this first video was shared with me via facebook, and i feel compelled to share it with all of you.  i must warn you, there is very graphic images in this video as well as some very strong content.  for the comabt veterans here, please be advised that this may not be for you.  when i first saw this video, i was at work and broke down with tears.

for those of you that have not served and/or have kin that has served, this is a REALISTIC depiction of what it is like for many veterans once they return, regardless of what conflict/war they served in.

http://youtu.be/NkWwZ9ZtPEI

the next 2 following videos are some tributes to veterans that you may like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFACrnTV58Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPnFccnvMeE

here is a short video i found to help and assist beginners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbNNitnMuww

https://www.michaelyon-online.com/gates-of-fire.htm

Major (MAJ) Mark Bieger that is talked about in this story was my Battalion Commander as a Lieutenant Colonel (LTC), he is now a Colonel.  This man is very level headed and a great Man, Soldier and Commander.  I would Follow him again if given the chance.

I came across this interesting piece of equipment and thought I would share with the rest of you.

http://trucktracks.com/en/

a good friend of mine named ken price (retired CW4 and a fellow VFW member) has been having a hard time with some medical healing.  he went in about a month ago to have some stints put in, and he has been in and out of the ICU ever since because the incisions are not healing up and continue to bleed pretty bad.  i ask that ken price and his wife laura remain in your thoughts and prayers please.  thank you.

I found this on the internet today and I thought I would share with you all considering don has been looking for something like this.

http://dslrpros.com/uas-drone-landing/?gclid=CIHv8aCRyMECFcaCfgod2ZEAmA

here are the biscuits that I made to go along with the double jack stew.

Ingredients:

•   2 cups flour
•   4 teaspoons baking powder
•   1/4 teaspoon baking soda
•   3/4 teaspoon salt
•   2 tablespoons butter
•   2 tablespoons shortening
•   1 cup chilled buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.)

Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

I got this recipe from an alton brown episode of good eats.

folks,

I would like to welcome SGT Gene to the site.  gene here is one of my closest friends and we have served together in afghanistan, or should i say i kept his civi but alive  ;D  gene here is a man of many talents and some of them i think we could all learn from.  if you want to check him out, head on over to this link.  http://www.gandcguns.com/

i will leave the rest up to him, i just wanted to welcom him here.

so here is the result of making sausages yesterday.



now that you see the results, lets start with

MEAT INGREDIENTS:
10lbs of pork butt
5-6 petiet sirloin steaks
2.5 lbs of pork fat
get everything cut up into small chunks and put in the freezer for about an hour.  this will help keep the fat from becoming a congealed glob of blah as well as help with getting a good even grind on all the meat.







once you have run all the meat thru the grinder on the large grind attachment, add your wet ingredients (if you are using any) and mix in thoroughly.  once you have all wet ingredients mixed, separate the ground meat into thirds along with the dry ingredients.  I used the mixer to ensure that I had a good mix of the dry ingredients with the meat.  once you have all the dry ingredients thoroughly mixed with the ground meat, keep it separated in thirds and put back into the freezer for about 1.5 hours.

WET INGREDIENTS:
1 cup bourbon
2-3 TBLS Worcestershire sauce
about 1/8 cup of 80 proof home made vanilla extract

DRY INGREDIENTS:
about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of brown sugar
about 1/2 cup of Cayenne powder
1 TBLS Chinese 5 spice
1/2 TBLS of fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 TBLS of fresh ground all spice
1/2 TBLS of fresh dehydrated and ground ginger
about 1/4 cup of fresh ground peppercorn medley
red pepper flakes to your liking

while the meat is chilling for the second time, get your stuffer set up and ready for use. 



ensure you have your casing's soaking in fresh warm water.  I used regular hog casing's that you can get at just about any quality sportsman store like academy, cabela's, gander mountain, bass pro shops, etc. 

QUICK WORD ON CASING'S: 

there are hundreds of different kinds of casing's from thousands of different vendor's.  for a beginner the best ones to use are the ones I talked about in the above statement. 

when you open the package of casing's, there will be a bit of an odor but don't worry (you are actually using the intestine of the pig).  if the odor is just completely foul and smells like something died, discard that package and use another package. 

most pre packaged hog casing's will be enough to do 25lbs of sausage or meat.

you must soak the casing's for at least an hour in warm to cool water (do not use hot water because you do not want to cook the casing's)

about every 20 minutes rinse the casing's under running water and change out the water you are soaking them in.  you are doing this to get rid of the saltiness and the salt that they are packaged in.   


about 20 minutes or less from your meat coming out of the freezer for the second time, get your casing's and feed them one at a time onto the stuffer tube.  do not tie a knot into the casing at this time, that will come shortly. 



remove meat from freezer and fill the stuffer hopper with your ground meat.  ensure that when you are stuffing the hopper you get as much of the air out as you can, you don't want it filling the casing full of air as your trying to stuff it with the meat.  once hopper is full reinsert hopper and start cranking the handle.  watch the end of the stuffer tube until just a small amount of meat comes out of the end.  scrape that meat off and put it back in with your meat the is waiting to go into the hopper. 

now, at this point you will want to pull a little bit of the casing off the stuffer tube and tie a knot in the end of the casing.




you are now ready to start making sausage.  for beginners it will work better with 2 people 1 to turn the crank and 1 to work the sausage.  ensure that you have a steady speed on the crank and steady thumb pressure on the end of the stuffer tube.  this will ensure that you have uniform sausages. 



once you have your sausages formed, you can tie off the other end and cut the links apart. 

REPEAT UNTIL YOU HAVE ALL YOUR MEAT STUFFED INTO THE CASING'S.

keep in mind that this is just the way nate does it and there are many different ways you can do it.  you will just have to practice and find out what works for you.  also remember that a recipe is just a foundation to go off of, you can spice it whatever way you want to suit your taste buds.

   
here are a few links to information on making sausages as well as a few links to video's on making sausages and using stuffers.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=how+to+make+sausages+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSrLHCz-nsY

TATOR TOT TACO BAKE
 1 lb ground beef
 1 small onion (diced)
 1 garlic clove (minced)
 1 small can black olives (sliced)
 1 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
 1 (16 ounce) bag frozen corn
 1 (4 ounce) can green chilies (diced and drained)
 1 (12 ounce) can black beans (drained and rinsed)
 1 (16 ounce) bag shredded Mexican cheese blend
 1 (16 ounce) package frozen tater tots
 1 (10.5 ounce fluid ounce) can enchilada sauce

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Heat a skillet to medium high heat. Add ground beef, garlic, and onion and cook while breaking the meat apart with a spoon or spatula until the ground beef is completely browned. Drain off any excess fat. Add taco seasoning mix, green chilies, frozen corn, and black beans to the ground beef. Cook until heated through.

In a large bowl combine ground beef mixture, ¾ of the Mexican cheese blend, and all of the tater tots. Stir well to combine.
Pour about 1/3 of the enchilada sauce into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Add the tater tot mixture to the baking dish and lightly pat the mixture down into a solid, even layer. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the tater tots.

Place into the oven and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. During the last few minutes of baking, top the casserole with the remaining Mexican cheese blend and the sliced black olives. Return to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

here is some information for you all on the different types of flour.

Q. What's the difference between cake flour, bread flour, and all-purpose flour? Is it okay to use all-purpose flour for everything?

A. The main difference among flour types is in the gluten content, which varies depending on whether the flour is made from hard wheat or soft wheat. Gluten is the protein that helps yeast stretch and rise. To achieve the best baking results, use the type of flour a recipe specifically calls for.

All-purpose flour is designed for a number of uses, including cookies, quick breads, biscuits, and cakes. A mixture of high-gluten hard wheat and low-gluten soft wheat, it comes in both bleached and unbleached forms, which can be used interchangeably.

Bread flour is an unbleached, high-gluten blend of mostly hard wheat and is best used in yeast breads.

Cake flour is made predominantly of soft wheat. Its fine texture and high starch content make it ideal for making tender cakes, cookies, biscuits, and pastries that do not need to stretch and rise much.

Pastry flour is similar to cake flour but has a slightly higher gluten content. This aids the elasticity needed to hold together the buttery layers in flaky doughs such as croissants, puff pastry, and pie crusts.

Self-rising flour is all-purpose flour that has had baking powder and salt added to it. Use it in yeast bread recipes in place of all-purpose flour by omitting salt, and in quick bread recipes by omitting salt and baking powder.



When the recipe calls for:
Substitute:

1 cup sifted cake flour
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup pastry flour
1 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour plus 11/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon pastry flour




Q. Most of my recipes call for pastry flour, but I prefer using Softasilk® cake flour. How much cake flour should I use in place of pastry flour? Also, will the amount of baking powder, baking soda, or salt need to be changed?

A. Pastry flour and cake flour are both milled from soft wheat and have lower protein levels, which makes them more suitable for items that need to be tender, such as cakes, pies, and pastries.

However, recipes call for specific types of flour for a reason. At 6 percent to 8 percent, cake flour has a lower protein level than pastry flour, which ranges from 8 percent to 10 percent protein. In addition, while pastry flour is usually sold unbleached, most cake flour, including Softasilk®, is bleached to speed up the natural process of flour maturing and color lightening.

In the past, wheat was left to mature in the field, and flour was stored in silos for a while, allowing the oxygen in the air to bleach the flour naturally. These days, because farmers take their wheat to market sooner, flour millers bleach flour to speed up that maturing process.

Bleaching toughens cake flour's protein. This allows cake flour to support large amounts of sugar and fat without collapsing. But, because of this strengthening effect, substituting cake flour for pastry flour does have some physical effects. In cookies, for example, using cake flour reduces the amount that cookies spread.

Still, because of its lower protein levels, using cake flour instead of pastry flour will yield products that are more tender and possibly more crumbly. To compensate for that, you can substitute 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cake flour for every cup of pastry flour. Normally, you don't have to make any adjustments in the other ingredients.

Q. I see lots of recipes that call for whole-wheat flour. Can I substitute with all-purpose white flour? Would it make a difference in baking, such as a cake or muffins?

A. Substituting white flour for whole-wheat flour could make a difference in many dishes, especially in baked goods, because the flours are so different in texture, taste, and moisture content.

White flour is the ground inner kernel or endosperm of two types of wheat: high-gluten hard wheat and low-gluten soft wheat. It contains neither the bran nor the germ of whole-wheat flours.

Whole-wheat flours are available in two general types: The type labeled "whole-wheat" is usually ground hard wheat that is high in gluten and best for baking bread. Whole-wheat "pastry flour" is made from a soft wheat low in gluten and is best for cakes, muffins, biscuits, scones, pastries, and cookies.

Although bread flour and pastry flour -- either white or whole-wheat -- can't be substituted for each other, most sources say you can successfully substitute up to half of the whole-wheat flour called for in a recipe with all-purpose white flour. You may have to experiment with the amount of the liquids in the recipe as a result.



Keep in mind, however, that white flour does not contain the fiber and nutrients of whole-wheat flour. Whole-wheat flour has fewer calories and carbohydrates than white flour, and it contains five times the fiber, twice the calcium, and 25 percent more protein than white flour.

Q. When I'm doing my weekly grocery shopping, I see the words "fortified" or "enriched" on food labels. What do they mean, and what's the difference?

A. A "fortified" food is one that has had one or more nutrients added to it that it normally does not have. For example, milk is fortified with vitamin D. Orange juice can be fortified with calcium, which benefits bone health.

Other foods, such as flour, can lose important nutrients during processing. By "enriching" the food, the food processor adds back lost vitamins and minerals, so the food can still provide most of these nutrients.

However, "enriching" does not mean extra vitamins or minerals are added. Instead, a food such as breakfast cereal can use "enriched" flour and be "fortified" with added vitamins and minerals.

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F /45 degrees C)
THIS TEMP IS VERY IMPORTANT! to cool and it wont activate / too hot and youll kill the yeast.
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.

2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

NOTE:
make sure that you have good yeast and this bread is a little sweet so try 1/3 cup sugar instead of the 2/3 cup.

here is the recipe that my wife used for the spice cake.

ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup apple butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole bran cereal or wheat germ

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs, beaten

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray or grease one 9x13 inch pan.

2. Prepare the topping by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and chopped pecans.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Blend together butter and sugar; add eggs and beat well. Add apple butter, vanilla, wheat germ or bran cereal. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with sour cream; mix well after each addition.

5. Pour 1/2 batter into pan, sprinkle 1/2 the topping over top. Pour remaining batter and top with remaining topping.

6. Bake for 40 minutes.

7. to check doneness, take a tooth pick and stick it in the center of the cake and remove.  if the tooth pick comes out clean then the cake is done, and if the toothpick comes out with uncooked cake on it then let it bake for a few more minutes.

Keeping a journal and or notes:

My wife and I are firm believers in keeping a journal and/or notes when we do our cooking, canning/preserving, smoking, etc.  Why is this important you ask, well let’s think about this for a minute. 

What is a recipe?  A recipe is nothing more than a set of instructions on how somebody did something and what they used to make it with and how they prepared it.  Correct?  My wife and I find a basic recipe for something that we would like to make/eat and we make it.  As we are making it, we may change some of the spices or the ingredients or even how it is actually cooked.  Whenever we make changes we annotate it on the recipe card, which in all actuality the recipe card is a form of a journal and/or notes. 

Let’s look at another example.  Say you get yourself a 10lb pork butt and you want to smoke it and make either a pulled or chopped pork dish.  You remove the meat from the package, rub with spices, let sit for a day or whatever, start your smoker, choose your flavor of wood, get smoker to whatever temp you are wanting to cook the meat at, place the meat in smoker, meat cooks for a pre-determined amount of time.  Well during the cooking process the smoker either raised or dropped in temp, causing the meat to either be over coked or undercooked.  You determine the cause, make adjustments, and annotate in your recipe/journal so that you can avoid the mistake/problem the next time.

Now, I understand different strokes for different folks.  Some folks do keep journals/notes and some folks don’t keep journals/notes.  I am just trying to offer some advice on ways to improve techniques, outcomes and efficiency.     

So what can you use to keep a journal, notes or recipe’s:
Index cards (whatever size works for you)
Ledgers
Notebooks (like whats used in school)
3 ring binders with dividers and filler paper
Recipe cards W/ recipe boxes
Etc

Try different things and see what works for you.  My wife and I use several different methods, I like to use 5x8 index cards and keep them in a metal card box and my wife makes notes on her computer.  Give it a try and see what happens.

so lets start off with some canning/preserving vocabulary terms.  I could honestly re-invent the wheel here but lets not do that (in the interest of time) and use what is already widely available.  below you will find several links to sites which have already done the work for us.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Canning+%26+Preserving+Glossary

http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/canning-glossary

http://www.fromkarenskitchen.com/tips/glossary_preservation.php


some of the biggest terms that you need to become familiar with are:

Low acid foods –
Hi acid foods –
Water bath/boiling water canning –
Weighted pressure canning –
Jars –
Lids –
Rings –
Pectin –
Pickling spice –
Pickling crisp –
Botulism –
Brine –
Salts (believe me, there are many different types and kinds) –
Hot pack / cold (raw) pack –
Storage –
Vinegar (the different types and their importance) –
Why to use store bought over homemade vinegar –
Elevation (and how it effects canning/preserving) –


you must commit all of these terms to memory, because these are the things that if done wrong can actually ruin your bounty, hard work and can actually KILL you.  I am not saying this to sound negative, scare you or even turn you away from canning/preserving but to actually help you understand the importance of it.

So here is a recipe for some brown rice.  I know I know, brown rice is really not that good but this recipe will change your mind about it.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the rice into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Bring the water, butter, and salt just to a boil in a kettle or covered saucepan. Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve immediately.

So let’s start off with some homemade sloppy Joes.  I am not a Manwich lover, liker or would even think about buying it in the store so I thought I would come up with my own.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground beef
1lb of ground pork
6 slices of thick cut bacon chopped finely
1 large yellow onion chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic (medium chopped)
Olive oil or if you’re like me then use some leftover bacon fat
1 can of thick stout beer (Guinness or whatever you prefer)
32oz of tomato sauce
3-4 cups of ketchup (more or less depending on your taste)
Chili powder to your taste
Cheyenne powder
Corn starch slurry

SOME THINGS YOU WILL NEED
A good cast iron Dutch oven or enameled cast iron Dutch oven
Some good fresh bakery rolls like Kaiser rolls or onion buns
Some pepper jack cheese
Some famous Dave’s spicy pickle spears (make sure they are nice and cold)

DIRECTIONS
Sauté onions and bacon until onions just start to brown slightly.
Add garlic about halfway thru (you don’t want it to burn otherwise it will become bitter).
Once onions start to brown, add beef and pork and cook until no more pink.

Once meat is browned and cooked remove from heat and strain grease off.

Add meat back to pot and add remaining ingredients except the corn starch slurry.

Once all ingredients are added bring to a medium to slow simmer and cook for about an hour.

Once you have it seasoned and flavored to your liking, this is where it gets a little tricky.  Use the corn starch slurry as a thickener.  (Remember, you can always add more but you can’t take away)  Once you have the slurry added continue to simmer until the dish thickens to your liking.