2012 Self-Sufficiency Challenge

[madhen]

Let us know what you come up with! Sometimes the best stuff starts out as an accident or an experiment!

[Spirit Deer]

I have a lot of research to do!

I did find an interesting-looking recipe for lime-garlic potato chips:
Garlic Lime Potato Chips recipe at Gone Raw
DEFINITELY have to try that one!

[greekislandgirl]

Argh! I wrote a whole post and it disappeared

Basically what I said was that yesterday the water came back and I baked a whole bunch of bread, that was my self-sufficient act.

SD, I was thinking of tent camping! I do think I could handle a camper. My brother and his wife pack a few things and a tent and hike and set up camp and start a campfire and so on and do that for a week. I am impressed by what they do but I don't think I could do it.

[Spirit Deer]

There are varying degrees of tent camping, just like RV camping. I'd say our rig puts us somewhere in the middle of the lower end. Our trailer is large and fully optioned, but it's still a pop up and not a million dollar custom bus.

From what I've heard, RV camping in Europe is most common with small, ultra-light rigs that can be towed by small, ultra-light cars. I think they use a lot more soft-top trailers than we do here, to save weight, and a lot fewer amenities for the same reason. But there's no comparison in the comfort level between using even the most humble camper that gets you up off the ground and tent camping sleeping on the ground! And some of the ideas people have for ultra-lights are just amazing. I love looking at that stuff.

[Debbie-cat]

I love those ultra-light campers that are only the size of a full sized bed that can be towed behind a motorcycle....I think those are soooo cool!

[madhen]

Collected three eggs from the hens.

[Spirit Deer]

I really love the concept of a teardrop camper.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ul7_QfVVA]Teardrop Trailer Third International Teardrop Gathering 2009 - YouTube[/ame]

Some of them are small enough to be towed by a cycle, too. But we just can't make the idea work for us. We'll probably end up with an A frame.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmlEx7UlN9o&feature=related"]alineryoutube - YouTube[/ame]

Still, we're thinking about an ultra-light. We're hoping to keep traveling after we retire, and with gas prices climbing we may need to switch to a small car from our truck (sob!) in order to afford to go. We'll have to see what happens when the time comes.

Everyone on the RV forum I'm on keeps saying it's inevitable we'll end up with a thirty-footer and a big honkin' one-ton truck to pull it with. Um, no. The older we get, the smaller and simpler we want our camping rig to be.

[Spirit Deer]

I think we're going to really like our new dehydrator. I loaded it up with sweet potato chips, potato chips, applesauce fruit leather, and an experimental kiwi.

The potato chips turned out to be too lime-y, so will try those with ascorbic acid sometime. The texture was okay and they got crispy.

I put a little cinnamon sugar on the sweet potato. It turned out okay too. I'm not a fan, but it didn't have that flavor sweet potatoes do. My husband liked the chips so I'll probably make those again.

Ditto the apple fruit leather, with a bit of cinnamon in it. I forgot to grease the tray per the instructions, but it peeled off just fine anyway. So we'll be doing that again, too. I hope we get apples on our trees this year, now that we installed a new apple tree last spring.

The kiwi really turned out tasty! So I'm going to wait for a good sale on those and do up a bunch for traveling. They'll be a good healthy snack.

So overall I'm seeing a lot of potential with this dehydrator. It's sure a lot nicer than my old one! I can see now why other people rave about theirs. I never understood it after using my old one, because it took days to do anything and stuff never turned out very well. I'm happy I found this new one!

[Debbie-cat]

I love those two types of campers SD! Amazing how small they can get them and still be efficient!

[greekislandgirl]

Okay ladies, time to revive this thread.

I was self-sufficient today! I made my own cornflakes! And then I made another type of cereal, totally made up as I went along, using almond flour. Yum!!!

[Debbie-cat]

How did you make cornflakes GIL?? That's wonderful!

[Spirit Deer]

Yeah, do tell!

I haven't done much lately.

I did make potato chips today. A friend sent me a TopChip set so I had to try that out. Yum! Three minutes in the nuker and we have fresh, salt-free, fat-free chips!

I also made a pad for the office window for the kitties. Naturally, the snoopervisor had to be first to check it out. So now it's cat-tested and Chester-approved!

[greekislandgirl]

Ι wrote a post about it for my blog but I won't post it for a while so until then, here is what I did:

combine 1.5 cups all purpose flour (you can use whole wheat flour if you prefer!!), 1/2 cup cornmeal, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tbsp olive oil in a food processor; process til combined. Separately, stir 1/4 cup very hot water into 2 tbsp honey until dissolved. Add this to the food processor, process, adding water 1 tsp at a time if needed to get a pliable and slightly sticky dough. Dust 2 baking sheets with cornmeal and preheat oven to 300 F.

Then cut the dough into 1" strips and pass through a pasta maker from the lowest (#1) setting to the highest possible. I did it up to #3 but next time will try to go even higher, maybe #5. The thinner the better. Lay the dough on the baking sheets and bake for about 25 minutes.

Allow to cool completely, then break with hands into flakes.

I gave Dh a bowl and he said they were the best cornflakes he'd ever eaten and nothing like storebought. And he wants me to make them regularly!

[madhen]

I added to my goat inventory, unintentionally. A few months ago, my neighbor's billy broke into my pen. I didn't think he managed to breed any of my girls, but apparently, he did! Four pregnant nannies gave birth this weekend, so seven new baby goats!

[Debbie-cat]

Thanks for the recipe GIL! They sound easy enough.

Madhen - too funny! He was busy after he broke in wasn't he?