The Self Sustaining Kitchen: October 2008

The Adventure Continues.....

Update: She's baaa-aack! On the blog, that is. I'm handing the reins back to ES after a too-long hiatus. I have just been baby-sitting it until she was ready to return. Thank you all! Give ES a big welcome back--I know you all really missed her and are eager to hear how things have been going for her these past several months. I missed her, too. ~D

This blog was started by ES, and it was her baby--I just added stuff here and there, and kept it going when she was dealing with her ongoing health crisis.

ES has moved on to her next big adventure, but I wanted to keep the blog going in honor of all the love and hard work she put into it.

I will not pretend to be as informed about things as ES--she knows everything there is to know about anything. But as I continue learning, experimenting, and growing, I will share what I can here. Feel free to contribute--I want this site to continue to be a place to get ideas and learn from one another. ~D

The Self Sustaining Kitchen is a work in progress. What we advocate is getting your family ready for anything.

We will be covering a large range of topics. At times, we will name products by brand name; if we do, it will be because we really like them and find them much better than other products, or they will be just plain crap and we will be warning you about then.

Now why did we name this the Self Sustaining Kitchen? Well, if your local supermarket closed tomorrow how long could you feed you family?

We don't want to sound preachy, we would just like to share what we've learned in our kitchen. We will cover topics such as: preserving food, canning, freezing and drying. We will tell you about dehydrated products that work well for us and if they are cost efficient. Some things may seem a little pricy at first, but work out good in the long run.

If you have any questions or subjects that you would like to see covered, please feel free to email ES at bamagalstuff@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

CONTEST TIME!!!!

I know everyone has just been waiting for the big PieCake give-away, as we have soooooooo many readers. Literally hundreds and hundreds of you....okay, so we only have single-digit faithful readers. But someday, SOMEDAY!!!!!!! Until then, competition will be fast and furious.

Are you ready? The first reader that can answer the following question correctly will receive a PUMPKIN PIECAKE.

E-mail your answer to bamagalstuff@gmail.com

We will announce the lucky winner on Friday, October 17th.

Here is your question: What did Bud name our nanny goat?

Good Luck!!

The contest is over, and the winner is Aisha--aka UmmAbdur-Rahmaan! Congrats! Thank you everyone for your participation. The answer is: J-Lo (May 15, 2008 post, "And then there were goats....")

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You....

We will be taking pre-orders for holiday PieCakes in the very near future--mmmmmmm, PieCake! Starting November 1st, we will start taking orders for Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice--we don't discriminate!)

We will offer Pumpkin, Apple, Sweet Potato, and Peach. They will be $10 each, or $12.50 with pecans. We will ship pies to arrive just before the holiday anywhere in the contiguous 48 states. Shipping will be a flat $12.95 (priority flat rate box). Two pies will fit in a box, so buying TWO PieCakes is the best value.

Details regarding payment methods will be forthcoming....and we will be having a PieCake giveaway, so stay tuned, faithful readers!

D

Sunday, October 5, 2008

pStyle/ Krista's Cups

I think I said somewhere here in the blog that from time to time, we would endorse a product that we firmly believed in. Well, I'm going to just let you read a copy of a letter I wrote to to Krista thanking her for the pStyle.
(just click the title of this post to link to her site)

Dear Krista,
I want to thank you for introducing pStyle to the US. Being an avid outdoorswoman, the pStyle made my hunting and camping experiences sooooo much nicer. Not having to half-undress to pee made peeing so easy.

Now, it’s even more important to me. August 14th, 2008 I hade my left leg amputated mid-calf. With me being a very large gal, bed pans were out of the question--but getting up to try to get on a bed side potty was so hard that at times, I thought about just peeing the bed and letting the nurses deal with changing me and the bed. I then discovered that I could get to the edge of the bed and use a man's urinal. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it in the hospital, because I often missed the urinal and spilled some pee on the floor.

The pStyle was one of the first things I thought of when I got home. My goodness what a difference it make to not have to get up out of bed or go to all the work it takes to get on the bedside potty just to pee! I can sit on the edge of the bed, or scoot to the edge of my wheel chair to use the pStyle in a urinal. I use baby wipes to finish wiping myself and to wipe out the pStyle and it’s read for my next use.

Public restrooms are no longer a problem because I can just roll up to the toilet and pee no matter what I’m wearing.

I just wanted you to know that with all of the challenges I now have to face being an amputee, peeing is not on that list.

Thank you so much,
Elijah Sue Weiser

Saturday, October 4, 2008

I WANT THIS!!!!!!

Okay, this is just tooooooooo cool! I want one! It is called a tankless water heater, or point-of-use heater. Basically, it heats the water on demand, so you don't have to heat a big ole water heater-full of water--you heat it as you need it! Check it out:

http://www.boschhotwater.com/

Maybe Santa will bring us one for Chistmas.....

~D
we thought this should be on the front page .

Love Field Plumbing Co. said...
Just wanted to give you a "heads up"...Tankless water heaters are great, but you are not spending alot of money heating up your tank type water heater. They usually only "cycle" on for a few minutes for a few times a day. The amount of natural gas that the tankless water heaters burn to heat water on demand is alot more than your tank type water heater is burning. They are space saving, and efficient. They are also expensive to install for reasons I have posted to my blog. Just wanted you to know that you will burn as much or more fuel with the tankless. Tankless manufacturers don't tell consumers about that. Both types of water heaters are good. Tankless probably are the wave of the future, but they are still very expensive to install in comparison. That fuel bill might go up with the tankless. FYI :)