Tag Archives: amazon item fo the day

Nebo 6350 Larry Work Light – Item of the Day

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Modern Survival| 13 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Nebo 6350 Larry Work Light.  I have to say this is one of  the most unique ways I have ever come to learn about a product.

I received an email from a guy that said he found one of these up in a drop ceiling doing some work at a customers building.  Given it was long abandoned with dead batteries he took it home.  Found that it took 3 AAA batteries and popped a set in, his first thought were “man this thing is bright”, his second thought was I wonder how much they cost.  A simple web search led him to find this amazing little light is only about 8 bucks.  He then emailed me about it.

I ordered two, and now I will be ordering more.  This little thing is just slick, super light weight and fits in a shirt pocket easily enough.  The base is flat so it will stand up on any flat surface and the clip has a magnet so it will both stick to metal or you can hang it on anything convenient in the area.

Many years ago (like in the mid 90s) I did a lot of cabling work in buildings for computer systems, I can tell you exactly why this thing was up in a ceiling, it would be GOLDEN for work like that!

How bright is this thing, try 170 lumens with only three measly AAA batteries.  To really get how bright that is see the video below.

One note, for some reason the description of this light says it is made with aluminum and that the base is magnetic.  There are definitely errors there.  The body is a good quality plastic and the magnet is in the clip not the base.  I checked and there are other colors of this light on Amazon, there are also like 4 packs of various colors.  None of those listings have these errors.

So why am I linking to the one with errors?  First because I do believe it is an error not a deception.  I have learned that this light is very well known in the electronics and computer world so I doubt they are trying to trick anyone.

The bigger reason is because this one is the BEST PRICE I can find, that is why.  The price on this is 8.53 with free shipping.  All the other single listings are over 9 bucks.  So this is simply the best deal.

Well unless you want 4?  Pretty close to the same price but you can get a 4 pack in 4 different colors 32.99 with free shipping, which is 8.24  piece.  So the 4 pack would save you $1.13 on four.  Not huge but a buck is a buck and likely you are going to want 4 of these things, I think they should be in every tool box, tackle box, range box and glove box personally.

So whether you just want to pick up 1 or 2 for 8.53 a piece, or you want to get a 4 Pack for 32.99 check out the Nebo 6350 Larry Work Light, it deserves a place in your kit and on your homestead.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

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Cobra CPI890 800W Compact Power Inverter – Item of the Day

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Modern Survival| Leave a comment

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Cobra CPI890 800W Compact Power Inverter.  I really have always liked the 800 watt inverter as a prep item.  It is that perfect balance of being able to run most things you can run from you car and an equal bang for the buck balance.  For many years I recommended the Whistler XP800i 800 Watt Power Inverter.  That item is now discontinued so I have changed my recommendation.

I conferred a great deal with a few contacts on this including new expert council member Shawn Mills and in the end I am not leading with the recommendation for the Cobra CPI890.   It is a solid piece of gear, comes with a 2 year warranty and of course if you have any out of the box problems Amazon will exchange it.

As to reviews I have basically given up on inverters for reviews on Amazon.  In the end people are idiots, no you can’t run a 1200 watt microwave with a single marine battery and a 800 watt inverter.  If you plug a 400 watt inverter into a cigarette lighter in your car and actually attempt to pull 400 watts something is going to give.  Why?  The cigarette lighter connection can only deliver about 150 watts maximum.  And on it goes.  Yes the inverter is going to whine and stop working when your batteries are drained.

In the end the Cobra inverters are solid for what an inverter of this class is designed to do.  Yes they are modified sine wave inverters, that is why they cost so much less than a pure sine wave inverter, but unless you are runnign something that requires it, that doesn’t matter.

Inverters like this are good for what they have always has been a good low cost option for back up power when you need it.  It allows you with simply some extension cords and some power splitters to make use of the one or two “generators” sitting in your driveway or garage.  If you are sane you can power most things in your house with one or two of these just not all at the same time, you can run a fridge for a few hours to keep it cool then run other things.

It will easily run some LED lights to keep you able to see where things are.  It will of course give you all the power you need to charge all your devices, run a laptop and even a cable modem, again you just have to pick what you want to do at any time, you can’t do everything at once, but you can do an awful lot.

At 54.99 a piece I don’t know of any other single preparedness item that can do as much for under 60 bucks.  I also want to say this is a big time case for two is one and one is none.  This is a good product but inverters do fail, all electronics do, so keep two at least on hand. In spite of me picking on some of the negative reviews, some are reasonable.  Again any brand of inverter will have some failures, I have yet to find one that doesn’t.  Again these come with a two year warranty.  I recommend having a back up and simply using a warranty as designed if needed.

So check out the Cobra CPI890 800W Compact Power Inverter today and consider adding it to your black out kit.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – This inverter line is available in power from 130 watts all the way up to 2500.  I really love the 200 Watt Model and just ordered one.  I will likely bring it around as a stand alone item at some point.  It is designed to go into a cup holder and has one AC plug and two USB ports.  It is really perfect for charging small devices and say a laptop or running a small fan when camping.

Remember in all this, your car or truck is not a light saber, if you take more power from it than your alternator can make you will drain your battery.  Also any inverter above 200 watts needs to be clamped onto a battery not pluged into a 12vdc port if you want to pull anything above 150 watts.

Also larger inverters like say 1500 watts and above need to be bolted to a battery not clamped on.  And we are talking about real power in all these, just like the power from a wall plug, electricity can kill you.  If you don’t know what you are doing with a project get professional help.

Lastly I know I should not have to say this but if you hook up say a 2500 watt inverter to say a single battery, it may give you 2500 watts, for a few moments but it will quickly drain if you run anything with that much power.   So size your inverters to your systems accordingly.  Over sizing your inverter by more than say one level up is generally a waste of money.

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STX-3000 Turboforce Meat Grinder – Item of the Day

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Modern Survival| 7 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the STX-3000 Turboforce Meat Grinder.  I spent a lot of time in 2017 deciding on what meat grinder I wanted to buy.  I was pretty much in love with the Cabela’s Carnivore but had a real hard time paying 400-500 dollars for a grinder.  Specifically since I use on heavily 2-3 times a year during hunting season, then only about 1-2 times a month for small amounts throughout the year.

So I looked at a lot of options but came down on the STX-3000 Turboforce Meat Grinder because I firmly believe it is the best value under 300 dollars on the market.  First it is a size 12, in other words big, it has great capacity.  It also has two speeds and a reverse setting, which at times can be important.

It comes with three blades, most only come with one and while such blades are a standard product in all grinders they usually cost 12-20 bucks a piece to replace.  It is also powerful.  The first weekend I had it,I put 20lbs of deer and pork though it in about 15 minutes and it worked flawlessly.  One day I had a beef roast that I wasn’t thrilled with as a roast, so I picked up some pork and ground up both with the wagon wheel for chili meat.  It took longer to take it out than it did to put 10 lbs of meat though it.

After months of research, using several different grinders and finally buying and using this one I have found THE GRINDER I recommend.  I can promise you that you will not be disappointed with this one.

On another note we made about 20 lbs of sausage with this grinder using the sausage stuffer attachment.  Dorothy and I ended up getting pretty good at it, but it will be the last time I use a grinder, any grinder to stuff sausage.  I have now added the LEM 5 pound stuffer to our pantry.  The grinder worked fine but likely it took 2-4 times as long as using a dedicated stuffer.

It also makes keeping meat more chunky if that is what you are looking for in a sausage impossible.  Even if you grind your meat chunky, that second time around the screw breaks it down a lot more even without the cutting blades involved.   A stuffer simply pushes the meat into the casing with no screw or friction, so it is a better tool for the job.  Yes it is a unitasker, but for some tasks a unitasker is the right fit.

But for grinding you just can’t beat the STX-3000 Turboforce Meat Grinder unless you spend hundreds of dollars more, and then, you don’t beat it by that much.  So if you need a grinder in your kitchen, I can’t recommend this highly neough.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

 P.S.  – Here are a few videos I posted to facebook using this grinder.

Even though these videos are on facebook, you should be able to see them even if you don’t have a facebook account as they are publicly posted.

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Sadaf Sumac – Item of the Day

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Sadaf Sumac.  Note that this is middle eastern sumac not our native variety here in North America.  While there are some similar characteristics sumac from the Mediterranean and Arabic parts of the world is a different species with a long history of culinary use.

Dorothy and I really got hooked on this stuff when we found a recipe for “carrot fries” which are really just roasted carrots with this stuff on them, the recipe is really simple.  Cut carrots into sticks, coat with peanut oil, sprinkle Sumac, Salt and Pepper on them, roast at 425 until done, (20-30 minutes depending on your oven).  We use the “convection roast” setting on our oven when we make these and they come out great.

One of my other favorite uses for this stuff is my Lamb Heart, Lamb Sausage and Oyster Mushroom stew.  I have posted that on facebook and you can see it here.  I use Sadaf Sumac in the homemade lamb sausage that goes in the stew, I have to tell you it was pretty fantastic.

This stuff is great on fish and chicken as you might imagine as it has a tart lemon like flavor much like its US cousins we all know and love.  On that note, the reason for this is it is high in ascorbic acid (AKA vitamin C).

Hence it is natural anti oxidant and has quite a bit of good press around health benefits.  There is a pretty good write up about that here.  This is about the best quality stuff I was able to find and at less than 10 bucks with free shipping on prime a 12 ounce container will last you a long time for not much money.  So consider adding Sadaf Sumac to your spice cabinet today and expand your culinary options.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – I guess I have to say it, no this isn’t poison sumac and no variety of sumac with red berries is poison sumac.  So no this stuff will not make you itch.  That said anyone with an allergy to cashews may have an allergy to sumac, so keep that in mind if it effects you or your family.  Bluntly always use all new food items with caution on the first use.

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Outdoor Edge RB-20 Razor Blaze Knife – Item of the Day

Posted on September 17, 2018 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Outdoor Edge RB-20 Razor Blaze Knife.  Man this thing is slick!  I picked on up right before last years deer hunt and  I’m glad I did.  I was hunting with about 14 other people at a ranch in the Texas Hill Country and was surprised to see about half the people there with one version of other of this knife.

The premise is simple your blade is always razor sharp because when it gets dull, you toss it out and replace it with a new one, new blades cost about $1.60 each.  The blades are made with an inexpensive steel called 420 J2, which has poor edge retention but sharpens very easily and is extremely resistant to corrosion and rust.   This steel until these knives came out had two primary uses.

  1.  It is used by many high end knife makers as liners, springs, etc in their folding knives, due to high corrosion resistance.
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  2. It is used by many makers of surgical scalpels.  Generally scalpels must be incredibly sharp and are used one time in surgery and deposed of.  Inexpensive steel that stands up to harsh chemicals for sterilizing and gets incredibly sharp easily is perfect for this application.

Given the above I think 420 J2 is perfect for what Outdoor Edge is doing with this knife.  Let me tell you what everyone with one at this hunt had it primarily for, one thing, skinning.  I am big on not letting a knife get dull in the first place, using a good sharpening steel you can keep an edge for a very long time, if you are patient and keep touching it up.

However in the real world hunting makes a man tired, stuff slips and next thing you know it is 9PM, you haven’t had dinner yet, you have a half skinned deer or hog and dull ass knife.  In a word this SUCKS!  If someone said, here is a razor sharp blade for a buck 60 you can have right now, you’d hand him a 5 and tell him to keep the change!

While I didn’t charge the guy this did happen at this last hunt.  I met a really cool guy who had brought his God Son on a hunt with him.  The boy shot a beautiful Aoudad, really beautiful.  The man was really taking his time skinning this animal because it was going to be mounted.  I could tell that it was really important to him to do a good job.  I could also tell his knife was getting dull but noticed a Outdoor Edge Knife sitting on the ledge next to him.

When I asked him about it he said they were great but he forgot to get extra blades.  I asked if he wanted a blade for it and thought he was gonna stop and hug me he was so happy.  He finished up and we talked while he did.  Turns out this guy is the type that hunts all over the world, hunting is pretty much all he does.  He is retired very young, mid thirties.  He invented a stem cell technology that he sold to Cancer Treatment Centers of America and well, he is set for life.

He had just come back from Tajikistan from a sheep hunt that is considered one of the most challenging hunts in the world.  He has hunted in New Zealand, Australia, Russia, etc.  And yea for skinning he carries a 35 dollar knife with a disposable blade!  Why?  It works and it always works.

Just unlike him pick up a pack or two of extra blades!  They are only 9.99 with free shipping on prime.

Let me be clear, you can absolutely use this knife for anything you’d use any similar knife for.  It simply though screams out, use me for skinning, and that is why I have one.  Skinning is hard on an edge and you simply need a razor sharp knife to do it right.  With this you always have one.  Again I know how to sharpen knives and do a good job of it, but at 9:30 PM on a hunt, I want to be kicking back at the fire with a beer and belly full of deer heart off the gill, not sharpening a knife and looking at a half skinned animal.

So check out the Outdoor Edge RB-20 Razor Blaze Knife all the other hunters in camp that had them, loved them, and I think you will too.  I find the knife a great deal with 6 blades included for only $34.95.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – The other knife I considered for this use was a Havalon Piranta but I felt the blade shape just wasn’t enough like a “regular knife”.  The blades cost less for sure in fact about half the price but again they are not optimal in my personal view.

One gentleman in our camp had both the Outdoor Edge and the Havalon Piranta and said he preferred the Outdoor Edge for a few reasons.  One is the over all feel when cutting, related to the blade shape.  The other is that the blade is much easier to change in Outdoor Edge and you are likely to cut yourself changing the blade in the Piranta.

The thing he liked better about the Piranta is it is easier to clean.  I can seen in the design why this is so.  However when I got home, I just removed the blade from my knife, tossed the frame into the silverware thing on the dishwasher and it came out clean as new!  I personally prefer the Outdoor Edge but wanted to bring the Piranta to your attention because the long term cost is lower.  However how many big game animals do you skin in a year?

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Frontier Co-op Organic Valerian Root – Item of the Day

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Modern Survival| 10 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Frontier Co-op Organic Valerian Root.  Before we continue due to the content below I have to give a disclaimer, I am not a doctor, I don’t even pretend to be one on TV.  While I am a life time user of herbs, I am also not a certified herbalist, nothing I am about to say should be seen is medical or nutritional advice.  It is just my personal experience.

So about two years ago I set out to create a “bed time tea”, my goal was a tea that would set the mind at ease and get you to sleep fast.  I built this tea on valerian root for many reasons.  You can find a wide range of Valerian’s uses at Web MD, chief among them though are insomnia and relaxing muscles and relieving aches and pains.

Now there are a ton of teas out there with Valerian in it, but I like to mix my own teas, simply put buying herbs in bulk saves money and you can make custom blends.  Last week I mentioned in my interview with herbalist Cat Ellis that I had a “night time tea that tasted like gym socks but would knock you flat out” and that resulted in a ton of requests for the recipe.

So I decided to feature Valerian today and give away that recipe, all but two ingredients can be purchased at Amazon, I’ll give a few sources for them in the P.S. below.  Note that the parts below are by volume, not weight…

I make this tea at about 2 heaping tablespoons to the cup, note that this doesn’t taste good.  Frankly it isn’t that bad, I am setting the expectation bar low however, unlike my other teas you are not drinking this one for the flavor.  I do sweeten this one with honey.

I can’t explain this but if you want this tea to work my best results seem to come from going to bed within 30 minutes or less of consuming it. If you wait much longer the effects seem to change to relaxed but alert.  However, if you go strait to bed you generally crash and sleep solid though the night, at least I do.

It also for me seems to increase the vividness of my dreams.  Note that I am a long time student of lucid dreaming and have trained myself to recognize dreams and awaken within them.  This is beyond the scope of this review but there is lots of info online about doing it.   I will talk just a tiny bit about it in today’s on air IOTD segment.

So if you want to give this a try, you can simply mix it up and give it a go, but I will caution that I take no regular medications and I don’t know what interactions these herbs could have with pharmaceuticals.  So please check with your doctor before using these are any herbs if you have any physical conditions or side effects.  Again I am not a doctor or certified herbalist, I am not giving medial advice, I am just telling you my personal experiences.

So check out Frontier Co-op Organic Valerian Root today.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – The herb you can’t get on Amazon for some reason is Damiana Leaf.  You can make the tea without it, it will still work.  That said it is a wonderful herb that in my view really enhances this tea.  If you skip the Damiana increase the Valerian to 4 parts to rebalance the recipe a bit.

P.S.S.  – Here is a simplified recipe if you just want to give it a try without all the other herbs.  Go with 2 parts of Valerian to 1 part of mint.  This will be a quite sedative tea and aid in falling asleep for many people.  Again I recommend hitting the pillow no more than 30 minutes after consuming it.

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Chef Paul’s Blackened Redfish Magic Seasoning – Item of the Day

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Item of the day is Chef Paul’s Blackened Redfish Magic Seasoning.  Seldom do I get this excited about a seasoning blend, but this one is amazing.  I remember Chef Paul on PBS as a kid, when PBS was one of only 4-6 channels that came in on our TV.  If everything was right you could get two more on the UHF dial you know.

I had forgotten all about him, but recently on a fishing trip with my guide buddy Omar Cotter and two good friends we really got into the striped bass, as the photo at the end shows.  I was talking to Patrick and Thad about how to make the striped bass fillets and Omar popped up with use Chef Paul’s Blackened Redfish Magic Seasoning.  Now I have like 50 great ways to do fish but when a man that catches fish for a living says to try something, I have learned friken try it.

So I ordered up some of this stuff, when it came and I realized how big the 24 ounce can really was, I was like, “man I hope this as good as Omar says”.  I popped it open and was instantly impressed.  Most mass produced seasonings are powdered crap and lots of salt.  The second I opened this I knew it was different.  Two keys were appearance and smell.  It reminded me of something I would mix up myself.

Then I tasted it, look, seriously I could eat this stuff by the pinch out of the container.  No I ain’t kidding!  Omar had suggested grilling the fillets skin side down and just putting some butter or oil on top and coating with this, cook till almost done all the way though and flip to finish.  We do this with sand bass all the time with just say salt, pepper and garlic.  We call it “sand bass on the half shell”.

But I could not get out of my head that the creator of this spice mix, Paul Prudhomme had almost single handily taken Redfish from being considered a “trash fish” to damn near extinction by making “Blackened Redfish” so popular.  I realized for all my bad ass cooking I had literally never “blackened” anything, on purpose anyway.  So I looked up how to do it, stupid simple!  And you know that is almost always a recipe for awesome food.

The basics are coat the fish in butter, cover one side with seasoning and let it sit a bit.  Now heat up butter in a pan till it is just starting to smoke.  Lay the fish seasoning side down in the pan, coat the other side with butter and seasoning and cook until about 2/3rds done.  Flip it and spoon some of the butter over the top and cook until finished.

Being my first time I wanted to try two different fish.  So I took out one striper fillet and some snapper I had as well.   I cut the damn near steak sized striper fillet in half, one for Dorothy and one for me.  The snapper fillets were much smaller and thinner so I had one of those for each of us.  I followed the procedure for both.  Of course the snapper cooked much faster.

You know what, when we sat down to eat my world view of cooking fish changed just a little bit.  How much did we like it?  The next morning I took out some catfish fillets and blacked them that night.  Here is the verdict on all three species….

  1.  In the words of Dorothy, they are “effing delicious”!  And yes she used the real “f word”.
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  2. It is best to cook this outside you get a lot of smoke but I did it both inside and outside and it wasn’t that bad, but it did smoke up the kitchen.  If you were cooking for a big group, I would not even consider doing it inside.  My Ranger II Blind Stove did a great job on it outside.
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  3. I think this works for any fish but the  more “meaty” the better.  The striper and snapper were both perfection.  Amazing flavor but also perfectly moist, perfectly done and perfect texture.  The catfish was good but being a little more delicate it lost a bit of texture.

While I have not done it yet, I think the perfect fish for this stuff isn’t Redfish (which we all know is amazing).  No, I think Mahi Mahi is the perfect fish for this, and luckily it is available at most stores.  I am also going to give catfish another go, I am thinking whole skinned with cuts in the sides will do best.  I am definitely going to try supposedly “boring” tilapia”, skin on and scored with this.

Some other fish I know would do well with this method are cobia, as it is so steak like, swordfish and salmon.  I am sure ahi tuna would be amazing too, but I have a very hard time cooking tuna, knowing that its highest purpose involves simply proper slicing and some wasabi, soy and ginger.

I am hard pressed to say what this stuff would not season well!  The day it showed up all the fish was frozen and I made steak.  While I used some of my own seasoning for the steaks, I roasted baby carrots in the oven.  I hit them simply with olive oil and sprinkled this on them to give it a shot, amazing flavor.  I also can’t wait to try this on seared scallops and shrimp, both should be fantastic.

Yes this technique will be coming to Biltong for Breakfast soon, but again the technique is so simple.  Tune in today and I will give the low down on doing it right in audio in our closing segment.  But man if you love fish, give Chef Paul’s Blackened Redfish Magic Seasoning a shot.  You can get the big 24 ounce can for the best value or get two 2 ounce bottles if you want to try a smaller amount first.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – If you are in the DFW Region give Luck O’ The Irish Fishing Guide Service a try.  Below is me with Captain Omar Cotter.  As you guys know fishing is a passion of mine, I have fished all over the country alone and with dozens of guides.  Omar is one of the best and I am grateful to have him in my own backyard.

Check out the results below, Omar took myself, Patrick of MT Knives and my buddy Thad out for a day.  We managed 12 stripers, 2 hybrid stripers, 48 white bass, a blue cat and a crappie.  We did this all before 10 AM.

P.S.S. – Thanks to an Amazon reviewer I do have the base recipe for Chef Paul’s redfish seasoning.  He apparently published it in a book from 1984.  I think it must be Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen because it is the only book by Chef Paul from that year.  I am going to pick up a copy because this guy was honestly way ahead of his time.

He was teaching young deer hunting red necks like myself how to cook in the days of rabbit ear television.  Long before all these non reality TV shows with competitions and fake drama built into them.  Anyway here is that recipe if you want to try rolling your own, thanks to Amazon reviewer  Kabol, Johnathan N. for posting it.

  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • 2 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp cayenne
  • 3/4 tsp white pepper
  • 3/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 tsp fennel — or seeds crushed

Tasting the current mix I think this is a good base to work from and work up your own version, though I am about 100% sure changes have been made since 84.  I may give it a try but honestly it will be hard to beat the pre packaged mix and I don’t think you can do it for less money.  Again 24 ounces is a LOT of this stuff.  Now what do I blacken next?  Perhaps chicken?

Sadly Chef Paul left us in 2015, but somewhere I think his spirit is smiling knowing that still today people are discovering or in my case rediscovering this awesome guy.  A man that made southern cooking into simply American cooking over many awesome decades of his life.  May we all leave such a legacy.

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Nutramax Cosequin DS Plus for Dogs – Item of the Day

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Modern Survival| Leave a comment

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Nutramax Cosequin DS Plus with MSM Chewable Tablets for Dogs.  It is a sad fact that dogs don’t live as long as humans, in fact they live for a fraction of our lifetimes.  While the oldest dog ever (Maggie) was over 30 years old, average dog lifespan is about 10-13 years depending on breed.

This means by 7-8 years your pup is on the door step of being an old man or old woman.  Say in the 50-60 year old range for humans, but unlike humans who have 20 years before they hit 80 once they hit 60, dogs will be in those “golden years” in 2-4.  And everything that comes with us getting older happens to them at an accelerated rate.  This includes arthritis and sore joints.

Now when it comes to sore joints one of the supplement combinations proven to work is glucosamine combined with chondroitin.  Many of us who have used this personally or on our aging dogs need no confirmation that it is effective, but this study which was the largest of its kind so far, concluded with, “The present study provided evidence for the symptomatic efficacy of glucosamine plus chondroitin in the treatment of knee OA.”  (OA being osteoarthritis)

I can tell you that this stuff has made my German Sheppard’s life better.  Max is huge which adds to the issue and his breed is known for hip problems.  We put him on more than the specified dose for a month, then dropped to 2 twice a day.  This is still a bit more than by the label but he is 150 pounds and the label ends with 60lbs and above.

For Charlie our Pit-Pointer mix we have him on two a day for preventative maintenance.  Lucy our Pit-Huskey mix who is still young and spry gets one a day also as a preventative measure.  Honestly had I known how great this stuff was I would have put Max on it for maintenance years before he needed it.  They way gluosamine and chondroitin are thought to work is by improving cartilage health.  This makes sense as they are two primary components in cartilage.

Additionally this product contains MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) which has a great reputation for join health and inflammation reduction as well.  Less studies have been done on MSM but again those of us who have used it know it seems to help us.  I actually take a “human version” of glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM myself along with Turmeric with Bioprene.  However Nutramax Cosequin DS Plus is what I rely on for the pups.

I find it a good value though with three big dogs it can be a bit expensive but my pups are like family.  In my years I have in various ways done a number on my joints from back, to shoulder, to knee and some of you have heard my ankles crack.  So I understand pain sucks and do what I can for our pack that gives so much back to us.

The big thing is they actually eat them, including the big baby Max who is a pain in the ass to get to eat anything “unusual” to him.  It took a while but now he eats them with out much fuss.  Charlie would eat my finger if I accidentally cut it off so getting him to eat them was no challenge.  Lucy took some work but she eats them now.  So no wrapping them in cheese just to get them down.

So if you have a dog that is getting older and having joint issues give these a try, or consider them as a maintenance supplement for long term joint health.  I checked into a lot of options and Nutramax Cosequin DS Plus with MSM is the best value to quality ratio I have found.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – Vitamin C is also awesome for dogs as to joint pain.  It is an old hunter’s trick to keep older bird dogs happily hunting a few more years.  Here is some info on that.  Note that I don’t think it works as good as glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM at correcting the long term problem, but rather reduces pain vs. effecting the underlying issue.

While there are “dog specific” vitamin c products they cost more for no good reason.  I just use cheap Natures Made Chewables for myself and the dogs when a C boost is needed.  For dogs either do the “throat rub” or crush them up in their food.  When it comes to vitamin C I stick to chewables because they are highly absorbable, and frankly don’t taste bad.

P.S.S. – I am not a doctor, I am not a vet, I don’t even play either on T.V.  None of this is medical advice or a prescription you should follow.  Check with your vet about any questions you have about your specific needs.  I am just telling you what I use, why I use it and my results.

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Sushi Sonic 100% Real Powdered Wasabi – Item of the Day

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Modern Survival| 1 Comment

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Sushi Sonic 100% Real Powdered Wasabi.  I love sushi and sashimi but to be honest on some levels the raw fish is really a “conveyance system for soy sauce and wasabi”.  While not totally true, I have spoken to many a fellow connoisseur of sashimi that shares the basic sentiment.  We love the fish, the pickled ginger, the saki, the seaweed salad, etc. but in the end, wasabi makes it sing.

Thing is most people, even those that frequent good sushi bars have either never had real wasabi.  Instead what they thought was wasabi was a mix of horseradish and mustard dyed green.  Or if they are lucky they may have had some real wasabi cut with horseradish.  Generally at 51% wasabi to 49% horseradish.

However those little tubes of “premixed wasabi” and most powders that you mix with water actually contain zero wasabi.  Yea really, read a few labels and check.

Here area few examples…

  • Premium Wasabi Powder – Even has cool Japaneses letters but ingredients are horseradish, mustard and fillers and artificial colors.
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  • Kikkoman, Wasabi Sauce – Kikkoman a name you can trust right? Well the second ingredient is soybean oil, the third is a “root blend” of wasabi and horse radish.  Please note they don’t say how much wasabi and it could be as little as 1%.  Also has high frutose corn syrup and yellow #5 and blue #1.  Well yellow and blue do make green right?
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  • S&B Wasabi Powder – Contains horseradish, mustard, corn starch along with our new friends yellow #5 and blue #1 but zero actual wasabi.

So what is the deal, why is it so hard to find real wasabi?  Well wasabi is related to horse radish, but unlike horse radish which is simple to grow, wasabi is complicated to grow and needs a perfect semi aquatic environment to grow right. Because of this, it is mostly only grown in Japan or China, and this makes it quite expensive.

One of my projects next year will actually be trying to grow some wasabi in one of my aquatic systems.  But until then I will be happy to use Sushi Sonic 100% Real Powdered Wasabi.

There is a lot to like about this stuff, I recently did sashimi for three friends and they all loved it.  Let’s start with the ingredients, pretty simple, 100% wasabi.  So if we have 100% wasabi we have 0% everything else.  Next up it is freeze dried, so it will last for damn near ever and still taste wonderfully fresh when rehydrated.  I also consider it well priced, a 1.5 ounce jar is about 9 bucks and trust me a little goes a long way.

I was concerned a bit as this product is from China but it gets an A grade on Fakespot as does the company as a whole, so there is no deception going on with the review game.  The product does have some negative reviews, of course some China bashing as always.  One lady says it has no flavor and smells like green tea.  I think that woman needs to see a neurologist!

This is quite simply the best product I have found and it is easy as all get out to use.  Mix with about an equal amount of water and let it sit for about 4-5 minutes and you have a perfect paste.  There are a lot of ways to use wasabi but sushi and sashimi are the pinnacle as far as I am concerned.  If you’d like to give real wasabi a try, order up some Sushi Sonic 100% Real Powdered Wasabi today, and trust me it will make your taste buds dance.

Remember you can always find the TSP Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – You will notice some complaining about a “root blend” with this brand including a misprint in the expanded description that seems to make it worse.  The explanation is abundantly simple.  The same company makes an “economy version” that is in fact a 49-51% blend.  You can see it here.  In any event the product that says 100% wasabi on the label is the one you want not the one that says 51% genuine wasabi.

 

 

 

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Mo’s Bacon Chocolate Bar – Item of the Day

Posted on May 25, 2018 by Modern Survival| Comments Off on Mo’s Bacon Chocolate Bar – Item of the Day

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Mo’s Bacon Chocolate Bar made by Vosges Haut Chocolate.  Guys and gals this isn’t a joke, these things are flipping fantastic.

First I don’t eat much candy it is why I have gone from wearing a size XXL to a size L so when I do have a bit I want top quality stuff.  Vosges is an awesome chocolate maker and they use a 41% milk chocolate in this bar.  Just awesome stuff.

Next there are a lot of bacon chocolate bars out there, most though are basically a Nestle’s Crunch bar made with bacon bits as in imitation bacon bits.  Not this bar, it is made with real apple wood smoked bacon.

The way I even found out about these bars predates TSP.  I had a girl who worked for me and she knew I was a bacon fiend.  As a joke she happened to find one of these and brought it to work.  We both had a good laugh and I said well I will have it after lunch and didn’t really think it would be very good. Boy was I wrong.  And as soon as I took a bite I realized why, bacon and chocolate are a natural fit.

One of the most indulgent things on the planet that can send you strait into Type II diabetes is chocolate covered pretzels.  Before I reformed my ways I could shove down dozens of those things in one sitting.  Salt, crunch and chocolate seem to work together.  So when you combine very high end chocolate, smoked sea salt and apple wood bacon, well, man it just works.

This isn’t a survival item, it won’t store well long term because you are going to eat it, and it is a bit expensive.  But it is fun, it is enjoyable and it makes a great gift, which brings me to why I am featuring it today.  All this week we are running the “Travis the Vegan Troll” bacon sale for MSB.   You can read all about it here, but here is the upshot.

This week (which is almost over) you can get MSB for only 25 dollars a year with discount code bacon.  But you must agree to eat an extra pound of bacon in the coming week and celebrate bacon by giving a gift of bacon to a friend.  I do highly suggest this bar and I recommend getting at least one for yourself.  So give Mo’s Bacon Chocolate Bar made by Vosges Haut Chocolate and I think you will agree, everything really is better with bacon.

Remember you can always find the TSP Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

 

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