r/TwoXPreppers

This week was “Bread and Circuses Week” at my house. I planned four food-related activities and four free entertainment activities for the family (currently three of us living here, two adults and a competent teen).

Our food activities were (to encourage eating at home, cooking from scratch, food prep):

1. Cookie baking activity (made a double batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, baked 1/4 of the yield [1/2 of one batch], and froze three logs of dough for later)
2. Blackberry pie filling canning activity (made 7.5 quarts of pie filling from the two full-to-bursting gallon ziplocks of foraged berries in the freezer…also note this was *after* having canned 5+ pints of jam. There are a LOT of Himalayan blackberries growing in Portland.)
3. Naan making activity (made simple flour-and-yogurt naan to go with a curry dinner, and froze half the yield)
4. Burrito prep activity (made BRC burritos for the freezer for lunches, to cut down on our family’s not-insignificant collective intake of Pizza Rolls and Hot Pockets)

Our free-entertainment activities were:

1. Board/card/table game night (we picked Cards Against Humanity…before you judge me too harshly for playing this with a teen the deck is mildly cleaned up and we have a rule about discarding anything that makes you TOO uncomfortable)
2. Jackbox game night (I don’t love the ones that involve drawing, but Quiplash is a perennial favorite, and Talking Points is pretty fun too)
3. Movie night (we picked Vacation…it has like 25% on Rotten Tomatoes but for whatever reason we cannot get enough of this movie…we own it and have seen it like 4-5+ times together)
4. Live entertainment night (we attended an improv show and jam put on by a local friend which was free for spectators)

The four food activities might be more obvious as to the “why” in terms of prep, but I value the entertainment almost as much, because it is 1. helping us to not spend money unnecessarily (and therefore save up) during a time when food and gas prices are curving up, and 2. bringing us together as a family and making us talk more. My gosh, you can’t believe how comfortable I am talking about sex and politics and war and ANYTHING with my teen after some rounds of Cards Against Humanity. 

Anyway. Posting because I hope that this “trip report” inspires others to plan fun weeklong goal/projects at home :)

So, I. Seriously considering getting a freeze dryer. I know that freeze dried foods keep for a long time, but atm, my prep plan is for a 1 year supply. I have other reasons for wanting a freeze dryer though. I like to overland, camp and hike, and I'd like to make meals for my son as back up when he's working away from home. But it seems a little frivolous tbh. How does freeze dried compare with dehydrated when it comes to cooking?

Please contain all off topic discussion to this weekly megathread. This is where you freak out, talk about conspiracy, talk about unrealistic crazy scenarios, asked and answered questions, etc.

I'm getting a new oven delivered this morning (the user interface went out on the old one and it is discontinued 😫). Should i hang onto the racks from the old one? Might come in handy in an emergency where you have to cook over a fire. Thoughts? 🤔