Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Prepared Family Cookbook....Shhhh!


O.K., so a number of you have been asking, hinting and even demanding a cookbook.  Well, your wish is my command!  I have been working on a cookbook for some time, but I have to admit, it is quite an undertaking.  Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and just write recipes, I had to go and expound on all kinds of homesteady preparedness topics.  So the book keeps growing.  I think I have finally come up with all of the topics I am going to cover, meaning I am going to force myself to stop.

I'm really excited about a couple of things - first of which is all of my recipes have conventional ingredients and cooking methods and also have stored foods ingredients and instructions for cooking on the wood cookstove!  I have chapters covering food storage (complete with lists, of course), hospitality/charity, canning, homestead arts (candle making, soap making etc.) home medical care (like I could leave this one out!), the home dairy (how to choose a cow, make cheese, butter etc.), off-grid living and homeschooling on the homestead.  As you can see, it has gotten a little out of hand, but I am having so much fun!

As I said, this is quite an undertaking.  Please be patient - I'll keep working.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know, and I'll keep you posted!

27 comments:

  1. may talking about canning on the wood stove and keeping the heat even so the pressure canner keeps "jiggling" and the pressure doesn't go down in the middle of a canning project!

    Also, don't forget dairy goats because some of us can't afford to buy a big cow!

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  2. I can't wait! I'm so glad you're including electrical and wood-stove cooking! I would love to own this book once it's published :D My only suggestion - perhaps you could also include alternative recipes for your vegetarian readers? I'm not strictly vegetarian but I rarely eat anything from animals. I know a lot of your recipes are more traditional meals with lots of meat! So perhaps offering substitutes where you know of them would be useful :)

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  3. Hi Enola!! Wow, the cookbook sounds fantastic! Count me in! Maybe you can offer it in an Ebook format? I am loving ebooks!

    I have a question for you. I notice you can a lot of "unconventional" things. Things that I can't find directions for in the Ball Book, ya know? Things like cheese. Or gravy with thickener. Or bacon. I love it! I'm becoming much more adventurous with pressure canning myself. I am wondering, do you have any tips and/or rules for pressure canning without a recipe? LIke, what about starches? Dairy products? Soups and sauces? What are the rules about what you "can" and "can not" process in a pressure canner. (no pun intended!)

    Thanks!

    Shawna

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  4. Please do the cookbook first (including the food storage, wood stove etc part) and THEN another book with all the other things you mentioned (all after 'canning'). Please don't keep us in suspense for a huge book or doom us to a HUGE book in the kitchen that we need to drag around the house and garden. As much as I like some of the things in the Carla Emery book, I lose it for periods of time because of the drag factor. Maybe I'm odd, but I read my cooking and food books in a different place (comfy chair in the kitchen) than I read my 'everything else' books (bed or bench on the porch). Maybe think about 2 books rather than 1?

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  5. Great news! Have fun with it and I'll look forward to it. Since your other book is a great to have, but hope I don't need, this one, on the hand will be a "want to" use! :)

    MaryB in GA

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  6. Hurray. Glad it will be all in one place. I have tried and used many of your canning recipes already.

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  7. This is the book I've been waiting for from you!!! Will it be out in time for Christmas?

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  8. Enola,
    How about including some butcher meat cut charts, (please include venison/elk, goat/lamb, rabbit/squirrel, pig, beef, poultry).

    What to do with the carcass bones. Making Bone meal, tallow, gelatin.

    Also brining AND curing recipes for meat and fish, without using nitrates.

    How to make and Use of a salt meat locker.

    Making scrapple, (hog heads cheese).
    making your own powdered gelatin.

    How to make veg. rennet,and obtaining your own animal rennet for cheese making.

    Making hard cheeses, using bees wax when store bought chemical rennets and cultures and coverings are no longer available.

    Creamed honey. Pulled molasses taffy.

    Recipes and How to bottle your own homemade natural sodas from vanilla bean, ginger, sassafras, and birch bark.

    Acorn flour. Pine nut roasting. Cat tail plant harvesting and uses for dishes.

    Parching peanuts. Roasting chestnuts. Roasting acorns.
    Stove top, Alternative methods of Roasting green coffee beans. Recipe for using Chicory root as an extender and flavor enhancer for coffee.

    Making lye soap from scratch with oak ash washings.

    Manure tea for fertilizing plants.

    How to sterilize and process your own poultry feathers to use them in pillow and bedding stuffing.

    How to re-can and reuse your #10 metal cans, for resealing with only a NEW lid, with a pipe flanging tool.

    Making hard candies without corn syrup.

    Pattern to make a tea pot warming cozy.


    We look forward to seeing these subjects covered, so we will all be able to cook, process, and long term store any God given, natural resources, without waste, with what is provided already at hand, in living a grid free life.

    notutopia

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  9. I am looking forward to this cookbook. All my favorite cookbooks have more than just recipes in them. I love reading them because of all the "extra" tidbits in them. Yes, one book please! Can't wait, I have your other book also! By the way, it is torture looking at the goodies at the front of this post when I have to go to work and don't have time to bake something like them!

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  10. I can't wait. To have all those topics in one book would be great. I look forward to it being published. Do you have any idea how long that will be?

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  11. Put me down for a first edition but it MUST have your wonderful words of wisdom in it as well.

    Notutoipa - We want this book sometime this century...but if anyone could pull off your request it would be Enolia and her band.

    Can't wait - Herdog

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  12. forgot...

    Making and using a "Mother" for vinegar.

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  13. For The Love of AlpacasOctober 21, 2011 at 10:53 AM

    I'll be ordering it as soon as you get it published and out there to buy. Thanks for your time, advice and knowledge and sharing so wonderfully with all of us. Blessings to you and your family.

    For The Love Of Alpacas

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  14. Looking forward to all your wisdom in one place!
    Shar

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  15. Don't forget a recipe for homemade glue!

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  16. I think the cookbooks are a great idea. However for bachelors like myself field stripping an M1A rifle replacing a bolt roller or adjusting valves (we called it running an overhead) on a 60 series Detroit Diesel engine is a lot easier than trying to mix or bake something.


    I still gotta work on solar powered microwave. Thank God for ramen noodles and lean cuisine microwavable meals:)

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  17. I am really excited about this book. But I did want to say that there are SO many books available on homeschooling (we homeschool too) that it might be something you could cut.

    I agree with some of the others that I would like a cookbook and another book with everything else. Perhaps adding some survival info in the second book as well.

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  18. How about making a sourdough bread starter from scratch. Also recipies to use the sourdough starter in different ways.

    Information on growing & grinding your own wheat, cornmeal, etc. I recently found out that popcorn can be ground and used for cornmeal. Also that cattail corms can be ground into a type of flour.

    What can I use instead of baking soda? or baking powder? How do you make and use hardtack?

    I am also looking for a good book on herbs I can grow and dry or process myself to use if/when medicine isn't available.

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  19. Enola, I'm not going to suggest what you include in your book. Whatever you produce will be a winner as far as I'm concerned. Your photographs are always well-composed, your writing full of feelings, and your wisdom beyond reproach. You go, girl!

    I'm just so happy you're getting closer to publishing it. Can't wait to buy a copy for myself and a couple more for family members.

    NoCal Gal

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  20. I'm with Anonymous @ 07:29 - what a torment, to ask for patience after flashing such beautiful goodies!

    Bless you and yours, and I hope everyone's back on the road to health!

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  21. This is a great announcement, Enola.
    I'm with notutopia ref butchering, brining and curing, making rennet, bone meal, and sterilizing poultry feathers.
    How does one make clothes or other needed items from the animal skins?
    There is SO MUCH out there to learn, and you are so patient about teaching us.
    Thank you!

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  22. I look forward to possessing what I'm sure will be a wonderful book! Canning recipies especially. I can most all my own foods.
    Writing a book is a lot of rewarding hard work. Yours will be sucessful!!
    Thank you

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  23. Admiring your breakfast post from 10/23; if you haven't already, please include your tips for seasoning cast iron - your tools are beautifully kept!

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  24. Enola,

    I am very new to the homesteading concept. We are looking for property right now. I am already trying to gather goods. I would definitely love to add this to my collection.
    Also, If anyone has any good suggestions on books, ideas, or goods, I would love it.
    Thanks

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  25. Enola,
    Notutopia said that you can reuse your #10 can using only a new lid and a plumber's flange tool. I've tried to find a kind of can opener that opens the can in a way that would allow you could retool the flange, but nothing I have will work. Do you have any idea what kind you'd need?
    Thank you for your blog. I'm learning SO much and enjoying the ride.
    N

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  26. I am really excited aboutyour cookbook. I have started one of my own and I love trying out the recipes I have on my family. I also love to knit and would like to know it you knit also. zoeysgran50@yahoo.com

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  27. I'm waiting on your cookbook too. I'm working on my bread techniques but it's failing a bit. If you could talk about yeast and all the different kinds in the book, it would be helpful.

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