How to Make Spam Fried Rice

How to Make Spam Fried Rice

Recipe: Spam Fried Rice
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Everyone involved in cheap prepping knows to store rice, beans, and wheat berries, but rice beans and bread WILL get old fast.  I plan on setting down some recipes that use basic storage foods only and are still good to eat.  My first recipe is Spam fried rice.

Now I know that the name alone will turn some heads and some stomachs, but I live with a very food conscious lady that has a hard time with some of my more adventurous meals.  She trusts me implicitly, until I bring a spoonful of some concoction and whisper every so sweetly “do you trust me”… she puts her hand over her mouth and shakes her head.  BUT, she gave me a thumbs up on this one, and I cooked it believing it would not be ate by anyone but me…

So to make this series, it has to be made up of food storage foods, be relatively easy to make in a disaster scenario, and the wife has to agree she would eat it more than once.

Spam is basically just sausage without all the good seasonings, more salt, and fat.  Its processed meat left over from butchering the animal into more expensive cuts.  When fried it does not taste all that bad, and when cut into small chunks and added to fried rice it tastes a lot like pork fried rice.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

  • Can of Spam or other canned meat product
  • 1 – 2 onions, if desired
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Pepper to taste
  • 4 tablespoons oil for stir-frying, or as needed
  • 4 cups cold cooked rice
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons light soy sauce or oyster sauce, as desired

Preparation:

  1. Cook 4 cups of rice
  2. Wash and finely chop the onion.
  3. Open and dice the processed meat
  4. Lightly beat the eggs with the salt and peppers
  5. Heat frying pan and add 2 tablespoons oil.
  6. Fry processed meat (at this time I also add some dehydrated vegetables but that is a personal preference)
  7. Brown the onion.  Once the onion is cooked add the rest of the oil
  8. Add the rice. Stir-fry for a few minutes, using chopsticks or a wooden spoon to break it apart. Stir in the soy sauce or oyster sauce as desired.
  9. Break the eggs into a cup and scramble.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
  10. When the rice is heated through, add the raw scrambled egg into the pan. Mix thoroughly and cook until eggs are done.

Clarksville Guns and Archery: My Favorite TN Gun Store

Store Review: Clarksville Guns and Archery
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It is probably not a surprise that as a “gun guy” I visit lots of firearm stores. I actually make it sort of a hobby.

I visit stores see how they differ, how they are the same, what they are selling, and how the staff interact with customers.

As a firearm instructor I get to hear from new shooters about their experiences, and feel I have a good frame of reference in what makes a successful gun store. I have a model of the “perfect” gun store in my head that I hope to create someday.

Let me tell you that so you can imagine my pleasure as well as a tiny twinge of envy when I met John McConnell Owner of Clarksville Guns and Archery.

I saw that his new store has marked off all of the boxes in my mental perfect gun store checklist.

My Perfect Gun Store

  • Knowledgeable sales staff with real world experience from a broad range of shooting sports, but customer focused, friendly, and humble.
  • Devotion to growing and maintaining the firearm tradition through youth outreach
  • Solid Firearm training program
  • Experienced and skilled gunsmith that does more than just replace parts
  • Good selection including ammunition in hard to find calibers

I met John through his gunsmith, because they were looking to schedule an instructor course for his sales staff. Clarksville Gun and Archery put the time and effort into getting its sales staff trained as NRA Pistol Instructors; this is very rare and shows a level of commitment that speaks volumes about the store. I was very impressed about the caliber of his staff.

The sales staff includes former military, law enforcement, competitive shooters, and hunter safety educators with decades of experience. Each one brings a new perspective and insight into helping the customer find the perfect firearm to solve their needs.

They Do a Lot of Youth Training

Clarksville Gun and Archery devotes time and resources to engage the youth, they work with the Hunter Education program, teach archery courses, firearm maintenance courses, and the have a indoor range to accommodate even more training activities.

The have a gunsmith that I have personally used and find them able to do all manner of gunsmithing tasks quickly and for a high value.

This store is packed with items; they have many things that you rarely see outside a catalog. As a Barrett Firearms High Caliber Dealer they have several Barrett .50 caliber rifles in stock. I saw a lever action mare’s leg, and a couple other cool guns that I am trying to convince the wife I need for “training aids”. John explained to me his philosophy in stocking rare ammo so that they always have what the customer is looking for. I loved looking at the long rows of ammo, and appreciated the end cap with .9mm .45acp, .223 and .308 in one easy to access location.

This isn’t advertising. I don’t and didn’t receive anything for writing this.  Writing this was my idea and I asked John if he minded me passing on my thoughts to you.

I just want to support such a great store with such outstanding staff. If you are in the Clarksville TN area you need to check them out online at Clarksville Guns and Archery where they proudly announce they are a “different kind of gun store” where they do not have any “Gun Shop Commandos”.

How to Make DIY Padding for Business Cards or Homemade Notebooks

 

DIY Card Pad
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As I said in the video, today’s project is not a “prepper” project.  Rather it is something I did to make carrying my business cards easier.

I just wanted to share how to make a DIY card pad with you in the event that it may make your life a little easier as well.

You see, I don’t like carrying business cards.  This is because they get wrinkled and bent.

What this project does is connect them into a pad just like a notebook or memo pad.  Something that may be of interest is

I have heard of a particular technology guru that buys sheets of two dollar bills from the US Treasury, has them perforated between bills, and then padding compound applied to make tear off pads of money – He likes the wow factor.

To make pads of business cards (or anything else), simply clamp your paper together so that it is stacked neatly and then apply a small amount of padding compound to one of the edges.

The instructions on the bottle say to use a brush, but I find it simple enough to use a finger.

Let dry and add a few more coats.  I find three thin coats holds the cards stable, but does not make it extremely hard to remove them as needed.

I have a recipe for homemade padding compound if you want to use this in bulk.

This would be useful to bind printed off copies of information like in my Downloads section.  Especially if you wanted a backup to electronic storage.

If your interested in seeing a video like this let me know, otherwise I will keep it in my “neat to know, but not something other people find interesting” pile.

How to Make Frozen Yogurt Pops

 

Kitchen DIY: Frozen Yogurt Pops
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This frozen yogurt pops tip is embarrassingly simple, to make simple frozen treats simply stick a popsicle stick into the top center of a individual container of yogurt.  Freeze the yogurt and remove the the container to have a fun snack.

This is easy to do and is a great thing to do with kids.  I know my boy loves freezing things to “experiment” and this way he can freeze something that belongs in the fridge – you know instead of rocks and containers of mud…

I like it because it is creative and shows my boy how he can modify his environment in creative ways to enhance his life.  It also teaches patience as he waits by the freezer trying to check his yogurt pops every 45 seconds.

My son loves experimenting and by giving him things to freeze it keeps him out of the bathroom where he would mix all the soaps and shampoos to make “potions”  So this frozen popsicle treat is a triple winner.  It keeps the boy out of trouble, teaches him stuff, and is relatively healthy.

I imagine you can do it with your own yogurt if you wanted to.

Try it with your kid, or just to give yourself a treat.