Beef...

We recently moved back to the East side of the valley which is a really happy move for us.  We were on the west side of the valley for a couple years and it really felt like social purgatory.  We met in the east side of the valley and first moved in there together.  We also had a nice little routine here for socializing, working and shopping.  I only recently started my shopping routine again...since I got a new job about 9 weeks ago.

 

 I hit one of my favorite Asian Markets where my butcher Mario works.  This guy always gives me the best cuts and will grind my beef fresh after trimming a LOT of the fat and cartilage off.  He will open fresh vac sealed bags, grind it and give me the sale price of the day.  I used to get 93-95% lean for about $1.49/lb - but lately it's closer to $1.99/lb.  I am not complaining.

 I purchased 35 lbs with none of the store managers raising an eyebrow.  This meat smells and looks good when you cook it - and the idea of getting mystery ground at the "regular" store kind of weirds me out but i'd do it if I had to.

I portioned off 10 bags at 1 lb per bag for my friend Jo to let her try it for her family.  I told her I will weigh and bag this time but next time you just get a sack of meat - haha.

Her husband was over watching the game the day I bought it and I made burgers for him and Mr. Man and let them "try" it to make sure it was good enough...As if...ahahaha. 

Ours are portioned out at exactly 1.5 lbs then I press the air out and flatten them so they stack neatly.  I don't see the point of vac sealing them because we eat them quickly enough.  I am not canning at this time because the new house has a glass top electric stove and I notice when it's on high the temperature fluctuates.  I simply do not want to take the risk of the pressure dropping especially with my new lovely All American Canner.

I will be buying an outdoor propane stove next week as well as an Excalibur Dehydrator.  It's just time to get everything in order - because as usual the analysts are projecting a 30-40% increase in food price in the spring because we had a 3rd drought this last summer.  I've been telling people to "strengthen" their pantries and to my surprise quite a few people have responded positively and started "making room."  That's really awesome - to see people love their family enough to have food and everything else up.  Then there are those who do NOT put anything up. Or even worse...

Those who ACT like they are putting stuff up yet it's just a pathetic attempt to appear like an A W A R E person but it's just a recipe of bullshit made up of whining and excuses.  I love people who say they are broke yet have money for a bunch of useless nonsensical things and they don't make room for important things.  I've heard one person say they can't prep meat and butter and stuff because they are on a budget yet they always have money for liquor or going out or other dumb stuff.  You know it used to make me mad.

It doesn't make me mad - I still feel a big disgusted but I no longer get mad about it.  I mean it's like they are slowly killing themselves and who am I to stop them from the freedom to self terminate?  When we had a chunk of money - I went and got Lasik surgery.  In my opinion not needing glasses or contacts was much more valuable than a new purse.  I like waking up and reaching for my Glock and my eyes are already focused. 

In a couple more months we'll have been putting up food 2 years.  I used to feel more philanthropic about helping others in case of emergency - but I no longer feel like that.  I am doing a lot - to hustle money to get our preps up.  I am working full time, going to school, maintaining the house - I am also selling bread, cookies and eggrolls on the side.  No one will ever call me a slacker in this life.  Someone called me the energizer bunny last night coz I was on a 2 hour skype call and I rolled out the eggrolls the whole time.  I just felt it was efficient.  I'm exhausted a lot of days but my mind is at ease.

Some days I've already been on my feet 6-9 hours doing cakes and on the way home I'm super tired.  But I will play in my mind what I could pick up in one stop just to beef up the preps...and I always find something.  Well and the fact that the lobby at work always has a ton of free papers with a jillion coupons in them.  It never ends but I'm glad to have instead of being a crybaby have not.

I've simply come to accept that some people will starve and they will have done it to themselves.  Some people will get staph or mrsa because they don't have silver ointment in their preps.  Some people will just have no clean water because they bought the latest clothes instead of a ceramic bucket filter.  It is what it is - I intend to simply focus on what I can do - and trade with those who did the same.