Prepped Living Blog

Advent is drawing to a close and Christmas is nearly here. We have been preparing the house for Christmas Day. The indoors is decorated, and we have a few decorations outdoors - Christmas lights  on the porch and a wreath on the door. With darkness falling around 4:30, we don't have to stay up late to enjoy the Christmas lights!

We no longer use seed oils for cooking, but we had nearly half a gallon of canola oil in storage from our last purchase a few years ago. We hated to give it away since it is no doubt rancid, but we also hated to throw it out and be wasteful.  We knew there had to be something we could do with it. A while back we did a bit of searching and found a DIY project for a homemade emergency lamp that could use lamp oil or cooking oil. We decided to try it out and use the lamps as our centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner. We read that with cooking oils, it is best for the wick to be as close to the oil as possible in order for the oil to better travel up the wick since cooking oils are not specifically designed for this purpose. With this in mind, we started with the smallest jar. Since we like to experiment, we made two larger sizes to see how they compare over time. Materials : Glass jars with metal lids Cotton wick (or cotton strings for wicks) Cooking oil Paper clips or metal bottle caps...

  This week we are sharing one of our favorite drink mixes – Tom and Jerry Mix (sometimes called Tom and Jerry Batter). Because this drink is served hot and has a wonderful mix of spices, it is the perfect drink for Christmas. It is reminiscent of hot buttered rum, but with a richer, fuller flavor and a more complex spiced finish.  You can leave out the rum and enjoy an alcohol-free version if you like. We used to make the alcohol-free version for the kids when they were young and it is quite good. However, if you are not opposed to drinking a bit of alcohol, the flavor is soo much better with rum. Cheers! A Tom & Jerry Drink TOM & JERRY MIX Ingredients ½ lb. butter 1 ½ lb. powdered sugar 6 eggs, separated ½ t. salt 2 oz. dark rum ½ t. of each: mace, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom Directions Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg yolks, one at a time. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, continuing to be...

As stories came out of North Carolina following the hurricane, there were a number of videos people posted listing things they wish they would have had on hand or things they wish they would have done before the hurricane that could have helped them through the first few days. If you have decided to take the next step in your preparedness journey (no matter where you are at now), I encourage you to look up a few of these videos from people who have lived it - they are certainly more experienced than many, and they have a lot to teach us. A Few Takeaways from the Flood Videos Here are a few highlights from what was said: 1) You can prepare for a disaster and still loose everything. Prepare anyway - you may end up being one of the few in a position to help your neighbors. 2) It is nearly impossible to be completely prepared for every possible scenario.  3) If you can afford it, a generator is wonderful to have, but only if you have enough fuel stored to run it. 4)  Store water. ...