Provisioning

In the past couple of months 150 years ago people were migrating west. These adventurers would collect their covered wagons every year in towns near the edge of one of the big barriers keeping them from reaching their destinations in California or Oregon, the Great Plains. Here, in places like Kansas City and Independence, Missouri they would provision their wagons carefully because those provisions would be what would keep them safe on the long, perilous journey in front of them.

Now, our trip to Utah next month is not a long, perilous journey and we never will be far from provisions (a McDonald's, a buffet in Salt Lake City, a Country Kitchen, or a Wal-Mart) but we like to lay up some provisions anyway. It is nice to be able to go to the cupboard and pull out some pancake mix or brownie mix and whip up something tasty. At least we won't have to shoot a deer or bunny for supper.

We use a book called Make-a-Mix published by Fisher Books for a wide variety of recipes. We have made mixes for hot rolls, biscuits, brownies, pancakes, and an all purpose breading mix. I vacuum seal these in quart Mason jars. I know we could get similar things at the store but if you read the labels on those things they are full of two ingredients we try to avoid - sugar and salt. My mixing our own we control the salt (fake salt) and the sugar (Splenda).

We have also caught things on sale recently and vacuum sealed and frozen steaks, chicken, pork chops, grapes, and strawberries. We are fortunate to have a double freezer in our RV and can pack it full.

So our covered wagon is filling up. One more month and we will be camp hosting at Redman Camp Ground in Big Cottonwood Canyon in Utah! We will eat well.

Stop in and say 'Howdy'. There is always room for one more around the camp fire.