Getting Ready for Hurricane and Blizzard Seasons

A number of things occurred this past week to remind me that the most dreaded season of the year will be upon us all too soon - Winter.

Various crafting communities are already heavily into making winter holiday gifts and decorations.

Articles are appearing in newspapers and magazines about the hot new toys of the upcoming season.

Ditto holiday recipes and cooking tips.

A few stores are starting to put out holiday merchandise.

The Hallmark Channel won't stop talking about their Countdown to Christmas programming, even though their Summer Nights and Fall Harvest promotions are still going strong.

Harmony House is having a 20% off sale on their dehydrated food products if you use code 3831 before September 4, 2018.

But before winter, we still have the 2018 hurricane season to get through. Hurricane Sandy is still very fresh in our minds, so I'd rather be over-prepared than under.

So, what have I been doing to prepare?

Well, I'm going through our cold weather clothing to make sure everything is in decent shape - zippers working, buttons on tight, hats, gloves and scarves in good shape and cleaned.

I'll soon be dragging the quilts and blankets back to the laundromat for freshening up so when it comes time to put them on the beds they'll be ready.

I've already started to stock up on things like paper towels, boxes and rolls of tissues, dry foods like brown rice, pasta, and oatmeal, and cans and boxes of tomato products, and beans, both canned and dry. I also went through the last of the canned goods in the current hurricane/blizzard box and was sure to use up things that were near expiration dates.

I don't want so many canned vegetables for the upcoming seasons. I don't use canned vegetables as a rule, only the occasional creamed corn in one of Mary McDougall's soup recipes, and kernel corn in a cornbread one. The canned veggies I'm using up now (mostly tossing them in pasta dishes) I bought over 2 years ago - that's how rarely they're used.

Jeff Novick has been writing a lot about using the dehydrated and dried vegetables in some of his recent cooking. I've been a fan of Harmony House products for a number of years now and have a few things for items I don't use too often on hand at all times, like scallions, red and green pepper mixes. I also have some dried blueberries at the moment, and in the past had purchased diced carrots (good) and diced white potatoes (not so good). After Jeff's recent post about the soup that he makes and keeps on hand, I put the veggies he recommended into my Harmony House shopping cart. I popped a few more of my most used veggies in there, too, and waited. I know they have sales now and then, usually for 10% - 15% off. Then this morning I open my email and found the notice for the 20% off sale! Wow!

And now, a few days later (I started this on Thursday, and now it's Sunday) I unpacked the package that arrived yesterday afternoon:

These big ones are the ones Jeff suggested for that soup - green beans, onions, broccoli, and carrots, as well as the dried lentils. The smaller containers have dried mushrooms and celery, replenishing what I already had in stock. One you can't see is another small container with diced sweet potatoes. If they're as good as I hope, I'll be ordering the gallon sized container of those, too. Luckily I had already cleared out a place to store the big ones and will carry them all over into place tomorrow. They'll join their cousin, dried pinto beans, that already moved in. The small ones already have a home in one of my kitchen cabinets.

Looks like I'll have no excuse not to eat super healthy SNAP meals this winter even when buried under a few feet of ice, snow, and sleet.