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JustAPrepper
11-02-2011, 01:53 AM
With the Holidays fast approaching I thought I'd share this...

Last year I set out to prove to myself that even during the worst of times, I could pull off a really *special* meal using our Food Storage. A lot of the experimenting I do is to familiarize myself with new ingredients, find alternative meals and alternative ways of cooking. If the Fit really hits the Shan, we'll be eating very simply to stretch our stores as far as they'll go but by experimenting and playing today, I can build a recipe arsenal for those times when we need something a little more extravagant than a loaf of bread and a bowl of beans and rice. Even during hard times, sometimes you have to put everything aside and create something really nice. Not only was this a learning experience for me, it was a huge confidence builder. Even Mr. Prepper was extremely skeptical and actually turned up his nose and crinkled his lip when I told him I was going to "sacrifice" our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner for a SHTF Dinner. As it turned out, while we didn't have the overall volume of food we're used to (I go NUTS at Thanksgiving) it turned out to be one of our most memorable and one that we were very Thankful for. The only two things I "cheated" on were real butter and real eggs as opposed to using our powdered stores.

It took a little planning on my part but the foundation of our simplified meal was built on...

Home Canned Turkey
"Stuffing"
Gravy
Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Cranberry Sauce
Available Veggies from the garden
Pie

The Turkey was Home Canned and the Gravy came from packets. Admittedly, not the best stuff, but if you let it cook a while on a slow simmer it helps cook out some of the "raw" taste. A good dose of pepper doesn't hurt either.

For the "Stuffing"...let me say I am NOT a Stuffing-Girl. I prefer Cornbread Dressing but Mr. Prepper likes his Bird-Stuffed Stuffing. I had just made a loaf of homemade Whole Wheat bread so I took what was leftover, diced it up and let it sit out over night to get "stale". I mixed it up with some Chicken Broth (made from Bouillion cubes) and several Tablespoons of Bell's Seasoning. I also re-hydrated some Onions that I had dehydrated but had recently thrown out my home dehydrated celery because my 02 Absorber failed in the jar and I didn't like the way it looked. So, I re-hydrated some Carrot instead. Once the onions and carrots were rehydrated I sautee'd them in butter and threw them in the Stuffing with a couple dashes of Celery Salt and put it in the oven to bake a bit.

Mr. Preppers family tradition is to eat Sweet Potatoes and Apples. Something I had never heard of until I met him. Over the years I combined his tradition with mine to include Marshmallows and Pecans. Since Pecans may not be available to us all the time I left them out but I did make my own homemade Marshmallows. I used everything from storage, including my own Homemade Vanilla and if I can add, they were the best Marshmallows I've ever eaten in my life! If you have kids, you MUST make Homemade Marshmallows at least once! I had a BLAST! They were sticky, ooey, and gooey. I had goo from head to toe by the time I was finished and even though I was all alone while making them I was laughing hysterically at myself. I kept thinking it was like some episode of Lucy and Ethel from I Love Lucy!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/5MARSHMALLOWS.jpg

I always make fresh Cranberry Sauce for myself. Mr. Prepper can't stand them but, to me, it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them. I normally cook fresh Cranberries in a mixture of Sugar, Water and Orange Juice. I also grate some fresh Orange Zest in the mix. Well...fresh Cranberries may not always be available so I took a can of Whole Cranberry Sauce from the pantry, plopped it in a pan and slowly cooked it until the jelly mixture had disolved. Then I added a few drops of Pure Orange Extract to it. Mr. Prepper still didn't like it but I loved it.

For the veggies, we had an itty-bitty Butternut Squash and some Rutabaga from the garden that I cooked in the Solar Oven.

I needed a crust for the Pie and earlier that year I tried a recipe for a Graham Cracker/Oat Crust. It was delicious and worked great for the Lemon Meringue pie I made previously. Realizing I may not have access to Graham Crackers in the future, I made my own from ingredients in our storage. It took me a couple of tries and I had to tweak the recipe but I nailed it down and now can make delicious Whole Wheat Graham Crackers...and an awesome crust.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/3GRAHAMCRACKERS.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/6GRAHAMCRACKERS.jpg


I was originally going to use canned Pumpkin to fill the pie shell but since I had opened the can of Apple Pie Filling to mix with our Home Canned Sweet Potatoes for Mr. Prepper's Sweet Potatoes and Apples...topped with my Homemade Miniature Marshmallows, of course...I had some leftover filling. So, I decided to use the remaining Apple Pie filling to fill the pie shell. This eventually posed two problems, one which wasn't evident until after dinner. The remaining Apple filling wasn't enough to fill the shell so I had to open another can. And once dinner was over and we went for a slice of pie, the Apples were too heavy for the Graham Cracker/Oat crust and it crumbled. But, it was still delicious.

While it was a far cry from what we're used to, it was a delicious and satisfying meal and had all the basic elements of everything we needed to celebrate our Thanks.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/1SHTFTHANKSGIVING.jpg

Please remember to be Mindful and Thankful this season for being one of The Prepared. There are many who are not.

Stormfeather
11-02-2011, 02:18 AM
WOW! I think I may just try this come this Thanksgiving! thanks for a wonderful idea, and oh my. . . does that meal look good!

JustAPrepper
11-02-2011, 03:06 AM
WOW! I think I may just try this come this Thanksgiving! thanks for a wonderful idea, and oh my. . . does that meal look good!

Thanks Stormfeather! :)

ravensgrove
11-02-2011, 07:48 AM
I have done something very similar x 20 ( I have 40 people over to the farm at Thanksgiving) this year will be the 4th year. I cook everything from things we have raised ourselves: fresh, frozen, dehydrated or canned. To date, I have yet to be able to successfully raise a turkey...but the second I do....everything I serve at Thanksgiving I will have raised myself, or minimum baked myself....I am still experimenting with grains. Last Christmas I did the entire meal...we subsituted Pekin ducks for the goose :) I am inspired by your post, I'll post some pictures of our big old farm fest week after next. Hubby's leave is early, so we're having Thanksgiving in about 10 days.....

JustAPrepper
11-02-2011, 02:45 PM
WOW!! Way to go Raven! I'd love to see what you did for a crowd that size! :cool:

mollypup
11-02-2011, 05:11 PM
OMG!!! Justaprepper! That is truly AWESOME! I was thinking about what I would serve for Thanksgiving if SHTF, but you left me in the dust! I was going to serve up some home-canned chicken, mix up a bag of instant stuffing mix, open a can of cranberry sauce, cook up some dehydrated sweet potatoes, make some gravy (from packs too) and I think that's about it. Oh yeah, and mix up some tea (no ice probably). I haven't given a pie any thought. You are so industrious and forward thinking!

Would you PLEASE tell us how to make the marshmallows and graham crackers from scratch?!!! :D

bacpacker
11-03-2011, 01:57 AM
Raven, Justa, Excellent jobs on the dinners. They sound awesome. Great ideas planning and trying new things to get your plans ready.

ladyhk13
11-03-2011, 04:49 AM
Oh thanks you guys!!! I told the DH what you did and ya know what the answer was (about 3 hours later)???? "I think we should do a shtf weekend. Use NO power at all for anything. No heat, no hot water, no tv, internet or lights and no stove." I'm like..."hold your horses there!!!!" One thing is we have a freezer full of food and we don't have our generator yet. So he say's ok, we leave the fridge and freezer on but everything else goes off. Hold your horses again I say....I bought my mom a generator for Mother's Day which DH has already hooked up and he has been putting off getting ours because he wants a special one....HA! I say! I'M GOING TO MY MOM'S! SHE'S PREPARED! YOU CAN STAY HERE AND FREEZE YOUR BUTT OFF IN THE DARK! True story.....