How to Use an Apple Slicer to Make Potato Wedges

 

Kitchen DIY: Fast Tip for Cutting up Potatoes
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Quick tip for Cutting up Potatoes for potato wedges:  When you need to cut up a lot of potatoes, either for dehydrating, making home fries, mashed taters, stew, or whatever – simply peel, and run through an apple corer.

It makes evenly sized strips, is easy, safe, and it keeps you from buying a special potato slicer.

This tip for cutting up potatoes is pretty simple, and I am sure it took you longer to read it than to grasp it.

I probably could have said – cut potatoes with a apple slicer and you would have instinctively gotten the message. I use this tip when I make home fries as it makes large slices that are uniform.  It also works when you are boiling up potatoes to make mashed taters, but now that I have an instapot, I don’t think that is as important.

I also use my pressure cooker to cook potatoes so cutting them up is not quite as important as it use to be.  If you don’t want to cut up your potatoes, you can also use an electric drill for fast peeling of the potatoes instead of fast Cutting up Potatoes.  Anyway, this tip works well, and my son loves doing it this way almost as much as he loves breaking eggs.

How to Make an Emergency Duct Tape Keychain Roll

How to Make an Emergency Duct Tape Keychain Roll

 

How to Make an Emergency Duct Tape Keychain Roll
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This common Duct Tape Keychain tip is well known among backpackers.  If wrap some duct tape around a water bottle or lighter you will always have a couple feet readily available for quick repairs.

I Went One Step Farther

In the video below I show some wrapped around a small disposable lighter, but taking the concept one step farther I took an old ink pin that was no longer serviceable and cut the ends off with a pipe cutter.

This left me a hollow tube as long as the roll of tape was wide.

I then wrapped about 4 feet of tape around the tube – in essence creating a mini-roll of black duct tape.

I then untied my monkey fist from my key-chain and threaded the tube along the length of paracord.

When I retied it, I now have a captive roll of tape that is always with me.

It takes no extra space, and adds very little weight.

I like it, and I hope it is useful to you.  Until I went back to work at the prison and had to significantly alter my EDC for the correction environment I carried this ring daily for years.  Having the tape on your person leads you to have need for it more than you would think.

How to Make Traveling Dice

How to Make Traveling Dice

 

Dice Tip
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As we test our 72 hour kits and bug out bags, I find that I am very good at anticipating the big stuff (like how to deal with gunshot wounds and catastrophic tornado damage), but not so good at the little stuff (like screaming kids and stressed out wives).

But since it is all important and I am constantly looking for new ideas.  I want to either prevent disasters or make life better after them.  So I am always finding neat things.

Today’s dice tip post came from an idea I found on a teacher’s blog.  The site is called Cardigans and Curriculum.  If find that homeschooling moms, teachers, arty folks all have some great ideas that readily translate to the frugal prepper’s needs.

Anyway, here’s the problem….

When testing out our kits I find that while nobody is hungry, cold, or wet, everybody is bored out of their mind.  During the first test cycle I fixed that by throwing in a deck of poker or Uno cards in every kit.  However that gets old pretty quick also.

On the Cardigan’s site the author showed how she put some dice is an small Tupperware container.  This is used it to both keep the dice from being lost, but also as a permanent dice cup.  I know when playing games like sorry with overenthusiastic kids dice seem to get thrown all over the room.

By having the dice contained in a see through plastic container they stay in one place and it really prevents tantrums and problems.

Once set of dice can be used to play many games, and takes up very little space.

Of course, if you don’t need this in your emergency kit, it would work great while traveling.  Alternatively, you could put this with your board games just to keep the dice from getting lost.

Just a thought, hope it is useful.

Used Book Store Find and Prepper Tip

Used Book Store Find and Prepper Tip
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Used book stores are great for finding reference books at a great discount. I think books are a great way to store up information that may be needed in disaster situations.

Without Cable TV or the Internet, cheap books are the best way to get both information and entertainment.

We have a cool place that buys used books and gives store credit, and I found a very reasonable late edition of the Physician’s Desk Reference. Normally these books cost $75-100 but since I traded in some fiction books, I basically got it free.

We have some articles discussing some books that we think every prepper needs

Some of my best books were found in the used book store, I think that is because the threshold for exploring is so much lower.  In a new book store I don’t want to take the chance on a book at $20, but I will definitely pick up the same book for a dollar or two.

The best thing about the used book stores I go to is that I can turn back in all the books that are either not useful, or are fiction books I read but did not connect with (I keep all the Louis L’Amour, Steven Hunter, and Mad Mike Williamson books I buy so that I can share them with the boy as he grows up) and get store credit.  I have all manner of store credit coupons in my wallet that I use whenever I have a trip to Nashville and have time to kill.

Kitchen Tip: Tea Brewing Tip

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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This is a quick Tea Brewing Tip for sweet tea – it works particularly well with hard water, but we are on city water, and it made a huge difference in the quality of my favorite drink.

I really like sweet tea, but due to the bitterness of the tannins it contains, I hate unsweet tea. I have to have a lot of sugar to counteract the bitterness. However, sugar is not very healthy, and I am trying to get a little healthier.

I found that a pinch (about 1/8 tablespoon) per gallon of tea counteracts the bitterness so that I can enjoy my tea with 1/3 less sugar.

As I mentioned in the video, the ability of baking soda to absorb and counteract contaminates lead to many moonshiners adding it to their mash as they ran their stills.

I read recently that some people have a gene that makes them taste bitter flavors more than others.  I think I have that gene as I cannot stand bitter.  I don’t drink coffee or unsweetened tea.  This tip reduces the bitter tannins enough that I can use much less sugar to counteract the bitterness in tea so I think it is a great thing to share.