Kitchen DIY: Cooking Pizza in a Pie Iron

Kitchen DIY: Cooking Pizza in a Pie Iron
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Pie IronThis is a fun “camping” recipe that kids of vast range of ages can make themselves with little adult supervision.

While being a easy favorite for kids, cooking with a pie iron is infinitely adaptable you can use it with eggs and sausage to make a breakfast meal, eat it for lunch or dinner, use pizza dough, biscuit dough, or sliced bread – or even use apples and sugar to make it a dessert.

As with many of my projects, once you learn the technique you can take it and make it your own special recipe.

Material:

  • 2 pieces of bread per pizza
  • Butter
  • Pizza Sauce
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Dried Italian Seasoning (Oregano)
  • Garlic Salt
  • Topping
    • pepperoni, pre-cooked sausage, hamburger, whatever you want – or just make a cheese pizza

Tools:

  • Pie iron
    • Unless it’s just for one or two people, one pie iron is never enough.
  • Campfire gloves
  • Knife
  • Spatula

Procedure:

  1. Heavily butter one side of each piece of bread
    • For biscuit dough and pizza crust dough – heavily butter the pie iron instead.
    • Pull biscuit dough until it is flattened out to fit the inside of the pie iron – use 1 biscuit for each side
    • For pizza crust: butter the pie iron, lay the dough inside one half of the pie iron, with an equal portion hanging over, then fold the back over the toppings before closing pie iron
  1. Generously spread pizza sauce on one side of bread/biscuit/dough – to suit your taste.
  2. Add shredded cheese, and toppings if used.
  3. Spread pizza sauce on the other piece of bread/biscuit, or flap of pizza crust.
  4. Season with oregano and garlic salt, then close pie iron.
  5. For pizza crust – fold flap in, over cheese and toppings first.
  6. Trim off any excess ingredients sticking out of the closed iron.
  1. Cook over medium coals, or low campfire flame.
    • For bread pizza: after three minutes, rotate pie iron and cook for four more minutes.
    • For biscuit and pizza dough: rotate after four minutes, and cook for five more minutes
    • These are only approximate times. Use your own judgment and keep in mind that pie irons can be closed and re-cooked if you want more them more well-done, but you cannot “un burn” pizza.
  2. Open pie irons and use a spatula to remove pizza.

CAUTION! Pie irons will be very hot. AND, the insides of the just-cooked pizza will be very hot! Do not let young kids try to handle them until they have time to cool – which should only be a few minutes.

The Handgun (Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance, Vol. 2)

Book Review: The Handgun (Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance, Vol. 2)
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Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance Volume II is a clear and simple guide to building a semi- or full-auto pistol or a single-shot, falling-block handgun from common materials in the privacy of your home workshop.

In addition to offering many alternative workshop gunsmithing tips, the author explains how each part and section of the gun is made and discusses thoroughly the subjects of heat-treatment and bluing.

I haven’t built any guns more complicated than slam fire shotguns like what is illustrated in the improvised munitions manual or assembling an AR, but this is a fine book with easy to follow instructions.

As long as you don’t make anything fully automatic or bigger than .50 caliber (and stay within all the other insane regulations) of the BATFE making your own guns are legal.

I enjoy thumbing through Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance – between it an Luty’s book on expedient homemade firearms I know that no matter what happens the citizenry of America will always have guns.

I find that books like these (and the publishers willing to print books like these) are becoming more and more rare as our society changes.  It is my desire that every prepper household buys books like this to ensure that the information is always present in out society.  Ben Franklin would have wanted this also.

How to Extract Clean, Drinkable Water From Plant Leaves

How to Extract Clean, Drinkable Water From Plant Leaves

 

Survival with Water Condensed from Leaves
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As a child I used to read about solar stills made by digging a hole in the desert and covering it with clear plastic, I was an adult by the time I actually visited a desert environment, but I was very disappointed with the results.

However, by placing a plastic bag over the leaves of a living plant, you can extract clean, drinkable water from plant leaves. This survival tip is very easy to do.

I was able to collect much more water condensed from leaves than I could from the typical solar still dug into the ground.  Additionally, this method too far less work and effort.

Condense Drinkable Water From Plant Leaves

Material:

  • Several Large clear plastic bags
  • String or cord
  • Live, non-poisonous vegetation with green deciduous leaves

Procedure:

  1. Tie a clear plastic bag on the end of a plant or small tree branch. The bag should be sealed very tightly over the branch so water cannot escape.
  2. Water vapor will collect and condense in the bag.
  3. Wait until evening for maximum condensation before removing the bag.
  4. Switch the bag to another branch and repeat.

Yield:

 Water Condensed from LeavesYou can expect an average of one cup of water per bag per day – which means you will need 16 of these devices per person to collect the minimum recommended one gallon per person per day or water.

Gathering water condensed from leaves is much easier than other condensation methods, but as with any method it takes a lot of stills to get enough water.

More PVC Projects for the Outdoorsman

Book Review: More PVC Projects for the Outdoorsman
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Forbes’ first book, PVC Projects for the Outdoorsman, became a runaway best-seller with do-it-yourselfers, outdoorsmen and survivalists alike.

in his new More PVC Projects for the Outdoorsman book he’s taken his no-frills approach to creating inexpensive shelters, primitive weapons, sturdy outdoor furniture and hunting and fishing gear and come up with more than 30 new projects, all made with durable, cheap PVC pipe.

Using photos and easy-to-follow instructions, this book guides you through such projects as a slingshot, brush bow, shooting bench, spotting scope stock (this pvc stock is a favorite of mine), bow-fishing reel, wall tent, animal pen, pickup truck shelter, firewood cradle and many more.

If you failed woodshop but still want to enjoy the dual satisfaction of building something yourself and saving loads of money in the process, this is the perfect do-it-yourself book for you.

The book is pretty cool, and the concepts inside are great.  I love the idea of using something so readily available inexpensively to make items that you may need.

PVC projects are in the reach of almost anyone, the simple projects give confidence to tackle larger and more difficult things.  It is a good step in the incremental process of becoming “handy”.

I have made several projects out of PVC pipe, and find it a great DIY material.

On War

Book Review: On War
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On War is considered to be one of the best military strategy books in existance – everyone has heard of it, but few actually take time to read it.

That is a shame as Carl von Clausewitz was a 19th century military theorist who drew many of his ideas from his own experience as a Prussian soldier.

Clausewitz’s conception of war is strikingly unique: characterizing it as a Hegelian dialectic of opposing factors which interact and build upon each other,

Clausewitz’s theories are also surprisingly romantic. Nevertheless, the author stresses war as a political action that must be ruthless and uncompromising in its annihilation of the enemy.  This sounds bad, until you recognize that it is necessary for war to be brutal so war can be won.  Wars end faster when they are won decisively.

I like the book On War because it sets forth the ways wars should be fought.  In my mind this means, only when other means are not appropriate and then fought as quickly, brutally, and strategically as possible.While totally devoting a countries entire industrial output to completely destroy another countries ability and will to resist sounds brutal, but in the end, it causes less total suffering and hardship.

What is better to sacrifice a lot for a short time, or half as much for three times as long?  To me (and to General Von Clausewitz) it is simple math.  On War is the formula.