For those who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a great one this year. The Fisherman and I had a quiet dinner at home with just us and our dogs. He no longer has any immediate family, and on my side, both of my parents are gone and my siblings were off doing their own celebrating. We lost our Mom last year in November, and I think, in time, we might all get together for Thanksgiving again, but right now, it’s almost like there’s no desire to do anything in a similar fashion that in any way reminds us that Mom, the driving force behind the holidays, is gone. At least that’s how it is for me. I’m fine to do something entirely different than the way it was done for years. So, The Fisherman and I did our own Thanksgiving and, with no children, just dogs, it was us and the 4-legged ones and football on T.V. The Fisherman loves to cook a turkey so with just two of us, we still had an 11-pound bird and all the fixings which meant plenty of leftovers. Just today we each ate another round of turkey and almost simultaneously said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m done with turkey,” which was perfect timing because we had pretty-much finished it off. We had the last of the pumpkin pie as well. Thinking of my Mom, she used to tease me about eating pumpkin pie a few days after Thanksgiving because one year, I had a piece at lunch, and at about 3 p.m. she announced, “Hey everybody, there’s a spot of mold on the pie so I’m throwing it out. It’s time.” I freaked-out, saying, “I just ate a piece at lunch!” She laughed and said, “Well, you got it pre-the-hairy-mold. I think you’ll live. If not, we’ll know it was the pie,” and she giggled. See, Fisherman: More proof of where I get my wicked humor from!
Overall, The Fisherman and I like to cook. He’s into all things barbecue more than anything. Me? Cooking, baking, I like it all. That’s why I laugh over our latest experiment. Last month when the Great Shakeout Earthquake drill was all over the news, I made mention to The Fisherman, that now that I’m retired and have time to do things, we should really work on our “Survival Kit.” Mind you, I fully understand the importance of every household having one of these, but our household, like so many, I’m sure, had *some* things, but not really *together* in an organized fashion. I guess we figured we would wing it, if and when the time came, we needed it. I’m not saying that’s the wise thing to do, but it’s how we had rolled. However, when I saw the news stories on the Earthquake Drill this year, it nudged me to say we need to get to work on getting ourselves organized with our emergency supplies, and I certainly have the time now to do it.
Well, this lit a fire under The Fisherman. He’s great at researching products, finding the best things out there, etc. He is a “Provider” in every sense, so by that evening, he sat me down to watch a YouTube video he had found of these two guys doing a taste-test review of all of the various freeze-dried “Survival Food” out there. I had no idea so much of this existed. From full-on planning for the apocalypse to those who want lightweight dehydrated food to carry on hunting, camping, and mountain-climbing trips, there are a ton of companies and options and just as many videos of people trying them out. We watched videos of taste-tests from the Equip 2 Endure guys at www.equip2endure.com where you can find all their various videos but there are plenty more out there and I’m not endorsing anybody.
The Fisherman was pumped! He ordered a few meals/items from one of the companies so we could try them. They arrived and here we were on this one particular Saturday night. What was for dinner? “DEHYDRATED SURVIVAL FOOD.” It was hilarious. Here we were, making our selections, boiling the water, (yes, when *surviving* you’re going to need to figure out how to boil water) and setting the timer, waiting for our culinary survival experience in the comfort of our own home. Of course, me, ever the wise-cracker, I said, “Wow, this takes ‘Date Night’ to a whole new level.” The one thing we learned: It’s important to buy the long-handled spoon or “Spork” that apparently any good survivalist has, because you need one to do a good job of stirring in the bag to make sure the boiling water and all that dehydrated goodness becomes one. Ever the MacGyver, I knew we had long-handled ice cream spoons, usually reserved for a milkshake or parfait glass, but hey, they work super-good in the dehydrated meal bag. So how was it? I must say the brand we tried, Peak Refuel, was far better than I expected. Many reviews tell you they have the best-tasting meals out there, but I’m not doing an endorsement for them, and we are trying others too. One thing many of the reviewers will say is: You pay for the better taste, and I get that. I’m sure it takes a lot of research and testing to get the improved taste. Like I said to The Fisherman: When you’re needing to break into this emergency food ration, my guess is you’ll just be grateful for something to eat, and that big disaster might never happen, so how much are you willing to pour into the great taste? Anyway, our taste-tests continue. The other thing we laughed at was the fact that one bag is supposed to be two meals. We weren’t so sure of that, but I said, “Hey, maybe if it didn’t taste so good, you wouldn’t want to eat more of it!”
So, if it’s time for Date Night, and you’re baffled over how to make it special, light a candle, boil some water, and open-up one of those freeze-dried bad boys and say you’re going to treat your date to a culinary experience like no other. I dare you!
Observations on getting used to being one of those gray-haired retired people 