No spark, All sizzle–cooking without electricity

As the hope in ever getting electricity died a slow, slow death, I began to get rid of my kitchen appliances. (See You can lead a horse to water…electric and sewer but you can’t make it drink) They just collected dust sitting around and took up space. So, it was a reluctant bye-bye to the toaster, refrigerator, crock pot, popcorn maker, beater, bread maker, blender, and microwave oven.

I had mixed feelings about letting some of these things go, but over time, I have come to see that I can still do all the baking and cooking I want despite not having my favorite electrical devices.

We still have toast every morning, only we toast is on the cast iron Comal. (See COOKING WITH CAST IRON)

With no crockpot, I still make savory soups and beans, but with my enameled soup pot on the stove or over an open fire. (See What Are the Safest Cookware Options?)  Beans taste mighty good over the open flame!

Without a microwave, food can be reheated on the stove with my enameled and cast iron Cast Iron cookware. My little Strawberry  Teapot also is just the thing for heating water for hot beverages.   We also have a handled Pot with a pour spout for boiling our raw goat’s milk.  (See Let’s Talk About Food in La Yacata)

Microwaves are bad for you anyway.  (See Electromagnetic fields & public health: Microwave ovens, Microwave Oven Radiation, Microwaves Are Bad For You: 5 Reasons Why Microwave Oven Cooking Is Harming Your Health)

I can still make cakes and cookies using a Whisk or Wood Spatula for mixing instead of a beater. It’s good exercise for the upper arms.

I make fresh bread in the oven with my bread loaf pan set instead of the bread maker, sometimes with my assistant baker. Again, a good upper arm workout!

Salsas can be made with the molcajete. More arm exercise! When I need a real puree, I can connect the blender for a minute or so to the truck battery with the ac/dc Power Inverter.

We still have our refrigerator only now it’s a handy, dandy pantry for dry goods. We have fresh goat milk daily as well as freshly laid eggs, so we don’t need refrigeration for those. Our fruit and vegetables we buy weekly and eat fresh. We don’t buy processed food that needs to be in fridge or freezer. Anything that we have left over at the end of the day that won’t keep, we share out among our various animals.

And we can still enjoy popcorn with our Popcorn Spinner Stovetop Popcorn Popper.

We love popcorn. It’s inexpensive, quick and healthy. It helps with the digestion, lowers blood sugar, has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer and a host more good things! (See Popcorn health benefits)

So, all in all, cooking is still possible without electricity.  And, in the worst case scenario, like if zombies invade Mexico and we are unable to procure gas for our stove, well, then we can cook outside with leña (wood) or use our little indoor fireplace. (See Chim, chimney)

Interested in learning more about cast iron cooking?  Check out my ghost blogger post at Backdoor Survival!

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