Disaster Preparedness -- Again

I've done many posts on disaster preparedness and Do to the recent earthquake in Haiti I think it's a subject worth revisiting.

Have you done anything to prepare for a disaster or do you just put it off. The problem with putting it off is that if the day shoudl unfortunately come when you need that preparation you'll be caught short.

For some of the simple preparations have you stockpiled any bottled water or canned or freeze-dried food. Drinkable water and food are of primary importance when all systems go down. In today's modern American world where we have plenty (often too much) to eat and no shortage of water it may be hard to think that there will be a time when it won't be available. But think not jsut earthquake but blizzard or power outage or flooding -- anything that can be a disruption.

Are you prepared to hold out for three days or three weeks or maybe even three months? make you lsit now and get started on storing provisions.

I'll be blogging about disaster preparedness over the next few weeks. There's much too much to cover in one or two posts.

Disaster Preparedness, Yet Again (Photos)

As any regular readers know one of my real areas of interest is disaster preparedness. Leah Ingram who has a terrifc blog on how her family is living a green life just had a post about fire safety involving ashes from a fireplace and some other causes of home fires. The Lean Green Family (formerly Suddenly Frugal): Fire Safety for Everyone I never thought of fireplaces ashes causing a fire but this should be read by everyone who has a fireplace and uses it. She also writes about some other common household causes of fires such as candles.

I recently did a presentation about getting organized at my local library and briefly did a section on organizing photos. I also mentioned something that most peple never think about which is what happens if there is a fire or other catastrophe and their home is destroyed. If you read in the news about fires or floods the two things that people always mention losing are their jewelry and their photos. I used to suggest that people pick out some of the most important photos and make copies and store them with a friend or neighbor or a relative across the country. Today you can burn them into a CD and put it in a safe deposit box or send them to a friend or someone out of your area.

Many people store all of their digital photos on their computer and don't think that if their hard drive crashes or there is a catastrophe they will lose all the photos. It can be good to take a few minutes precaution and safeguard those photos. You can replace clothing or furniture or other things but you can't get the photos back.

Food Trends

I never thought I would say, "I've had enough chocolate." But it happened to me recently at the Fancy Foods Show in New York City. Thousands of companies come to display their wares in hopes of selling to supermarkets, specialty stores, etc. It's a good chance to see some of the trends in food that will be affecting us all over the next year or two. For those that are harried and need meals or foods in a hurry, you're in luck. It's obvious that there are more and more quick foods upcoming. Marianades and rubs for foods your'e cooking and more types of already prepared food that are ready to eat.

Dark chocolate, cheese, whole wheat, organic and spicy seemed to be among the main themes. Plus Tyrells, the best potato chip you've never eaten.

Dark chocolate was available in every form you can think of including bars, drinks, spreads and candies. In many cases the chocolate was combined with fruit or spices or both. Want chocolate with strawberry and black pepper or mango and chili. You can have it. There were some that were knockouts. Chuao http://www.chuaochocolatier.com/, from San Diego has one of the most wonderful intensely flavored dark chocolates I've ever had. Rich, smooth, chocolate that they combine with fruit, spices and some of the more usual stuff like caramel. If their shops were near me I'd be there on a regular basis. Good thing they are far, far away.

Hachez bars from Germany were a terrfic dark chocolate and also did the combining of spices and fruit as well as a wonderful 88% cocoa with nibs and are imported by http://www.ourniche.com/. Dufflet, http://www.dufflet.com/, a Canadian firm had a chocolate fondue (among other chocolate items) that you can heat up in the microwave in its own crock. Atkins and Potts, http://www.atkinsandpotts.co.uk/, an Engish company has some interesting spreads including a Passilla chili chocolate that do a good job of combining the intensity of dark chocolate with other flavors. A sturdy American dark chocolate is Anthony-Thomas, http://www.anthony-thomas.com/, of Ohio.

Cheeses were everywhere and they were from everywhere you can think of. One of my favorites (not becasue of the taste) was a Wensleydale (Wallace and Gromit's favorite cheese) that actually had Wallace and Gromit on the label, http://www.cheesefrombritain.com/. I'd buy it for the label alone. This was also a good chance to sample many cheese you only see in high end cheese stores because they are too runny, too strong, too something for the usual American palate. Really liked the ones from The Isle of Man, http://www.iomcreameris.com/.

That some of the food industry is moving in a healthier direction was shown by the separate organic area and the proliferation of whole wheat items. Five years ago it would have been tough to find whole wheat snack crackers or other whole wheat items. This year they were all over the place. So many things are moving in the organic direction including snacks, soups, crackers and just about everything else.

Tyrrells, http://www.tyrrellspotatochips.co.uk/, is the best potato chip you've never eaten. Crisp, crunchy, well flavored and utterly addictive they are a chip eaters dream. They are just starting to be imported into this country and are well worth looking for. They come in both regular potato chip and quite a few flavored varieties. My favorite was the Sweet Chili and Red Pepper. I could eat a whole bag without thinking twice about it. What makes them so good, well maybe it's because they do it all themselves. They grow their own potatoes from seed, harvest them, cut them and fry them. Yum, yum.

An interesting chip is the tortilla chip made partly from the salba grain, http://www.salbasmart.com/, which they claim is high in omega-3, the heart healthy oil. Tastes good too, like a regular tortilla chip.

Spicy, spicy, spicy. Spicy foods are all over the place. Marinades, rubs, dips, sauces, in chocolate, cheese, ice cream, mustard, mayonnaise, crackers and everything else. Obviously the American palate is becoming more accepting of spicy foods and if this was was an indication we'll all be eating more and more spicy stuff in the future.

Convenience foods that are not the usual convenience foods are starting to show up more and more also. Shelf stable foods that don't have to be refrigerated or frozen but can be heated up in the microwave or even eaten cold are showing up.

The French maker of expensive james and jellies, St. Dalfour, http://www.stdalfour.com/, has a new line of ready to eat, Gourmet On The Go, shelf stable suitable for a snack or a lunch or a simple meal that are can be heated or eaten cold. Since I'm always aware of diaster preparedness these would make a perfect item to keep in your food rotation because they would can be eaten now and would be a great emergency meal.

Disaster Preparedness

Seeing the movie "28 Weeks Later" got me to thinking --yet again -- about disaster preparedness. This week there are big fires in California, New Jersey just had a big floods a couple of weeks ago and every winter there are blizzards. The possibility that you'll have to prepare for a zombie invasion is remote but other things can and, unfortunately, do happen.

Make sure you know where your flashlights are, that they are working, that you have an ample supply of canned or other non-perishable goods, bottled water, antiseptic towelettes or hand sanitizer, a battery-operated radio, a first-aid kit, a manual can opener and a phone that plugs into a phone jack, (since the phone company uses a different power system and the phones will keep on operating when there is a power failure).