30 Days to better Preparedness. Day 4. Cooking.

 We are on a roll now!  Thank you to everyone for your comments and tips.  I decided on Fridays we will end with a summary of the week and have weekends off.  This will help us catch up and get ready for week two.  I hope this helps everyone stay on top of the tasks.   

Today is very important.  We absolutely much have alternative ways to boil water and cook food.   There are a lot of options and I would be happiest if everyone had a couple.   

These are the options I have to give you some ideas:

We have a generator and that will provide power to boil the kettle, run a fry pan etc.

We have an outdoor gas BBQ.  We keep a spare gas bottle.   I can cook basically anything on that even a roast.  I also have a plate on that for the kettle.  I can heat a large amount of water,  enough to make a hot bath. 

We have small gas burners with a single plate on top.  

We have a fire pit and I am pretty good at cooking over a fire.

We also have a wood heater in the house and the top of that gets hot enough to slow cook.  We keep about a years with of cut timber stored in the shed.   

We have a whole house generator that will run everything and I can cook as normal.   We fuel stored and I think we would be ok for about a month.   

If a fire is on your list of possibilities you want to be pretty good at lighting one.  It is ok to cheat.  Just keep fire lighters or similar on hand.  I save all the toilet rolls and when I have drier lint it gets stuffed into one of these.  Voila!  Pretty good fire starters!    We already covered matches and lighters in our lighting post. 

There really are a lot of options.   If you have any outdoor area at all, even a balcony, you can probably get a small BBQ set up.   Camping/outdoor and hardware stores have a heap of ideas.     

Whatever you choose make sure you know how to set it up,  safely operate it and have your fuel.   

If your power was out for two weeks just imagine how grateful you would be for hot water and cooked food!   Especially if you are in a cold climate.   The ability to boil water can also be life saving.   If you need to kill germs in water or sterilise bottles or medical equipment.... boiling water is a big help. 

Now we also need to think of tools and cooking pans etc that are suitable.  There is no use having an outdoor fire if you have no plate or griddle for your food or pans to sit on.  We need to think it right through and preferably actually practice cooking this way.   Anyone who goes camping is good with these skills.   That is an advantage!   

What are your alternative cooking methods?  Also do you have any good and easy meals you prepare on a fire or one dish wonders for a hot plate?   One we love is to make jaffles.   I am not sure if this is just an Australian thing?   It it like a toasted sandwich maker on a long stick.   Between your slices of bread you can put pretty much anything.  Bacon and an egg is really good.   They go into the fire on the coals and cook quickly.   We have made them so many times.  So easy, fun and good! 

So this week we had our purse, freezer meals, lighting and cooking.   Make notes of what you need to take action on.  I am here egging you on to move on each step.  Now we have the weekend to work on a few things.  If there are things you could dearly use but they don't fit into the budget that is ok.   Look for things in the thrift stores,  look on local social media buy, swap and sell sites.  Let family and friends know what you are looking for!  Also are you someone who is asked what you would like for Christmas and you say you don't know and oh no you don't need to get me anything?   Well,  people still do anyway! I tend yo go blank.  Make notes of what you need and mention them!  Last year I got myself pre prepared! I asked for ...  Homesteading books,   Gardening books,  Vanilla Beans and quality sewing scissors.   And I got them!   Every one of them has been wonderful!   If someone is going to buy you a gift it is actually helpful if they know what you want.  So much easier.   So make your list! 

 My opportunities for the day...  

Emboldened by victory in the sewing room I took on the fridge. 😳

In order to stock up and know what I have it needed a good clean out.   I found I had a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be in there.   It looks lovely and now to stock up.

And it was a big day!   The tractor arrived!   I have begun to imagine what we can do now.

I'm so excited!   See you on Monday for Day 5 of our course. 

Now I need to do my Friday report as it was a week of lots of action! 

xxx