This one is near and dear to my heart today. A massive tree came down and cut the power to our block. While cooking without electricity is pretty easy for us (we have a gas range, grill, propane camping stove and a well-stocked pantry) cooking without refrigeration is another thing.
The existing food in the fridge and freezer was packed into two coolers, with 20+lbs of ice. The coolers were moved to the coolest part of the basement and covered with one of two larger bags (20lbs each) of ice. No worries there.
But while I made lunch I thought about camping trips and how we do aok without refrigeration. Outside of trips, the ability to keep food - whether ingredients or leftovers - cold makes a big difference in daily life.
What are your favorite refrigerator-free meals? How would you handle a long-term lack of refrigeration in the kitchen?
Signed,
-Curious
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Julia Schrenkler
Interactive Producer
American Public Media
Minnesota Public Radio
Objects in Mirror
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Comments: 30
As far as food, ha ha. Sandwiches! Peanut butter on celery!
Dairy is a product that can sit out for hours without spoiling, the shelf life is shortened, but it's not the same as meat or raw eggs (that are not in their shells).
I have no real answers for you, Julia.
Dairy gone warm is dairy gone bad in my mind. (outside of some of my fave cheeses which are better after an hour or so at room temp) Just... can't get over the change to them.
i'm in fla. we went several weeks without power several times after the hurricanes a few years back, we did okay, the back yard became living room/dining room/ kitchen, wouldn't want to go through it again but we had a lot of good family time, all our techno-gadgets were replaced by playing dominoes, the 4 yr. old won most of the time.
Your point about techno-gadgets being replaced by games and family time is a good one. Really, if we could swing it with veggies that don't need to keep and canned goods I'd be pretty happy here.
btw, you can do the hot dish on the stove top without baking, boil the noodles, drain and add 1 can each of tuna, soup, and peas.
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We don't have to worry about a balanced diet when the power goes out, do we?
Balanced diet? Pshaw. ;-)
My food staples for hurricane power outages are tuna - fruit - peanutbutter - potatoes - bread - eggs.
We can get veggies from the garden and grill whatever meat or fish we have before it spoils. Potatoes and veggies are wonderful grilled.
Eggs and bread need no refrigeration - so breakfast is safe.
The only thing we'd have to worry about is the ice cream.
Meals like;
Backed Beans and Brown Bread with an un-oppened bottle of ketchup
cereal with parmalite. Parmalite comes in a box and dose not have to be refridgerated.