Went to the Bozeman gun show yesterday. Got there way too early so i had about two hours to kill. It was almost a hundred degrees and I needed a place to be cool, onobtrusive, and highly amused or entertained. Solution? WalMart!

I used to say that CostCo was the best thing to hit the preparedness market since the MRE. No longer. Personal quartermaster thy name is SuperWalMart.

So Im wandering through WalMart with ZeroVision(tm) fully active…you know, looking for foods that have long shelf life, convenient durable packaging, etc, etc. And I found a very promising product.

Some background: instant milk sucks. No matter how you mix it, it always tastes horrible. One of the reasons is because all the dehydrated instant milk you find is low-fat, and frankly low fat milk tastes like crap even when you get it out of a carton. Thats when I noticed this in the ‘Ethnic/Mexican food/ section. Notice the label carefully: WHOLE milk. Yes, WHOLE milk…complete with , as the label says, 26% milk fat. So its real milk..not that lowfat crap. This is a product that, as it turns out:

is a dry whole milk product that is commonly sold in the Middle East. It is marketed as a way for adults and children to get the nutrition of milk when fresh milk is not available. In Middle Eastern cooking, it is incorporated into many dishes that call for goat milk. Nido is finer in texture than regular dry milk, lending a creamier consistency to casseroles, sauces and puddings.

Nutritional data? No sweat: http://www.dietfacts.com/html/items/19100.htm

Shelf life? About two years. Price is , out of WallyWorld, $2.78 for enough to make approx. 13 8-oz. servings…so about a gallon. A larger container (about 2-3#) is available also. Container is a cardboard drum with metal bottom and a faoil ‘pull away’ top..much like what you get when you buy cool-aid or gatorade.

I tend to not drink milk but I really want to like this product for cooking purposes. Between dehydrated eggs and dehydrated whole milk, I’ve got a good part of my dairy needs met. I’ll be trying this stuff out tonight in a very simple test: using it with instant potatoes. But, I also want to try mixing it with Tang to make orange smoothee type drinks as well as things like pudding, cream sauces and that sort of thing.

By the by, this is a Nestle product, “Nestle Nido”, bar code is 0 28000 78645 8. Nestle doesnt have much about it on their website but apparenty Spanish and Arabic food specialty places may be your best bet on it. Several internet grocers seem to be carrying it. I bet a WalMart near any Spanish part of town would carry it as well as some bodegas.
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Although I usually carry the Glock in a Bianchi #19L holster, I’ve come to the conclusion synthetic is the way to go with the Glock. While at the show I saw an injection molded number made by Blade-Tech, The Kydex was twice the money but it didnt have this very nice belt attachment device, and I figured for $20 I couldnt go wrong. We’ll see how it works out.
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Ran into Militia Of Montana has-been John Trochman. John may or may not be ‘active’ in whatever remains of the militia movement but theres no doubt he’s active in the sales division of it….he had a dozen tables selling everything..mostly books, vidoes, first aid gear, and my favorite – parachute flares. Which reminds me, a guy was selling 40mm white star parachute flares for usein M203’s. If I had something that launched 40’s I’d have gotten some.
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I’m jazzed about trying this new milk product. Details to follow.