The Shortage, Are You Preparing?

Squirrel and dumplings.... maybe even some perogies to go with...

we r the 3rd and or the fallen angles of the fish it matches the 3rd that fell from heaven.if a food shortest happens from a secular point of view. you would need guns and to covet maybe friends the strongest survive, and or the luckiest.Just a thought those factions add up to more then the whole.

Where I live hunters abound and currently with hunting only allowed certain times of the year there are plenty of game animals to be had. Throw in a severe food shortage and game will dry up quicker that a mud puddle in a drought. I bet a lot of pets end up on menu after that.

Those saint better walk on water.and i'm not talking about frozen kind.

The Chinese real estate market is a $62 trillion market. It will definitely take a big hit with this collapse. However, as long as no one is highly leveraged or using their real estate as collateral for other loans it shouldn't cause a complete economic meltdown.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...ippling-car-repairs-worst-since-world-war-ii/

"Oil filters, wiper blades, brake parts, engine parts, even entire engines are in short supply according to Costello. The report closed with a warning that tires could be in short supply this winter due to a rubber shortage."

So truck shortage can be because of vaccine mandate, it can also be because the truck needs repairs. Our entire economy is set up to run on trucks.

Are we going to have trucks that are in disrepair on the highways? Trucks with bald tires?

So for me, I've been a prepper, well at least since getting married. My in laws are older, born during the Great Depression and raised to be prepared, which mother in law passed onto hubs. When we first got married we got our deep freeze, and that's a big help. When meat goes on sale I stock up. After 15 years together, I kind of have a pretty good idea of what we like to make. Super cheap deal on pork shoulders in the "off season" of winter makes for one tasty summer BBQ with out the summer spike in prices. FOOD SAVER machines and bags are a friend, and in my opinion a must have. We also know that our Thanksgiving menu pretty much stays the same year to year, so I've been able to get what I need for that (minus the fresh produce). That gives me a peace of mind, not so much because of the so called soon to be shortages, but more because it means I won't have to spend that time out shopping with the "holiday rush" Despite the fact that it stresses me out, I almost always end up doing so.

I don't feel panicked, despite all that is going on and being said. Jesus brings a peace that passes understanding, I've experienced that more the past year and a half/ 2 years than ever before in my life. I had a lot going on before the shutdowns, and wasn't listening to news enough to know/realize something was about to happen, though I did have an urge to go do my stock up shopping, I was busy with a lot of things and kept putting it off. All I really knew was that people were going nuts over toilet paper. But between what was left in our house (actually you'd be surprised with what you can spontaneously throw together with the odds and ends hiding in the back of the pantry and bottom of the deep freeze) and what was in the kitchen of the elderly family members we cared for during that time we were able to make due. There was a period of almost 2 weeks (just before stores started becoming stocked again) that I realized stuff was dangerously low and panic tried to set in, but I remember stories from elders of how God always provided in their times of need, and learned myself that He still does, and during those few weeks of low almost out supply He did.

So how does this:
tie in with shortages?

Well, maybe not by much. But like I said, I've witnessed the critters working to store food more than I have in the past and it just leads me to wonder (especially with all the stranger than normal weather this year) what the winter might be like. Animals seem to have a natural built in system to know just how to prepare. Watching them just makes me want to make sure we're stocked up and supplied, in the possible event that due to weather we can't get to the store.


But after the "Great Toilet Paper Famine" I just can't help but wonder if "they" are trying to fear people into going out to buy, buy, buy now BEFORE holidays sale prices. Just my thought. I don't know, but I'm prepared/preparing scamdemic or not simply because that is my families nature to do so.

A word about deep freezers....

My wife saw the bottom of ours yesterday and began to panic. There hasn't been any good prices for foods lately (what there is of them) and I've been holding off buying anything much except for the perishable items or high use items like coffee and creamer.

But the storing of foods of about 9 or more months worth at a time is about as normal as it gets. People have been doing so for thousands of years...at least 6-7.(however long people have been around)

Abraham did it...so did Adam and Eve and their kids. Noah obviously did it for the Ark. Used to be the standard for people living in rural locations because the local trading post wasn't likely to have much available anyway... even if you did have cash money to spend.

I have an extremely diverse and huge menu that I will use to cook from...much broader range of food we will prepare and consume regularly than most people. From paella to perogies...and all points going through the alphabet at least three times.
Just one of the hazards of being a professionally trained chef.

And because of this...there's never been adequate supplies in the grocery stores before... certainly isn't going to be any now. Amazon has been a big help but not always...fresh crop of clipped Saffron from Iran isn't exactly cheap on Amazon. (I got a source) Fresh vanilla beans from Tahiti? Madagascar green peppercorns? Star Anise from PRC...Blue Hare from Ireland? Usually the more specialized the stuff the more specialized the price when I once got all this stuff for dirt cheap prices.

I just have learned to settle for what is available and make do with whatever I can get my hands on. Even if it's just cabbage and tomatoes.

Oh would I like a peek at your recipe books!! I like to cook and love to bake. The only thing is that hubby doesn't like left overs. I grew up on that. You didn't turn your nose up to food. I do understand certain things don't make for good left overs. I send the left overs to my parents so at least the food isn't wasted. My uncle just wrote from home (Canada) and said gas is 7 bucks a gallon where he is. No way of preparing for that. Just do my best and leave the rest in God's hands.

Recipe books? I got a few. Most of what I do is by twisting my own bent on the recipes in those books. My wife made me some new recipe cards so I can write stuff down and quit trying to remember it all from scratch and try to relearn what I learned from the last time I made something...
I'm getting old and forgetful...that's the problem. Not as quick as I once was. I keep forgetting to write stuff down too. I was doing a good tiramisu... nicely balanced for the play of flavors. The coffee, rum, cocoa powder all playing the melody line of the base symphony off the marscapone cream cheese....with the ladyfingers offering some texture balance...but I can't remember the recipe off the top of my head. Oh well...there's always next time.

Once had the creme brulee recipe worked out too. Forgotten it. So the Burnt sugar would be a perfect balance to the overly rich custard. Didn't write it down either. None of the recipes worked either except for mine.

Caramel I think that I wrote it down for the truffles...

Cookies.... well the newest addition which was a success was the dried cherries and white chocolate chip...I'm not sure whether I did write them down or not. They were good... maybe I'll remember in time for this year's Christmas.

It's all cooking from the heart...my passion and training carrying me to create. Hard to stop and write it down in the middle of it all.

EverGrande $300 billion in debt, the 23rd is the day they officially default. The housing market makes up 29% of GDP, not only so but 70% of Chinese assets are tied up in real estate. In China house prices are 40 times higher than people's income. This would be like a person in the US whose income is $100k owning a house with a price of $4 million.

Home sale values are down 16% in the month of September and a 19% drop in August! The Chinese housing market is worth $62 trillion!

Evergrande's sales plunged 93% in September!

Of course, a true chef wouldn't be following someone else's recipe. People like me follow the recipe, although I do go a different way sometimes. Sounds like it would be easier if you could simply record what you're doing rather than taking the time to write it down. My aunt is a chef and she's Danish. So she doesn't cook "American" so to speak. She asked if I wanted some of her recipe books and I said I'd love them. She gave me a bag packed with magazines and vintage cook books. Don't know if I'll ever use them but it was nice of her to give them to me.

I like to bake for Christmas but we don't have a big family and my nephews are at the age where they won't try anything new. I did manage to get the oldest to try carrot cake and he found that he liked it. Problem was I turned around and half the cake was gone. smh I made apple butter some time back, was very proud of myself until hubby said he doesn't like apple butter. Over to my parents it went. I wish I knew the ins and outs of canning. My grandmother use to do it, but she's long since passed.

Most of the truly exotic recipes are created during famines, that is when people are willing to be truly adventurous in what they eat. Snails, frogs, bugs, you are about to see a world of possibilities.

There are some things that are always classic....hang on to those cook books PLEASE! They have a character to them that is absent from the online recipes.

I use Escoffier a lot and Gastronomic on occasion too. Also 5th edition revised of the Professional Chef (the one with the group of students in it.... for a reason....I'm one of them....we made it inside because we had clean uniforms just issued that day or the day before....can't remember 30 years ago)

But I do Christmas cookies every year...over 1,000 of them.... nothing super special but just a bunch. Usually Toll House is the big favorite. Chocolate chip are Over half to ⅔ of the ones grabbed first. Also blank gingerbread houses so kids can have a party decorating them.

But baking and giving cookies at Christmas is a lost pastime almost forgotten...help an old guy out and bring it back eh?

And it's a thing that is missing from today's electronic and latest gadget world. I usually get between 18-20 cookies per batch. And after doing so many batches just to give away... you can Excell at it over and above anyone.
Just saying...it's good to do.

I'm trying to learn that myself. Thankfully one good thing with the world wide web is we have near unlimited access to "classes", with videos for nearly anything you can imagine wanting to learn. Down side (for me) I learn better hands on, and I need to ask the questions right away while working on it.

My husband once asked his mom for some recipes, she just gave him a blank look and said "I can't. It's all up here" pointing to her head. Thankfully she did write many down through the years (I think she forgot about them), sadly other family members helped those recipes cards grow legs and walk away through the years. Hubs finds recipes sometimes in older cookbooks and says "Mom use to make that" so I give it a go. A few have been winners and "even better" She went Home a few years ago (she was in a nursing home, so at least it happened before Covid) We made some of the copy cat recipes for my father in law. The look on his face while reminiscing............
PRICELESS.

The recipes I use the most I am trying to get gathered and at least written/saved on a memory stick/card. I'd like to start taking photos as each fave meal is made to put into a book for my kids along with the recipes.

What my wife and I have been doing is getting platters and plates from dollar tree(nobody really looks at the plates anyway...they are eyeballing the cookies) and wrapping them up with first plastic wrap and then decorative cellophane....tying them up with some ribbon and delivering them around and seeing people on their front porch for a minute...giving them messages that they aren't forgotten, they are loved, and Merry Christmas!

We don't go inside....and last year we even got to talk to a couple people who were sick at the time. They still were extremely appreciative and a few were brought to tears over it all.

It's cookies. I grew out my beard and got a pipe... hearing small children asking if I was the real Santa made it all worth it.

Don't sweat the Covid for front porch visits. They don't last long and keep back by 6 feet...mask if you need to.

It makes great Christmas presents for all of your friends. And since there's about 20 cookies that will fit on a plate... So few do it....and by the point you get good you will have perfect cookies....no frisbees with chocolate lumps or piles of dough with burnt bottoms, raw middles, and barely cooked tops. You will be way beyond that by the end of the day. You do something like 30 batches and you get the measuring and timing for everything perfect. Photo shoot quality.

actually some of the clear plastic serving plates from there are quite pretty. Cut to look like a nice crystal platter design.