Tag Archives: amazon item of the day

Frontier Organic Lemon Pepper – Amazon Item of the Day

Posted on September 20, 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 Frontier Organic Lemon Pepper.  As always I recommend buying herbs/spices by the pound, buying by the ounce is a suckers game.  Also while I don’t eat 100% organic, I feel in this case you really should. 

Lemon pepper is made with lemon zest (the yellow part of the peel).  The citrus industry is one of the most heavy users of pesticides in the world.  When you think about these things being sprayed and the out side of the peel being removed and eaten, well, if you want a conventional product go for it.

Okay so as you might imagine this one is going to come with a recipe, but not just any recipe, the best lemon pepper herb chicken you will ever and I mean ever eat.  If you are making a lot just double the recipe, and it will work with any chicken but I formulated this for either boneless skinless thy or breast.  If you are doing breast cut it into thinner and smaller slices before starting.

Jack’s Lemon Pepper Herbed Chicken

  • 1/3rd cup of olive oil
  • Juice of 1/2 of a lemon and the zest
  • 2 oz of white wine
  • 2 tsp of rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp of lemon pepper
  • 1 tsp of sugar
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp rosemary (if it is large needles crush it with your fingers a bit)
  • 1/2 tsp of basil
  • About 1 teaspoon of dry mustard – or as much as you need to emulsify.
  • Skinless boneless chicken (as much as you want to make, the above will do about 4 breast halves or about 8-10 thy cutlets.

Wait?  What the heck is emulsify?  Okay this marinade is made of oil, lemon juice, wine and rice vinegar.  Do you know what happens when they are put together, well in short they don’t get together.

The wine, vinegar and lemon juice all blend and the oil floats on top.  How can we get a good uniform marinade like that?  Well we can’t!  So we need an emulsifier, this lets us blend an oil and a water based liquid and keep them together.  For instance mayonnaise is an emulsification.  Made mostly of eggs and oil.  This emulsification is much easier though.  The dry mustard will allow us to mix oil and the other liquids and suspend them while keeping the mustard flavor very low compared to “prepared mustard”.

So take a ball jar and put all the ingredients except the chicken into it.  Put the lid on and shake the hell out of it.  Like for a good 45 seconds to a minute.  Stop shaking and let it sit for about a minute, take a look and see if the liquids stay mixed.  It is normal for the herbs to settle some but the liquids should not separate.  If all is well continue, if it is separating give it another bit of dry mustard and repeat.

Put all your chicken into a large zip lock bag, shake the marinade one more time to get the herbs all suspended again and dump it into the bag.  Push most of the air out of the bag, massage the bag and work the marinade all over everything.  Put in a bowl (in case it leaks, which would suck without the bowl) and put it in the fridge.  Leave it over night, a few times during this period massage up the bag and flip it over.

The next day remove the chicken and put it on a few paper towels for about 30 minutes at room temp.  This is important or you will be frying in a pool of oil and it will be hard to get  good brown.  Then fry in a pan of your choice or grill until done.  Don’t over cook it!  Cook to 145 if you use an instant read thermometer, but I can just tell when it is done by feel.

You can make this with any lemon pepper and it will be very good, you may find yourself addicted to it.  But if you want a superior organic product consider adding Frontier Organic Lemon Pepper to your pantry today.

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

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Monoprice Releasable Cable Ties – Item of the Day

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Modern Survival| 8 Comments

cabeltiesEvery 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 something I feel no one should be without.  They just do too much, for too little cost to not have some.  They are Monoprice Releasable Cable Ties and at only nine bucks and some change for 100 pieces they are a steal.

Get a few bags and do the following.  Make up bundles of about 20-30 a bundle.  Just use one tie to hold the rest together.  Put a bundle in your BOBs, put one in every glove box of your vehicles, put some in your garage where you can see them and just grab them, etc.  Heck I keep half a dozen as part of my EDC, you don’t even notice them in a cargo pocket until you need them.

The key is the releasable part!  We even use these for keeping gates closed on our low fences for our ducks.  I keep a few tied on top of various fences all over the property, so if you need one there is always one close by.   They are very strong and stay flexible a long time.  They tend to last about 1.5-2 years if in direct sun before becoming brittle.  Otherwise they seem to last forever.

I use them for many other things as well.  I use them to tie up new seedling trees for say a month until they stiffen up.  Since you can remove and reuse them it is cheaper than plant tape.  I use them to tie 4 large hog panels into a square and make an on the fly animal pen.  There is no limit to how useful these things are.

Sure they are kind of small at 6 inches, but you want 18 inches?  Put three together and when you don’t need that any more take them apart.  And since I first started recommending these they have added a lot of different sizes.  They now have them in 6, 8, 10 and 12 inch lengths.  So the choice is yours.

So just how versatile are cable ties in general, okay I am going to tell you a story, I am NOT SUGGESTING THAT you do it, it is just what happened.  Many years ago when I was in the Army I had two friends, Brad and Dean.  Dean was the one that owned a truck and he was a “character” to say the least.

Dean would just toss Brad or I the keys anytime we needed his truck.  One day we wanted to run to the PX, so Dean tosses Brad the keys.  In we jump and to the PX and back we go, beer run of course.  Brad is a typical guy from Southern Louisiana so he bends speed limits till they break.  We get back an Dean says, “oh yea, I should of told y’all to take it easy until the new tie rod gets here”.

Brad and I get down and look and see that fricken Dean had used 4 tie wraps to hold a broken tie rod together.  As in it had broken in two and he tie wrapped it back together.   For those that don’t know, the tie rod holds the front searing brackets to the frame so you can turn.   Kind of an important function!  So Brad almost kills Dean but later we laughed about it, because when you are 20 you are stupid!

That has always stuck with me and while I would not replicate it as a “temporary repair”, I would replicate it with great care and driving very slowly to get a vehicle to safety in a similar situation.   Trust me and if you don’t keep cable ties in your preps, start doing so and the best ones for flexibility and usefulness are Monoprice Releasable Cable Ties.

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

P.S. – I have brought this item back a many times, the reason is simple, if I made a list of the top 5 most useful things on my homestead, I am sure it would change over time, but these would never fail to make the list.

 

 

 

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Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber – Item of the Day

Posted on September 14, 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 Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber (synthetic safe formula).  I remember when I was a kid and used to clean my uncle’s gun because “I got to”, yea I really thought that way.  Mostly that cleaning was a brush and a mop thought the bore and a clean out of the chamber and wipe down with a oil rag.  But sometimes he would help, we would break the gun down and really give it a full cleaning.

The first time we did this I discovered Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber I thought at that time and still do think today, the stuff is like magic.  Every bit of residue, oil, etc, gone in a second, the metal is ice cold and dry at the same time.  This stuff belongs in every gun cleaning and maintenance kit.

Let’s talk about the synthetic safe thing though.  Flash 8 years later and young Jack Spirko is a private in basic training.  He is cleaning his 20 year old Vietnam Era M16A1 and it feels like spit shinning a turd.  No matter what he does, the Sergeant Major’s tiny thin ass pinky can always seem to find some dirt in his weapon’s chamber, he thinks “if only I had some Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber.”

Young Spirko gets though basic and goes to AIT (advanced individual training) more of the same, Drill Sergeants yelling, lots of training, daily PT and more inspections.  One thing changes though he gets a bit more freedom, like the ability to go to the PX.  Young Spirko goes to the sporting goods section of the PX, hoping against hope and there he finds his long sought Birchwood Casey.  He buys 4 cans and shares with all the guys in his squad bay.  These 8 guys are going to rock the next inspection!

The spray does its magic but this is in the days before the average person had synthetic stocks, young Spirko has never even touched a weapon with synthetic stocks until enlisting.  Something horrible happens!  Every where the stuff touches the stocks, they turn bleached out whitish gray!  Oh shit!

Fortuitously Spirko’s squad leader (a prior service Marine) had seen this before, a bit of black shoe polish mixed with tiny amount of CLP (civilians call it gun oil) and a wipe down of the stocks and they are back to looking like shitty 1970s era hardware they are.  The day was saved and while the squad didn’t get though the next inspection totally gig free, weapons wise they did very well.

Well, I continued to spread the word about Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber when I went to my permanent duty station.  With a warning about getting it on the stocks and the remedy if you did.  It made a lot of soldiers really happy.

In 1993 I finished my time in service and came to Texas.  I continued to use Birchwood Casey and about 2012 if I remember right I was at a place called Academy Sports and Outdoors.  Picking up some stuff for a range trip and found the synthetic safe version.  I tried it and it worked just as good as the original, and a spot or two on your stock was no longer a disaster.

Now let me tell you the one important thing about this stuff, it is basically stripper.  It takes EVERYTHING off gun metal except say bluing or parkerizing.  All dirt but also every drop of oil, etc.  This means it is a cleaner not a maintainer, and you need to properly lube or lightly coat with oil any metal that it touches after cleaning it, as otherwise it will be unprotected.

So if you want to keep your guns at the ultimate level of clean pick up some Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber today.  I recommend at least 2 cans at all times in your kit.  Because of course two is one and one is none.

Final Warning – When I say this stuff takes all grease, grime, soot, powder residue, etc. off I mean it.  Do not spay this stuff over an unprotected area or it will be covered in gun gick!  Your wife will kill you if you do this over the dining room table!  Put down a layer of like two old towels and for best results do it outside.

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

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Anker Astro E7 26800mAh Portable Charger – Item of the Day

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Modern Survival| 19 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 the Anker Astro E7 26800mAh Portable Charger.  I have tried a lot of back up power packs and this one is my current favorite.  This product has a great value to price ratio, coming in at 65.99 with free shipping on prime.  It currently has over 2,100 reviews on Amazon with 4.5 stars overall.

Frankly, Anker is just a stellar company, they build high quality products and back them with a great 18 month warranty, though I have never had the need to use said warranty.  Next is the power capacity of this particular power pack, 26800mAhs is enough power to charge a

  • iPhone7 10 times
  • iPad Air 2.5 times
  • iPad Mini 3 times
  • Samsung S6 6.8 times

To put that in perspective I get an easy 24 hours of light use with my iPhone and it still has quite a bit of battery on it.  And if you are in a grid down you minimize use to critical needs, that means this should keep your coms up with your iPhone for a good two weeks.

To me your phone is your lifeline.  It brings you news, it lets you call for help, communicate with loved ones and more.  While I have a generator and several battery banks in my home I am not always in my home.  So I always keep one of these in my pack fully charged as a final back up on power needs.  I recommend you consider the Anker Astro E7 26800mAh Portable Charger for your own needs.

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

 

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Walkerswood Traditional Jamaican Jerk Seasoning – Item of the Day

Posted on September 11, 2018 by Modern Survival| 4 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 item of the day is Walkerswood Traditional Jamaican Jerk Seasoning, I prefer the Hot and Spicy but you can also get it in Mild or in a Pack with One Each.  I like heat, but I don’t like mental crazy heat and to me anyway, the hot and spicy is fairly mild.

This is another one of my “cooking cheat codes” building on Friday’s review of Doenjang Paste.  I have always loved Jamaican food, especially the star of the show, jerk chicken.  So long ago I taught myself to make it from scratch.  When I met my former business partner and fellow foodie Neil Franklin, he told me about this stuff, and said, “just try it mate, you’ll never do it from scratch again“.

Neil was spot on, and a look at the ingredients shows you why, no junk and the core of solid jerk seasoning, scallions, scotch bonnet peppers, salt, black pepper, all spice, nutmeg, citric acid, cane sugar, thyme leaves.

Not far off what I used to make from scratch.  And a hell of a lot easier and faster!

It is so easy to use, rub it all over chicken, put chicken in a zip top bag and let it sit over night in the fridge.  You can then bake at 350 till done, kick the broiler on and crisp the skin.  Oh and save that juice, add that to a bit of rice and it is hard to not eat until you think you are going to explode.

My favorite way to use it though is grilled, low and slow over indirect heat.  If you want the juice put a drip pan under it, then give the drippings a quick simmer over direct heat to be safe.  And guess what I just found out, you can buy pimiento wood chips.  In Jamaica real jerk chicken is cooked over pimento wood.  So just make up a foil pouch of chips and poke some holes in it and bring that final bit of flavor to the party.

So that is main reason why this stuff exists, making jerk chicken and if that was all it did, it would be enough.  Remember though, this is a Spirko cheat code, so you know I have more to add.  Rub large shrimp with it, dust them with a bit of lime zest, bacon wrap and grill on skewers.  The shrimp, the bacon grease, the lime, the jerk, yes it is all very, very good.  Make a sauce from rum with pineapple for these and you may think you died and went food heaven.

Spirko Hack – When bacon wrapping shrimp it is hard to get bacon crisp without over cooking the shrimp.  Step one, par cook the bacon, to where it renders about 1/3rd of the fat but will still wrap easily.  Step two, put a cast iron skillet on the grill or a side burner, put each skewer on the cast iron for 15-20 seconds per side at finish.

How about jerked baby back ribs, really easy ones that are almost no work!  Rub your ribs well and marinate over night.  Sacrifice a beer into your pressure cooker, put in steaming rack, then add ribs, pressure cook for 40-50 minutes.  Take out ribs and make a base from the stuff in the bottom of the cooker 50-50 with your favorite BBQ sauce.  To do this simmer it to reduce by half and blend in about the same amount of BBQ sauce, after the reduction.  Baste top of ribs and finish on grill or under broiler.  Save some of the baste for dipping.  Just cook long enough to dry out the baste and firm up the ribs, about 10-15 minutes.

Jamaican meat balls, there is no such thing.  Oh but there can be!  Finely chop one 12-16 ounce pack of bacon (oh you thought I was just going to mix this and hamburger didn’t you?), now add one pound of ground beef and one pound of pork and the bacon to a bowl.  Chop up a bunch of green onions and a few cloves of garlic.  Use about 1-2 tablespoons of Walkerswood seasoning, I do this by eye.  Add one egg and half a cup of panko bread crumbs to bind.

Mix well and this is important, let it sit for an hour at least, over night is better.  Bake in a 400-425 degree oven until done.  I like to bake them on a rack so the drippings fall away and they crisp a bit with the convection roast setting, save those drippings though, use foil for easy cleaning.  Why does it have to sit before cooking, those wonderful panko crumbs suck up all that seasoning and hold onto it, that is why.

Frankly you can jerk up just about any meat and even some veggies with this stuff, so give Walkerswood Hot and Spicy, Mild or Variety Pack a try today.  It doesn’t just make great chicken, it makes great everything.

One last hack you say?  Okay, next time you are hungry for burgers, mix some into your meat.  Also coat one side of some bacon with it, grill your burgers and bacon, also slice an apple into about 1/4 inch slices, (trust me), grill the apple till just done and grill some chili peppers, seeded jalapeno is good.  Now assemble the burger with peppers and apple where say lettuce and tomato would normally go.  Of course cheese is optional but highly encouraged on this, pepper jack is my preference.  Toast your bun of course with a brushing of garlic butter.  So now you are hungry right?  So you know what to do, get some Walkerswood Today.

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

P.S. – It seems that this seasoning and chicken thighs will be featured on a new episode of Biltong for Breakfast soon, something about a salad with jerk chicken or something like that!

P.S.S.  – The mild version is the exact same ingredients, just less scotch bonnet peppers.

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Tweezerman Professional Stainless Steel Toenail Clippers – Item of the Day

Posted on September 10, 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 Tweezerman Professional Stainless Steel Toenail Clippers.  This may seem like an odd item but well, it is something we all need and something that serves multiple functions.

There is the obvious function, cutting nails and I use these for both toe and fingers nails.  I have always found most toe nail clippers to be for well, I guess children and women.  I have had them come apart and even one time break, I mean the metal cracked.

Next if you don’t keep a set or two of clippers in your fishing gear you either don’t have fishing gear or you are missing out.  I keep a set of these in each of my tackle boxes, so no matter which one I grab I always have them.  Sure you can cut fishing line just fine with a knife but no tool on the planet is better for trimming up rigging then clippers.

Lastly I don’t know what it is but there are three things I lose more than anything else.  They are in order sharpie markers, tape measures and nail clippers.  I just don’t get it, I am talking not leaving a room or a garage, having just had it in my hand and fing GONE LIKE A FART IN THE WIND.  Sometimes they show up, a day, week or month later, sometimes they are gone forever.

I tend not to believe in the super natural but if their are gnomes or some such shit that steals things, they must adore pens, tape measures and nail clippers.   So I want a quality clipper but I also want one that when, not if I lose it, I am not going to be too upset about it.  At $6.68 a piece when I need more I usually buy 2-6 at a time.

Right now I am down to the ones in my tackle boxes and one pair in my medicine cabinet.   Perhaps I should put a rat trap next to it and see if those little gnomes really exist?  In any event for your nail care and your tackle box at this price the Tweezerman Professional Stainless Steel Toenail Clippers just can’t be beat.

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

 

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OXA 4-in-1 Immersion Blender – Item of the Day

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Modern Survival| 4 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 OXA 4-in-1 Immersion Blender. This item recently came into my life when Dorothy and I made a batch of the famous squash and apple soup we serve at workshops. This soup is basically butternut squash, onions and apples along with some other stuff. You roast the squash and apples, saute the onions, put it all in a big pot with chicken stock and simmer it.

You then process it in a blender (we use our Vitamix which we love for many things) until smooth and it is done and delicious. You know what though we make it by the gallon for workshops and for canning. Transferring a gallon or two of scalding hot squash and apple puree that is almost like veggie napalm is not fun.

Recently while doing a batch I was like I have had enough of this I am going to get an immersion blender. I jumped on Amazon and holy crap, hundreds of options from dirt cheap to really expensive. As usual many highly reviewed models got F grades at Fakespot, fricken review cheaters. Some were really expensive and were true unitaskers. A unitasker is an item that does one thing and yet takes up space and resources. I agree with famous TV chef Alton Brown, I hate unitaskers and only settle for one when only it will do.

Then I found the OXA 4-in-1 Immersion Blender. Went to fakespot and with over 2500 reviews they have an awesome 4.5 stars and a perfect A grade for review quality. First test passed. Then I considered the additional things this item does. It is of course an immersion blender, this means you can blend soups, sauces, etc, in the pot vs transferring back and forth. But it also has a whisk beater for frothing eggs and cream, etc. We won’t use it much but it is nice for frothing a bit of cream to top a Holler Roast Coffee on occasion. Also comes with an acrylic jar to make smoothies and such. Any blender can do this with an appropriate container. So nice but not a huge win.

No for me the big win is the mini food processor attachment. We love pesto and the Vitamix doesn’t work really great for it. I have a big Cuisinart Food Processor but I don’t really want to take it out to make a cup of pesto or two cups of salsa. Honestly we will likely use the mini food processor more then the blender function.

And I call that a win, as I beat the unitasker space eating monster and still won’t have to ladle gallons of scalding soup to feed you guys at fall workshops any more.

Now here is the big thing, the other immersion blenders (unitasker or not) that had significant reviews, were 4.5 star rated and didn’t get a D or F on fakespot were all like 60-90 dollars or more. The OXA 4-in-1 Immersion Blender is 40 bucks. Guys that is a lot of utility and quality for 40 bucks.

So if you are in need of a immersion blender and hate unitaskers like I do, give the OXA 4-in-1 Immersion Blender a shot, I think you will be impressed.  Oh the best part, even with the attachments since it all breaks down, it takes up very little drawer space.

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

 

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Forlife Tea Infuser – Item of the Day

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Modern Survival| 19 Comments

infuserEvery 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 Forlife Tea Infuser.  We tried a bunch of different ones and found this one to be absolutely the best.  At around 18 bucks there are lower cost infusers for sure, but I have yet to find a better one.  Like many that drink loose teas I tried many of the “ball type” infusers, sorry but they are nothing but a pain in the ass to fill, a bigger pain in the ass to clean and they just don’t last a long time.  Not to mention for many herbal teas they just don’t have the capacity.

I also tried the tiny hanging baskets, back to small capacity, and pain in the ass to clean.  I also tried the snap mesh ones, again same story.  The day I got the Forlife Tea Infuser I took all the rest and put them into the donate to Goodwill Box.

This thing is heavy stainless steel with micro tiny holes.  It will last as long as you do unless you say drive over it with your car or something.  1200 plus reviews and 94% are 4 or 5 stars.  Here are the features I like most about it.

  1. High capacity
  2. Tiny mesh so you don’t have floaters
  3. Easy to clean, just swish it in water to get it perfect
  4. The lid keeps the seam in while it infuses
  5. Turn the lid upside down and it becomes a drip tray after infusion

Now honestly I use my French Press most days when I make tea in the morning, because I get two big cups per run.  And I and my wife drink several cups each in the AM.  But when I just want a single cup I still grab my Forlife Tea Infuser.  And today I am going to give away my recipe for our morning tea.

Until today this was a closely guarded secret as I was considering taking it commercial under the label of “Nine Mile Farms Tea”, but I decided to just make it well, open source.  You can make this for a fraction of the cost of tea in bags or pre blended and be sure 100% what is in it, and with one substitution you can make it caffeinated or decaf and it will tastes about the same.  I was drinking WAY too much coffee daily and this got me off of it like with no issues at all.

Jacks Morning Blend – Nine Mile Farms Tea

One day I ran out of Green Tea and used Blackberry Leaf, the taste was well, the same.  That is how I usually make it now.  The parts are by volume they are NOT BY WEIGHT.  I mix this up in a huge bowl so I have plenty for a month or so, and use a small glass to measure my parts.  If you want to make a smaller amount use a table spoon or reduce the 3-6 ratio down to 1-2.   Sweeten with your choice of sugar, honey or what I prefer, liquid stevia.

I brew it at two tablespoons per large cup.  Here is a secret though.  In a French Press, when you want to make a second run, just leave the old stuff in, and add one tablespoon to it, you can do this for about 4-5 runs, plenty for a day for two people.  In the Forlife Tea Infuser just add a slightly heaped teaspoon to your last run.

Even if you don’t get a Forlife Tea Infuser give  my tea a shot it will blow you away with how good it is, and while buying all the herbs if you don’t have them may seem expensive, compare it to buying pre made teas and the cost per serving is really low.  I just store mine in ball jars, and by the way a Canning Funnel is really helpful in getting the tea into those jars.  And REALLY mix it well before jarring it up.  And mix your jar often as you use it.  To help leave about an inch at the top of the jar when fill it.

I may give away some of my other tea blends in time, but this is my absolute best daily drinker, check out my video below to learn more.

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

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Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits by Andrew Schloss – Item of the Day

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Modern Survival| 3 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 book, Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits by Andrew Schloss.  This is the best book I have found for beginning your journey into the alchemy of making your own liqueurs.

What I like about this book is it is both a book of recipes and a book of how to with a good introduction into the how what and why of making your own liqueurs.

If you can think of the high end 30 dollar a bottle and up fancy smancy liqueur this book will show you how to make a reasonable approximation of it for 10-25% of the cost.  It will also give you confidence by following known recipes and I find many people need this to then spring board off into their own concoctions.

To be totally up front I do have one major criticism of this book, it does have some true “filler”.  With some exceptions the majority of the recipes call for the same procedure.  There are in fact about a total of 2 procedures that make up 90% of the recipes.  These could have been called say

  • The muddle with sugar and alcohol method and
  • The muddle with alcohol and add sugar at the end method

Instead every recipe basically repeats the same methods over and over, and I would bet this was clearly to fill out to the book to satisfy the publisher.  With that one change this book would likely drop from 272 pages to say about 150-170.  Still plenty of information but hey, people like thick books for some reason I guess and as I always say, “the market is gonna market”.

That said there is nothing wrong with this book.  It gives you concise information and teaches you how to make various simple syrups as well, this way you can make brown syrups, caramelized syrups and cream syrups and really make anything you could ever find at a bottle shop liqueur wise.

I am talking Chambord, Gran Marnier, Kaulua, Poire William, you name it.  This stuff is great fun and a real passion of mine, so much so that today’s show will be all about this subject.

The best part is while you could make much of this stuff with “fuel that accidentally spills into your mouth”, and you just might, but it can all be made perfectly legally with spirits bought in the store, you enhance the value and pocket the difference.  While some of this calls for things like rum or brandy, most of it can be made with simple vodka, and if you tune into episode 1923, I am even going to tell you how to turn things like vodka into rum.

Finally all the equipment you likely already have in your kitchen, you may need a few extra jars and bottles but as to the making, any decent kitchen will already have everything you will need to get started right away.  So check out, Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits by Andrew Schloss today and start turning 7 dollar bottles of vodka into top end 30 dollar bottles of liqueur.

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

P.S. – Because it was so stupid cheap I purchased the Kindle edition of this book to evaluate it.  I tend to loathe hard copies of most books at this point in my life but like most “cook books” I have to say the hard copy would be better.  So much so that I just ordered it even though I have it in Kindle.  Either will work fine but I think most people will be happier with hard copy on this one.  This is the type of book that lives with other cook books in your kitchen.

 

 

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SweetDrops Liquid Stevia – Item of the Day

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Modern Survival| 15 Comments

steviaEvery 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 SweetDrops Liquid Stevia and I recommend the 4oz bottle because it lasts a hell of a lot longer, though you can get it in a 2oz bottle or go the other way and get a twin pack of 4oz bottles.  This is one of those cases though were the more you buy the better the price.

I took a bit of time to come to love stevia, it is sweet, but no it doesn’t taste exactly like sugar.  It does taste a lot better than every single other calorie free sweetener I have ever tried including sucralose.  What I learned worked was to use just one drop say in tea, taste it, then add one more, until I found my perfect amount for a given cup.  After about a week of using it, you realize it doesn’t taste that different from sugar after all.

The deal is your body is highly tuned to sugar, it knows exactly what it is supposed to taste like, one reason those of us who grew up in the 70s know those of you who are younger have no idea what Coke is supposed to taste like!  Corn sugar is not cane sugar!

It is kind of the same with Stevia, it just takes some getting used to.  Once you do though you may very well prefer it to sugar.  The liquid alone means you can sweeten cold drinks and it will actually dissolve.  I use this all the time in my morning tea and in our amazing low carb strawberry limeade.

If you are looking for stevia on Amazon, SweetDrops Liquid Stevia is your best option.  It is on prime, a 4oz bottle is only about 20 bucks with free shipping, I paid 8 bucks for a one ounce bottle at a store recently because we needed it.  I have tried other vendors on Amazon, with poor shipping times and damaged and returned by the shipper orders due to shitty packaging.  While it may seem expensive I drink 8-10 cups of tea most days and a bottle lasts me about 3 months.

If you check SweetDrops Liquid Stevia has 561 reviews and 4.5 stars and if you actually read the one star reviews it will hurt your faith in humanity!  Seriously.  My favorite negative review is, “I don’t like this one either”. sigh.

The only valid criticism is that the dropper is a bit short so you end up with some at the bottom that is hard to get out.  This is a non issue to me, when I get close to running out, I simply order more.  Then, when it gets difficult to get the last bit out, I open the new bottle and use it about two weeks, by then you have some head space and just pour what is left in the old bottle into the new one.  Also frankly if you tilt the fricken bottle, you can get most of it out easily.  Again some negative reviews on Amazon make my faith in humanity fall further than it already is.

In the end guys being serious, excess sugar consumption is the number one cause of lifestyle disease in the modern world.  Yes this site is The Survival Podcast, and man this is a survival topic, getting off sugar could save your life.

Here is a simple low end break down, say you drink 4 cups of coffee or tea a day, with one tsp of sugar per cup, and 4 “soft drinks” or similar at 12 ounces each a day.  We will go low and say those have about 2 tsp of sugar per drink.  Well that is 12 tsp a day, 84 tsp a week.  That is almost 310 carbohydrates a week, in pure sugar form, jacking up your insulin resistance.

From a purely caloric standpoint, that is 1344 calories, if you are on a 1500-2000 calorie a day level, well that is almost an extra day of eating per week, 52 times a year.  And this is if sugar is your only vice and you only consume it in drinks!  And here we are talking self sweetened ones, look at what happens with say 4 cokes a day.

We toss out the tea, one coke has 39 carbs, x 4 is 156 x 7 = 1092 grams of carbs a week!  Cut that in half down to two a day, you are now at 546 carbs a week.  Can you even begin to know what that does to insulin resistance.  Calorically 2 cokes a day is almost 2000 calories a week!  If we go back to 4 a day, 8000 that adds up to four full days of eating to every week.  With no nutrition at all.

If you are thinking, but I don’t do that, what about your kids?  Kids seem to be able to eat this crap, and they can but if they do by adulthood they are addicts, and that amazing insulin resistance always goes away in the end.  Just something to think about.

Why not give SweetDrops Liquid Stevia a shot in your coffee or tea.  Try whipping up some of my special morning tea blend or my amazing strawberry limeade.  Trust me folks kids love the limeade, so do big kids.  Sugar isn’t evil but read a label it is in almost everything any more.  All it is doing now is creating lifelong customers for the medical industry and drug companies.  Take your health back and this is just one simple way to start doing that!

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

P.S. – For my latest uses of this stuff involving the world of mixology (IE adult beverages) tune in to today’s episode of TSP.

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