What preps are you doing this week? Part 3.

[sniper 55]

A friend of mine has a panel on the end of the kitchen units (to make the units fit) thats dead space the full hight of the worktop. It was just put in when they had a new kitchen. A few weeks later they discovered the stop tap was behind that panel, big panic then they realised the panel was just held in place with very strong magnets, it's not going to fall out but it's dead easy to take off to get behind.

[Yorkshire Andy]

We have just invested in a pre owned (bargain) generator. It' been well looked after, serviced and runs great and it appears that my SO and son may just be picking up on my prepping bug a tiny weeny bit. My food and water supplies have now filled the cupboard and my household products cupboard is also full so need to work out a plan B of where to store everything. I've also just bought my first fixed blade knife, a Mora and am taking myself off for a few days of solitude in the great outdoors in my tent.

Do the kickboards under tgr kitchen units pull off?

They're great if you want to hide stuff for an 'event' even if thats hiding your hoard from the neighbours but for day to day a bit extreme. "Mu-um, have we got any mushy peas", "Yes love, if you take the boards off from under the dishwasher we've got 50 tins, help yourself, just mind and put the board back" can make life a bit tricky. Having said that, if it gets the kids to move out then it might be worth it.

we stash bottled water under them ours just let you squeeze 2l bottles in.... now water is heavy so having it sat on the concrete floor makes sense its no real drama to pull the kick boards off if you need to get at something that you dont need every day

[Decaff]

You can install drawers under the kitchen units, makes it easier to open and close them, not obvious to anyone, especially if you use magnets to keep them closed so no handles!

[Deeps]

Been planning on getting into smoking stuff for a while but its been on the.....back burner. Me and Her Maj were watching something last night that inspired us to try a biscuit tin smoker for her salmon (we buy sides of it at costco and cut it up into portions for the freezer) so we sent off for some wood chips to see how we go. Results to follow, but it looked pretty easy, biscuit tin filled with some wood chips, a bit of chicken wire on top for spacing then the fish. Make sure the lid is not on properly with a wee gap and fire it on a camping stove outside for 5 minutes. We'll see how we go...

[whenfires]

Having a bit of a lull prepping activity wise at the moment but we are currently planning a new kitchen as part of a bigger house refurb. My wife, who isn't into prepping in any way and has no idea of my activities, said "we could have one of those pull-out larder units so we can store more food and rotate it easier so nothing goes out of date"

As with all preps, my reply was "you know what's better than one pull-out unit? Two."

Design modified and sent off to the kitchen company.

[nickdutch]

Experimenting with Textured Vegetable Protein known as TVP (a soy based fake mince meat that you buy dehydrated and rehydrate before use). It looks to be the kind of thing I can buy ahead of time and have with my rice when I need a filling low cost meal with plenty of protein in it. I got mine off buywholefoodsonline.co.uk and they also sell on amazon.

[ForgeCorvus]

NickD : Let me know if you manage to make it edible
I tried it once and think that the paper bag it came in would of been better food..... Mind you that was a looooong time ago

[Deeps]

Wood chips arrived yesterday evening and I've soaked a load to try our first smoke tomorrow.

Apart from that bought a load of different beans from Asda, 4 cans for a quid in the world food aisle, they've got all sorts including chickpeas and I'm sure I saw canned tomatoes too which all in all is 'much cheapness'. I do like the world food aisle, you can often get spices etc really cheap instead of going to the 'normal' herbs and spices and paying loads more. A few more cans of for the stockpile too and back to watch the football. All is good in the world.

[Britcit]

This week has seen me mostly in the veg garden since my return from my trip south.
Potatoes are looking good. Swede, carrots and turnip are all coming through. Broadbeans growing, and we have 100+ onions looking like they will do something positive.

We have also increased our livestock. We keep about 18 chooks (two groups, each with a cockeral), and we have a pig fattening in the garden. Two days ago we were given our first lamb. She is a 'caddy lamb' (an orphan) and there are many of them available for free this time of year. So now I get to hand feed the lamb, which is quite cute, and as she is a girl she won't go for slaughter. We will use her for breeding each year.

We do have two more coming. One is a castrated male (for slaughter), the other is unknown at the moment. I hope it's another girl.

[Deeps]

Been planning on getting into smoking stuff for a while but its been on the.....back burner. Me and Her Maj were watching something last night that inspired us to try a biscuit tin smoker for her salmon (we buy sides of it at costco and cut it up into portions for the freezer) so we sent off for some wood chips to see how we go. Results to follow, but it looked pretty easy, biscuit tin filled with some wood chips, a bit of chicken wire on top for spacing then the fish. Make sure the lid is not on properly with a wee gap and fire it on a camping stove outside for 5 minutes. We'll see how we go...

Went really well and soooooo simple. Soaked the chips for more than a day, drained then put at the bottom of the tin then put a wee chicken wire grill over the chips. Put the box on a briefcase stove outside and turned it on, it started smoking pretty much straight away so popped the first bit of fish on and put the lid on slightly ajar.

With the fish I tried to keep it simple, because the fish had no skin I lightly salted it, gave it a coat of olive oil and put it on baking parchment then put it in to cook. It was a reasonable sized chunk and 5 minutes wasn't really enough, the ends were done but not the middle but I did the same with the second bit but gave it another minute with similar results. Tried putting the first one back in for longer and it did work but cut in half to gauge how it was going before taking it out. The second bit went back in without the baking parchment and it worked a treat although maybe a bit too smokey for Her Maj although I liked it, I'm well chuffed for my first attempt. Next time I'll not bother with the parchment although I'll do some sausages as well to see how easy it is to do smoked snorkers, I just hope the salmon doesn't 'contaminate' them. More chips soaking as I type, another 'skill' gained (if not mastered).