Preparedness for when

moneyistooshorttomention

..and the humorous thought for the day is "If TSHTF it wouldn't be the best time to experiment with new foods/ways of preparing foods".

The "ask me how I know" thing for that is the last couple of days has seen me:-

- decide to use leftover dough from pasta-making as a flan base = not a good idea - it went rock-solid and had to be thrown out. Duh!

- decide to use some dried kidney beans I had as "cooking beans" to line said flan base and then google as to whether I could still use them to cook with. Answer was = you cant. I shoulda used rice apparently - as that can still be cooked with afterwards

- I discovered its not a good idea to buy hemp seeds unshelled. Eating them as is is possible but results in lots of bits in the mouth. Now trying to sprout them - as I gather hemp sprouts are edible.

Oh well.....:o

DawnW

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

- decide to use some dried kidney beans I had as "cooking beans" to line said flan base and then google as to whether I could still use them to cook with. Answer was = you cant. I shoulda used rice apparently - as that can still be cooked with afterwards

But you don't have to throw the kidney beans away - you can store them in a labelled, moisture proof container and use them to line future flan bases

Frugalsod

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

..and the humorous thought for the day is "If TSHTF it wouldn't be the best time to experiment with new foods/ways of preparing foods".

The "ask me how I know" thing for that is the last couple of days has seen me:-

- decide to use leftover dough from pasta-making as a flan base = not a good idea - it went rock-solid and had to be thrown out. Duh!

- decide to use some dried kidney beans I had as "cooking beans" to line said flan base and then google as to whether I could still use them to cook with. Answer was = you cant. I shoulda used rice apparently - as that can still be cooked with afterwards

- I discovered its not a good idea to buy hemp seeds unshelled. Eating them as is is possible but results in lots of bits in the mouth. Now trying to sprout them - as I gather hemp sprouts are edible.

Oh well.....:o

All you have highlighted is that you should do research before making some decisions. I actually bought some ceramic beads for baking flan bases specifically.

When it comes to experimenting we are not really at a SHTF situation unless you have a personal SHTF crisis right now. Though experimenting is always worth trying. I would have looked into making use of the extra past dough to make additional pasta and to freeze it, rather than try something more extreme. Keep experimentation to things that are slightly different, so that the risks are much lower.

fuddle

There are those :cool: that are forever researching in order to experiment. Says She who types with the contents of a cod liver oil capsule smeered on her face... thank goodness I don't 'ave a cat! :eek:

miststm good on you for experimenting. Ok so it went a bit wrong but lessons learned and by sharing those mistakes readers now know, thanks to Dawn, that all was not lost with the beans.

I don't experiment when things are going wrong because it's a fun passtime for me really but I dare say all the useless bits of information I have gathered through those experiments - and mistakes - will be there ready to be useful for when the time may strike them to be useful.

maryb

Chickpeas seem to lose the ability to soften even with hours of boiling when they get old so I buy small packs now. But the remains of the big pack make excellent flan case blind baking beans.

Frugalsod

maryb wrote: »

Chickpeas seem to lose the ability to soften even with hours of boiling when they get old so I buy small packs now. But the remains of the big pack make excellent flan case blind baking beans.

Well you could make them into hummus and freeze it before that happens.

moneyistooshorttomention

fuddle wrote: »

There are those :cool: that are forever researching in order to experiment. Says She who types with the contents of a cod liver oil capsule smeered on her face... thank goodness I don't 'ave a cat! :eek:

miststm good on you for experimenting. Ok so it went a bit wrong but lessons learned and by sharing those mistakes readers now know, thanks to Dawn, that all was not lost with the beans.

I don't experiment when things are going wrong because it's a fun passtime for me really but I dare say all the useless bits of information I have gathered through those experiments - and mistakes - will be there ready to be useful for when the time may strike them to be useful.

Having been brought up on a diet that was a bit limited - even by 1950s/60s standards I've turned into an avid experimenter with food. I've realised I like most of the new foods I try, so its worth trying out new ones (wish me luck with today's purchase - I'm working my way through Deliciously Ella cookbooks at the moment and one of the ingredients she uses is miso). Now - given that I have no idea just which type of miso she means and have had to take a wild guess and I don't know whether I will like miso anyway that could be about £4 for the jar and the rest of the ingredients in the dish potentially heading into the rubbish bin - so fingers crossed I like it.

I've realised that there will be a noticeable proportion of recipes that don't work out - but the food will usually be edible enough to eat up (even if I promptly put a cross by the recipe in the book - to indicate not to try it again).

My first attempt at making a sourdough starter didn't work - made with wholemeal flour (as per the recipe). Darn - that's a little bit of food wasted. Never mind - I've been and bought some rye flour and will try again with a different recipe. The cost of buying sourdough bread is quite an incentive to figure out a recipe that will work to make my own.

VJsmum

fuddle wrote: »

There are those :cool: that are forever researching in order to experiment. Says She who types with the contents of a cod liver oil capsule smeered on her face... thank goodness I don't 'ave a cat! :eek:

miststm good on you for experimenting. Ok so it went a bit wrong but lessons learned and by sharing those mistakes readers now know, thanks to Dawn, that all was not lost with the beans.

I don't experiment when things are going wrong because it's a fun passtime for me really but I dare say all the useless bits of information I have gathered through those experiments - and mistakes - will be there ready to be useful for when the time may strike them to be useful.

Won't your skin continue to smell "fishy" for a while after??? :eek:

moneyistooshorttomention

Don't know about that - but I can say that using another oil (this time on my body as a body lotion) turned out not to be a good idea. That was - I was using olive oil as a body lotion for a while.

I gave that idea up when I realised it didn't seem to be doing a very good job of moisturising my dry skin and made greasy marks on a couple of my sheets that I haven't been able to get out (and I wasn't best pleased at - considering I had moved on to buying rather good-quality sheets by that point:(:mad:).

fuddle

VJsmum wrote: »

Won't your skin continue to smell "fishy" for a while after??? :eek:

Yes :rotfl: but it's a dulled down version. Think fishy burp - ok, maybe don't. Skin feels lovely though.