Well, as everyone knows Ireland and much of the Western World is having some economic problems at the moment, with “Dead Malls” even getting their own web site in America.

Ireland does not tend to have nearly as many large malls, except near larger cities.  Where I live in the rural heartland, family shops were the most common form of retail when we moved here 14 years ago; over time larger super-markets have moved in along with some smaller shopping centers.  Unlike the “mega-centers” of Dublin or Kansas, these tended to be four to six shops with a parking lot; and maybe a pub or coffee shop to park the husbands in.

One of the oldest of these Centers was in a large town we used to shop in when we rented our first home here.  Even though we have moved a few miles away, we still sometimes have business in the area and like to stop by.  Beside, the 50 year old shopping center, with its bright red sign saying “We Invented Supermarketing” was always fun to visit, with its funky mix of diet coke next to cast iron skillets.

The old man who started the place used to pick the background music…Did you know there are many re-recorded country and western tunes that have lines like “I left her in Limerick” instead of “I left her in Dallas?”  He would often stop the music for a few moments to make unique sales pitches such as,

“Please visit our hardware department, we now have good men’s shoes!  We know that in the past, some of our men’s shoes have really not been very good and not always of the highest quality, but now I can assure you the ones we have today are very good!”  or

“Please buy our Christmas Turkeys, all our Turkeys have been personally handled by the management…”

We used to take visiting American friends and family just to hear the show. A few years ago, the old guy seems to have retired as both the music and the more unusual commercial messages were discontinued.

But the interesting mix of several shops (all really owned by the same people) selling anything from picture frames to fabric was still there.  Complete with an old fashioned pub that harked back to the days when most Irish women did not drive and once a week the husbands took them shopping and took themselves for a pint (you could have a pint or two and then drive safely home in those days).

We ate one of our first meals in Ireland in that pub, that was how we discovered that “choice of vegetable” translated as: “three types of potatoes on your plate”.  Boiled, mashed and fried…you could get mashed carrots too, but that was another side dish…

There was an elderly lady in the fabric department that was on a self-imposed crusade to insure that both wool yarns and natural fabrics were still available for sale, even during the dark years of sales reps who pushed nothing but synthetics.  She would single handedly pick out yarns she knew that serious knitters, such as myself and a few other ladies she knew, would want for making their men’s sweaters.  Against all odds, she kept a fully staffed and supplied cloth, yarn, and notions department going years after all the other stores had decided that any women crazy enough to want to do home sewing could drive to Dublin or Limerick for supplies.  The button sales man loved her, she kept one of the only rotating racks of children’s and adult buttons going round and round for 50 miles.

The first big changes I noticed in our favorite location for Irish nostalgia shopping was when she retired.  Understand that the Internet shopping arrived here quite late and even today is made difficult by various banking and mailing rules.  That makes it much easier to just be able to go in and buy something very precious, so when I needed cheese cloth for making cheese, instead of ordering from the US I used to go to the fabric department to get the muslin this women kept for exactly that purpose (cheese making, butter churning, pattern making etc).

You guessed it, the lady had retired and the department was pretty much gone.  Where all the wonderful fabrics, yarns and notions had been there was now just packages of beach towels, children’s toys and a few left over plastic bags of baby yarn, the sort sold in US Walmarts.  It was very sad, but not unexpected, I was still able to go through the “men’s shoe department” and pass the “hardware, clocks and picture frames” to find a sun hat for my husband that didn’t have flowers on it.  The sort an Irish women might talk her farmer husband into wearing if he was in a good mood.

That was about three years ago, before the economic crash, so we didn’t think anything more of it than just a sad passing of an era.

Our trips to the Shopping Center of the Past became less frequent, I started ordering children’s buttons from the US and cheesecloth in Belfast.  But we still had reasons to go there, they still had items that no one else did.  Real lard for baking, catering sized bulk boxes of tea, 5 liter plastic bottles of vinegar for pickling etc.  Not to mention the pub, a gas station and Chinese eatery, small garden shop.

Well, about a year ago we stopped in, right after the banking crisis started and everything still seemed pretty normal except when I rushed over to the pub (where I had spent many happy hours with friends drinking tea) to use the bathroom.  The place still had all its furniture, but the doors were locked.  Overnight, it had closed and gone out of business, help there were no bathrooms!  I was saved by the nice employees at the Supermarket who told me the pub had closed over the weekend, they let me use the employee ladies’ room.

Fast forward to two days ago, we had not visited this shopping center since this past Christmas.  Back then, the pub was still closed, the separate hardware/shoes/clothing area was very limited but open and the Super-Market area was less cheerful than previous years.  I figured that was a lack of “staff-supplied” Christmas music being replaced by the local radio station playing in the background.  Somehow “The Jingle Bell Rock” is not quite the same as “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” played at a high volume combined with Management-Handled Turkeys..but I did notice that while there were more baking supplies than in the other shops (who had switched to mostly pre-prepared items and little else) it was much smaller than in previous years.

I bought my six months worth of lard, some big bags of sugar and some large plastic bottles of vinegar and we left.

Then we went back two days ago (June 2010 for those reading this in the future). My husband had a doctor’s visit so he dropped me off to replace my supplies of lard for baking and some vinegar for making pickles in the fall.  Since I was going to have time on my hands, I decided to check out the rest of the small shopping complex before going into the Supermarket part itself.

I went to the old Hardware/Clothing/Fabric/Whatsit area and it was GONE!  Not just closed, GONE. In its place were:

One tiny part made into a ladies’ costume jewelry and handbag shop – open but with no customers.

One used furniture place that looked like fun, I tried to enter but the place was locked at 11 o’clock in the morning on a weekday with a sign saying “please call for appointment,” I did not take this as a good sign for this shop’s future existence.

The pub – still closed

A “Coffee Shop” – part of the old pub, complete with exactly the same furniture, curtains and carpet as before but with one lone young women, a coffee pot and a few cookies.

You could go through the coffee shop to the old pub area to use the now open bathrooms, which I did.  The place was like a tomb. Later my husband joined me there and we just stood and stared at the now dusty chairs, tables, counter tops etc., all looking exactly the way they had over a year before when they were put up for the night and the doors locked for the last time.

Next door to the coffee shop were a couple of boarded up windows and finally the pet supply store.  Finally, some place I could use as I needed cat litter.  I opened the door to find an open shop but with many dusty and empty shelves.  Birds twittered somewhere but not where you could see them.  A few large bags of dog food and lumpy dog beds were about the only other things in view.  Oh well, I’m used to Irish shops not always having product presentation at US standards, so I went up to the tired looking woman behind the counter and said,

“Hi, do you have any large bags of cat litter?”

She looked at me as if I was from Mars and then said, “I don’t think so, then made a show of looking all over the empty shelves (for invisible products perhaps?).  I thanked her and left, relieved that I could sneeze outside, I later found out that husband had a similar experience (minus the invisible product selection process) before coming to pick me up.

Finally, I headed back beneath the old “We Invented Supermarketing” and “Fifty Years of Business” signs, into the market.  Here at least I was happy to find the products I was looking for, though I did notice a certain age range among my sprinkling of fellow customers.  To call us “mostly of a certain age” would be pretty accurate and some cases “frail elderly”, maybe even “Methusalean”, might have been more to the point.  The Dear Old Thing I had to walk behind in the baking section ended up having a daughter in her sixties come up to her saying, “Momma, come on this way, we’re over here now..”

Then there was the silver haired gentleman going slowly over each vegetable in the bin, hoping to find just the right cabbage to go with the bacon.  There were, in fact, long stretches in the store where I noticed no one at all, before coming across another, ah, mature customer near the boxes of tea or cans of tinned baked beans.

What there was not, was almost anyone under forty in the entire store, even when my youthful forty something-husband came in to join us.

His first comments were, “Gee, this whole place sure looks dead, and it used to be so lively!”

Later, after buying my “old fashioned” products like lard and wishing I could buy every traditional cooking gadget on the far wall (with husband yawning in the back ground) we went over to the new discount super market to buy cat and dog food.  Here we discovered where all the younger people had gone, lots of young mothers, babies and teenagers all out shopping for discounted cookies and cooking oil.  I couldn’t blame them, we were pretty much doing the same things ourselves, but it was still sad.

The problem with the Shopping Center of the Past is not change, change always happens and some businesses will fold and others get started; even in the best of times.  But the problem is that because of the current economic crises, many places that have existed for generations are closing and not all of them because they are outdated. Often, it is simply because the shop owner’s found lines of credit suddenly stopped, sometimes after forty years of perfect payment records.

I made a point of looking at the rest of the larger town as we drove through on our way to get petrol (gasoline) having discovered the pumps at old shopping Center were also closed down, as was the Chinese behind it.  While my husband tried not to run out of gas, I started counting up boarded businesses and shops, I lost count somewhere between six and seven.  Among them was the other pet supply store, the one we still hoped to buy the cat litter at.  Also closed were at least one pharmacy, a newsagent and several places that no longer had signs above the boarded up windows.

This is pretty similar to the town we usually shop in, except there many of the places that were closed are no longer empty.  As I pointed out in a previous blog, they are now “bookies” legal gambling places.  I guess Depressions are good for some types of business.

So, I’m looking forward to baking with my lard and pickling with my vinegar but wondering if the next time I need them I will be rendering the lard myself and looking for a mother to brew the vinegar.  At the very least, we may be driving to Dublin, Cork, or Limerick to find the same products; because I will be very surprised if there are Fifty More Years of Supermarketing in the Shopping Center of the Dead.

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Well, the last couple of weeks have been very busy here at the house. My friend that took the ash picture and “The Farmer’s Son” helped get the heavy work done for our new vegetable garden.

We made the mistake of planting out the maize corn and beans too early and now have a second batch going in the equally new small green house.

The lesson we learned this year: no matter how nice the weather looks in April do not plant out delicates before the middle of May in this climate.

Also: by next year try to have a tunnel (like a large Green house made of plastic for North American readers).

We also decided to move our plans ahead a year on the orchard when we realized we could keep the horses out with an electric fence, rather than having to build a full sized one (which is very expensive here).

Yesterday, the guys finished getting most of the trees, and our helpers should be back tomorrow to help plant them. Most won’t be fruiting for a year or two, but it is comforting to know that we will no longer be left with one ancient apple tree and a cooking pear.

A few trees we have to wait for Fall to get, like the Apricot, which we never realized would grow here (Henry the 8th had one in his garden and they went wild in the UK) or Pecans (grow up into Canada!). But even if that does not pan out we have walnuts, which I also think of as a “California Central Valley” tree.

We may try a potted almond tree in the conservatory for personal use, but they seem to be iffier than the walnuts or pecans. We now have a baby walnut tree as they are easier to get here, the others have to be ordered.

In other news, you may have heard about the “riots” where “The Irish Stormed their Parliament” last night in Dublin. In reality, there seems to have been a protest of about 500 people, 100 of whom got out of hand. I wrote the following on another forum and decided to cross post it here rather than writing up my response twice. I was also asked about the Volcanic ash cloud, bits of which now decorate our garden pond.

My response to the riots is here..
Thankfully, in general the Irish are really slow to “rise” in this way; it just does not seem like it, because when they finally do they don’t tend to take half measures. I also suspect that the horrific civil war that followed the War of Independence (Ireland) cooled that sort of thing for the better part of three generations. Similar to what happened during the “Era of Good Feelings” in the US, when things were not quiet, but people were still close enough to remember the Revolution (which was in fact a civil war with brother fighting brother) to not want to go that route again if they can help it.

Now, I think the last of the “hero’s” my 1970’s born house-mate grew up with as grand old men are gone (think of seeing Jefferson, Washington and a doddering Patrick Henry at your local Independence day parade and you can get some of the effect this had on people). The television no longer shows as many of the Irish produced black and white movies from the 1950’s where fathers try to keep their sons from playing with each other because of old feuds from the period and memories are growing short.

But still, in general the Irish would rather not riot, they would rather either go to the night club, pub or work in the garden (depending on the generation and rural/urban split). One thing you will notice about this riot is there were only 500 people involved, where as 100,000 marched to try to stop the War in Iraq part II (the largest demonstration in the history of the State and I wasn’t there because I was recovering from surgery). Then, at least ten thousand elderly folks (maybe a lot more) showed up to protest having their medical cards threatened two years ago when the budget stuff started south.

There were funny but scary scenes of folks in their 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s; streaming up to the same walls assaulted last night, but instead of a riot; they just yelled a lot and held up signs reminding the politicians what age group was most likely to vote. Overnight, the plans were modified and on paper the very wealthy lost medical cards but most were restored.

Farmers, truckers, teachers and civil servants have also staged much larger demonstrations than last night’s riot which I suspect of being mostly younger folks marching at a time when few people are out on the streets expect to party. This could be the front of a growing wave of angry response or it could just be some twenty somethings getting out of hand.

I WILL become very concerned if this starts to spread to day time protests by regular people like you see in Greece. That started with civil servants but it soon spread to all walks of life, especially the unemployed of which we have a growing mass of here in Ireland.

The main feature of even the very large recent demonstrations here is that they have been peaceful and I hope that continues. The real wild card is how long the government can keep paying basic benefits to the unemployed combined with how heavy a head the EU tries to enforce its new “sovereignty.”

This Irish are a fairly independent bunch and their independence struggle still within the living memory of the oldest old here. If Europe is able to keep a light hand (which they might have done in good times) they could probably turn Ireland into a “State” of Europe slowly by stealth. But if they try to do it with a sledge hammer, which I think they might then I think riots and worse may be in the cards.

The US has been described as a sleeping giant and outside of bar fights, the Irish public tends to be too. I really, really don’t want to see that wake up.

On the other hand, skies are clear of ash for the next several days at least…so happy flying continues.

The last part of this post was first published at the Tree of Liberty Forum and can be viewed in the public forum at: http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showthread.php?t=102806&page=3

Full article from this mornings Irish Independent on the riots can be read here:

Gardai bring out batons as breakaway protesters try to storm Leinster House

Irish Sunrise the Day After

This is a photo taken by my house-guest at Sunrise Friday morning, the day after Mount Unpronounceable started erupting in Iceland.

The Met office is telling us that there is little or no ash near the ground in Ireland, but at least that first full day, the sky was dusky and brown around the edges.

Now it does appear clear, but they tell us the could is back up there. Managing to stop planes, even after a massive campaign by the Aviation industry to try and convince everyone that the government regulatory agencies were “over-reacting.”

But now, even with the new “guidelines” that are allowing some planes to fly from France and Germany; UK and Irish airports are now full of people who were told to report to catch planes that now may not take off until after the weekend.

Here at my house, my friends are helping to arrange back up plans with more finality as it looks like my husband and his business partner may get to see the sights of New York’s Big Apple for a few days, after the trade show they are attending ends.

For us, it is not so bad yet, as we had planned for them to be gone until Thursday and there is still a chance they will make it home. Though the latest predictions are that the cloud won’t move before Monday.

Thousands of people are still stranded and trying to get back to where they need to be after the Spring Holidays and some schools in the UK were unable to open because their teachers could not get back in enough numbers for them to open.

One of my friends works at a school for American military kids and they have quite a few teachers still trapped and unable to get back.

Imports and exports of products going by air are being affected, sometimes in weird ways, like shutting down auto plants in Japan because they can not get parts made here in Ireland.

You know, we used to joke in our house that you should always prepare for the events you think are most likely to happen and of course the one thing we probably would never need to worry about here in Ireland was a volcanic eruption.

This has been a great lesson in expecting the unexpected and to have a back of plan for just about everything, even things that seem pretty remote.

I’ll try to keep updating a little each day as this does not seem to be going away anytime soon.

Disaster Cat from rural Ireland where the skies are quiet and devoid of planes or their contrails…

Ash Plume from Space

Well, it is after midnight here, so I’m going to keep this post short.  Just reporting is, since everyone probably knows by now that Ireland, the UK and much of Europe have all their travel shut down by Volcanic Ash from Iceland.

The most recent reports from London are that travel may be shut down for four days at least, though if the weather changes without warning, which can happen here that could be shorter or longer.  As of 9pm our time, the eruption was getting worse not better, so this isn’t going to slow down before tomorrow at the earliest.

My husband and his business partner were on one of the last flights out before the airport in Dublin was closed, they are on their way to a Trade Show in the US.  They are to be Stateside for a week, so we are hoping this does not delay their getting back, but just to be on the safe side I’m looking at what needs to be done here if they are gone awhile and they are making back up plans if they have to stay.

My first thoughts are that one of the best preps you can have are good friends.  I have one staying with me now, and others have offered to take in the guys if they get stuck after the show.  In both cases, this is very helpful and points out the importance of community, family and friends.

Meanwhile, we have no idea (my friend staying with me) and I if we can continue planned garden construction tomorrow.  The perfect sunshine is the same thing allowing the ash to head this way.  They say it is not falling and is no danger to people outside of Iceland, but we can see a faint haze on the horizon; it reminds me of being in California and seeing the glimpse of smoke from a very distant forest fire.

Anyway, I’m off to bed but will try to report more tomorrow, I think this is going to be a long and interesting few days on this side of the Pond.

Disaster Cat

Testing the new blog software here at World Wide Prepper Networks, this is Disaster Cat saying hello and welcome to the new pages.  I’m looking forward to sharing information here at the site with fellow Preppers around the world.

Disaster Cat in Rural Ireland

Disaster Cat Logo

OK image test staring Thor the Cat (what else do you name a red cat born during a thunder storm?)

This is a test for copying material from word to the blog.

This is a test of the embed media feature with a good you tube video on how to knead bread (always a good skill)

Ò This is a test of special character, always useful when living in a place where not everything is spelled in standard English.

Disaster Cat Webpage Link testing link feature and you can see my personal webpage if you like.

This is a test of the text color feature and bold

This is underlined and in another color

This is Italic

And I think this is enough testing for now – see ya soon with the real blog!

Disaster Cat

Today, I thought I would deal with one of the most useful and popular of all storage products: the canned tomato.  These can be store bought, home canned, whole or pureed but they are one of the most useful of all storage products to keep around to keep your food interesting.  If no one in the family is allergic to them (and find out now, because it is a rather common allergy and you need to know about it) they can provide an almost endless list of savory ways to brighten up the storage diets of vegetarians and meat eaters alike.

You can also work on making up various home made herb and spice combinations that will save you even more time in a crises or just having a busy day but that will be another post.

For now, as long as you have the basics: onions (dried or fresh), garlic (dried of fresh), oregano, rosemary, chili pepper  (again fresh or ground) and a few options like cumin, curry powder and cheese (store bought, home made, fresh or dry) you can do a huge amount of different dishes.

Also, tomatoes are important because they are the only “vegetable” that is really a fruit and there fore safe to water-bath can in a Kliner, rubber ring or jam jar with a proper lid (a new one with a seal on it, Lakeland catalog has these in the UK).  Yellow or very sweet tomatos are safer when canned with a tsp of citric acid or lemon juice in them.  But they may be the one savory item you can safely put up without access to a North American Pressure Canner or making a pickle.

Canning tomatoes, is again another entire post, but there are lots of good information on the web.  Pretty much, you use a jar that will seal and boil the tomatoes or tomato sauce for up to 30 minutes.  You can’t really add anything to this without a pressure canner (other than salt) but it sill allow you to keep your garden grown tomatoes even if the climate is too wet to really dry them.  Not to mention, they are a lot better than most store brands.  Be sure to follow directions EXACTLY for good canning and this is one case where you NEVER want to use grandma’s old Time methods because sometimes they fail and people can die.  Much less likely with tomatoes than many other foods, but doing it the right way is pretty easy anyway. 

Folks in North America have a much easier time getting good Mason type jars and Pressure canners, they can make and can larger versions of the sauces below.  There are also many good recipes in the Ball Book of Canning and many websites.

Anyway, so that’s taken care of, lets get to what you can do with canned tomatoes?  I tend to keep three types of tomatoes in my storage area: canned whole tomatoes (store bought and home grown), crushed tomatoes (store bought or whole) and store bought tomato “puree” called tomato paste in  North America.  I find my family uses this last one the most often, because it is so thick it makes a good base for pizza.  It is a highly concentrated sauce that I have never had enough garden tomatoes to be able to make from scratch.

Basic whole or crushed tomatoes are perfect for using in soups, stews, chillies, and the every popular UK/Ireland Pasta sauce.  You can make something that tastes a whole lot better than those little jars you buy in the shop with a brand name on them and save money at the same time.  Often it only takes about 10 to 20 minutes longer than opening a can.  Some sauces taste better if you cook them longer, but they almost always still taste better than store bought.  You can experiment with different herbs and spices to see what your family likes then make up mixes so you don’t have to measure every time.

Remember a sauce you can pour over your pasta, you can also pour over you chicken or pork chops instead of buying something labeled “Chicken Ready-Meal Sauce” in the store.  Cover with foil and bake on a low heat for an hour, brown the meat first and it will taste even better.  Use oregano for an Italian taste, chile for Mexican and curry powder for sort-of Indian.  In a real hurry, sprinkle herbs over the meat and pour on a can of crushed tomatoes.  This works well with leftovers too.

Now, we get to the wonderful world of tomtato puree, which I buy in little cans that help me measure it.  Here are my too basic recipes that I use as the base for many things.  The Italian one is perfect for pizza, just place on a pizza base (make the savory bread dough from the bread post) or even French Bread then add cheese and other toppings.  Cook in hot (200 degree) oven for about 12 to 15 minutes.  Pre-baking the crust makes it less soggy, but this is a matter of personal taste.

For Mexican, you just changes the herbs around and it is a prefect base for chili or sauce for burritos, soft tacos etc.

Basic Sauce One – Italian
1 Can Tomato Puree (or 2 cans crushed tomatoes or combination if serving with pasta)
If using tomato Puree use can and measure 2 cans of water for pizza or 3 to 4 for pasta
Do not add extra water to crushed tomatoes
Add to pan:
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp onion powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp red wine or red wine vinegar (use plain if you have to)
1/8 to 1/4 tsp (pinch) sugar

Optional herbs: basil, rosemary, chili, cumin
Mix all together, bring to boil and let simmer for at least 10 minutes to 1 hour

Basic Sauce II – Mexican or Hot Sauce
1 can tomato puree or 1 to 2 cans crushed tomatoes)
3 to 4 tomato puree cans of water or use liquid from crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1 to 2 tsp Oregano or Sage (do not use both, pick one or the other)
1 to 3 tsp chili powder (you decide, real powders are different and have nothing but chili in them, look for these)
1/2 to 1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garlic
1/2 to 1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp wine vinegar or plain vinegar
1/8 tsp (pinch) sugar

Combine everything and bring to a boil, then simmer at least 10 minutes.  Taste for heat, if you like it hotter add more chili.  You can also add cans of mild or hot green chilies to this.

Be sure and check your “chili” powder most UK brands have other stuff (like cumin) in them so you may want to add less.

Both sauces can be experimented with, and both can have black pepper added.  My husband can’t eat it, so I tend to leave it out.

An “Indian” version could easily be made with home made or store bought curry powder.  Onions and garlic can be fresh, but if you want a smooth sauce you will need to use a hand blender before serving.  If using fresh onions and garlic they taste better if they are lightly cooked in butter or olive oil first.  The same if you end up using fresh tomatoes, which can be fun when making pasta sauce during the gardening season.

Well, that’s a start on stored tomatoes.  There are lots and lots of other things you can do with them but this should inspire you.  Rather than buy lots of pre-made sauces for storage, get the basics and some dried herbs and spices instead.  Much more variety and trust me, in a long term crises that is very important.  People will start seeing meals as one of the most important parts of their day and good cooking and eating can help stave off depression as well as keep people healthy.

A modified version of this blog first appeared as a post at World of Survivalists UK/Irish based website and can be read here:  http://www.worldofsurvivalists.com/showthread.php?61-More-Recipes-from-Storage-Tomatos&p=303

Spring is here, and I thought I might look into a short series of articles on how to do practical things.  With the world of politics and the economy being so uncertain, a bit of down to earth stuff you can do at home is nice tackle.  Some of these will be aimed at bridging the gap between the wonderful world of prepping in North America and how to use them or do them over here in Ireland or the UK.

So today with start with Basic Bread Making, which is easier with a machine if you have never done it before, but it is good to learn the old fashioned way as well.  This was first used as a Kitchen Post at the UK site World of Survivalists http://www.worldofsurvivalists.com/content.php  A wonderful site for folks on both sides of the water, but really useful if you live over here.

Hi, today I thought I would see if I could get more postings here and add another recipe.  This one is more of a set of directions and I owe a lot of thanks to the various people and books in my life who helped me figure them out.  My directions are based partly on having a bread baker, but you don’t need one and you won’t have one in a long-term situation.  Oh, you might be able to rig up a solar or car battery to do this, if your major food preparer has physical issues, but otherwise kneading bread is really pretty easy.  There are now lots of You Tube videos that can take the place in old books where they say “to learn to knead bread invite over a friend who already knows”  Watch them now and don’t wait, here is a good basic one to start with.  Don’t let the eight to ten minutes scare you, once you learn to knead some breads will come together in much less, you will learn to “feel” the difference, just takes practice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWj8oHMPFm0

For now, I suggest to all my friends they get a bread baker to get started. The more so if they are busy mothers of small children or single guys with no back up in the kitchen.  I don’t care for how bread baked in them taste, so I use mine as a kneading machine (I have a bad shoulder) and then bake in a regular oven.  But you can (and I do sometimes) bake in the machine and you will still get much cheaper, better tasting and better for you than the store bought stuff.

Flour, the following Master Recipe is designed for white BREAD flour but you can use up to 1/2 Whole Wheat, Oats or Rye before you need to change much.  After that, the liquids become different, again  you can find lots of great recipes on the web for the heavier flours.  This is just a system to get you started.  I’ve also used American measurements, since that is what I am used to.  Most UK bread bakers come with a 1 cup measuring cup (or they used to) if not either use a measurement translator or buy a set of US measuring stuff.  A huge amount of good recipes for food storage are from North America, so it may be worth a few pounds to do this and have a set of everything.  I try to have both US and Metric stuff around, but the weight thing is what confusing when using bread bakers.

OK the basic recipe itself

Largest Bread Baker (common in the UK because it is a 1 kilo or 2 1/2 pounds)

First: read the directions on your bread baker and see if it is a liquid first or flour first.  Put the stuff in the order they suggest.  If doing this without a bread baker, you need to take your yeast and put it in a small bowl of WARM but NOT HOT water with a tsp or so of sugar and honey.  Wait for it to bubble, about five minutes, in the UK or Ireland you will also need to do this with regular yeast as only “Fast-Acting” Yeast works well directly in the bread baker.

Now Large Loaf (makes 2 loaves for the oven)
2 Tbsp Yeast
2 Tbsp to 1/2 cup of Sugar (savory to very sweet bread)
2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup butter or oil (corn oil, olive oil, melted lard etc)
1 to 1 1/2 tsp salt
6 cups of flour (be sure to use BREAD flour or HARD flour in the UK)
2 Cups liquid (Water, milk, eggs, cream, juice, mashed potatoes, etc)

If using something with some solids in it like mashed potatoes or yogurt as part of the liquid, mix it with the water or milk in the measuring cup.  Sometimes you will need to add a bit more water, I suggest not doing this the first time you make bread but wait until you’ve a couple of loaves under your belt.  Eggs are about 1/4 cup of liquid each, but you can test this by just mixing them with your flour or milk until it all reaches two cups.

Put your ingredients in order your bread baker suggests.  If doing this by hand, add all liquids to the yeast in a large bowl and then the flour gradually.  When it gets too thick to stir, begin to knead in the flour by had (see You Tube).  If you put oil or butter on your hands it is less messy.

Use the dough cycle on your machine, when it is done, take out dough and form into loaves.  If you don’t have loaf pans, just use a couple of pizza trays, cookie sheets or even heavy foil to make round or long shaped loaves.

Cook for about 35 to 45 minutes depending on size of loaf. or about 25 minutes for rolls.

For hard breads (often made with water) cook higher like 180 to 210 (375 to 425)
For really hard breads add a pan of water onto the bottom shelf of a pre-heated hot oven.
For soft breads cook lower 150 to 170 (350 to 375)

For a really soft crust rub bread all over with butter when done.

To test for done, hit the bottom of the loaf, it should have a hollow sound.  You’ll learn to “get it” over time.  If bread is very under done by accident, put it back in the oven on a cookie sheet and or use it for toast.

For bread you need for sandwiches, try to resist the urge to cut it hot and start eating it, hot bread is one of the most wonderful things in the world but it will squish down and make poor loaves if cut hot.  Make a pan of rolls and a loaf of bread instead.  Eat the rolls hot.

UK Flour:  Many folks have trouble using bread bakers because so many of the recipes are from North America where the Default flour is “Strong” enough to bake yeast bread.  UK and Irish “Plain” flour is not, it is designed for softer soda breads and cakes.  It will just spin around in your bread maker and make a mess.  You can make a very soft yeast bread or rolls by hand with it, but it will not work in the machines.  Look for BREAD flour or STRONG flour in the UK and Ireland.  Many these days will say “good for bread bakers” but you can’t count on that.

Smaller Bread Bakers
This is mostly a liquid to solid method ratio thing

You can do this bread in:
5 Cups flour to 1 3/4 cups liquid
4 Cups flour to 1 1/2 cups liquid
2 Cups flour to 3/4 cup liquid (smallest machines that make one loaf)

For all but the smallest machine, the salt, sugar and yeast stay about the same.  For the tiny machines/1 loaf cut them in half

happy bread baking and please post pictures of our results!

IMPORTANT UPDATE

I’m having trouble getting into blogger to add this: Important Edit – You need to let the bread rise!
*EDITED FOR IMPORTANT STEP:
This is what I get for doing things in a hurry. For good bread you need to let it rise. Most bread bakers do a first rising for you, if doing this by hand, place dough in a buttered bowl (or oiled) and cover with a damp cloth. In about an hour it should about double in bulk. Punch down with your hand, you should hear a “poof” noise. Now form loaves and let them rise until about double in size before baking. Should take between 1/2 hour to 2 hours on the second rising. Whole grain breads will take longer, it will also take longer on a cold day.

If your bread collapses (you forget about it and it falls) it is best to just use it for fry breads or griddle breads.

If you do not have time (or do not have an oven) you can make great breads just after kneading by rolling dough out with a rolling pin (or your hands) and: Deep frying, baking on a hot griddle like a pancake. You can even wrap the dough around sticks and cook it over an open fire Boy Scout style.

If you do have an oven, but no time, you can make Italian style “flat” bread by pushing the dough flat into a pizza pan, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs (optional) bake for about 10 to 15 minutes in a hot oven. If you add tomato sauce and cheese you actually have a pizza, but in many places they simply eat the bread as is, cooked in a hot over (about 200/400 degrees).

Sorry about the missing step, if anyone tried this before I edited, I’m sorry the fault is all mine not you. Please try again!

This will be added to the main post as soon as I can Disaster Cat

Today’s introductory headline is from the UK Guardian and shows that some people in the UK are looking ahead to problems that may affect folks from this cold snap, long after the snows melt away…

Food costs to soar as big freeze deepens

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/09/food-costs-soar-big-freeze

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/09/food-costs-soar-big-freeze

This story goes on to talk about how local crops in the UK and Northern Ireland are either being destroyed or delayed by the weeks of freezing conditions on both Islands. And while it is”Warmer” today, in that it is not 17 degrees, though that is the “real feel” temperature according to accuWeather, that is unlikely to be enough to change things very much.  It is straining (snow mixed with rain) and 37 officially, but if more snow keeps falling it may get colder.  We also have about forty to fifty mile an hour winds, which we did NOT have during the snow falls.  Even if it is does not, In Ireland, many towns and cities are having spot stoppages of water and places like Cork are starting flood again.

Rain, can be just as destructive as snow, though you would that that Ireland at least would be used to it and have better back up plans in place for when it gets out of hand.  Despite my comments about “I am not the Minister for Snow,” John Gormely, I can understand why a country with a bad freeze every forty years or so might not be prepared for one that happens suddenly one Christmas Eve.   Even if that “Christmas” timing did seem part of the problem in getting anyone in Government or elsewhere to admit there was a problem or try and figure out who was in charge of what. 

On a house hold and even community level, self-sufficiency is a great idea, and one we celebrate here on the prepping forums.  But there are some things, like roads, emergency services and even sidewalks are generally considered to be the brief of at least local and sometimes National Governments.

Here in Ireland, it was not even possible to get a direct answer from anyone as to the legality of clearing sidewalks (here called footpaths) of snow and ice by homeowners or businesses.  As soon as hospitals flooded with broken bones and shattered people started begging people to do this, some lawyers group got on television to inform people that “in their opinion” this would leave a home-owner or business in danger of being sued if someone fell away.  Best not to do anything, they suggested and people complied with gusto, a shortage of snow shovels could also have had something to with this, but preventing a law suit sounds a lot better than “baby it is took cold to go outside and do something!”

Meanwhile, the Irish Tax Payer will not be paying for the medical leave and bills for the four hapless Postal Workers who desperately tried to get mail out on the untouched ice sheets that many side walks and walkways to homes had become.  The post office says they have never seen anything like this, gee maybe in the past people had just shoveled up the snow, taking care of themselves and their neighbors?  But now, they have been told not to do it or they could lose their home when someone falls.  The lawyers insisting that as long as the sidewalks were untouched, it was the government who was responsible.

I should point out that in parts of Scandinavia where they do know a lot of about living with snow, you CAN be sued for not clearing your own walk ways.  The same, I believe is true, in many places in the USA.

But, the real reason for bringing this up here is that once again, when people tried to desperately find out which way it really was, as in “please, can we clear the snow on our own driveway,” no government spokesperson would comment.  There was not even an effort made to get a judicial ruling of some-sort, no emergency decree, just well, no one really and that rather seems to be the point.

Whose in charge?  While no one…

No one really seems in charge of potential all the snow (and now heavy rains again) are having on the local food supplies.  You do get a few articles in the paper, such as the one highlighted about and in Ireland the army is helping farmers get feed to stranded live stock.  But over all, one thing not talked about a whole lot is the issue of real food shortages.  The type that go beyond the lack of Callifower that delighted my husband last week, knowing none of the white things are likely to appear on our table for a few months.  

With that in mind, I have to say that the one good thing that could come out of all this weather (besides questioning the idea that people alone cause global warming or global cooling) is that smaller nations like the UK and Ireland may start to realize that food is a national security issue.  That growing as much food locally is more than just a slogan it is a practice that can save lives. 

Same thing, is true for North America of course, but island nations with good farm/grazing lands that destroy their own farming to import food from 10,000 miles away, are just asking for famine in a crises.

While I have no problem importing things people want that really don’t grow here, like nice Sunshine ripened tomatoes from Italy in March; shutting down all growing of sugar beets overnight (because to import them was “cheaper,” and getting rid of all sheep subsidies (eliminated up to half the local sheep population and more every year) because imported lamb is “cheaper,” creates a situation where even the knowledge of how to farm is being lost.

Ireland is lucky because the population of the entire Island is less than many major US cities (about 4 million) but the UK has more like 60 million.  They do have three nations under one roof over there, plus more land, but not that much. 

All famines in Europe since the 1918 Year with out a Summer, have been considered man made in some way and that includes the Irish Potato Famine.  People starve to death either in the midst of food they can not afford, or because of disruptions to the food supplies because of war or transportation problems. 

I hope we are not about to see the next man-made famine, the last big one was World War II, and it was only by the gardening efforts of folks on both sides that allowed the majority of people to keep total starvation at bay.  My friend from Berlin says her mother would never eat goat again, because for months they ate nothing but tough goat stewed with greens, but she lived to grow up and have a daughter. 

It has taken nearly 60 years for the West to forget why their grandparent’s grew Victory Gardens or Sent their “Youth to Farms and Fields” (Germany) during the last war.  To grow food at home, for use at home (as well as the war effort of course). 

I think in many ways, the same thing that can be said of Food,  as real Gold aficionados like to say about gold, “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own in,” or in this case perhaps,

“If you don’t grow it, you may not be able to eat it.”

Today this amazing photo from NASA is being featured in many web places on this side of the water, although it mostly shows the UK, you can see a tiny bit of Ireland poking green in the corner.  It may be white now, because we had more snowfall last night.  But this picture pretty much says it all about the current weather situation…

Making it worse, no one seems to know who is doing what or who is responsible.  Last night during an interview, the new “I am Not the Minister for Snow,” John Gormly, was asked just who a women with four children who had run out food should call for help?  Instead of answering the question, he kept repeating about the “need for grit and sand,” how “local councils were responsible” etc. etc. and never answered the question.  I used to like this guy when he was elected, now I remember why snow emergencies are the graveyard of political careers. 

Viewers in the UK and Ireland can watch the Interview on RTE Real Player and I think others can hear parts of it at: http://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/  

To be fair, Ireland has a long history of not having anyone in charge during the Christmas holidays and things are improving.  When we first moved here, there was a massive Christmas Eve storm with 90 mph winds, vast amounts of distruction and difficult conditions.

After the power went, we got out the radio to hear the local and national stations reporting over and over again, “Weather for today, chance of rain with a bit of wind, high of 7 degrees celsius, chance of fog in low lying areas..”

This repeated over and over again as the winds toppled trees (one in front of our house) the rain came in sheets, followed by hail and other Biblical types of scary weather.  By the time we finally got some real news, in a few sound bytes on Christmas Day), it turned out that most of the country was in shock and that the weather warnings had not been broadcast because well, everyone at all the radio stations had gone home to be with their families leaving recordings on to re-broadcast the weather!

By the next year, when the even worse St. Stephan’s Day Storm (the 26th) hit, we were at least able to get live weather updates and news while sitting in the dark without power for four days and three nights.  The national had learned their lesson, weather folks were no longer allowed to just take off for the holidays, instead they had to draw straws about who worked on Christmas, just like doctor’s, nurses, police and other essential services.  I guess up until the previous year’s storm, they had not been thought of in that way.

The same thing seems to be happening with emergency responses to weather disruptions.  Perhaps because the weather here is mostly grim and gray, there is a tendency to both talk about it constantly and ignore it at the same time.  This has spread to every part of life, including the news (which talks about it a lot) and government response (which tends to ignore it). 

Suddenly, we are having a serious of truly serious problems that can’t be ignore.  Large areas of desperate flooding, some of which still has not gone down now followed by snow and cold not seen since 1963.  While no one could reasonably expect the powers that be to have the amounts of grit and sand needed for such a Winter on hand all the time, not having them even meet to explore the problem for two weeks is pretty shameful. 

As with many things in Irish life, the attitude seems to have been, “ah sure, it will be grand, if we just wait the sun will come out and it will all go away.” 

Except this time, the sun has come out but the ice refused to melt,” and the official transport Minister is still on vacation, leaving, “I am not the Minster for Snow”Mr. John Gormley  probably wishing he had been less responsible and taken one. 

So, we shall see if they have to shut down major roads over the weekend or not.  I leave folks with a few headlines you can link up to:

Irish Independent:

Roads will be shut as salt supply runs out

GARDAI will be forced to close a swathe of major roads over the weekend as supplies of salt to keep them open finally run out.

• At -12C Carlow is the coldest
• Shops keep stocks up as firelighters and whiskey sales surge
• Cowen under hail of criticism for emergency response delay
• Biting winds add to freeze
• More waffling, more dithering 

Local Headlines: 

Irish Times: 

• Worsening weather causes major traffic disruption19:57Air, road and rail travel seriously affected as weather conditions deteriorate across country
  • Snow forces schools to remain shut
  • List of confirmed school closures
  • Dublin Bus halts services for night
  • Department defends gritting work
  • Weather causes havoc with rugby fixtures
  • Punchestown off, Leopardstown doubtful
    

Irish Independent:

First The Deluge, now the Big Freeze; 

Ireland has now gone from washout rains to snow, ice and bitter cold.  With the conditions on the ground being about the same since our mostly White Christmas, jokes about Global Warming are starting to wear a bit thin.  I’m not sure anyone really cares anymore, certainly not the poor commuters stuck in the ice and snow tonight in Dublin.  The ones who followed advice and took public transport only to be stranded when the buses shut down this afternoon.  To be fair, they did try to start again this evening, but like Dublin Airport, they just could not operate safely in these conditions.  The news is reporting many falls and problems from people trying to walk several miles home in this, I’m expecting that a lot of people will end up sleeping in hotel lobbies, guarda (police) stations and any place else that is warm and can take them in.

What is unusual about this cold snap is that it is going on for so long without let up.  For my friends in Finland, Sweden and Colorado who simply can’t believe a country can shut down because of a few inches of snow and ice, realize that we have almost no snow plows and many places have simply run out of grit and salt for the roads.  No one has snow tires (from what I hear you can’t even buy them here) and there is not enough snow for chains, outside the Wicklow mountains where the roads are mostly closed anyway.  Even in most bad Winters you get a storm, it ices over for a few days, the kids get a day off of school then the ice melts and everything goes along just fine. 

This time, we (and the UK) have been socked in for nearly three weeks and it is only getting worse.  A new front has shut down most of the UK today and parts of Ireland with fresh snow fall which the very cold weather outside is busily turning into a new layer of solid ice.  Some elderly people in both countries have been trapped in their houses since before Christmas and new efforts are being made to make sure they are OK.  Entire villages are without access roads and schools in most places will not open tomorrow for their first day after the holidays. 

The outlook is grim, with a predictions of up to ten more days of this, but as one weather reported honestly mentioned, they really just have no idea.  The fronts could shift and this could all end tomorrow, or in three more weeks.  Ireland, unlike Sweden where we lived for a time, is simply not set up to be locked in by the weather. 

Supermarkets are reporting runs on everything from cat litter (to use as grit on driveways) to warm hats and long johns.  When we moved here fourteen years ago, you could not find a pair of long johns outside of a hunting and fishing shop, this year they are going mainstream. 

Then there is the problem that folks in the US will recognize but seldom happens here, the broken pipes and further flooding.  At least two schools were badly damaged by this happening over the last 48 hours, thankfully the ceilings that fell in were during the Christmas shut down.  A family friend was also “lucky” that the celing of her apartment collapsed for the same reasons.  She reports that she has “lost everything and will have to start over,” but at least she is alive and healthy.

I will try to continue to do updates more often (as long as we have power) since I’m getting the impression that with the weather is also so bad in much of North America, that not much news from our way is getting reported.  At the moment, I would say the UK is in worse shape than Ireland, but both places are pretty much in a deep freeze lock down.

On a personal level, I have been very glad for having food and supplies in the cupboard.  We are going through them, but then that is what they are for.  Last night was American style bisquits and gravy with left over New Year’s Ham and scrambled eggs.  Tonight will be oven fried chicken, unless the power goes in which case I will simmer the pieces in a pot on the turf stove.  I am hoping to get out tomorrow for some fresh cat litter (if there is any left) and some other things we are running low on, but it feels good to know that we can get by even if we decide the trip is not safe enough to make.

Once again, Disaster Cat discovers that when it comes right down to it, all disasters are in some ways local ones in the way that they affect you and your family.  Which is why I’m planning to get back to finishing that sweater I was knitting for my husband as a late Yule gift.

I hope everyone reading this North of the Equator is nice and toasty warm tonight.  More updates as weather and time permit.

Disaster Cat…