Cooke's Frontier Podcast Notes- Reader Questions

It's Cooke's Frontier here on the Survivial Mom Radio Network! Another week, another podcast lol. This week I have a recipe of the week, I skipped that particular feature last week and boy, did I hear about it. When I tell you guys to use email and Facebook to interact with me, you don't hesitate. I got the message loud and clear though- DO NOT mess with Recipe of the week. Noted, I won't be skipping it again anytime soon :) I also wanted to thank everyone who comments on my food photography, I really appreciate it. I've been working on it for a couple of years now and I pretty much taught myself how to take better (notice I didn't say good, lol) pictures of food. It can be really hard!! But, one of the most received emails I get are from you telling me that such and such recipe photos were great. I thank you all.I'm also going to answer some of my email questions that I have been saving up. Our week was busy and kind of surreal, really. We sent our son off to Navy boot camp early this week and it's been an adjustment for our girls to not have brother home, and for us to adjust to him being gone as well. Our house has been quiet and different this week while we bounce around trying to find our new normal.

If you would like to send in a question, comment, concern or anything else, you can always email me at cookesfrontier@yahoo.com. I'd love nothing more than to hear from you, it makes my world go round lol.

Recipe of the Week this week is Smokes Sausage Pretzel Dogs 

Now, I'll answer some reader questions.
1) Q: I loved your podcast on OAMC, and I've applied several of your techniques to my grocery shopping and menu planning. Here's my question though- is there a way to see even MORE savings when OAMShopping. Thanks, Amanda A: Hi Amanda! YES!! There are several ways you can save even more money. Take a look at what you are buying and see how many of those items you can make at home.
Do you have pancake, cake or brownie mixes in your cart? Those are easy items to make at home and are a good place to start realizing a deeper savings.

• Gravy, taco seasoning, chili seasoning and other seasoning packets are an absolute waste of money. When you figure out how much taco seasoning actually costs PER ounce and look at how much it costs per pound it's so expensive. 
• Snack foods are another place to make a cut. Chips, cookies, crackers, etc may be convenient, but you pay for that convenience. Make cookies, brownies, soft pretzels, had pies, even crackers on your own and serve those to your family instead. 
• Any sort of frozen meal should be swiftly and immediately stricken from your budget. Not only are they super expensive, they are loaded with preservatives and that's just not cool. Here's a little fact about frozen foods- have you ever noticed how high in sodium frozen foods are? That's because frozen foods tend to lose flavor over time and to combat a flavorless Salisbury steak meal, the manufacturers just add more salt to enhance what flavor is actually in there. 

There are other, even deeper steps you can take, but to start this is what I would recommend. In short- shop for ingredients, not ready to eat food. You will have to devote some time to cooking and baking the items that you would normally just buy, but the savings is huge and it's a great time to get your kids involved in food and meal preperation.

2) Q: I hear you talk about being prepared, and I want to work on preps for my family, but my relatives outside of our immediate family are very discouraging. Is this something most families deal with, or are we just way outside of normal? Julie A:  Julie-  This is absolutely normal! It's hard for people to think about what might happen and deal with it, and far easier to just ignore those feelings and keep going on with life as usual. I don't have any specific advice for you, other than to tell you that it is normal. I do want to encourage you and anyone else out there who may be dealing with the same situation and tell you this- you are grown adults, many with families of your own. If you feel strongly the urge to lay in some supplies for "just in case", or even something more than that....do it. Being prepared is like a savings account and insurance policy for your families comfort. It's never going to hurt you to have some (or a lot) of supplies on hand and your may find that you need to use them someday. If that day comes, you will be very happy that you laid in some supplies and didn't listen to the opposition. Good luck to you and happy prepping!

3) Q: When I listened to the podast about  homesteading when it gets rough I wondered why you would choose such a depressing topic. We all know things can go wrong, why devote a half hour to talking about unfortunate circumstances? Gail. A: Gail, I'm sorry you feel that way, truly. However, I think it only fair to point out that not everyone knows about the things that can and will go wrong. There are folks out there who know nothing more about homesteading that what you read in magazines and blogs. And I can tell you that if that is the only knowledge that you go by, you will be sorely disappointed in real life. Many blogger choose not to share about the sadder side of homesteading because it draws crowds of people to point fingers and make suggestions about what they should have done, could have done or didn't do. The public is often very cruel when it comes to anything that  involves animals and even if you have done everything within your power and lose a beast, folks will tell you that it was you that ultimately killed it, whether through neglect or some other channel. So, I guess what I'm getting around to saying is this- bad things happen and they aren't often talked about. I think it's important to know all sides of a lifestyle before we jump in with both feet.

4) Q: I want to start homesteading, but I live in a small apartment. Someday I hope to move into a larger home, but is there anything I can do now to help me out for later? Amanda. A: Amanda, this is a great question and the answer is YES, yes, yes! There are so many things you can do right now to make the eventual change in living arrangements easier on yourself. First, start doing as much for yourself as you can by learning new skills. Make your own bread. Learn how to make soap and other necessity times. Start reducing what you buy at the store and making it yourself instead. Grow a kitchen windowsill herb garden. If you have a small patio, you can grown some tomatoes, peppers, blueberries or more. Learn to make do or do without, thus reducing the need for "stuff". Any skill you can learn that you don't possess that you will need for later you can begin learning now. Help out in a community garden, learn to can, read as many books about homesteading topics that you can. Peruse blogs, magazines and literature pertaining to homesteading. You can begin NOW by stuffing your mind with practical information about homesteading and then later you can put that knowledge to use.

5) Q: Can you tell me where you buy your cheesemaking supplies? We recently bought a cow and if I don't start having a way to use up some of this milk, I'm going to go crazy. A person can only drink so much!! A: Congrats on your new milk cow, and I understand the abundance of milk. I order my cheesemaking supplies through New England Cheesemaking Supply at cheesemaking.com. There are other places to order, but this is the place I prefer and use. I find their staff helpful and their website has a lot of great information and recipes.

6) Q: Dear friend,I know that this message will come to you as a surprise. I am Dr.Abu Salam from Burkina Faso the Accounting and Auditing Manager bank of Africa (B.O.A), Ouagadougou
I hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our families. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of (usd$10.5m) million to your account within 10 to 14 banking days. This money has been dormant for years in our bank without claim. I want the bank to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer (the owner of the account) died along with his supposed next of kin in an air crash since July, 2007.
I don't want the money to go into our bank treasurer account as an abandoned fund. So this is the reason why I contacted you so that the bank can release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased customer. Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not upon receipt of your reply, I will give you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 35% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to handle this business with me? And 10% will be set aside for any expenses that warrant on the process before the fund get into your bank account such as telephone calls bills (etc).
Finally send your photo or your international passports for more identification.
Best Regards,
Dr.Abu Salam A: Dr. Abu, Um, no thank you- but if you want to personally bring me that money we can talk!

Some of those spam messages are so hilarious, aren't they? Thanks for joining me this week. See you next week, same time and same place!