Supreme Jalapeño Margarita By Diane

Jalapeño Cadillac Margarita

Adding dried and ground chilies to sugar for the rim will add some pizzazz

      
 


Serving: 1 kinda large cocktail, or 2 smaller cocktails

Ingredients:
4 fluid ounces of tequila (I prefer Sauza, Silver or Hornitos)
2 fluid ounces Grand Marnier, Cointreau or Patron Citronge
2 limes, juiced
1 tablespoon agave nectar
8 slices of fresh jalapeño

Optional Garnishes:
1 lime cut into wedges

Additional Jalapeno pepper slices


Preparation:
1. Fill glass with ice. Rub lime wedge around rim of glass and then put the rim in margarita salt, if desired. You also could use sugar mixed with dried chilies of your choice.

2. In a cocktail shaker muddle a few lime wedges and 8 jalapeño slices. Fill with ice. Add tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice and agave nectar. Cover and shake. Strain into the prepared glass. Add a drop of green food color to make this really stand out.

3. Garnish with lime wedges and jalapeno slices floating on top.

Shelter ....your last Alamo during an emergency.

Basic duplex.

   OK your house or apartment is the last part of the emergency puzzle. When the lights go out or some other disaster strikes there is no place like home. You have made some preparations for food and water but now is the time to focus on your own personal Alamo. When fear and uncertainty set in your home could be a great sense of security and place to feel as comfortable as possible. There are a few things that increase your safety as well as help keep your food and other preparations out of the hands of others.

Emergency's come in many ways and levels of severity  .

    During an emergency you CANNOT depend on the police or other rescue services to show up and save you at the first sign of trouble. When you hear a banging at the door in the middle of the night it will be up to you and you alone to keep your family safe from those who want your supplies or worse wish your family harm. With some simple preparations and planning your home could be one of the safest place to be.

1) Have a plan. Nothing crazy just some rules and job duties for everyone in the family. When your busy doing what needs to be done to a written plan you are less likely to panic and more likely to be better prepared.

Type of protection is your choice but have something!!!

2) Identify one room to retreat to if necessary. This room should have only one door and one window with a way to cover and secure both. If needed some rope or ladder to to escape out the window if needed. Some form of defense and offense should also be stored in this room(Bat,Knife,Mace,Spear,Pipe,Axe,Firearm or other weapon) along with some ready-to-eat and drink supplies. A noise maker such as an air horn. Many intruders are not going to be sticking around if they think you have a way  to call for help or draw attention to what they are up to. And remember " 3 of anything is a symbol of help"  such as 3 horn blasts. A fire extinguisher would be a plus.

3) Don't make it easy to enter the home or look inside. Plant roses ,holly's or other prickly plants near first floor windows. Use small pieces of wood to reinforce windows and sliding doors. Keep folding ladders and other tools locked up and stored away.  Make your home the path of most resistance not the least.

4) Noise can be your friend. Place tin cans on your doorknobs. Put a snack tray with items on it near windows or doors. Basically put things where they wouldn't normally be and if someone should enter the house they will be more likely to bump into something or knock something over to alert you of their presence. Noise making traps can take away the element of surprise and give you time to react.

5) Stay together. Use the buddy system. Camp out at night in the same room. If you have younger children they will think its fun for everyone to be together at night. There is a reason for flocks of birds,schools of fish and herds of cattle and that is "safety in numbers". Even when leaving the house try not to go it alone. Remember people do crazy things at times of distress or when they think they can get away with it.

6) Heat. A source of heat will be very important depending on the climate you live in. A simple kerosene heater and a few gallons of fuel should be in your supplies.

This post was intended to aid in your decisions to prepare and take responsibility for safety of your and your family. During an emergency help maybe days away SO WHAT WILL YOU DO??????

Question.

Before I post the part 3 "shelter" portion I would like to ask if anyone has any questions please ask it now.
 I can include the answers in this weeks post.

Thank You so much for stopping by.

Mr Hop Zombie

#2 Water you either have it or not.

    So now that we have some food stashed away for a rainy day its time to talk about H2O aka "water". Lets stop and think about where and how will you get this elixir of life that most of us take for granted. There are reservoirs,lakes,streams and natural springs that bring water magically up from far below the earths surface and it even falls from the sky but will it be safe? Will you have access to it?

What if that magic tap stopped working???

   Water will be one of the most important items in a emergency in fact in just about every disaster situation on the news water quality or availability is always an issue. Just think about it even small amounts of contaminants can effect millions of gallons of water. Electricity is also needed to deliver the water to your house and that one of the first things to go. Knowing that I have clean drinkable water for myself and my family is a major priority. Many things influence how much water you need such as size of your family and where you live so lets talk about it on a per-person basis.

   One gallon of clean water per person per day would be my minimum for drinking,cooking and hygiene needs such as brushing ones teeth. I also keep two gallons minimum of non drinkable water per person per day for other uses in the form of rain barrels. One simple rain barrel can be more than enough to flush a toilet or wash some clothes. A rain barrel would also get used during non emergency times to water plants or fill the bird bath so to me this was a no brainier I installed 3 @55gals each. 

   Water storage can be 2lt soda bottles filled right from the city tap and stored in a cool dark place for up to 6 months. Store bought water in a sealed container can be saved for a year. If you get your water from a well add 8 drops of regular plain bleach to each 2lt bottle before storing as city tap water is already treated. Make sure your containers are food grade #2 HDPE ,have a tight screw on cap and fill your containers right up to the top. Adding 8 drops of bleach to a 2lt bottle can help make questionable water safe so having bleach on hand is also beneficial. 

 Some places around the world can't get a clean drink of water but here we flush our toilets with it!!

   Water filtration is a bit more advanced than this post but I would strongly recommend a good camping/hiking style water filtration NOT a Britta or other house style system as a backup.

Now that you have Water and Food stored away next week we dive into the last of the basic three "Shelter" 

Could you survive more than a week after a major disaster????

   


  Deep inside us all is the will to survive but for most of the people that translates into more panic, crying and uncertainty (never good in any situation). Then there is the few who will work their fingers to the bone to survive only to ultimately fail in time due to the lack of knowledge and preparation needed. Last there are the few that made some basic preparations. Now I'm not talking about building bunkers and stock piling guns and ammo with 300 pounds of beans and rice. Let try to be a bit more practicable and realistic for the masses.

 We all know the big three...Food,Water & Shelter. This is why right before a storm people run out to the store and buy as much as they can most often much more than they need. This leaves many others without as supplies diminish.

Lets look at the three basics.

Food is essential for life there is no arguing that but how much do you need?  I like to use the canned food method for calculating how much food to keep on hand.

Most canned food will last years past the sell by date.  But you should always rotate your supply.

      2 cans of food per person per day regardless of age. This is the base minimum and must be a mix of canned foods. Having all the same types of canned food will cause deficiencies in your diet and could slowly make you sick. Can foods include fruits,vegetables,soups,stews beans, meat and fish. Try to think nutritionally dense when selecting your cans and keep in mind any allergies or special requirements your family has. Some foods such as corn,pasta sauce and most broths I would consider them for add on's but are not very calorie dense and should be in addition to your two cans per day. I also keep one large jug of olive oil at almost 300 calories per ounce it can be used to increase the calories of any meal. Honey is the next item I keep a large jug for its many uses.

      Remember when life gets harder and more physical you will burn more calories this is not the time to buy and store diet foods.Having a wide variety of foods will also help keep up your spirits up. One thing to remember is EVERYONE EATS do not go without and give to others in your family thinking it will last longer. Mental awareness and strength are huge factors on the outcome of any emergency situation. Your family is depending on you  to keep them safe and you need to be at your best.

This is what a local store looks like less than 30 mins after a hurricane.

     The "officials" say keep a minimum of three days of food per person in the event of an emergency. The same officials say stores will be out of food in 3-4 days if the supply chain is disrupted. I'm sorry but if you only have 3 days of food just about the time you run out so will the stores so how will you resupply? I think 7-14 days of shelf stable food per person in addition to whats already in you house will get you past any small to moderate event. Obviously in a major event more preparations will be needed that are out of the scope of this post.

Please comeback next week for The next installment on basic #2 WATER.

Rabbit Fur Billboard

Rabbit pizza billboard causes a stir in New Zealand. So when i first seen this I was like NO WAY. Its true at Hell Pizza of New Zealand.

The expanding chain created a specialty pizza just in time for Easter topped with......what else but smoked rabbit. To promote their new product, the company created a billboard with actual rabbit pelts.

      The larger than life display features the tagline “Made from real rabbit. Like this billboard.”
It wasn’t long before the ad began to draw some attention of the community , chastising the company for the graphic use of animal skins. Hey I say waste not want not.
One Reddit user commented “Look, sometimes in order to make a pizza, you have to kill a few hundred rabbits and nail them to a billboard. It's like omelets and eggs.”
Another claimed the rabbits must have been “brutally murdered” for the ad (better than the use of plastic and pollutants ). Now this is a bit much in the way of advertising but it seemed to work like a charm and has received much attention. If you eat meat your food once had skin or fur and the animal was likely killed for your consumption GET OVER IT!!!!!

Quick tour of the garden in the spring 2014.

Quick tour of the garden in the spring zone 6. I have built the new poly tunnel to get more out of the season. I have added a heat source due to the incoming cold temps the next few days. I will keep everyone posted throughout the season. Will be uploading a parts list and how/why I built it in the near future.

FUN FACT - Brewing beer in space

Barley has been grown in space, meaning you could brew beer there if you really wanted to or had to.

 

    6th-grader Michal Bodzianowski brewing experiment will fly.

     The tiny brewery is set up inside a 6-inch-long tube, filled with separated hops, water, yeast and malted barley —all of the key ingredients used to make beer and will be delivered to the station by the commercial firm NanoRacks. An astronaut aboard the station will shake up the mixture to see how the yeast interacts with the other ingredients in the beer. But will he taste it??????? (the brewer inside me wants to know what hops? what yeast did you use? and above all whats the ABV?)

So rest easy seems everything will be alright after all!!!

Future site for MrHopZombie's brewing room and greenhouse???

Kale Obsession here to stay?

On Pizza

Perfect side to everything

  






           Kale has become the "super-food" of the times. Its super easy to grow, reasonable priced at the market and wicked easy to cook. In fact just add some fresh ground black pepper,olive oil and minced garlic to heaping skillet of kale and lightly saute. I like to leave the stems for a bit of crunch.Kale can also be baked blended,dried in to chips,tossed into soups or just eaten raw.  We like to add our favorite steak seasoning.

     This green leafed mega veggie is also loaded with anti-cancer, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory nutrients. Studies show that including kale in a daily diet can lower one’s cholesterol and risks of colon, ovary, prostate, bladder, and breast cancer. Kale contains a high source of omega-3, vitamin K and C, fiber, and iron.Yea Kale is here to stay!!!! Get get out there and .....
 

Looking Forward To a Great Season

 

Might seem like a lot of work to some but not for me. 

I was never one to start my own plants from seed. I would just go down to the garden center pick up some plants and plop them in the ground and water. Boy was I missing out. Now that I start just about all my own plants from seeds I get MUCH more enjoyment and pleasure.

 "Enjoying the fruits of your labor" is good BUT "Enjoying the fruits of from your passion" is so much better!!!! 

Reaper 2013 world record holder Hotest Pepper

In 1912 a chemists by the name of Wilbur Scoville, working for the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company, developed a method to measure the heat level of chile peppers. The test is named after him, the "Scoville Organoleptic Test". It is a subjective dilution-taste procedure. In the original test, Wilbur blended pure ground Chiles with sugar-water and a panel of "testers" then sipped the solution, in increasingly diluted concentrations, until they reached the point that the liquid no longer burned their mouths. A number was then assigned to each chile pepper based on how much it needed to be diluted before they could no longer taste (feel) the heat.

WE HAVE A NEW WORLD HOTTEST PEPPER!!

Introducing the "CAROLINA REAPER" WITH UP TO 2.2 MILLION SCOVILLE UNITS.

Don't they just look evil :)

Transplants Homebrew and 12 year Scotch

Time to transplant. Bit of a long video got kinda carried away lol

Egg carton seed starting

Time to start those seeds and get the garden started. I like to use egg cartons that can't be recycled with some peat pucks.

Bald eagle

Hey everyone,

Check out this Bald Eagle protecting her eggs at night from a raccoon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWJfTaO-Wz0 A friend sent me the link to the live cams where you can watch her feed the 3 eaglets and protect them here http://www.pixcontroller.com/eagles/index-old.htm. Eagles were almost gone from Pennsylvania now there are over 250 nests. The Monongahela river was so polluted at one time researchers only found one solo bluegill fish. Now the fish have returned and so have the eagles and as of last week you can add +3 more :) .

Cheers!!!

Z

Alive and well

Hello all,

       Im not lost at sea or six feet under. Life has a way of throwing us a twist now and then that gets in the way of things. I have started to post more videos on my YouTube channel with some garden videos https://www.youtube.com/user/MrHopZombie . I hope to see all of you there. Don't forget to stop by now and then even if its just to say "hi" Drop me a line if you have any questions. Looking forward to some camping, brewing and dutch oven cooking this year with all of you.

Z