Holidays For Preparedness

For readers who are not familiar with the United States, this should be published on our Thanksgiving holiday. (I published my soy article instead.) Turkey is the most common main dish for the Thanksgiving meal.

Apologies for not publishing on time today. I am having trouble with the automatic scheduler. I don't usually believe it because it so seldom works, but last night it assured me that it published and I made the mistake of believing it. Sorry.

That doesn't work out for vegetarians like me. Some vegetarians buy or make a fake turkey called a, "tofurkey". Fake meat is unapealling to me, so I skip that too. I have different things to eat for the holiday. One that I have liked was vegetarian hot dogs with home made buns and home made mustard with tarragon in it. I have also had squash soup served in a scooped out squash half with creme' fraiche and peanut sauce.

One of my side dishes that I often make is, "Confetti Rice". I cook the most colorful combination of vegetables that I can find and mix it with rice. I add spicy brown sauce and usually include pineapple. Asians from all different countries like it and often tell me that their mother used to make it. I thought I invented it, "Who knew?"

Confetti Rice is a way to make almost any Asians happy for a special occasion. They often ask for the recipe and get tearful thinking about how Mom used to make it. This seems to include other ethnic groups like Pacific Islanders and some Africans and Europeans as well. It is nice to be able to make people happy with your cooking.

I used to make a cake for holidays as well, but may discontinue this since I have health problems that make eating it not such a good idea. I like to make a nice moist cake with fruit in it. I often top it with fruit slices and do a pour on fruity syrup sort of thing instead of frosting, that lets the fruit show.

I already posted my holiday cream puffs. Sometimes I do those for more than one holiday, but most often make the cream puffs around New Years. You can leave out the sweeteners and fill the shells with a main dish or side dish, as well as using them for a dessert. Egg substitutes do not work with these puff shells. You have to use real eggs. I have had years where this dish was the only time I used eggs during the entire year.

I ate a lot more eggs during the time I had my own chickens. I knew what they ate and that they were cared for well. That helped out with my health and ethical concerns for the chickens.

A dish that I often make is done with rye and it comes out bright pink in color. It has a nice tangy sweet taste. I got that recipe from the Rodale Press Basic Natural Foods Cookbook. You put the rye in a thermos with hot water overnight and that cooks it.

That book is out of print, but if enough people ask, they will probably reprint it. They already did that once when I got a lot of other people to ask them. The book is ideal for preparedness. It has nice tables for different cooking methods for foods. There is one for vegetables, one for grains, meats, etc. It has handy parts for each type of food that explain in depth about traditional healthy ways to cook those foods. 

The cakes that I usually make come from another favorite cookbook, "Make-A-Mix Cookbook". This one is also a good prepper cookbook. You can make and store your own convenience foods with this cookbook. It is pretty comprehensive. 

If you like it, you can take a look at the recipes and get the hang of how they are done, then start winging it and making your own recipe mixes. If you and your family have a favorite dish, for example, you can make a mix for that specific dish and cut down preparation time for making it. This makes it easier to, "Store what you eat and eat what you store". An extra benefit is that holiday cooking can be made much easier with this method.