March Challenge - Can Opener

The challenge this month is to purchase or make sure you have a spare can opener to keep with your food storage. You may have one in your utensils drawer already however this may disappear in a crisis.

My thought is that if you are able to get to your canned food, and it hasn't been blown/swept away, if you also have a can opener stored in the same place/container as those cans then you will be able to open them.

I try and purchase ring pull cans as much as possible, however not all cans have those.
I also want to make sure I have a can opener my children are able to use. If (heaven forbid) something should happen to me, they need to be able to open up our food storage as well.

It's a small thing, but it could make such a difference.

Week 10 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Challenge

1 large can tuna and 1 box macaroni cheese

$20 Challenge

2 large cans tuna and 2 boxes macaroni cheese

Tuna

I know there has been some controversy about canned tuna recently due to the fact that no tuna is now canned in Australia. If you wish to store a substitute (canned ham etc), please do so. There are no hard and fast rules about this storage as long as you are storing something.

The Tuna is about storing a protein. Something that will go with pasta sauce and pasta, or will be quick and easy with canned veggies if you need to. You can eat it cold, you can heat it up it's pretty versatile.

If you want variety, try storing different flavoured tuna. You can get tuna in spring water, tuna in oil and tuna in brine. For a very easy food storage meal, combine two small cans of tuna in tomato and onion with half a packet of cooked pasta. Grate a little tasty cheese over the top (if you have it) and perhaps any green herbs you have in your garden, and there you go. A cheap and easy meal.

Macaroni and Cheese

I'll be completely honest with you here. I really dislike Mac and Cheese. It is like cardboard food to me and I would rather make it from scratch (and do, but I add onion, bacon and tomato in layers of pene pasta...). However, I did store some and when my Husband and I needed to use our food storage, it was cheap, quick and easy to make up and I ate it gladly. It does fill you up, and that's what you're after.

For variety, you could store a different pasta and sauce mix. You can get Pasta Carbonara, Sour Cream and Chives, Bacon flavoured Mac and Cheese, even pene and sauce sachets.

It's up to you what you store for this challenge, so long as you and your family would eat it.

Bunny mysteries

Some mysteries surrounding bunnies...

When they're so little, can you tell by their behaviour which are male and which are female? I can't say for sure, but my suspicions with both bunnies turned out to be correct. With both lots of baby bunnies, the females seemed to be more curious and adventurous, and the boys were total sooks. Make sure if you have baby bunnies that you don't try and sex them based on this though, because if I'm wrong, you'll end up with more little critters.

What happens when the mother has a second litter when the first one hasn't been weaned yet? In my case, we separated the boys from the girls after 8 weeks (the earliest they were supposed to be weaned) for Pepper's benefit, and at 9 weeks old the boys went to their new home. Checkers, the older sister was surprisingly the one who would play with the babies. Here she is sitting with them, just as if she were the same size as them!

How do bunnies feed? Here is Smokey trying to let Pepper know she was thirsty. Baby bunnies seem to pester their mothers if they can throughout the day, but the Does tend to only feed their babies at night. They are so funny - they wiggle around right against their mothers and roll themselves on their backs and latch on. Sometimes they will only snatch a mouthful or two before Mum realises what they're up to and hops along. Then you're left with a little bunny madly waving its paws in the air trying to flip over and chase Mum again.

Smokey was successful this time, and fed for a while, as it was night time. When they got older, I felt so sorry for Pepper. The babies would kick her in the face, as usually you would get all three trying to feed at the same time. She was so patient with them though. I'm so glad I'm not a rabbit!

Happy family! - and Midnight (black bunny) trying to sneak a feed from Pepper.

For a rainy day...

Since the beginning of this year I have been putting any 20 cent coins that come my way into a wafer biscuit tin.

This isn't a new idea, it has been something people have been doing for ages, but it is new to me. I have heard about it and thought about it so many times but I guess it was when I was decluttering my kitchen and was about to throw this tin out into the recycle bin when it occurred to me that it would be a great tin for this particular job.

Why 20 cent coins? Well, for me 10 cents was just too little and 50 cents, although would be nice, would just get pinched out of the tin anyway, so 20 cent coins it was.

I found it a little amusing a few weeks ago when I handed some change to a parent of one of my students, and included in the change was a couple of 50 cent pieces. He said "Oooooooh these can go in my tin". He is collecting 50 cent coins the same way I am collecting 20 cent coins. We're not so crazy after all ;D

I have exactly $12.00 in there at the moment. Not bad considering I don't do anything 'special' to get those 20 cent pieces. I don't deliberately go and get change from the shops so I can have more coins. I simply check my purse every now and then (after a shopping trip which for me isn't all that often) and then I put any relevant coins in the tin. Any extra smaller coins that I don't want in my purse go in my 'granny change' jar, which I have been doing for years now. The money in my granny change jar ends up in my kids' bankbooks for school.

I am planning to continue this 20 cent 'challenge' until the end of the year, and then hopefully it will help me a little with whatever I need at that time - whether it is a little extra for Christmas presents, or groceries or a family dinner out. Or it can be banked into savings. I have time to plan that, the main thing is to keep putting those 20 cent coins into that tin!

Honey uses and recipes

Honey is a very handy thing to have in your cupboard, not only for cooking and baking, but it can be used in first aid as well. This site has some useful information on using honey to treat minor cuts etc as it is a natural antibiotic: http://www.truehealth.org/ahealt03.html


I have some interesting recipes using honey. Remember not to feed honey or anything containing honey to infants under 1 year old due to 'botulism'.


Oriental Turkey and Rice
4 cups cooked turkey, diced
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 cups cooked rice (2/3 cup dry - 2 cups cooked)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup prepared mustard
4 tablespoons turkey drippings


Method:

1. Spread diced cooked turkey in a shallow pan, season with salt and pepper.
2. Mix honey, prepared mustard, curry powder and turkey drippings.
3. Blend in turkey. Bake in moderate oven (180 degrees C) for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice. Spoon over cooked rice.

Makes approx 8 servings.

You can use chicken as well. Use as a marinade for uncooked chicken pieces (omit the turkey drippings). Chicken will require approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes to bake.

Honey Bee Ambrosia
4 medium oranges
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup flaked coconut
1 medium banana
1/4 cup honey

Method:
1. Pare oranges. Cut crosswise into thin slices and place in serving bowl.
2. Peel bananas and cut thin slices into the bowl with the oranges.
3. Toss fruits. Blend orange juice and honey and pour over fruits.
4. Sprinkle with coconut. Serve.

And an absolute favourite of my family's. Taken from the Australian Women's Weekly 'Sweet Old-Fashioned Favourites'

Honey Joys
100g butter
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 Tablespoon honey
4 cups (120g) Corn Flakes

1. Combine butter, sugar and honey in large pan. Stir over low heat, without boiling until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add corn flakes to honey mixture. Stir gently to combine.
3. Spoon into patty cases in a muffin tray (or similar) and bake in moderate oven about 10 minutes.

Makes 24.

Honey Butter Sauce
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup honey

Method:
Melt butter in a saucepan. Add honey and lemon juice. Stir. Use it to glaze chicken after it has baked for 30 mins (or use a little on veggies).

Week 9 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 challenge:

Store 1 kg honey

$20 challenge:

Store 2 kgs honey

USING AND STORING HONEY

Using Honey

Honey can be used in many ways. It makes a good spread for breads, muffins and biscuits and a tasty sandwich filling when mixed with dried fruits, peanut butter or cottage cheese. Honey can be used as a sweetener for fruits and beverages. It also can be used in any food that is sweetened, including frozen desserts, baked products, meat glazes, custards, frostings/icing, pie fillings, cobblers, puddings, candied vegetables and salad dressings.

Some recipes use honey as the main sweetener; other use sugar. Honey can be used to replace some of the sugar called for in many recipes. Use these guidelines for cakes and cookies:

Cakes: one-half of the sugar in a cake recipe can be replaced with honey. For every 1 cup of sugar replaced, leave out 1/4 cup of liquid.

Cookies: The amount of sugar that can be replaced with honey varies with the kind of cookie being made. For brownies, half of the sugar can be replaced. For fruit bars, honey can replace two-thirds of the sugar called for in the recipe. Only one-third of the sugar can be replaced in gingersnaps.

When making either cakes or cookies, first mix the honey with the fat or the liquid. Then mix it thoroughly with the other ingredients. If this is not done, a soggy layer will form on the top of the baked product.

Products made with honey brown faster than foods made with other sweeteners. So when you bake products made with honey, set the oven temperature 15 degrees C lower than what is indicated in the recipe.

Storing Honey

Honey keeps best in a dry place at a cool temperature between 10 and 20 degrees C. Keep it in a tightly covered container so it does not absorb moisture or odors from the air. Honey will start to form crystals as it gets older or if it is refrigerated (or if it is cold pressed - see the bottom of this post). To make it liquid again, place the honey in an open container in a pan of warm water until it is clear. Do not have the honey in a plastic container when you set it in the warm water. If you need to, you can also microwave it on a gentle setting, but it must be used immediately after this. I try and avoid microwaving it though as beneficial bacteria may be killed.

Health and Honey

Honey provides energy to the body. The amounts of nutrients in honey, however, are small when the number of calories in honey are considered. Honey cannot be used as a substitute for cane or beet sugar in a sugar-restricted diet. Honey is composed of the same basic parts as regular sugar, and the body uses it in the same way. Honey and products made with honey must not be fed to infants younger than one year, because honey can cause "infant botulism". Spores of the bacteria that cause botulism are present in honey. When these spores get in to the intestinal tract of an infant, they grow and produce a toxin that results in a serious illness and death. Remember that these spores in honey are not destroyed by regular cooking or baking methods.

The best type of honey to get is raw, pure and not heat treated. This information is from the Co-Op Stop (http://co-opstop.blogspot.com)

The honey we purchase in bulk for the Co-op is cold extracted, raw and organic. Meaning the honey is not heated up to make it super runny for fast production (where important friendly bacteria, nutrients and trace minerals will be lost), it is not heated at any stage of the extraction process. You know it's raw when it candies quickly. The hives are placed in the bush well away from any sniff of civilisation, farms (that spray pesti/herbi/fungicide) or roads. No pesticide strips are used inside the hive and only natural (non chemical) fuels are used (wood/bark etc) for the smoking cans to calm the bees while the combs are removed, thus keeping organic standards.

The processing of Capilano honey is a real eye opener. Our suppliers also provide honey to Capilano. They heat it first of all and keep it at a a constant temperature for some time to ensure the honey won't candy. This removes all the beneficial nutrients, antibacterial qualities and trace elements (everything!) from the honey. Then they mix it with a glucose syrup and colouring - so they can stretch it further, sell it as 'blended' honey and get a premium for it.

I had a 5 kilo tub of the stuff from years and years ago. It had finally candied and what I saw was the original honey had tried to candy and sat down at the bottom. The glucose syrup and colouring had risen to the top (split like a curdled cake batter).

I am personally going to say though, that cold extracted honey is more expensive, and I would rather you purchased honey that is within your budget and be able to feed your family in a crisis situation rather than stressing about having to save for 'more expensive' honey.

I was able to purchase my honey a few years ago (cold extracted) before honey prices went through the roof. I also purchase a kilo tub each time we stop at The Honey Place on our way to the Gold Coast. http://www.honeyplace.com.au/ The bonus is that we are able to taste test all the honey and see which one we like the most.

This is what happens when...

You cross a Miss Pepper bunny with a Mr Charcoal...

and this is what you get. A nest full of little ones. Now here's the part that made me freak out. Charcoal WAS taken to a vet when he a much younger bunny. Turns out the vet didn't do the job properly, and somehow, an 11 year old bunny who usually lounges around and doesn't do much, was able to chase after Miss Pepper and impregnate her rather quickly. The lesson to be learned is...double check that your boys have been desexed. :( You still need to keep them separated for at least 2 weeks afterwards as the boys can still have 'leftovers' and accidents can happen. Was a great educational experience for our family, I can tell you!

A female bunny can have LOTS of babies in her litter. This time Pepper had 7 live and one that didn't live for very long. Because her previous litter were still nursing (can you see why I felt so bad?) we couldn't keep all the babies. They were sadly put down humanely (professionally) by a friend as Pepper's health would have been in danger as well, and we didn't want to lose her. We kept 3.

So here they are. Rather fat roly poly looking babies, which is a good sign. One Havane Blue, one Havana Black and a smokey grey Havana we named 'Smokey' (funny that!)

This lot of bunnies were cute, but not as friendly as the white Havanas (that looked like Himalayans) of the first litter. I think they have their Daddy's stubborness in them.

I did let Charcoal have a sniff of his babies, under my ever watchful eye of course. Most of the time I had one hand on him ready to hold him back. He didn't like that so much. Rabbits can do unexpected things - they have a mind of their own, and I certainly didn't want him harming them. He didn't, but he was VERY curious.

So you can try and be as a responsible bunny owner as much as you can, but accidents can still happen. We have 8 bunnies now and each one is loved, and knows it. They are each so different with their own individual personalities. And yes, I did have to purchase another two large rabbit hutches to house them all separetely in. Lesson learned.