Question for the Preppers or anyone really

[Knobgoblin]

Who couldn't make soup after a 30 second discussion with someone who can?

I feel like this question is like supposing people with zippers can't learn to use buttons. Soup is about the simplest cooking there is.

Omg

Where have you been? We've all been so worried.

 

[Xaevian]

Who couldn't make soup after a 30 second discussion with someone who can?

I feel like this question is like supposing people with zippers can't learn to use buttons. Soup is about the simplest cooking there is.

I know people that can burn water...

 

[Knobgoblin]

I know people that can burn water...

I believe mr. MazdaMiatta is well versed in "30 second discussions "


It's okay, really, it's happens to every guy .

 

[OldTengu]

Your Williams Sonoma pan looks odd on that apartment stovetop.
Points for the handmade brats tho.

Updated 10 minutes later.
Good lord, I'm starving for a brat and mustard with Yukon golds on the side now .

I hate that goddamn stove.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Who couldn't make soup after a 30 second discussion with someone who can?

I feel like this question is like supposing people with zippers can't learn to use buttons. Soup is about the simplest cooking there is.

 

[sobo]

Man cannot live on meat alone…

Whut? The cavemen sure did, and for thousands of years, too!
Shouldn't you know that, Caveman Jim...???

 

[Knobgoblin]

Who couldn't make soup after a 30 second discussion with someone who can?

I feel like this question is like supposing people with zippers can't learn to use buttons. Soup is about the simplest cooking there is.

 

[gmerkt]

I have modest cooking skills. Presentation may be lacking, sometimes things don't turn out tasting as I'd envisioned, quite. But I wouldn't starve. I can cook on open fire, no problem. My emergency supplies contain a number of dehydrated things, some require little actual preparation. I'd like to eat those first so as to get my money's worth out of them.

In normal times, Mrs. Merkt does nearly all of the cooking, a job which I'm glad to relinquish into her caring hands. She enjoys doing it. We nearly always eat home-cooked food made from scratch. The exceptions are dining out, which have been rare since the Covid thing came about. We NEVER eat that prepared bubblegume that is offered in the frozen food section of the store. It never resembles the pictures on the packaging, and never (in my experience, anyway) tastes very good. Pretty much ditto for canned prepared meals. Canned green beans, okay; canned pasta, no. Mrs. Merkt eats fresh vegetables; I will sometimes eat canned depending on what it is.

Home grown food, pretty slim proposition where I live. My best crop is firewood, a distant second place goes to berries, that's about it. Too much shade, for the most part. There were potatoes growing here 34 years ago when I bought the property but I let that go quickly - no sense in growing the cheapest thing you can buy. Tomatoes, which seem to be something lots of people grow if they do nothing else, my experience here is that the weather cools off about the time mine are getting red. There is a lot of competition for home garden food here, too, like slugs, squirrels, birds, rats, raccoons and so forth. One of my neighbors to the west is one of those back to nature types, he's got some cleared land that borders my place. I look over the fence, it looks like Disneyland over there. He has tried to build a cocoon over his vegetable patch to keep every type of critter out. First it was welded wire around to keep out the raccoons. Then he put screen over the top to keep out birds. Then he put hardware wire around the welded wire to keep the squirrels out. Then he put more screen around the sides to keep more birds out.

We have a lot of smaller critters around here that could be used for food. I keep my wild game cookbook from the American Legion Ladies Auxilliary in Weed, Calif. around just in case.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Back to cooking .

Microwave ovens are definitely responsible for a lack of basic kitchen skills in members of the last generation or 2.

 

[sobo]

I look over the fence, it looks like Disneyland over there. He has tried to build a cocoon over his vegetable patch to keep every type of critter out. First it was welded wire around to keep out the raccoons. Then he put screen over the top to keep out birds. Then he put hardware wire around the welded wire to keep the squirrels out. Then he put more screen around the sides to keep more birds out.

The Disneyland reference and follow-on explanation was priceless!

 

[Caveman Jim]

Whut? The cavemen sure did, and for thousands of years, too!
Shouldn't you know that, Caveman Jim...???

I've got enough problems and do not even want to think I'd get all stopped up and the Mrs. will say"Here, drink this"…

 

[ATCclears]

Cook? All the time.

Here's a simple recipe for Fall given the apple harvest. The spices add a wonderful scent to the kitchen.



Curried Apple Chicken Sauté

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to an even 1/2" thickness
• 2 baking apples (Granny Smith, McIntosh, or similar), peeled, cored, and finely chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup water
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation

1. Season the chicken on both sides with with salt and pepper.
2. In a small glass bowl mix together the water and flour. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat melt the butter. Add the chicken and cook 3 minutes per side, then transfer to a plate and cover with foil.
4. Add the onion to the skillet. Sauté for 4 minutes. Add the cinnamon, curry, and paprika. Sauté for 30 seconds. Add the apples. Toss well to coat the apples. Cover the skillet and cook for 5 minutes, or until the apples are tender but not mushy.
5. Uncover the skillet and stir in the cider vinegar. Add the water and flour mixture. Stir. Reduce heat to simmer. Return chicken to skillet, cover chicken with the sauce, cover the skillet, and cook for 6-8 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked.

 

[The Heretic]

Been cooking and caring for myself for most of the past 50 years.

Just baked some cornbread yesterday.

It ain't that hard. I don't know why this would be considered some kind of hard thing to learn how to do.

I am not a gourmet chef, but I survive.

 

[dingo97223]

I get the be ready idea but my question is how many actually know how to cook a meal from scratch? What's going to happen when restaurants, grub-hub and microwaves don't work anymore?
And on a more advanced level, how many have Hunter/Gather skills or even grow a garden?

Why do you think I regularly feed the neighborhood cats?....I am all set.
On a serious note, my mouth is watering looking at all the fat Americans walking around....Imagine the endless supply of juicy steaks.

Now really....food is pretty much everywhere, if you learn how to look beyond groceries stores.

Did you know that during the German siege of Stalingrad in WW2, after they ran out of live stock, pets, mice, rats, bugs (and by some accounts...even dead relatives), some Russians survived by boiling their hide/leather shoes and drinking that "soup" for the organic/nutritive matter/value contained in it?.

My point is that when you're really hungry, you become very creative....

However, it will always help if you educate/prepare yourself on the matter when you have a full belly.

 

[gmerkt]

The Disneyland reference and follow-on explanation was priceless!

I should've expanded on that a bit. Because in addition to his garden, he also has a bunch of stuff for his kids, plus other free things he's collected from here and there. Like an old row boat. Trampoline, various brightly colored, large plastic play toys. He had an open compost box, rat-knawed and all. He was feeding the rats and I was trapping / poisoning them. But the long walk up from their house has discouraged this use; it's no longer active. I knew that I wouldn't have to say anything to them about it; that they would tire of it and quit. They did.

When they moved in, I introduced myself to him. Later, his wife and I have spoken, they are nice, young people. Newest neighbors I've got, been there a few years now. Paid an extortionate price for the place. They moved up from another state that shall remain unnamed. With ideas about living off the land, kinda like modern hippies only with a bit of money. They've tried this and that.

Up the road a way from me there was another family of those about 12-15 years ago. First thing they did was fell all their timber, left most of the stumps. Cutting trees down is much easier than stump removal. Anyway, they cleared this land, tilled a bunch of growing beds, got a mini greenhouse, built a chicken coop with hens for eggs, bought a wood splitter, etc., etc. The usual "live off the land" scenario. It all went down the drain after a few years, the amount of work vs. reward was enountered. Now it all looks like a pretty good crop of Scotch Broom. House got very run down.

 

[whiskeybill]

Having been raised in Montana and hunting from an early age, I have quite a few of those skills down. My Dad and Grandad used to pack hunt into the Beartooths for Elk on horseback, and I got to go along when I was big enough to handle the horses and work. One of my childhood friends Grandad had invented a foldable wood burning camp stove for wall tents (The Sims Stove) and I still have mine. Still have a wall tent. I haven't even looked at "Survival Gear" to buy. I still have a couple of entrenching tools (folding shovels) that I bought at a surplus store many years ago. They fit right into a pannier on a pack saddle. I know exactly what to take for survival of just about any type. And I'm pretty handy with a Dutch Oven.

Regards,
Bill

 

[ZigZagZeke]

I get the be ready idea but my question is how many actually know how to cook a meal from scratch? What's going to happen when restaurants, grub-hub and microwaves don't work anymore?
And on a more advanced level, how many have Hunter/Gather skills or even grow a garden?

I am retired. My wife is not. I cook dinner almost every night, and we do all of our cooking from scratch. My wife has celiac disease, so almost everything out of a jar or box is off limits due to having wheat (gluten) in it. I make spaghetti sauce, chili, soups, stews, and everything else from scratch. I also make a really good gluten free bread that puts the commercially made stuff to shame. I've learned to cook Thai, Mexican, and Chinese dishes from scratch because those cuisines include a lot of naturally gluten free dishes. My Pad Thai is better than any restaurant in town.

And when it comes to cooking over an open fire, I've been doing that since I was 12. I can cook a whole lumberjack breakfast in one 14" skillet, and my wife specializes in gluten free dutch oven cooking.

 

[GWS]

Who couldn't make soup after a 30 second discussion with someone who can?

I feel like this question is like supposing people with zippers can't learn to use buttons. Soup is about the simplest cooking there is.

You don't seem to realize how many people think meat comes from a grocery store. They have no clue how food is grown processed or distributed. If it can't be cooked in 5 minutes in a microwave, they are screwed.

 

[CountryGent]

Most curious notion that someone who has reached adulthood would not know how to cook for themselves. However, perhaps I am too optimistic, at times.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Most curious notion that someone who has reached adulthood would not know how to cook for themselves. However, perhaps I am too optimistic, at times.

One of the most successful ( financially) people I know would literally starve to death in a farmer's market. Without someone to cook for him, that is.