Allyson

Are you ready for what happens after the apocalypse? I’m not talking about the zombie apocalypse here, nor am I referring to the next pandemic. The apocalypse I mean is the one that’s currently predicted: Harris winning the election. I know some of you are laughing, but please don’t. I am quite serious about this. What are your plans for if she wins?

There are so many moving parts to planning for a Harris win. We have to consider the possibility (likelihood?) of social unrest. There may be a repeat of January 6th, this time with weapons, even if Harris is a clear winner (which I think is unlikely). More importantly, we need to plan for the economic downfall of the country.

It’s time to stock up on some basic things. From now until the election, prices have eased slightly. Harris is trying to buy votes. I know money is tight, but it’s really time to go and buy up all the canned goods you use in a year. Pick up extras of all your dry goods. If you can, order a half cow and stash it in your freezer. I have a funny feeling that if she wins, the country is going to get very expensive, very fast.

I always say, prep what you eat, and eat what you prep. This isn’t for a long-term emergency, though. This is food that you expect to eat over the next year. So look at what you use on a regular basis. For me, in the canned goods department I use a ton of canned tomatoes (both regular and the type with the chilies in it). I use canned beans (black, red, chili, garbanzo, etc.) as well as dry ones. I use rice, specifically Jasmine or Basmati. My family likes sausage, and I can usually find them on sale, so I will buy extras and toss them into the freezer. Last week, I found turkey breasts on sale for 99 cents a pound, and I bought the limit.

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I admit it, I’m struggling. I don’t understand a lot of this. I know what I thought and said four years ago. I know what I felt during Trump’s first four years. I know that I had a small inkling into the lies of the Left, but not enough to make me change. Now? Now I see so much, and I wonder how I could have been so stupid.

I’m constantly being blasted with headlines like What If Trump Wins? (“The safeguards that kept Trump in check during his first term have collapsed — starting with the MAGA-fication of the Republican Party. “We know from the first administration that Trump was an amateur and lots of people stopped his most radical actions,” says Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and author of How Fascism Works. He underscores that Trump’s darkest ambitions were present from the beginning — from the Muslim ban to the coup attempt of Jan. 6. “The only thing that stopped him from being a full-on dictator was other people,” Stanley says. “We know that that’s not going to happen anymore.”), Pelosi suggests Trump might skip presidential debate against Harris: ‘I know cowardice when I see it’ (“Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested former President Trump could skip the upcoming presidential debate because of ‘cowardice’…”), and Trump warms up for debate by threatening to jail election officials (“Trump warned he will jail election officials he considers cheats; is complaining Pennsylvania’s voting is a fraud; vowed to pardon January 6 rioters; railed against women who accused him of sexual misconduct; and spent hours in recent days on sometimes incoherent rants that raised questions about his state of mind.”).

The so-called news doesn’t seem to match the reality. When I go and research things, it turns out that words are taken out of context, lies are being told, and things are being blown ridiculously out of proportion. I’m especially confused by the comments about “incoherent rants” that I keep hearing about. I tried to listen to Trump back when he first ran, and I found it difficult. His speaking voice was uncomfortable in pitch, and he tended to ramble. He’s gotten MUCH better. I admit I wondered if it was my own bias that made it seem less coherent before, but I went back and listened and a lot of what he said on campaign tended to be difficult to follow. He has either taken lessons in public speaking, or has been practicing. Regardless, his ability to stay on topic is much better. That aside, when you hold up Biden or Harris beside him, the term “incoherent” should not even be considered. Good grief.

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For me, the flavors in a good soup are the taste of autumn. I adore soup weather, and with the nights getting colder, I’m looking up my soup recipes. Last week, I made a small pot of beef barley soup, and I impressed even myself. It’s easy to do, and you can even pop it in the crock pot if you want.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs beef shin bone (with bone and marrow)
• 1/4 cup red wine (for deglazing the pan)
• olive oil (for cooking)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 6 cups beef broth
• 1-1/2 cups pearl barley, rinsed
• 1 tbsp tomato paste (optional)
• bay leaf
• spices to taste (salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, sage)

In a soup pot, add a bit of the olive oil and bring to a medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add in the beef shin bones. If you have more than one, you may need to do them one at a time. Don’t crowd the bottom of the pot. You want to sear the meat for about 2 minutes per side, then set the meat aside.

Add a bit more olive oil if necessary, then toss in the onion, celery, and carrot (this is called a mirepoix, and it’s the base of many soups and stews), and saute until the vegetables are softened but not yet brown. Use the red wine, a little at a time, to deglaze the pan. Add in a drizzle of wine, and then use a wooden spoon or spatula (it should be wooden, NOT plastic or rubber) to scrape up all the stuff off the bottom of the pot. That “stuff” is called fond, and it’s delicious.

Once the pan is deglazed, put the meat back in (still on the bone), along with the broth, bay leaf, and tomato paste. Stir to combine the ingredients. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about an hour. Taste the broth, and then adjust for flavor by adding the spices of your choice.

Rinse your barley well, and pick out any stones you may find. Add the barley to your soup, and raise the temperature enough to keep the liquid at a steady strong simmer. Check on your soup every 15 minutes or so, to ensure nothing is burning. Add more beef broth if necessary. Continue to simmer until the barley is completely cooked and is chewy.

Lower the heat to its lowest setting, and remove the meat from the soup. Carefully trim the meat from the bone and put it back into the soup. Get rid of any gristle or fat, but make sure that the marrow from the shin bone goes back into the soup. The marrow makes your broth rich and tasty. Taste and adjust the spices as necessary, and then serve.

I like to serve this soup with fresh baked bread, still warm from the oven. If you’re not a baker, pick up a nice ciabatta at the grocery store, drizzle olive oil over it and toss on some salt and pepper, then heat in the oven at 350F for five to ten minutes.

This soup freezes very well. If you have a pressure canner, you may can it, as well. I find I never have enough left over to can up, though! A note on the tomato paste: I find it adds a nice zing to the broth, but it isn’t necessary. Some people like to put crushed tomato or stewed tomato into their beef barley soup, but I’m a purist.

BOOM! It happens. The meteor hits, or the fungus zombies arise, or civil unrest causes a loss of infrastructure. Whatever the emergency, the S sure has HTF. It’s time to break out the bug out bag or the get home bag, or check on your emergency stash of stuff. Yep, all there.

My question is, do you know what to do with that stash?

I am constantly amazed at the number of people who “prep for the end of the world” but have absolutely no knowledge on how to use the items they put away. A prime example of this was from a few years ago, when we were making regular trips down to the LDS Cannery (back when it *was* a cannery… stupid FDA) to pick things up. The LDS, while not my idea of a religion, has some great ideas about preparing for the worst. They make it easy for their members to put up food for the end of the world. They have convenient kits, each designed for a specific number of people (usually two parents and two kids) for a specific length of time (a month, generally speaking). Each kit includes things like powdered milk and eggs, wheat berries, oats, canned proteins, beans, etc. Each LDS family dutifully purchases two years worth of these supplies over time. And then those supplies just sit there.

The last trip there, we watched a new couple picking up their first box of goods. We struck up conversation, because we were all standing around waiting for things and that’s what you do. Nice couple, working on having kids. Devout. Polite. Not uneducated. But in the process of chatting, I discovered that they didn’t have a wheat mill. They didn’t know how to cook dry beans. They had no idea what to do with dried eggs. They had no real understanding of what to do with the items in their emergency box.

My family stores ground wheat in “small amounts” (for me a “small amount” is a 25lb bag, separated into smaller bags that are sealed, frozen for 72 hours, then put away in a cool, dry, dark place) and wheat berries in larger amounts (though also separated into bags or cans and frozen for 72 hours… it kills off any bugs). I go through a 25lb bag of wheat in a short enough time that it doesn’t go off, because I bake weekly, and sometimes more often than that. The wheat berries are a long-term storage solution, because they don’t go off. They’re shelf stable for 20+ years. We have a hand powered mill (that can be hooked up to a bicycle or generator if we really want to make it easier, though we never do), and we use it to grind wheat berries, barley, and other grains to make wheat for baking. Mostly I do that for historic demos, but sometimes just for fun. We only grind what we plan to use, because “ground at home” wheat will not last as long as the store-bought stuff, as it still has all its oils and the germ in place.

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I was running behind the gun this week due to the long weekend. I’m tired after three days at the Fort, and all the packing and all the work while there. So I’m going to just toss some news spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks.

Fort stuff – I went on Friday, and stayed until Monday afternoon. While there, I lit up the bake oven once, on Saturday, and turned out two *perfect* loaves of bread. I didn’t rush myself for patrons, for a change, and the result was that there was no burn on the bread at all, and the crumb was divine. By Monday morning, all that was left of those two loaves were some crumbs at the bottom of the bowl I’d had it sitting in. I decided to make egg noodles on Saturday, as well, and that turned out very well. I made a second batch on Sunday, because I wanted to try and get the dough a bit thinner. I succeeded, and the end result was a very consistent, 1/8″ thick dough that turned into quite lovely flat noodles similar to a pappardelle. They’re still a bit too thick for my taste, but these cooked up quite nicely.

We had a decent turn out at the Fort over the long weekend. We had a slow but steady stream of patrons come through, all with fantastic questions. I wasn’t rushed for time, so I spent a lot of my “free” time going from place to place and giving tours. I definitely got my steps in, and ended up walking about 17 miles over the course of the weekend! After hours, I had two nice dinners with the volunteers (Saturday night and Sunday night), which included great conversation, friendship, and a bottle of wine to share. It was definitely a fantastic weekend.

Harris stuff – I’m having a really hard time watching what Harris is putting out on media. Some of it I know is actual lies, because I have been paying attention. Some of it is just bizarre. Her documentary (because that was NOT an interview) was ridiculous, full of contradictory stuff. The fact that she’s repeating the same EXACT speech in city after city is getting a bit old, and the odd fake accents are incredibly grating. Her inability to give a straight answer is painful.

That said, there are people putting false stuff out about her, and I dislike that, too. There’s plenty of fodder that’s real; we don’t need to make anything up. So no, she was not involved in a hit and run accident in 2011. Yes, Harris was born in America (in California, which explains a lot, but is still a US state). No, Harris did not make a campaign ad that disses herself (for heavens’ sake, why would she? she’s stupid, but she’s not dumb). And no, the Eagles did not endorse Harris. At this point, there’s so much misinformation out there that it’s almost impossible to tell what’s real and what isn’t. There’s a big question as to whether someone on the far Right is doing some of this, or if Leftists are messing with it in order to get caught and blame the Right. It’s crazy.

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I’ll write more about my experience at the Fort later, but I leave you with a video of some bread making I did, put together by my friend Garrett. He’s filmed me at ren faires before, but I made a specific invite for him to come this weekend and see me doing something new. He and his mother came, and they had a great time!

Some of you may have guessed that I like to collect cookbooks, in addition to writing them. I have, for a very long time, been interested in historical cookbooks. In particular, I like original recipes, even if the physical book I have is a reprint. One of the cookbooks I treasure most in my collection is The Original White House Cookbook. The first edition came out in 1887, but there have been several editions since then. You can buy many of the new volumes, but it’s hard to find originals (ie printed in 1887) of that first one. I have a reprint of the original edition, printed in the early 1900s, and I love it.

I’m preparing myself for going to the Fort again this weekend. I’m hosting a “show and tell” event over the Labor Day weekend, and I want to have some yummy recipes. As I was cooking breakfast this morning, I was thinking about what I’d like to make. My eyes strayed over to the cookbook shelf (actually a whole bookcase, but whatever), and I noticed that the White House one was on its side and out of its usual place. Likely one of the kids had it out and didn’t put it back right. When I had a moment, I went to straighten it, and then stopped, because an incredibly profound thought hit me.

That cookbook, that original one from 1887, was written for the American people. We were, at that time, barely a hundred years old as a country. We were essentially a toddler, in the grand scheme of things. And here we were, offering our entire people the opportunity to cook like the leaders of that country.

Our people were (and are) eating the same food, prepared in much the same way, as our leaders.

Do you get how very insane that sounds? To have a populace who eats what the elite are eating? In 1887, Queen Victoria was munching on oranges, locally sourced salmon, and an early version of the turducken (12 Tomatoes). Kaiser Wilhelm II was eating ice cream and “Fresh goose-liver medallions that have been seared and cooled before being coated with chaud-froid sauce, garnishes, and then sealed in a layer of Port jelly. (Royal Menus)” Napoleon wasn’t eating a lot of rich foods, but only because he suffered from gastritis and insisted on plain and even bland foods. The rich of Europe were eating well, and the poor and middle class citizenry were eating simple foods, and sometimes not much of them.

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I’ve talked about bugging in versus bugging out. I haven’t talked much about long-term bugging out, mostly because I’m not suited to it. Frankly, I don’t think most people are, despite their desires. In any case, it’s not something I could do for a long time, so there is no point in planning for it.

Short term bugging out or having an emergency come up while I’m out of the house and have to make my way home are absolutely possible scenarios. That means I have spent considerable time contemplating how to deal with it. For me, there are many issues that come up when considering being bugged out, and it’s a very individual thing.  You’re going to have to figure out your list of pros and cons on your own.

My first question is whether I’m temporarily bugging out, or am I on a trek to get home after being caught out? I can forsee several situations where I might temporarily bug out of the house. We back onto acres and acres of woodland, with even more nearby. It’s not going to be searched, even if FEMA comes by and investigates. I don’t have the kind of subbasement that Bill had in The Last Of Us (this scene is freakin’ marvelous, I might add – go have a watch!), so there are places we can go to hide until the feds come and go again. The bottom line is, they won’t stick around, and I will.

And here’s the thing. I have a well stocked pantry out in plain view. I expect that to be ransacked. I have a hidden pantry that I also expect will get found and ransacked. That’s why I have caches elsewhere. There’s always more food, more seeds, more of what I need. I also try to keep up on the letter/number combos that FEMA puts onto houses when it goes through a neighborhood. I keep a variety of spray paint on hand, and once I know what color they’re using, I should be able to sneak in and mark up the house. Emergencies are wonderful things, sometimes, and allow you to make everyone think “someone else took care of it.”

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I’m going to start with Harris, only because I don’t think this is going to take very long to research. I don’t mean that in a snarky way, either. I just don’t believe she’s actually accomplished all that much.

According to the official WH website: “As Vice President, she has worked to bring people together to advance opportunity, deliver for families, and protect fundamental freedoms across the country. She has led the fight for the freedom of women to make decisions about their own bodies, the freedom to live safe from gun violence, the freedom to vote, and the freedom to drink clean water and breathe clean air. While making history at home, she is also representing the nation abroad – embarking on more than a dozen foreign trips, traveling to more than 19 countries, and meeting with more than 150 world leaders to strengthen critical global alliances.” Semantic content, zero. This is literally more of the word salad she uses in her speeches.

To be clear, women can already make decisions about their own bodies. People are already free to live safe from violence of all kinds, not just gun violence, and we have a whole police force to take care of it when violence becomes a problem. If anything, Harris made the country MORE violent by bailing out violent offenders who burned the country during the riots. Everyone has the freedom to vote, and there’s been not one whiff of a smidgen of a hint that anyone’s interested in repressing that right. Drinking clean water and breathing clean air is a function of many things, and if you want to do it you have to move out of the cities. There’s nothing a VP or President can do about it. And in four years, Madame VP has made “more than a dozen” drips. Wow. In what way did she “strengthen critical global alliances,” pray tell? Again, this has no actual content.

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Cassoulet Vert is one of those fancy French dishes that has the look and feel of a delicacy. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to make, and it’s incredibly tasty as well. If you make this one, cook it in a big pot but serve it in individual bowls. The presentation makes it look like you’ve worked for hours in a kitchen, and you’ll impress your friends and family. This recipe doesn’t just look good, by the way. It is both tasty and rather filling!

Ingredients (soup):

• 1 can (29 oz) little white beans
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion diced
• 4 garlic cloves, rough chopped
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoon herbs de Provence

Ingredients (pesto):

• 2 cups fresh kale, packed
• 1 cup cilantro, packed
• 3 cloves garlic
• zest and juice from one small lemon
• ¼ cup pine nuts
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a soup pot, add olive oil and onions, and saute for four to five minutes, stirring. When the onions are soft, add garlic, and saute another 2 minutes.

Rinse the canned beans well. Add beans, stock, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and other herbs, and stir gently. The broth should just barely cover the beans. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.

While the cassoulet is cooking, make the pesto.

Put the kale, cilantro, and garlic into a food processor. Pulse until it is chopped but not soupy. Add the rest of the ingredients: lemon zest, lemon juice, oil, water, salt, and the pine nuts. Pulse until it’s well combined but not too smooth. You want pesto, not soup. Use a spatula to scrape off the sides, and pulse briefly one more time. Set aside.

When the cassoulet is ready, you should remove some of the broth if there’s too much. The soup part should be mostly beans, with only a bit of broth. Stir in the pesto, gently turning it until it’s well mixed. The cassoulet should have the consistency of stew, rather than soup. Continue to simmer on your lowest heat setting for another 10 minutes to let the flavors blend together.

Add salt and pepper as needed for flavor. This dish should be quite lemony, and salty as well. Top with croutons, sprouts, sliced avocado, a poached egg, or some cheese, depending on your tastes. It pairs well with a white wine, and a hearty, crusty bread.

Notes:

You can use traditional basil pesto in this recipe, but you may want to use a bit less. The jolt of flavor from the basil will overpower the mild taste of the beans if you use too much. Add other types of pesto slowly, until the flavor seems right to you. That said, I recommend making the kale pesto above. It’s so delicious!