The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Good books, Good Coffee, Good Food, Good Service

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

It was an interesting weekend that gave way to many thoughts. Not the least of which are focused on my new bookLET YOUR HEART BE LIGHT out TOMORROW!!!!! Preppers Christmas Catalog https://prepper-catalog.paperturn-view.com/black-friday-pbn-3rd-draft-3?pid=ODk8917526&v=3.11&p=9Get Prepared with Our Incredible Sponsors! Survival Bags, kits, gear www.limatangosurvival.comEMP Proof Shipping Containers www.fardaycontainers.comThe Prepper's Medical Handbook Build Your Medical Cache – Welcome PBN FamilyPack Fresh USA www.packfreshusa.comSupport PBN with a Donation https://bit.ly/3SICxEq

Welcome in PBN. Welcome to CAFE PBN. Cafe is stability. I'm going to be conducting a reading this morning. from one let your heart be light which will be out tomorrow those of you on the mailing lists and the newsletter lists and the social media lists I'll get you a link okay play with this smooth jazz this smooth Christmas jazz and read a little bit from as we dream the fire which is chapter three four something like that as we dreamed by the fire introducing

a character named debor bless the thousand times of those with a quaint little cafe to disappear into cafes aren't everywhere should you clasp a book to your chest walking down a blustery sidewalk in leaves like dripping fire around you with the seven seas in the sky above puffy white caps on heavenly waves you are blessed scarf wrapped warming your hands on a mugget well-brewed black coffee and that i have a black coffee over the weekend we might have to talk about that if you can peer through a cafe window and watch the snow a cum first on the grass and then on the roads you're blessed a thousand more time maybe a little smooth jazz on the speakers brushes on a snare and the glow of Christmas lights to carry the moment through the glass doors the warmth of a real cafe hits you and overtakes you with the scent of yeasty sweet spice things it calls you to plop down a while and almost like a good local bar. It's one of the rare places that

invites you to enjoy your time there. Debra sat in one such place, her face aglow. Her face aglow. In the light of a laptop. She was writing. She was using the Hemingway method at the moment. Hemingway said simply, there's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. That's how you meet Deborah. That's how you meet Deborah. That's how you meet Deborah and let your heart be light. She is a, uh, a character that I think, uh, I don't know. Who knows? cares what i think firewolf says yes i can get a double double mocha java latte half caffeine with foam please no that's not the uh you're thinking of the wrong kind of cafe firewolf really what it is is a cafe bakery you know what i mean that's really what it is it's a cafe bakery

it's a cafe bakery combination like i said i mean they're they're rare they're not that much of a thing anymore they may never have been that much of a thing across the country i don't know but where i grew up and um where i live now my beautiful little cafe but i had a great coffee a coffee that was astounding at a dinner over the weekend it really blew me away i was looking at the menu i really screwed up and uh you know eight before a meeting you know you ever do that like you're invited to a late meal that you know you're not going to eat early i'm invited to a late meal there's no way i'm going to wait that long there's no way that you know the kids and the wife are going to wait to eat that late and that kind of thing

and circumstances of the day just required a meal. And we wound up, I don't know, you know, just enjoying it. Enjoying food before heading out to the dinner itself, then you wind up getting to the dinner and, you know, you want to be decent. You look around at the menu, it's like, oh, my God, I can't. And then, you know, I order the apps and bring the apps around and eat some of the apps. I had a really good The restaurant was good

The service was really good Really good We saw my wife and I We saw sort of like the Well I'll talk to you about it How about that We saw sort of the The best and the worst of service

In a 10 minute span And it really was I mean it really was the best And the worst of service How do I know about the best And the worst of service I actually went to college for it Funny enough

funny enough you know you go to a restaurant and you if you go out to eat a lot or something along those lines you start to understand kind of what's good and what's bad service but I spent you know I don't know probably a year

something like that with a great guy a big guy what was his name I feel so bad I can't remember his name I could see him so clearly he always reminded me he didn't look like him but the attitude was a lot like the dude

from Home Alone 2. The guy who played Pennywise. I'm so sorry. I can't think of his name. It's so bad. Icon. The original Pennywise. Rocky Horror Picture Show.

You know the guy. The devil. I don't know. From epic or legend or whatever hell the movie's called. Anyway, I can't think of it. I was hoping it would come to me, but I can't think of his name. But his attitude, particularly towards children and the focus on uh i don't know i don't know if it's frowned upon or something along

those lines but really good services just it's it is a skill set it's like uh you have to be trained you have to know what you're doing and the guy i learned from tim curry there he is phoenix in the chat what's up thanks for the for the head up that attitude that he has you know what I mean in Home Alone too he looks like glowers at the kid the guy I learned about the front of the house from hated kids in restaurants hated it

like he never wanted to see him he never wanted kids in restaurant he says look if you're having a good night and the restaurant is you know booming and things are going great and then kids come in it's all bets are off anything can happen like he really he had kids it wasn't that he hated kids

he had kids and that he had kids and that kind of thing. But his level of disdain for kids at a fine dining restaurant was amazing. Because, and I think it's because he looked at front of the housework, you know what I mean? The whole front of the house experience, matri-D, Samalier, the whole thing as an act, which it is when it's done well, not an act in the, you know, the faking of it all. But I'm talking about an act in the, you know, the presentation. and that's the magic of great service.

The magic of a great server is someone who is always there and never there. Do you know what I mean? That is and always pleasant. And maybe more important than all of those things, competent. Do you know what I mean? That's exactly how we learned it. You know, it's to be there. when needed to watch the table but to never be there in a way that's like oh

server won't leave us alone do you know what i mean you've had you've had probably every iteration of server and the one that you forgot the i'd say the best one is the one that you forgot and the meal was great and you had a great time and you left a good tip and you know you didn't go away going like i'll never forget that server you went away like that was a great meal. You know, you go, you look at the water and they're at the water. You know what I'm, you look at the, you put the menu down and they're there. You put, it's, it's an art. It really is. And what I'm getting at is we walked into this beautifully decorated restaurant that we thought we were eating at. We get to the front of the table. There are, I'm going to just say it like it is. A younger hostess and an older, taller hostess and they never look up from the reservation book neither of them they never look you in the eye right it's a packed restaurant it's packed all year and it's this sort of like well it's terrible is what it is it's a terrible first impression it's a disrespectful first

it's the worst way you could ever start out and experience is to have these long-haired long-legged hostesses is staring down at a reservation book and asking you questions about your reservation. You know what I mean? I don't even know if they said hi. I don't even think they said hello. I don't know that there was a greeting. And you know, the clientele was interesting, too.

It's a whole thing. It's sort of like a shared disdain for one another. You know what I mean? some food establishment you go out there you eat with friends and family you have a good time you look around everyone around you's having a good time right and this place this place was gorgeous inside don't give me other christmas lights hanging off of everything garland hanging off of it whoever decorated it should probably take over the front of the house maybe take over the restaurant altogether um but you looked around at the people and the people coming through and they

were old and they were rich and they were the hair was pulled back in ponytail so tight that the eyeballs were like protruding like gummy snacks you know what i mean it's like and the botox and the faces and the whole thing and you look at it and you knew it you're like this is the the disdain at the front desk was atmospheric do you know what i mean it was it was it was this this whole world of like exclusivity right i got in it's booked but i'm here it's booked but you made it in okay so what you know it was just this whole brutal thing luckily we didn't eat there i have a feeling the food would have sucked but anyway we left we went to the restaurant down the street where we met everyone else and ate and uh the food was great really had i not eaten

the food was great um yeah it was phenomenal but but but what really blew everything about that night kind of out the window um besides my wife's outfit was the french press coffee i was really looking forward to cut's really what i wanted it was like seven whatever something like that and i was like man it's just it's cold it's cold as hell we were cold all day We went to a football tournament that was more like, I don't know. It was like the gulag, to be honest with you. I don't even want to go on about it because it will be another 10 minutes. But my son was playing in it.

It was like the gulag. We were like on the archipelago, you know, and the prisoners were fighting one another. It was insane. So I just wanted to be warm. You know what I mean? After that, I wanted to be warm. My kid was half. hypothermic when I showed up to the game.

So I just, like, this hot cup of coffee was just going to get me. I didn't necessarily know the people we were eating with those. Kind of, like, you know, my wife's acquaintances, that kind of thing. And she brought over the steel, or server brought over the steel French press. And, you know, see, this is why it's better when I have the camera to worry about. It's better and worse. when I have the camera to worry about I feel like I have to animate you know what I'm saying like I have to animate oh I got a smile and I got and I can't use my full brain to really think

about what it is I want to talk about and I think it's a detriment um I'm going to get one of those like animated faces I'll do something like that anyway there's something about a coffee cup you know what i mean like there's this this whole procession of things when it comes to the drinking of coffee if you're as obsessed with it as i am as addicted to it as i am if you use it as much like a binky as i do you know everybody has a binkie you know that like everyone has a little nook nook in their life they give the binkie up to mom at a certain age and then we find another one and i even say it out loud in my house because I think it's important, right, to understand.

But there's, it's, you know, it's undoubtedly my thing, right? Like, the day's not going well, turn the coffee pot on and, you know, give me the nook. It is what it is. But, you know, there's a thing about a coffee mug and the thickness of a coffee mug and the stout size of it and that kind of thing. And it was a really nice French press. And when she poured the coffee in, it did that magical little. pour where the it was thick and black as night and the the coffee frothed a bit and was really really dark

brown around the rim i don't know if these details mattered to anyone but me but when you see it on a cold december night and you're like oh my god this is going to be this is better than any alcoholic beverage on the menu right now guy across from me was drinking a a milk stout that looked it looked great i mean it was as black as my coffee it looked great um but in that moment man that coffee coming out of that french press was so good unbelievable and uh yeah i don't know i find you here monday morning for some ungodly reason i appreciate you all don't get me wrong but i find you here uh listening to a show called if the fates allow and you know because we're in the in the throes of christmas my kids are off school again for no reason they're literally off

school for no reason whatsoever there's nothing happening it's 822 they'd both be in school right now there's literally nothing falling from the sky supposedly we're supposed to wind up with four inches of snow which will be a blast don't get me wrong i'll be elated but i don't know you know what i do know is there's tons to talk about okay there's tons to talk about in the pebbian world um nothing is priority because there's too much nothing is priority because i don't have the heart to make anything one priority over the other however this is a very short story we'll be out tomorrow right now i'm only at this is a short story this is a 64 page story at the moment that I'm looking at.

So a light read, okay? A light read. And, you know, it's just one to put on the shelf for Christmas. You know, you should have a Christmas shelf. You should invest in a little collection of books and movies, hard movies, you know, hard copy stuff. And stack them all up for the holidays. Wrap them up in like some really nice ribbon or something like that. want to keep them out all year like i do and then just bring it out bring out the stack bring out the

you know bring out the christmas hook and bring out a christmas carol and bring out some kids books that you know are christmas related and that stuff the christmas tree amazing dickinson uh yeah there's a dickens rather dickens and i don't know have those things lying in wait but this one would go great in that collection because like I said it is uh well it is love and marriage and kids and God and family and that whole thing and that's really what this book's all about so it'll be out tomorrow probably in the uh probably in the 12 o'clock hour after is when I'll send the email out and I get the link to everybody who wants to buy it I don't know what I'm going to charge for it yet, to be honest with you.

This whole thing is impromptu. This whole release is totally an impromptu. Ode to the Firewolf in chat. You know what I mean? Ode to the Firewolf in chat, literally a month ago, something like that, I was pretty much finished with the book. And I said, when should we release the book? Just whatever.

Let's just do it on a Tuesday. And the Firewolf said, December 9th. And I said, fuck, yeah, sounds good. Let's do it. So, book will be out tomorrow. Let your heart be light. Let your heart be light. Yeah, I guess, you know, there are stories that can be written like 400 pages long, tell a great story.

And they have a sort of density of, what is it? I don't know. Maybe it's the density of the story itself. for the density of the quality of the work. I don't know. This is a short, dense read. You know what I mean? If you're into kind of what I read you

at the beginning of the show, then you're going to love the book altogether. So, just something to consider. Get well, Jay Ferg. Nothing like a good hot toddy, though. I'll tell you that much. Like, that is a highly underrated beverage

in the winter. highly underrated you have had a hot toddy is it hot toddy what am i thinking no i'm thinking about a hot buttered rum okay a hot buttered rum is magic it really is are they the same what is a what is a hot toddy no maybe i'm not thinking a hot buttered rum either Colonial Williamsburg. It was a hot something. Maybe it was a hot toddy. Let's look at the hot toddies. Crown Royal. Yeah, it's a hot toddy. Phenomenal. I love that when you go to a website, 50 blocks hit you in the face immediately as you try to walk through the front door. I always think about it like dogs. You know what I mean? Like you go to someone's house and like,

Six dogs run into your knees immediately upon walking through the threshold. Jay Ferg threw it up there. I should have just waited on her. Hot toddies, hot water whiskey, lemon, honey with cinnamon and clove. Okay. What I'm thinking of, if anybody knows it, please tell me. Or I'm going to ask Grock. I took my, I think it was my youngest.

It may have been my oldest. I can't remember. It was years ago, so it probably was my oldest. To Colonial Williamsburg at Christmas, one winter day. And we went to a restaurant. We did a bunch of shit, but we went to a restaurant. And I had a hot apple cider with rum and butter. We're freezing.

You know what I mean? Most of the day, which increased the validity in the closet. and the quality of the drink. But, man, it was one of those things. Like, there are certain things that are perfect in the cold. But this, whatever it was, I thought it was a hot buttered rum, but I guess not. And it could have been a colonial Williamsburg version, you know? I don't know.

Maybe it was a different thing. I'm going to ask, what drink contains hot cider? rum butter what do we got okay so it was a hot buttered rum a traditional hot buttered rum hot apple cider dark rum a pat of butter cinnamon nutmeg clove all spice brown sugar honey or maple syrup optional cinnamon stick yeah that was something man usually the hot buttered rum has milk. It's like a milk-based nightmare. I don't know who would want it. That you had a hot buttered rum. The traditional good, you know, a good thick cider, you can't like see through it. It's not refined or whatever. It's not like refined gasoline.

It's more like crude, crude cider. So anyway, long story short, let your heart be light out tomorrow. Move on. Moving on. Moving along. Moving along into well i guess you might as well talk kettlebells should we should we talk kettle we are into week two now kettle bells in christ i don't know how many of you are participating but i'll keep talking about it and try to convince many of you to participate because it's a good deal man it's a good let's look at what we got on the menu this is a real this is the big week this is kind of like the biggest week in my opinion um because this you you get through the full body week of kettlebells in christ day six seven eight nine ten for those you have no idea what

we're talking about um it is workout kettlebell workout with scripture 20 days out of the month of december we do it every year and it's great for the mind body spirit the whole nine yards what i like best about week two though is if you can if you can really do week two then you're a kettlebell uh expert maybe not an expert but you're at least proficient you know what i mean you're at least proficient and then you'll be tested the following week 10 swings, 10 press, 10 squat, 10 curl, five sets, right? These things you do with one kettlebell. One kettlebell, you do your swings, two hands on the horn.

The press is one single kettlebell press over your head. Ten squats, goblet style I probably should put in there, but I didn't have a lot of room. um and 10 curls five sets straightforward boring bore you to death absolutely boring um but tough i should say three to five so you don't have to do five it's a lot five sets a lot that's what 10 20 50 swings 50 presses 50 squats 50 curls it's pretty good though it's pretty good workout for those of you were just getting started you didn't do the 20 hip hinge 25 deadlift 50 swing last week light light light like kettlebell okay don't buy don't don't be like a a a big goofball and buy a big 50 pound kettlebell 60 pound kettlebell and try to muscle through everything or you'll

spend christmas on the couch you know what i mean if you want to do that kind of thing you'll spend christmas on the couch is what you'll do let's hop on over to the epic times and see what's on. Oh, you know what? Before we get there, I encourage everyone to look down in the show notes, link descriptions, whatever it is, and peruse the Christmas catalog, which is still out. And if you want, there's a lot of great brands in there, awesome, awesome stuff in there. And if you want to give me a Christmas gift, by the way, Phoenix, thanks for thinking of me. I'm sorry, I didn't respond to that. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, how convenient, says the blacksmith. I don't have a kettlebell can't participate. Of course you can. You guys both can. You can use a dumbbell.

You can use a single dumbbell. You can use two dumbbells for all these. Anyway, if you want to get the commander a gift, then what I'd really like this year is for you to sign up for your $5 per month membership. Go through your membership stuff. I just found out the other day I was getting, I'm getting absolutely filleted by Xbox on a membership that started at $9.99 has increased threefold.

And we don't even play the Xbox that much. So go through your memberships and your subscriptions and all that stuff. Cancel about six of them. You'll probably save $100 on things you're not even using. And then start your $5 month membership. at the Prepper Broadcasting Network. Okay, go to PBNFamily.com and sign up. If, you know, if you're compelled,

if you say, you know what, I'd like to get this goofball something for the holidays. I'd like to make his day. That would do it. That would do it. That's one of my big goals. We long time, for a long time, well, you don't need to hear about my strategy.

It is what it is. If you want to do something for the commander, that's, those are the marching orders, okay? If you want to get in shape through the holiday season or if you want to at least sort of like pare back the destruction of the holiday eating, I don't know about you, but it's already begun.

I eat more sugar in December than I eat in the whole rest of the year. It's unbelievable. Well, let's head over the epic time, see what's going on in the world. Is China going to get absolutely bullied into submission by the global trade war China has more to lose in the global trade war than U.S. researchers say

they're really going crazy they're really pissing a lot of people off old China Thailand launches airstrikes against Cambodia after deadly border clashes ooh I hate to see Cambodia getting fired up they're one of those you know one of those countries yeah oh you could probably do that yeah maybe i'll put something out for everybody

maybe i'll put out a video i oh yeah for the lot dumbbell dumbbell for kettlebell because you could do it's very easy this workout in particular this week real easy the swing is weird but i'll show you how to manage that okay What would they do to China was messing around with Who was it? The Philippines, I think. Here you go.

Chinese fighter jets Locked radar on Japanese aircraft. Tokyo says Tokyo is not having it. Philippines says China fired flares at a patrol plane. Oh, God. Here's an interesting one. China to tax condoms and contraceptives as it grapples with plunging birth rate. Imagine that.

Imagine that. Oh, good call, J. Ferg. Put it on the list. Put it on the list. Tomorrow. Today is, I think, a little too full. Oh, yeah, a cool interview tomorrow. I don't know if it's going to release tomorrow or not, but I don't want to say too much about it

because it's kind of a little bit of a Christmas gift to one of our lists. is the show itself. Dumbbell for kettlebell. I cannot tell you how much better it is to do this podcast like a podcast. You know what I'm saying? Let's go to the economic collapse blog.com, shall we? Chinese regime warns foreign media arrests man over posts for posts over fire in Hong Kong.

The fire that would never end. I like the epic time. I'd highly recommend it. Panfort, a seasonal tradition worth repeating. Delicious. We want to talk about food or do you want to talk about Orwellian society? I think we're going to go with food. I think we're going to close the doom of the economic collapse down and talk about Panfort, rather.

we're going to share this with everybody because tis the season you know what i mean we know it's orwellian out there we know that the the lurkers are everywhere we know that every camera is spying and every speaker is yapping and yipping and you know they're listening to basically everything that you say and all i can tell you and you know as much I don't do a great job of promoting my special little link because I'm not a super special little link guy. But all I can tell you is if you want to drive around in your car with your family and talk about whatever the hell you want

and not be served ads, get a ghost phone for Mark 37. Yeah, it's a change. It's a big change and there'll be some things you have to get used to. But get a ghost phone for Mark 37. And I could promise you, you can say whatever you want to that thing. And when you log into places, you put YouTube on, you put whatever. I don't even, the only thing I go to is browser YouTube or browser rumble on it. But you will not be served ads.

You will not be surprised by the fact that you said the word candy cane one time in a conversation. And all of a sudden everything you see is candy canes. So, you know, it is what it is. what do you want out of life, you know? Panfort. I'm guessing this is a French dish. It looks like, sort of like a fruit cake with hazelnuts in it.

Looks awesome. Fig? Oh, you know, it's probably fig in there, too. Let's see. Oh, it's Italiano. Panfort is a classic Italian suite from Sienna. It's part cake, part confection, entirely irresistible, says Linda Balslev. Look, if you want to read news, Epic Times is it.

They haven't sent me a newspaper in a while. I've got to email them. Traditionally combines toasted nuts such as almonds and hazelnuts, dried and candied fruit, warm spices, a touch of chocolate added to a version called Panfort Nero. All the ingredients are bound together with honey syrup. that sets into a chewy, fragrant cakes. Yeah, I would add figs to it. Candied, dried figs, maybe.

Each slice offers, I would eat, I mean, this type of a dessert right here is like, remember when I was like gushing about the coffee? This is the thing. Like, you slice this little chewy, nutty deliciousness. Let's see what they put in there. Oh, look, they're thinking like me already. Panfort Nero. Makes one eight to nine inch cake, couple hazelnuts, couple almonds, cup of chopped, dried, mission figs, candied oranges, raisins, flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon.

Beautiful, nutmeg, clove, coriander, honey. You know what, no, no, no dairy. No dairy. Oof, I'm going to wind up making this today. granulated sugar chopped dark chocolate oh my goodness so what are we doing here we're whisking up our dry ingredients right what is that noise whisking up our dry ingredients you make sort of like uh You make sort of like a if you got it on your skin, it will burn a hole through your flesh type of deal with the hot sugar and the hot honey. And yeah, mix it all together.

Mix it all together with the flower. Was the door open? It must have blew open. Sorry, the door blew open. The ghost of Christmas past came in. 30 minute bake time chill 30 minutes brew the coffee yeah that sounds like a

that sounds like a winner on this day well all right folks it's time we've had enough time to get the 36 minutes don't forget I'll let you guys know about the book tomorrow too and uh you know all the various other marching

orders, I don't know. Good luck. Good luck keeping up. That's all I can tell you. We've got Rising Republic. I owe you two Rising Republic shows that I haven't put up yet. And that's it for me today, folks. I'll see you tomorrow.