Recipe Cream of Whatever Soup Substitute

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
Buy at Amazon

Typical canned food bought in bulk at Aldi or warehouse stores makes up a significant portion of my families food storage plan.

It is simple, lasts several years, and fits like a glove in the “store what you eat, eat what you store” philosophy.

However as easy as it is to use canned soups as bases for recipes, it is not the most frugal way of doing things.

In today’s post I will show how to make a simple base for cream of whatever soup.

If you want cream of chicken use chicken stock, for tomato us tomato juice – its that simple…

I use this cream of whatever soup recipe all of the time to make different sauces and soups – which cheese it makes a great alfredo sauce, and I love it with gnocchi – which reminds me I need to make a gnocchi video in the near future.

The flexibility this recipe gives me a lot of options, but I also like the ease of cooking this gives me – it is akin to the prepper classic “magic mix“.

I use this whenever I need a fast dinner – I dump this over noodles and mix it with some meat and vegetables. You can even make a really good tomato cream sauce with a similar technique.

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tablespoons butter or oil
  • 3 Tablespoons flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • dash of pepper
  • 1-1/4 cup liquid, milk or stock

Procedure:

  • Melt butter or oil in saucepan.
  • Stir in flour and seasonings.
  • Cook over medium heat until bubbly.
  • Add liquid slowly, stirring with wire whisk to prevent lumps.
  • Cook until thick.

Makes the equivalent to 1 can of condensed soup.

Variations:

Use your imagination

Tomato Soup: Use tomato juice for the liquid. Add dashes of garlic, onion powder, basil and oregano.

Chicken Soup: Use chicken broth for half the liquid. Add 1/4 t. poultry seasoning or sage.

Mushroom/celery/chive soup: Saute 1/4 C chopped mushrooms, celery or chives and 1 T minced onion in butter before adding flour.

Allergy Suggestion: If you use a gluten-free flour (rice, tapioca, etc.) or cornstarch, you can make the soup gluten-free. And if you use a stock rather than milk, you can make it milk-free, too.

How to Make a Improvised Cooking Stand from Shelf Brackets

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
Buy at Amazon

This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that” posts – I first saw this on Stealth Survival and later on pinterest.

By repurposing shelf brackets you can make a really cool improvised cooking stand for any pots that do not have handles to hold over your campfire.

Somewhere I acquired a couple boxes of metal shelf brackets that were in need of a use, so I jumped on trying this out.

I will say that using 4 brackets and have each end rest on the next bracket makes a very study platform, but using three in a triangular setup works if you don’t have that extra bracket.

The brackets are designed to nest, so that they don’t take a lot of space in your bug out or camping kit, and you can throw in some nuts and bolts to connect them together so you don’t spill the beans…

Two other nice things about this is that you can push the brackets into the ground before building your fire to make it even more sturdy, and because most brackets have a long leg and a short leg, you can experiment with different configurations to fit your pots.

As with all of my heating methods, stay tuned and we will try this without survival still to see how study this is…

PRN Episode #28 FerFal

PRN Episode #28 FerFal

PRN Episode #28 FerFal
Buy at Amazon

Today on the Shepherd School Show, David interviews Fernando Aguirre, also known to many preppers as Ferfal.

Fernando grew up in Argentina and tells us first-hand what life was like during and after the economic collapse of the 1990′s.

Most preppers make educated guesses about what would happen, or what they would do in a catastrophic disaster.

Ferfal has lived through it.  In today’s interview he and David talk about what happened, common survival strategies that people used, the economics of surviving disasters, the government and how it reacts, as well as many other topics.

Fernado also gives some good tips on what he found to work in real life.  I think this is pretty important and this is one of my favorite episodes of all.  I think every prepper should read his book.

At the very least, visit his website to see what a real economic disaster looks like.

What happened in Argentina can happen here in the United States. It pays to learn how modern people survived such a collapse

http://ferfal.blogspot.com

The-Modern-Survival-Manual-Surviving

If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure at this link.

 

Listen to internet radio with Preparedness Radio Network on BlogTalkRadio

Finger Straight and Off Trigger or Shaped as a C?

 

Shooting: Finger in the C Position
Buy at Amazon

I am a big believer in keeping your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire your handgun. The traditional way of doing this it to keep your finger straight.  That means lain along the frame of the gun above the trigger well.

I like this way.  However, I was recently shown another technique.  Personally I am still evaluating it.  But the idea makes sense so I wanted to share it with you.  Feel free to play with it to see if you think it is worthwhile.

Instead of having your finger straight you can make your trigger finger in the C position.  Just put the tip along the grip just behind the trigger well.

Then as you decide to shoot you can press your finger forward and come up behind the trigger and wrap around to achieve proper trigger placement.

Fundamentals Don’t Change Without Reason

Now when it comes to firearms training, I believe in practicing the fundamentals and not getting caught up with new techniques simply because they are novel.  However, if there is an articulable problem than a new technique solves, then I am willing to adapt and learn new skills. So when I was introduced to this I asked “What problem does this solve?”.   I was told that in a retention fight, your finger could be trapped along the slide if your attacker was able to grasp the slide.

I think that is a bit of a stretch, even if it is possible.

However, when it comes to safety there may be some merit. One problem I see with the straight finger technique comes from sloppy application or incomplete instruction. If the finger is held straight, but low so that it rests on the trigger guard instead of the frame, the finger can contract and slap the trigger.

May Help Prevent Negligent Discharge

When the finger is held in the “C” position, any of the big three causes of negligent discharge (stumble, startle, sympathetic grip) are much harder because the as the finger tightens there is no way it can hook on the trigger.

This makes the “C” position something to think about. I haven’t come to a full conclusion for myself yet.  So I don’t teach it other than use it as a discussion topic in instructor level courses, but it may work for you.

As always, I welcome your comments.

How to Make Arrow Fletching With Duct Tape

How to Make Arrow Fletching With Duct Tape

 

Duct Tape Arrow Fletching
Buy at Amazon

Several years ago I tried out Dave Canterbury’s sling bow. It was fun and I saw that it had potential,  Unfortunately, arrows are expensive.  The short arrows I bought just did not develop enough energy to be useful.

I decided to look into making my own arrows.  Arrow-making has obviously been around a long time.  So it is a pretty developed science.  Feathers arraigned in a 3 feather system are the most common.  However, some use 2 or 4 feathered fletching systems.  Additionally plastic vanes are available commercially.

In today’s article we are going to go “mad max” and create Duct Tape Arrow Fletching.

The Prepper MacGyver’s Most Common Resource is Duct Tape.

The great thing about duct tape is that is common, cheap, is not too stiff so that it can bend as it comes in contact with the bow, but when doubled up is stiff enough to direct the arrow in flight.

To make fletching simply cut three bits of tape about six inches long.

Pick up one piece and bend it lengthwise to form a “U” with the sticky side outwards. The base of this “U” is stuck lengthwise along the shaft – in other words (and the video will help) the middle of the tape is stuck to  1/3 of the diameter of the shaft with the two ends flopping free.

Now pick up the second piece and bend it like the first one. This one will be stuck in position a third of the way around the shaft from the first one, while the first bit of tape is still bent in the “U” position to keep it out of the way. You do not want the two pieces of tape to stick together until you get everything situated. (I find that clipping the loose ends of the first piece of tape together keeps them out of the way.

Once you feel that the two pieces of tape are sitting in the right position, you can allow the two adjacent wings of tape to stick to each other, forming the first complete vane.

Mold the tape against the shaft to get it to stick well. The two bits of tape will sometimes stick without being exactly in the right position thus skewing the vane or making it lumpy.

Apply the third piece of tape is applied in a similar manner.

Tips for Duct Tape Fletching

A challenge with this tape fletching is to get three flat and evenly spaced vanes.

Another problem is to end up with the vanes where you want them in relation to your nock so that you get the conventional “cock and hen feather” configuration with the cock feather at right angles to the plane of the nock.

Once you have the tape into place, you can trim the vanes with sharp scissors.

Keep the vanes tapering down to nothing at the leading end so that they ride nicely past the bow and your bow hand.

Keep the vanes as narrow as possible and make the taper as long as possible.

You can also apply a tight wrap of soft insulation tape over the very front end of these plastic vanes to stop them catching and pulling away.

Obviously this won’t give you a good a result as using proper fletching and a jig like the one below, but it is serviceable and just the thing to use if your using a homemade PVC bow (more on that later).