I still had leftovers in the freezer from my lackluster attempt at pork and beans in tomato sauce, so to make it better on repeat, I thawed the frozen bricks in simmering water mixed with some chicken broth powder. Then, I also tossed in some homemade hardtack from a second batch where some had not been thin enough to cook the moisture out thoroughly. The extra water from the broth was soon partially absorbed and the resulting stew was the better for it.
After some research, it seems I completely messed up the bean process, but one learns through mistakes, right? In the future, I will be more patient. Instead of trying to do everything at once, maybe I'll follow these instructions for the beans and make the crock pot pork separately with herbs, onions, potatoes, and vegetables.
As for the hardtack, I'll need more time to try it out in the wild, so to speak. Lentils might work better than beans over a campfire since they usually cook a lot faster. It would be a decent survival pack food source, but maybe not if you're considering an insurgent warfare kit.
That's it for posts today. I feel like this is a bit more filler than I like, but I also wanted to present an honest assessment sort of food blog, not glamor shots of perfect plates and perfect recipes. Besides, part of preparedness is testing ideas before things go wrong. In fact, we have already experienced two minor annoyances this week. The power went out Tuesday evening for several hours, and today we lost water pressure for much of the afternoon and evening. Even little inconveniences can have repercussions, because that water pressure loss may have resulted in backflow of contaminants into the pipes. Tests will have to be conducted for bacterial and chemical issues before we can be confident in the tap water. Fortunately, risk is low.
