power-outage cooking

[Kitchen Witch]

We've had a horrid snow storm - which is typical for us snowbelt communities. Too bad it had to come on October 12th instead of later in the season. It caught many people off guard too.

Cars have been stranded on the thruway for over 12 hours - one auto accident and 2 jack-knifed semi trucks. Those people are frozen, no food, no restrooms and running out of gas.

We got atleast 2 1/2 feet of that heavy slushie snow - I am surrounded by broken trees, downed power lines, some have their gutters hanging, siding or shingles off the houses. No mail, no paper - no one is out - sort of eerie in a way. Can't even get a plow until the branches are cleared and the lines are up. We just got electricity! We were the lucky ones - our power was only out for a day. Over 400,000 are without power - and it looks like it should all be restored between Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

I am thankful that I don't have to worry about diapers, formula, etc. My heart goes out to those that are on breathing machines, etc.

Our neighbor thought they could get to a store--after 3 1/2 hours of trying to shovel out - the car would not go down the street - the tires are not touching the pavement - cant' get any traction.

I have 4 large trees that may have to come down now - they were beautiful - but - Mother Nature didn't like them I guess. Most streets are blocked by trees and limbs.

I just love these stoves - you need electricity to start up your burners - had to resort to the old match-striking! Furnace would not go on - no electricity. By 5 o'clock today, just north of us they will have no more water - the storm knocked out the power to the pumping station. Power crews from around the state have formed convoys - they are on their way. The governor rode over our home in his helicopter assessing the damage - he should've come closer and pulled the tops of my silver maple of my second floor roof - would've helped me a lot!

Most of the refrigerator items have to go - I won't chance it - and I had just filled both refrigerators with milk, cheese, eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, etc. for making ricotta cheese, corn soup, and do some baking. The freezers are okay.

Now that the power is back on (for how long - who knows - it's still very windy and they are not done in the area with restoring power to eveyone) I checked everything in the freezers - some sausage was a bit soft so I cooked it up for tomorrow (Friday - no meat day). The fish was eaten today. But the tartar sauce, mayo, etc. has to go into the trash. The onion rings were good with the fish. Couldn't make coleslaw or potato or macaroni salad to go with it. But fried potatoes worked. Everything else seems fine in the freezers.

Hopefully we will see a plow by tomorrow so that I can replace by refrigerated items. Unfortunately - I will have to drive quite a distance for dairy items - the stores here had no power. Right now the driving ban is still on - but the streets are so pathetic it wouldn't be worth the effort!

The lights are flickering so the power may go out again - but at least it came on long enough to get the sump pump emptied before there was any damage.

I have 2 turkeys in the freezer and tons of meat. I come close to cooking it all up and handing it out to the neighbors! If the outage would have lasted any longer I would have had to. We've had to do that twice before during bad storms; better than wasting it.

The damage this storm caused is unreal - looks like I'm one of the lucky ones in spite of the broken trees, lost foods, etc.

[horselover]

KW , we will be thinking of you during this trying time. Glad the electricity came back on so you didn't lose the stuff in your freezer! I know how you feel. Several years ago Tennessee had a rare ice storm and my parents had just butchered a beef. My dad said, if its all thawed when we open it cook it all and take it to anyone you know that can use it, I won't let it go to waste. Thankfully all was still frozen. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you ! What area do you live in?

[Kitchen Witch]

Thank you horselover! But unfortunately, as I had stated, they were not done and out went the power. My refrigerator is totally bare right now - my trash will be quite heavy this week. Both refrigerator freezers have been emptied and tomorrow I will have to ditch what's in the chest freezer. And now we have to boil water - for those who have water; some have water, some don't and some have just a trickle. Still no plows - spent 2 hours (4 AM) outside hauling tree branches and tree parts (they average from 8 to 15 feet long) out to the front - we are waiting for the National Guard to assist in hauling them away. Now it's raining cats and dogs and I can't get at the half of the silver maple that cracked and is hanging on the second floor deck; nor can I attempt to use my long tree cutter to try to get that large limb from the second floor roof. In all honesty - this is worse that the Blizzard of '77, the massive ice storm of '78 and Blizzard 2000 all together! There are still well over 320,000 homes without power and they cannot restore the power to the pumping stations because of the mess all along the lake.

Still can't get out of the driveway - driving bans are still on. No signals at intersections - just take your chances. Atleast they are sending help from Vermont and Maine for our power companies. Cripe - they are still assessing damage in most parts. And when we can finally get out - we don't know if we can drive down any roads because of the downed trees and power lines.

Our county parks look naked - so many trees are ruined. Tree-lined streets are no longer tree-lined; all because the leaves were still on the trees when the storm hit. We couldn't even move the tree limbs - they were encased in ice and had to be chiseled out. It would have been much easier if we only had to drag them around. There are more broken limbs/branches in the trees - but we cannot get at them all. Looks like next spring the tree service companies will be busy!

And those with generators that need gasoline - they can't even get any gasoline because the gas pumps are not working. The few stations that do have gas have lines a mile long.

They finally opened up the thruway - my heart goes out to those who froze in their vehicles for 12 to 14 hours or more - 100 miles of vehicles stuck and going absolutely nowhere.

I'm down to six 20-oz. bottles of water - for brushing teeth. We have to boil our water until further notice.

We cannot eat out - no pizzerias, fast food places, restaurants, etc. because all their food has to go out too. We cannot buy any dairy products in any of the surrounding counties. I am hoping that tomorrow I can head to PA or Ohio in search of dairy and meats.

Seems like the only thing we have is pantry items - today it will be macaroni in oil and garlic; we have crackers and cereal but need milk for cereal. There are some canned goods - but most of my veggies were frozen and gone now. I still have my pancake mix - but it needs eggs and the syrup went out. Oh well -

Geez - even my Pecorino Romano is gone and I don't have any "sawdust" jarred grated Parmesan! (I hate that stuff!) I just stocked the freezers and refrigerators with tons of food too - hello homeowners!

Oh well - this too shall pass - wish I had a hot cup of tea with milk in it!

Maybe tomorrow we can get out - who knows - just thankful I have macaroni in the house and olive oil and garlic!

I am in NY - south of Buffalo - in the southtowns - snowbelt - cold hell is what it is! Had my home buried in snow twice since I moved down here 37 1/2 years ago - had to get plows to try to find my house - after they hit the tree in front they knew they were close!; had my house totally encased in ice and had to get people to chisel me out once; shoveled more snow than I would care to think of.

My car is still buried under 8 to 10 inches of icy mix - it's starting to melt slowly and I don't know if it is "pocked" from the hail storm we had on Thursday! Nor do I know if the windows were cracked by the ice balls. But this week it will hit 60 and we will get back to normal - except for buying dairy - I don't trust some of these markets - they only want profits. So for the next few weeks I'll drive to PA and OHIO....................

[Kitchen Witch]

And now comes the rain - it is melting the 2+ feet of snow and causing floods. I hope they don't shut off the power again - need the old sump pump! But the winds have really died down - 60+ the past couple days!

[Kitchen Witch]

Trying to make a decent meal with nothing!

Spaghetti in oil with garlic; my loaf of Italian bread is on its last leg - so I will spread with oil and garlic and toast it.

I have fresh tomatoes which I will make a salad out of with a can of ripe olives and a can of garbanzos with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and basil.

And I have cortland apples - maybe I can figure out a dessert of some sort.

Never had such bare cupboards at Mother Hubbard's!!!



A neighbor tried to get out - it's still impossible and the roads are horrid. Too much damage everywhere you look. None of the stores that are open have milk, bread, etc.


Hopefully tomorrow we can get out and make it to PA or Ohio. Could go up to Canada but I'm not sure if you can bring meat and dairy through customs and I don't want to have to leave those things behind with a customs agent.

[horselover]

Maybe after it is all over , you will be like my uncle who lives in Jackson , Miss. and be able to find some comic relief from the situation. Right before hurricane Katrina hit my aunt had caught peanut butter on sale and bought 4 jars. My uncle asked her why did she buy so much peanut butter for just 2 people? She said cause there was a good sale on it. When the hurricane hit she was in L.A. on business, leaving my uncle and the poodle in Miss. when the storm hit. After several days of worriyng because she couldn't get in touch with him because the phones were down, she finally got in touch, and he told her he and the dog were doing very well, all the food in the refrigerator and freezer had ruined, and you couldn't go out to eat because all the local stores and resturants had either been destroyed or had no power, but they were getting by on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and peanut and butter and crackers! Now everytime it looks like rain he tells her we better go to the store and get some peanut butter and crackers! Hope it doesn't take ya'll long to get some relief from the storm!

[Kitchen Witch]

Thank you - and sometimes you do things like that and there is a reason for it. That peanut butter and jelly held them over. You can bet that will be on my list today - and until this is all over - I am not stocking up the freezers. It doesn't look much better out there today - but today I will try to make my way south - to PA or over to Ohio. There I should be able to get dairy and foods that we don't have up here - and gas!

There is so much damage here and even though the people are doing most of the clean up - it is still slow going. And they are still assessing in many parts! They are still working on the water pumping stations.

We get hit hard here - but this is the worst one yet.

Now to try to drive around a driving ban to get to where I have to go........

[bookwoman]

Why throw good food away because the power goes out?
You said you had 2.5 feet of snow?
Use nature's refrigerator, stick your stuff in the snow until the electric comes back. Put it in camping/ picnic coolers with frozen food on top you plan to use in the next day or so. Your fridge will keep food for atleast 24hours if you don't open it every 15 minutes.


No reason to waste good food!

[Kitchen Witch]

There is plenty of reason to throw out food when the outside temps are over 40 the day after 2 days of such a storm. The snow was water packed - wouldn't keep anything cold. Two days of no power doesn't help. And 2 days of rain on top of that isn't much better. Tree branches and limbs are still falling - you'd collect more leaves than snow.

Some people cannot even get their doors opened because of downed lines and trees.

Besides - why put food in the snow and attract unwanted critters!