Book RELEASED!!!

Well folks, I finally did it! My first non-fiction book since 2013 is finally out the door! Home Remedies, Poultices, Salves, & Tinctures is now available on Amazon!

I guess I’m on a roll because that’s seven books published in seven years. Hopefully I can publish #8 before the year is out! Wish me luck!

This is a very proud achievement for me as a lot of research, work, and effort went into the writing of this book. I want to say a special thank you to those that have helped me along the way. Some provided their own family recipes for inclusion, while others pointed me toward additional information, and a select few graciously offered their reviewing, editing, and medical knowledge and expertise. This book could not have been complete without all you. I have copies of the book being sent to me to say thanks. For the rest of you, I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy.

Here’s the back cover text for those that are interested:

Did you ever get the feeling that we've become the most drugged nation on the face of the planet? Newspapers, magazines, radio, television… seemingly everywhere you turn, they all contain advertising for the latest and greatest drug. It’s to the point now that patients are getting medical advice from Big Pharma ad-men and news-reel propaganda. This needs to change, but how?

The first thing you need to do is stop listening to all of that white noise and start listening to grandparents and great-grandparents. Then, after that, you should dive into Home Remedies, Poultices, Salves, & Tinctures and find definitions for ingredients that you can grow in something as simple as a window box. Use these ingredients to create recipes that address everything from arthritis, colicky babies, and migraines to depression, bone spurs, and acne. There is a world of medicine at your fingertips and it's right outside your door.

Knickerbocker Bean Soup

Now that the weather is turning, I thought I’d share a soup recipe (complete with pictures!) that I was given by my friend, and co-author, Scott Boles. He and I collaborated on the Just a Small Gathering cooking and entertainment book years ago .Technically, it’s two recipes that make the Knickerbocker Bean Soup, but for ease of use, I’m going to give you both at the same time.

Here goes…

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg Bacon, diced

• 1 C Onion, diced

• 1/2 C Flour

• 1-28 oz. can of Navy Beans

• 1-28 oz. can of Diced Tomatoes

• 2 C Potatoes, diced

• 3 Carrots, diced

• 5 C Chicken Stock

• 1 Ham Hock (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large stock pot, brown the bacon until it is evenly cooked and crispy.

Here’s a tip: put the bacon in the freezer for 20-30 min so it can stiffen up. It’ll make it easier to cut.

2. Add the onions and cook until translucent.

3. Add flour and create a roux. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes.

4. Add the remaining ingredients (stock, tomatoes, beans, carrots, and potatoes).

* If you’re use the optional ham hock ingredient, add it now as well.

5. Allow the soup to simmer for two hours or until the potatoes and carrots are tender.

I like to serve this with corn bread but any bread suited for a soup will do.

Leftovers can be ladled into Ziploc freezer bags (~4 healthy ladles feeds a family a four). Lay the bags flat once the soup is added, then express all of the air and then place on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the freezer. Once frozen, remove the baking sheet and stack/align the bags like books on a shelf to save space.

To reheat, allow the frozen bag to thaw or place under running water in a large glass Pyrex dish until full. When reheating, note that the ingredients have absorbed the chicken stock so prepare an extra 2 C of chicken stock and add this to the pot while reheating.

Just a Small Gathering (Kindle) Just a Small Gathering (Paperback)

Water Disinfection

One of the doctors on a forum I am a member of posted a link to the Wilderness & Environmental Medicine website. His link pointed to an article discussing water disinfection. The article piqued my interest due to the title and because I know that water is key to handling any disruption length. After downloading and reading their research, I felt it would be helpful to post the file up on my Research Downloads page (scroll to the bottom) so you can have the information as well.

Home Remedies, Poultices, Salves, and Tinctures

My first non-fiction book in some years is tentatively slated for release in the next few weeks! The reviewer is finishing up and the graphic artist that handled the five-part fictional series has been contacted.

Fingers crossed for an end of October release!

Updates and Recipes Abound

Lots of stuff to post about recently. Here goes…

Home Remedies, Poultices, Salves, and Tinctures

Phew! I am finished writing the non-fiction book Home Remedies, Poultices, Salves, and Tinctures book! I need to do a quick read through for consistency before I turn it over to a doctor friend (yes, he’s an actual M.D.!) to review and write a foreword.

Now it’s off to my other non-fiction piece titled Preparing to Prepare. Given the current state of things nationally and globally, the timing for each of these releases is pretty good I think.

Recipes

Been cooking a lot since this COViD-19 BS took over the country… so has everyone else. Most recently, I whipped up some baby back ribs, pork kabobs, and shrimp burgers! Oh my! Here are some pics and recipes.

Baby Back Ribs

My wife and daughter LOVE ribs and they always ask my wife’s father when he’s making ribs again. We got their recipe and decided to whip up a batch.

The meat at Aldi is pretty good. We picked up this package for less than $8.00!

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 Rack of baby Back Ribs

• Worcestershire Sauce

• Meat Tenderizer

• Water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325-degrees.

2. Cut a rack of ribs in half and place both halves in an 9x13 glass Pyrex dish.

3. Sprinkle Worcestershire sauce on top of each rack and a little in the glass.

4. Sprinkle the ribs with meat tenderizer.

5. Fill the glass dish 1/2 full with water.

6. Cook for 2 1/2 hours at 325-degrees.

7. 15-20 minutes before finishing in the oven, make a small amount of coals on the grill and light.

8. When finished in the oven, transfer ribs to a platter and coat with bbq sauce then place on the grill.

9. Heat on the grill for about 5 minutes per side.

10. Serve hot.

1 rack of ribs feeds approximately 3 people if there are enough sides to supplement the ribs.

Pork Kabobs

Next up was the pork kabobs. For this we bought a 4-pack at Sam’s Club for $10.00. I cooked two for this recipe and threw the other two in the chest freezer for later. This recipe is pretty simple as well.

Ingredients:

• 2 Pork Tenderloin (silver skin removed)

• 4 T Olive Oil

• 4 T Soy Sauce

• 2 T Honey

• 2 T Cilantro Lime Seasoning

Directions:

1. Wash off and pat dry the pork tenderloin.

2. Remove and fat and silver skin from the meat.

3. Cut the pork into 3/4” thick medallions and then cut the medallion in half

4. Warm the homey in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.

5. Combine the olive oil, soy sauce, honey, and seasoning in a bowl and mix.

6. Pour the marinade into the 9x13 glass Pyrex dish.

7. Add the pork tenderloin and toss with you hands or a spatula to coat.

8. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour.

9. After an hour, uncover and stir then leave covered on the counter for 30 minutes to return to room temperature.

10. Skewer the meat (preferably on metal skewers) and any vegetables you want to grill as well (separate skewers for the meat and veggies).

11. Preheat the grill on high for 5-minutes then turn off the two outside burners (3-burner gas grill) and reduce the heat on the center burner to medium low.

12. Place the meat skewers on the outside of the grill (not directly above the lit center burner)

13. Grill for 4-minutes per side (there are four sides) but be careful not to let them burn. If burning occurs rather quickly then reduce the heat a little bit.

14. Add the veggie skewers when you turn the meat for the first time.

15. Using a meat thermometer, check the temperature. When you hit 145-degrees they are done. Remove all skewers from the grill

16. All meat skewers to rest for a few minutes.

Shrimp Burgers

The last, most recent recipe I unleashed was my shrimp burgers. Typically I only cook these when we are on a beach vacation but since COViD happened, we didn’t get to the beach this year.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices Wheat Bread (or 2/3 C breadcrumbs, 1/3 C per slice)

• 2 lbs. Shrimp (raw, peeled, deveined)

• 1 Egg

• 1 T Onion (grated)

• 3/4 T Old Bay Seasoning

• 1/4 t Black Pepper

• 1/4 C Cilantro

Directions:

1. Chop 1/2 lb. of the shrimp into 1/2 inch pieces. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Pulse the two slices of wheat bread in a blender to make coarse crumbs (3-4 pulses). Transfer to the bowl with the shrimp (or use prepared breadcrumbs, not the Italian seasoned variety - you want plain).

3. In the empty blender, add 1/2 lb. shrimp, egg, onion, Old Bay, and pepper. Pulse until there is a mix of fine mince and coarse chopped piece (6-7 pulses). Transfer to the bowl. This will be sticky so use a spatula to assist you in removing.

4. Add another 1/2 lb of the shrimp to the empty blender and pulse (6-7 pulses). Transfer to the bowl. Repeat with the remaining 1/2 lb. of shrimp.

5. Add the cilantro to the bowl and mix to thoroughly combine.

6. Shape the mixture into six individual 1/3 C balls. Flatten to 1/2 inch thick patties.

7. In a large frying pan, heat 1 1/2 T of oil on medium-high until it shimmers (~ 1 minute).

8. Reduce heat to medium and add the shrimp patties. Patties will stick no matter what so move them around the pan to prevent sticking.

9. Cook until the edges are pink and the patty is golden (~ 3-4 minutes). Flip the patty and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until done.

10. Serve plain with cocktail sauce or a sauce of your choosing with or without a bun. Feel free to add lettuce, tomato, and sauce to the bun if you like.

Garden

And lastly we have the garden. By all accounts, it is doing better than in years past because when the in-laws were out of town last fall I did some unsanctioned tree trimming. Shhhh! I have been informed though that the crap tree that is my nemesis is coming down in October. Hooray! More sunlight for longer!

Given that new information, and coupled with the fact that some of the timbers are rotting, I will be reconfiguring the garden for better accessibility.

Here’s how it’ll be set up for better, easier access for harvesting:

As it stands right now, the beds are too deep to access all of the plants from inside the garden proper. To get to some of the plants I have to be outside the garden… and that’s just weird and highly inefficient for my brain to process..

Traditional Pine Pitch Patch

I was having some difficulty sleeping the other night and decided to try and work my way through some recorded shows on the DVR. One of the recordings was the Mountain Men series. In this particular episode, one of the guys (Tom Oar) is building a traditional dugout canoe for a museum and accidentally puts a hole in the boat.

What happened next fascinated me.

He and his brother proceeded to make a traditional product called a pine pitch patch. Tom even dictated the formula for the camera and viewers.

• 65% Pine Pitch

• 15% Dried Buffalo (Bison) Dung

• 15% Cooked Egg Shells

• 5% Beeswax

Let’s breakdown the ingredients in Tom’s recipe. All of the ingredients carry waterproofing qualities but two (pine pitch and beeswax) also work as the adhesive.

Pine Pitch

First things first… what is pine pitch?

Well, anyone that grew up where I did (completely surrounded by pine trees) can tell you that pitch is basically the crystallized sap. It’s not in a honey-like liquid state and it hasn’t hardened into resin yet. It’s somewhere in-between. Pitch is still somewhat malleable and makes a great fire starter.

Here’s an article that discuss the differences between sap, pitch, and resin. The above image is from that article.

Buffalo (Bison) Dung

Now, there aren’t any bison near me except in the zoo. I do happen to know someone that works there though so I imagine I could get my hands on some. In this scenario, I imagine dried cow or horse dung would work too. The purpose behind the dung is waterproofing. A mixture of mud and dung was traditionally used on the floors and walls of the first homes and is still used in places like India. Weird, but ok. Doesn’t seem very sanitary though. I think I’ll stick with Tyvek!

Here’s an article about the many uses of cow dung.

Egg Shells

The egg shells in Tom’s recipe refers to egg shell powder and not chunks of cooked shells. Basically, save the egg shells from scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, baking, or from any other purpose where eggs were used. Then:

1. Wash the shells out under warm running water to remove any remaining egg parts and membrane.

2. Boil the shells for two minutes.

3. Place the boiled shells on a parchment paper covered cooking sheet and bake at 225-degrees for 45 minutes to remove all moisture.

4. Place the cooked shells in a high-speed blender and grind them down into a fine powder.

The egg shells in Tom’s recipe is another ingredient used as waterproofing. It also helps the patch maintain some resiliency and durability as the canoe encounters rough shores and rocky river bottoms.

Beeswax

This ingredient is yet another waterproofing material but also, along with the pine pitch, helps as an adhesive. There are thousands of uses for beeswax. Far too many to mention here.

Now, from there, Tom and his brother combined the ingredients, heated them into a liquid like paste, then spread the pine pitch over the hole, inside and out. Once there was a layer of the pine pitch goop around the hole on the outside of the canoe, they then applied a piece of antelope rawhide and covered that with the remaining pine pitch patch material.

Now you know how to repair your traditional dugout canoe with traditional materials.

Fascinating.

Red Raspberry Preserves

Due to a series of unforeseen events, I have found myself on vacation for the first 2 1/2 weeks of July.

Yeah me!

Basically, because of this global pandemic, everything was canceled and I didn’t burn any of my planned vacation hours. I didn’t take any time off for my youngest daughter’s dance competitions, there wasn’t any used time for my oldest daughter’s lacrosse season, no spring break, no graduation festivities, didn’t even get to take our planned trip overseas. As a result, I found myself maxed out on vacation and comp time and staring at a “use it or lose it” scenario. I know, rough life, right?

I’ve been spending a lot of time tending to the garden, going to the pool (half capacity), and doing stuff around the house. In fact, this is the first time I’ve fired up the laptop since July 1. So what’s a guy to do… well on July 6, I found myself 30-45 minutes away from the house at a farm picking raspberries!

In fact, I picked 4 freakin’ pounds of raspberries!

I really need to find some land and grow a lot more of my own food… [sigh. Get it together, Dave… if you head down this path you’ll only frustrate yourself and start airing some dirty laundry.]

Anyhoo, I picked all of these raspberries because my youngest asked me to make some more of my raspberry preserves. How can a dad say no to that?

The last batch I made was overly complicated and incredibly messy. (I tried to find the images, but alas, I cannot seem to locate them.) This time around, I went with two ingredients and a lot of stirring:

• 4 lbs Fresh Red Raspberries

• 8 C Sugar

That’s it! The recipe in the Blue Book Guide to Preserving was super simple. I highly recommend it.

After getting it to a boil and up to the right temperature for the right amount of time, I canned it all using a water bath. Pretty straight forward.

I would recommend that you find a candy thermometer or one similar to those used in a turkey fryer. No sense in burning yourself using a shorter meat thermometer.

All in all, it was easy and I made zero mess this time around.

Let's Talk Gardens... Because Everything Else Just Pisses Me Off!

So I’ve got some good information regarding squash, zucchini, and cucumbers… I going to focus on squash, zucchini, and cucumbers only. If I deviate to current events it’ll just piss me off more and then this post will turn into a rant which will lead to someone implying it’s a manifesto and then the black suburbans will pull up in front of my house. That last part was a little tongue in cheek but given the way things are right now, nothing would surprise me anymore.

Back when I was planting the garden, you know, before the country turned on itself, the wife was questioning why I plant my garden yummies on mounds. My response was simple, because my father-in-law loves his irrigation system too much. She scoffed, then I was vindicated with this article:

15 Zucchini & Squash Growing Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Harvest

Check out number 6 in their list dealing with watering… TOTAL VINDICATION! Victory never smelled so sweet!

The other topic that came up in random conversation with the mother-in-law dealt with the gender of cucumbers.

Whoa! Gender? We can’t talk about gender! Can we?

[clears throat] Umm, yes we can, well at least as far as it relates to the plant world. That’s safe and won’t bring an angry mob of protesters to my door.. maybe.

Oh well, pushing forward. It seems plants are less confused than humans as there are only two genders when it comes to plants. With regard to cucumbers, you can easily tell male and female flowers apart. The female flowers are easily identifiable due to the presence of a little baby cuc behind the flower.

Here’s an article Gma found and sent to me. Enjoy.

How to Tell Male & Female Cucumber Plants

And, as an added bonus, here’s an article on green peppers and how to tell their genders apart.

How to tell a Male Bell Pepper from a Female Bell Pepper

See, I can stay away from current events when I want to…

Big Doing's

The narrator and I received word last week from ACX that the audio recording for Part I of the series, When Rome Stumbles, has passed the final check, been processed, and is now uploaded and available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes!

ACX furnished 25 promo codes for the US and another 25 for the UK to each of us to distribute. Sooooo, the first 25 people in each country to email the publisher at djkpublishinghouse@gmail.com can get a free audio copy of When Rome Stumbles!

This is a momentous occasion and we couldn’t be happier!

And in other news…

Today marks the start of week 10 that I’ve been home due to COVID-19. By and large, I’ve required the least amount of adjustment in the family since I had the capability to work from home for years. The wife and daughters… well let’s just say there have been good days and bad days. Thankfully… mercifully, the girls are done with the school year this Friday and the wife follows a week later. After that, all three are ‘officially’ on summer break. We are hearing rumors that some private clubs may be opening their pools for the summer but we’ll have to wait and see what the Governor has to say about that. Can’t say life is gonna improve on the home front if they are all on summer break and NOTHING is open!

Final thoughts…

I think the American people finally understand that they:

• Should not rely on the government to provide anything.

• Should not believe FEMA recommendations regarding limited preparedness supplies on hand.

• Should ALWAYS have as much as they can afford to stockpile on hand for emergencies (ironically, or coincidentally, I have always recommended a month’s worth of supplies).

The acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has just released the names of those in government that requested Gen. Flynn’s name to be unmasked. Things are about to get even more interesting as we march toward election day.

Observations

So I’m finishing up my 3rd… no 2nd week of working from home. It would have been 3 but I had some presentations to do during that first week. Our Governor has recently extended the ‘Stay at Home” order until May and so, therefore, has my employer.

The wife is pissed and/or sad depending on the time of day because she “wasn’t built to be an online eLearning teacher.” She truly misses her classroom, colleagues, and students. All of which brought her such joy each and every day.

My oldest alternates between being pissed and depressed because her senior season of lacrosse is basically in the crapper… as is her senior prom and probably a graduation ceremony. There are a lot of other ancillary things being missed and that just compounds her anger.

My youngest is a social beast and she was none to pleased when her parents locked her down for two-weeks after she returned from the Gulf coast of Florida where she had vacationed with another family during Spring Break. She has not displayed any symptoms. And before you get all preachy, it wasn’t your decision and the Gulf coast had a tenth of the population that the eastern shore had on its beaches which were plastered all over the news and internet. Keep your self-righteous indignation to yourself cuz’ I’ll vote your ass off the island in a heartbeat. And for the record, the oldest is still pissed because we wouldn’t let her go on spring break because she was headed to Ft. Lauderdale with another family.

With their social schedules seriously curtailed, we’ve managed to have a couple game and movie nights… we even sat together and watched the ‘concert’ that aired on Sunday night. During the day, we retreat to our respective areas of the house to either do our jobs or complete assigned school work.

As for me, I’ve got more of a C’est la Vie approach to this. I already had the ability to work from home and did so on many occasions. The only true difference, aside from the family being present instead of in school, is that since we are all together I’d rather be doing something in the yard or fixing something around the house. Every day feels like a Saturday because I see the wife every time I head to the kitchen for coffee, I feel like we should be discussing what we are planning on doing this weekend.

The wife and I were chillin’ outside in the backyard last night and it was nearly silent.

Like, eerily, freakishly silent.

There were no planes on takeoff or approach to the airport. Every once in a while you’d hear a plane miles up flying over head to points east or west. There were no cars on the main thoroughfares or side streets. There were no firetruck, ambulance, or police sirens wailing in the distance or hauling ass up a nearby street. Depending on the time, I heard the intermittent sounds of kids playing, an occasional pet barking, neighbors on cellphones either on calls or FaceTime. Once all of that ended and people retreated for the night there was….. nothing.