Every so often, a recipe comes across my inbox that tempts me to try it – or tweak it, as it the case may be usually is.  Mary Hunt at Debt-Proof Living sent out an email with summer salad recipes that piqued my interest, especially since we were planning a picnic at church that very week.  The trouble with the recipe is that it included some thing we couldn’t eat (onions) and things we won’t eat (vegetable oil & refined sugar).  So I set out to make it healthier and the results are fabulous. 

Mary’s recipe calls for vegetable oil in coleslaw.  Not having made coleslaw from scratch, I wasn’t sure why the oil was in the recipe, but as coconut oil is my go-to oil, I decided to swap out the vegetable oil for a high-quality coconut oil.  Initially, it was fine, but as I licked a spoon the night of the picnic, I felt the oil on the spoon and questioned why it was there in the first place.  Sure, coconut oil is healthy, but why does a wilted cabbage dish need oil to begin with?  So in the final recipe, I left it out completely.

I loved Marzetti’s slaw dressing when I was buying such things (before I knew to avoid soybean oil), and this recipe is a very close match.  But reducing the amount of refined sugar we consume is a priority for me – especially because most of that refined sugar comes from sugar beets, which are 100% GMO at this point.  Eventually, we’ll stock our food storage with 100% sugar-cane sugar (non-GMO), but by then, I hope to have cut our overall sugar consumption to a place where I don’t need to store a lot of sugar to make up our year’s supply.  I did substitute the sugar out of the recipe and used honey – it works beautifully.

I also increased the amount of vinegar and sea salt the original recipe calls for – the salt causes the wilting action and helps to purge the cabbage of its stored water.  When the cabbage wilts, the water combines with the dressing and creates a creamy final product that is not too salty or acidic and not too sweet and still has a delightful crunch.  The only way to make this “more healthy” is to make your own mayo – which I haven’t attempted at this point.  It’s on my list of things to try, but so far, it’s not bubbled up to the top.

This recipe can use either fresh cabbage or bagged, pre-shredded coleslaw.  The first time I made it, I doubled the recipe and used fresh cabbage, cut very finely.  If you do that and also like carrots in your coleslaw, you’ll want to shred a carrot and include it as well.  This time, I’m using bagged coleslaw just for convenience-sake.

Sue’s Creamy Coleslaw

• 16 oz. cabbage & carrot, shredded – fresh or bagged
• ¾ c. mayonnaise
• 6 T. honey
• 3 T. white vinegar
• 2 T. sea salt (I like Redmond Real Salt)
• 2 t. celery seed

In a bowl, combine the mayo, honey, vinegar, salt, & celery seed with a whisk.  If you used a smaller bowl to mix the sauce, use a bowl large enough to toss the coleslaw as you dress it and place the cabbage mix in the bowl.  Pour the sauce over the top and toss vigorously.  Cover the bowl & refrigerate for at least 3 hours.  Stir at the 1½-mark, re-cover & refrigerate again.  You will be amazed at how delicious this is! 

Leaphorn is affectionately called The Legendary Lieutenant and Chee is learning from him, but one of the things that sets Leaphorn apart from other NTP officials is that he looks for “connections.”  He keeps a map about and marks off different crimes on the reservation(s) and scours his mind and the known history of the places, people, and clans to see if the crimes are connected.  Most of the time they are, which makes it fascinating to read and see if I can connect the dots before the end of the book.

Mark & I were talking last night and I made a comment about the “connectedness” of past events.  He raised an eyebrow and said, “Alright, Mrs. Leaphorn,” with a smile.  All kidding aside, I really do see much merit in the Navajo concept of “connectedness,” and I think it’s at the base of a major part of me.

No, I’m not Navajo – I’m English & German, mostly.  A smidge of Hungarian and some untraceable roots in the hills of Tennessee get mixed in, but predominantly, my family hails from Britain and Germany.  I’m not striving to be something I’m not, either – I don’t have Navajo-envy in any way.  But because I believe that all truth is God’s truth, it doesn’t matter to me where I find that truth.  I recognize the truth for what it is, absorb it, and move on.

One thing I am, regardless of my heritage, is intuitive.  As in “my intuition is almost NEVER wrong”-intuitive.  I can’t tell you why I know things, I just know them.  I’ve long suspected that my brain picks up on things around me that aren’t otherwise “sense-able” – that can’t be observed by sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, or touching.  Some people call it ESP (extra-sensory-perception), but I think that’s hokey.  ESP has been part of levitation and other weirdness in metaphysical religious ceremonies – that’s not what I’m talking about.

Malcom Gladwell wrote a book about this entitled Blink – he never once used the word “intuition,” but wrote about rapid cognition – thoughts and observations that happen at the speed of blinking and lead us to a series of decisions/judgments.  It was a fascinating book, but I think it covered only part of what I’m realizing makes up my intuition.

So what does this have to do with Joe Leaphorn and Mark calling me “Mrs. Leaphorn”?

I think part of my intuition is based on connections.  I’m pretty sure it’s the way my brain is hard-wired and there is some applicable truth in Blink for me, as well.  But I really believe the concept of things being related or inner-connected is accurate.  And I think, for whatever reason, I’m wired to pick up on those connections.

The connections are subtle, most of the time, and if you pressed me, I’d not be able to give you exact accounting for what I know to be true.  It’s not always empirical where a+b=c and it can’t always be recreated in a laboratory environment.  But when I know something, I really KNOW something, and sometimes it’s hours, weeks, or months (sometimes years!) later that we find out the reasons why I knew what I knew.  My intuition is always validated and is virtually never wrong.

That doesn’t mean that I always listen to my intuition – I’ve been known to discount it and consider it crazy, because the connection between events/people/places seems so far-fetched to the cognitive mind.  But when I do that, I always regret it and end up back-tracking.  So in recent years, I’ve learned to rely on it more and listen more quietly as I observe.  Mark relies on it heavily as well.

I think it’s fascinating to consider the connectedness of our world, people, places, and events – it shouldn’t surprise us that in a closed system like our planet that this might be the case.  But realizing that my intuitiveness might be picking up on it is like connecting the dots on a puzzle and seeing the outline of the drawing you’ve been working on.

So yeah, this graphic has “food storage” before “preparedness,” but it’s not only about creating a food storage.  And it’s not all about expecting the world to end, digging an underground bunker, and buying night-vision goggles.

It’s really about considering your family’s needs and preparing as best as you’re able, for all contingencies.

One of the things I didn’t consider when I initially started doing food storage and thinking in the “prepper” mindset was about everyday emergencies.  What exactly are “everyday emergencies”?  It’s not a house fire, a tornado, or the food supply in our nation drying up.  It’s things like your child, pet, or you knocking a glass of water on your laptop.  A computer crash – PC or Mac – and your first thought being, “Oh CRAP!  Who can I call to get things off of the hard drive?”

Let’s face it – fires, tornadoes, and other natural disasters happen.  They are unfortunate, but relatively uncommon in the scope of daily life.  But you probably use your computer every day, likely more than once a day.  After all, you’re not reading this post in a local newspaper – you’re reading it online or in an RSS reader of your choice.  These things require computers.  So what happens if your computer dies?  Or if a glass of water (or mug of hot tea… not that I would know anything about that… ahem) spills on your computer?  Do you have a way to replace your investment?  What about the precious files that are likely on it?  Your music collection?  Your documents?  Your photos?

I’ve just recently pulled this to the front of the list for non-food-storage preparedness for our family.  I’ve got some specific reasons for wanting to make sure my system is backed up, and I searched for the best value for an online back-up system.  Sure, I have an external hard drive, but in order to back up BOTH computers in the house, it would have to be a pretty large external drive.  And I’d have to remember to back them up regularly.  If our home was robbed, chances are pretty good that a thief would take computers AND an external drive – it’s all about fencing stuff, and computer components have a reasonable pawn-value.  Which means I’d be out of luck if I’d backed up everything on an external drive.

Online backup services, however, have a small client that is loaded on the computer (PC or Mac) and it does the backing up for you.  The initial backup is large and somewhat slow, but after that, it checks daily for changes and just backs up the changes it finds.  The backups happen automatically and in the background – they don’t hog bandwidth or CPU energy.  They remove the “doggone it”-factor from having to remember backing up and if your laptop or desktop computer crashes, you can restore to a new computer without a huge struggle.

So an online backup service, while possessing a pricetag, is a pretty decent value, considering.  I checked out both Carbonite and Mozy and was surprised to know that both companies have a one-computer per account price (in other words, it would be twice as much to back up a 2nd computer), and both are pretty equally priced.  But I discovered that Mozy also offers a free backup of 2GB for any computer – which is honestly about perfect for my laptop.  So we’re backing up the desktop with a paid membership (poke around for online coupons that will defray the $55 annual cost – I paid about $46 for my year of backups) and my laptop on the free membership.  I think it’s the best of both worlds.

If you’re interested in using Mozy Home’s free backup with the 2GBs of space, you can check it out here .  I think it’s a pretty nifty offer from a company that promises to keep your data safe, secure, and uncompromised.  And it’s a great way to extend your practice of “being prepared.”

If you remember the headlines of a few years ago, Jeffs was put on the “Ten Most Wanted” list by the FBI and the recipient of a nationwide man-hunt.  Authorities knew that he was being hidden by cult members and sympathizers, and they had a list of his wrongdoings on which they intended to arrest him.  They were wary of another Waco-type incident similar to the Koresh-group of the early 90s and didn’t storm the compound that Jeffs kept in Texas or the 10,000-member conclave in northern Arizona called Colorado City.  His arrest ended up being peaceful and predicated with a traffic-stop.

But his list of sins were great – and not just from a moral perspective, but from a legal standpoint as well.  He was charged with arranging under-age marriages, statutory rape of minors, physically abusing “wives” in his family, and more.  The culture of abuse was longstanding within the FLDS – and there are hundreds of boys (called “Lost Boys”) who were summarily dismissed from the community and dropped off in the desert, in Las Vegas, or in other places without skills, education, or provision – all because they were becoming a “threat” to the older, sex-crazed power structure in the cult.  As the mother of a son, I found this part particularly heart-wrenching, and yet women in the FLDS were forbidden to talk about it, grieve their sons’ disappearance, or do anything to rectify the situation.  They were (are) powerless.

Jessop details her experiences in the clan as the fourth wife of a man who was 30 years her senior.  Her “husband” went on to marry another 10 wives by the time she ends her tale.  Her story is full of woe:  physical, verbal, emotional, and mental abuse at his hands, marital rape, abuse at the hands of her “sister wives,” her children being physically and sexually abused, and more.

She escaped after learning that Jeffs was beginning to teach more and more on the topic of the apocalypse and preparing his sheep for “the end times.”  Jeffs’ level of control within the cult was impressive and he still commands control of the most ardent followers from prison.

Jessop’s ability to think for herself and to be resourceful helped her escape – she was able to plan ahead, store medicine that her children needed for when she was out of the house, and keep money back (hidden from her husband).  FLDS wives are expected to hand over any and all earnings to their husbands – and in Jessop’s case, she had ways of earning small amounts here and there and stashed it away for when she was free.

I was so encouraged to read of the people who actively help women who have escaped from the FLDS.  I found myself weepy at points, considering the kindness of strangers against whom Jessop and her children were brainwashed, but who truly sustained them at their darkest points.  They provided food, shelter, clothing, protection, and more – a loving home with people who genuinely cared for them and weren’t there to abuse them.

Jessop’s children all recovered well from their abusive cult days, save one.  Her oldest daughter went back to the group when she was 18, the result of brainwashing and spiritual bondage and abuse from a young age.  Her daughter’s resiliency to maintain her cult membership even when removed from the group for the better part of 10 years speaks of the depth of damage to her mind and psyche as young child.  Jessop loves her daughter, but had to let her go – she was of legal age and as a mother, Jessop did all she could do to protect her children while they were still minors.  From a mother’s perspective, I applaud her efforts and cannot imagine having 8 children in 15 years who were subject to the horrors they faced in everyday life.

She professes to not want a new God – but as I read the book, I saw spots of divine intervention, provision, and opportunity that brought tears to my eyes.  Her suffering was not lost on God – Who, I believe, is far different than the god of the FLDS – and He delivered her.

I found myself having dark dreams after reading of the abuse, horror, and terror that was Jessop’s life, but I couldn’t put the book down.  It was riveting and I finished it in 2 days.  I came away from it realizing exactly how blessed I am:  I have a husband who loves me, a child whose safety I don’t have to fear for once we tuck him in to bed at night, and a free life, complete with education and ability to think for myself, choose what I want to wear, how to do my hair, and I have no fear of religious tyranny.

I am blessed to have these freedoms – and this book brought my vision sharply in to focus when I read what Carolyn Jessop went through in order to achieve what I have sometimes taken for granted.

One thing I really like about living in Arizona (besides the lack of allergens to plague me) is that with the high LDS population here, it’s not ‘weird’ or ‘strange’ to practice food-storage habits.  It’s just another version of ‘normal’ here, and there are seemingly lots of opportunities to build my food storage.

Thanks to The Survival Mom (who is a local celebrity in the world of food storage here), I now know there’s a Honeyville store in the town where we reside.  Even though Honeyville’s shipping charge is very reasonable ($4.49 for any size order), I really like being able to go in a store and pick stuff out without having to pay shipping and waiting for it.

And Fry’s is the local division of the Kroger Company, which is my grocery-store of choice these days.  So far, I’ve not seen any “case sales” at Fry’s, but in typical Kroger fashion, they do a 10-for-$10 deal on staples and often have a “Buy 8 Get $4 Off” promotion running.  These two things make it easier to add to my food storage than otherwise.

A few days ago, The Survival Mom posted about a contest at Emergency Essentials.  I’m not so much in to entering contests (although if I actually WON something, it might entice me to enter more!), but the tool behind the contest intrigued me greatly.  I keep meaning to take an inventory of what’s in my food and I thought moving would be a great opportunity to do just that.  I mean, I’ve got a rough idea of what’s in my food storage, but being a checklist kind of girl, I’d like it on paper.  But the craziness of moving got to me and I haven’t taken an inventory.  My food storage is set up in 4 different places; 2 in my kitchen, one in a supposed “coat closet” (who needs coats in Arizona?!), and the canned goods in the garage on shelves.

So when I saw the Food Storage Analyzer and checked it out, I realized it was a great fit for my wannabe inventorying-self.  :)  It’s free to use and by creating a user name, my information is stored.  Just since using it, I added a bit more to my inventory and today’s calculations are that I have … (drumroll, please) 162.91 days worth of food stored.  That’s almost halfway – I’m shooting for a full year’s worth of food for the three of us.  I’m definitely getting there – and this was a huge encouragement to keep going.  :)

The Analyzer took a bit of time to list out what I had and it’s designed to give you a shopping list for Emergency Essentials (which, not coincidentally, sells food storage items), but I think it was entirely worthwhile.  I’ll continue to add to it as I add items (I think the next big procurement is a bulk order from Redmond Salt – they sell their Real Salt in 25# bags at a price which is a huge savings off of the Whole Foods price).  There’s nutritional content and analysis in the returned results, as well.  I’m not big in to those numbers – but because I already have my bouillon and other seasonings, my “sodium content” on the nutritional chart is sky high.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that we’ll eat ALL of the bouillon in the number of days allotted, but that’s the risk of letting a computer program tell you what the nutritional analysis is.  I’d prefer to focus on the “whole food, whole grain” aspect of my storage plan and use the seasonings (bouillon, salt, etc.) sparingly and as needed.

If you practice food storage, I highly recommend this Analyzer – it’s a great first step, especially if like me, other things have gotten in the way of you taking a solid inventory.  ;)