rays barbecue sauce is added, so I bought two bottles of the barbecue sauce when it went on sale for 99 cents.  I expect the beef would be good with the sauce, too.

One of my favorite ways to doctor up ground beef is with Cowboy Casserole and I'm pretty certain the canned ground beef would work with it.  I'll add the link to the recipe below.  In case you can't tell, I only started adding any canned meat like these to the pantry a few months ago so I'm just now taking time to ponder how to best use them.  Prior to this, my go-to canned meat recipes were tuna noodle casserole and salmon patties!

I was asked about the smaller bottles of oil lasting longer.  Most definitely!  For air is one the reasons oil begins to go rancid quicker and air is introduced as soon as you open the seal of the bottle.  We buy the larger size of California Ranch 100% California olive oil now because we know we will go through it before it has a chance to go rancid.  We use it for its' health benefits as well as for making a tasty salad dressing so the larger bottle is less expensive per serving.

The smaller size bottles of the olive oil will be either used in an emergency for salad dressings or it will be rotated with the larger bottles if necessary.  If there is a reason it is difficult to buy California Farms olive oil (such as weather conditions or another shutdown), then I would ration the olive oil use, thus the smaller bottles.

However, we don't purchase really large containers of the canola oil we use for those rare recipes that call for frying (I am aware of the discussion about canola oil not being good for you but I don't use a lot of it).  I hope that answers the question!

Mentioned in this blog post:

My Cowboy Casserole recipe is... here. 

My Salmon Patties recipe is... here.

My favorite potato salad recipe... here.

Image:  Depression era photo used for ration book information