Perky Gramma's Biscuits Recipe

Butter biscuits is one of the first things I ever baked. This is my recipe from a children's cookbook I got when I was about 4 or 5. At that point I lived in the great state of New Mexico. I got my beloved cookbook for free by sending in the Pure Sugar label on a postcard, as you can see in the video commercial I've posted below.
The best thing is as a prepper, I have 100% of the ingredients stored. I was noticing though I only have one pastry blender. Living on the farm, away from a quick trip to the grocery store, I am saving lots of money cooking again
We didn't have the Food Network when I was a child, my little treasured cookbook is still with me and is over 50 years old. Pretty amazing to me.

Flaky Butter Biscuits
 2 C. sifted flour
4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 C. soft butter
2/3 C. milk
1. Turn on the oven and set at 425 degrees.
2. Sift the flour, add baking powder and salt and sift again into a mixing bowl.
3. Add the butter to the flour mixture. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender of 2 knives. Continue blending until mixture looks like course crumbs.
4. When well-mixed, add the milk all at once. Stir with a fork just til the dough follows the fork around the bowl. Don't stir too much as it will make the biscuits tough.
5. Sprinkle a little flour on a board and rolling pin. Dust hands with flour and knead the dough about 10 times.

6. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter, or a glass or I actually used a ring from my canning jars.
7. Place biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet.
8. Bake at 425 degrees for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.


Here is that commercial.

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Surviving an Active Shooter Event

While this is relevant all the time, I thought now would be a great time to reinforce our situational awareness habits, particularly if you are out and about, possibly shopping for the holidays or attending holidays parties. It's not a fun topic to think about, being able to survive an active shooter event is just one of the ways to are able to protect yourself and/or your family.
This information is actually listed on multiple websites including the FBI's and is now the method the various agencies are promoting this for civilians.
Law enforcement agencies have been actively training for the newest type of terrorist attacks & changing their tack on what they encourage people to doing such a situation.

Prepper Stocking Stuffers 12 Under $ 11

Honestly buying gifts for Mr. Perky is not an easy task. But, things got a little easier when we started prepping. I thought I would throw together a list of just a few things we have purchased for stocking stuffers & not just for us but for others in the family like our grandchildren. Last year, I got Mr. Perky this Christmas Tactical Stocking
Actually it is pretty nifty with pockets and hooks to attach various items. I may ask for one myself this Christmas to carry around on my tractor.
I am also working with a young couple that are newbie preppers and they were considering some cost effective stocking stuffers for each other.  Most all of these are practical gifts for your get home bag or bug out bag. 

There is only one item here that we haven't purchased and that would be the first item listed a portable collapsible cup, but I am adding it to my cart today. 

    

  
   

What I do here is simply share our preparedness journey. We would love it if your joined our Perky Prepping Gramma community on Facebook. I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Prepping Gramma Amazon link.

Vacuum Sealing A - Z (Tips and Tricks)

The FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer is one of my top five favorite prepping kitchen tools. I use it many times a week. Just last week I vacuum sealed 40 lbs. of Zaycon Chicken (referral link) for my freezer & vacuum sealed some cereal for storage.
I thought I would consolidate all the various posts I have on the vacuum sealer in one place. 

TIPS TIPS TIPS TIPS TIPS 

TIP 1: I find that if you leave extra bag space on the top before sealing, you later can open up the package using the slicer on your FoodSaver creating a clean straight cut. Then when you get out what you need, you are able to reseal the same package. This comes in handy. This week I had a lot of mushrooms I bought on sale and planned to use them several times. One bag, multiply times used and resealed. 

TIP 2: Sometime you may have sloppy leftovers. I have found it easy to freeze the leftover in a pan of some sort, then vacuum seal the frozen block. This helps keep your machine cleaner. When you want that meal for dinner, you drop the package in a pot of boiling water. The bags are sturdy enough to withstand the heat. Cut open the bag then serve.

TIP 3: Occasionally you will have a bag that all the air is not vacuumed out (on the left). If that happens I just put that in the front of the rest of the packages and use it first. To prevent it from happening, it helps to sort of push the food into the middle to create unobstructed channels on each side (on the right). That helps prevent air getting locked at the bottom and sides.

TIP 4: I mentioned above, since the bags are so strong, you can simply drop the bag into a pot of boiling water & cook. Even this raw chicken will cook completely and is very juicy because the package is sealed. It will even create a little broth.                 Posts on How to Use the FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer, 

                                                 Plus More TIPS.

How to Vacuum Seal Dry Goods

Step - By - Step: How To Vacuum Seal Meats

 

How to Clean Your FoodSaver 

How To Vacuum Seal When The Grid is Down




Items that I've used in these posts:

          

What I do here is simply share our preparedness journey. We would love it if your joined our Perky Prepping Gramma community on Facebook. I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

Chicken Coop: Phase 2

Thursday we were adding Phase 2 to our chicken coop. Mr. Perky got up early and took down the entire entrance wall, framed up that side, added a door, then put up the chicken wire. This took several hours and the chicken run was completely open the entire time. Dudley-Did-Right and the girls had the opportunity to cross the open threshold and run free for the day. But, they weren't ready for that step yet. What were they thinking? What did they perceive was beyond that imaginary barrier? What stopped them from journeying into freedom?

Inside the run we added angled flashing, for some shade. Also it now will serve as a cover for the feed, feeder & water fount. Since the coop looks like a little house, I also added a lamp post in the yard.
Actually i am very excited about this phase of our prepping. While I still have several years of pressure canned meats, especially chicken in my prep storage, we now have them means to be self-sufficient with at least growing chickens as meat. Not taking that step yet, but we are prepared for expanding our flock if needed.
I will continue to use our stored meats and pressure can more. Having meats in the preps allows for the time to expand if the scenario changes. Depending on the time of year, we have enough prepped until we could expand our garden, our flock and just in case we have a bad crop for a year or two. In fact I have a shipment of Zaycon chicken coming November 10th.
Still more to do & more to share...

What I do here is simply share our preparedness journey. We would love it if your joined our Perky Prepping Gramma community on Facebook.

Items Used this Week:

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

For Fraser: Chicken Runs, Prepping and God Stuff

Thursday we were adding Phase 2 to our chicken coop. Mr. Perky got up early and took down the entire entrance wall, framed up that side, added a door, then put up the chicken wire. This took several hours and the chicken run was completely open the entire time. Dudley-Did-Right and the girls had the opportunity to cross the open threshold and run free for the day. But, they weren't ready for that step yet. What were they thinking? What did they perceive was beyond that imaginary barrier? What stopped them from journeying into freedom?

Honestly I believe that people allow fear of the unknown stop them in their path; a path they know in their heart they need to take.

We preppers understand that things are getting hairy. Some people simply become overwhelmed by what they see. Mired in fears of canning explosions, thinking they don't have enough money to prepare or any fill in the blank reason they may have for not crossing the line into prepping.

Others step out on faith and start preparing, figure it out with what they have, get out of debt, do the things that are necessary to become self-sufficient to the best of their ability. Make a plan and follow the plan.

For the last couple of weeks I have been drawn to read Numbers & Joshua in the Bible. When the Israelites reached Canaan the promised land, they wouldn't see what the Lord had promised them any more. They were complacent, sitting on their laurels with a defeated attitude. They were challenged and made the choice to remain lukewarm.
Fast forward 40 years when Joshua encountered the man with a drawn sword, the commander of the Lord's army just before Jericho. What did he do? He asked what message did the Lord have for him and then he complied.

The Israelites wandered aimlessly because of their attitude. When their passion was ignited again to actually listen to what God commanded them to do...things changed and they were able to take the territory that God promised all along.

Just a thought...

Prepared or not,

Canaan or Jericho:

which choice, which answer?

How to Make Classic Simple Syrup with Raw Sugar

Have you ever added sugar to a drink and not have all the sugar dissolve? I know it's not the end of the world, but it is annoying. Considering I occasionally like to sweeten cold beverages (think iced lattes, iced tea) I thought I would share just how easy it is to make classic simple syrup with raw sugar.
It is so simple to make:
Classic Simple Syrup (with raw sugar)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup raw sugar (you may use refined sugar)
Stir until the raw sugar is completely dissolved.
I store my classic simple syrup in a swing top glass bottle in the fridge.That's it.

What I do here is simply share our preparedness journey. We would love it if your joined our Perky Prepping Gramma community on Facebook. 

Items I used today: 

   

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.