Our DD & DSIL are in the "by Monday, September 22" area. Boy, are they ready for power to be restored! At least they've got water back. It was awful not having toliets or being able to bathe.

For dinner, how about panini sandwiches & a piece of fruit.

You can buy eggs by the 1/2 dozen & make 3-egg omelets using a few veggies & cheese from the salad bar section in the grocery store...serve with home fries (1 potato should be enough for 2 people) & another piece of fresh fruit.

Ask the butcher at the grocery store for a package of just 1/2 lb. ground beef for burgers. Add a small can of BBQ beans (heated on your grill)...plus 1/2 peach for each of you. Yum!

Here's hoping you get power back soon! You must have CenterPoint as your energy provider...same as our DD.

Good Luck!

/tricia

There are lots of things you can buy ahead in small cans, such as fruit and certain vegetables. There are other things that are not gourmet by any means but cheaper than eating out. A few that I can think of, off hand, is canned beef stew, soup, chow mein, chili, tamales in chili sauce, beans. Breads and other baked goods should last awhile without refrigeration. Potatoes will, also.

I hope things get back to normal for you soon. --Ilene

Just don't buy canned cucumbers....

(May I shot you an email a few days ago, so I'm thinking of ya. I want to place an order with Houston based justblinds.com but now I know why they don't answer their phones! They'll be back in business next week)

Steaks, chops, baked potato/garlic bread, small salad. Pan seared fish and rice dish with a veggie. Or grill th fish and roast the veggies. Breakfast for dinner, eggs, toast done in skillet, pancakes, french toast (buy ony 6 eggs and keep in a cooler if you have one going.) Deli sandwiches and chips. Salmon/tuna salads with a vinagrette dressing (no mayo.)

Hang in there!

I would like to amend peppi's list to be "grill roasted potatoes"..LOL!
many times my DH and I would stop at a condo in a vacation spot just for the fun of cooking and not having to get dressed for breakfast.
Steaks on the grill, along with a coouple of potatoes or rice on the stove top...a loaf of bread, butter...salad with a vinegar and oil dressing ( fondly known as toss and dump in my house) a couple of eggs for breakfast and buttered toast...or grilled bread...LOL!
A couple of lobster and a pot of boiling water....a couple of fresh caught trout in a buttered fry pan.
Mayo will keep for most of a week unrefrigerated if you don';t contaminate it with a dirty knife with tuna on it....
2 chicken breast tenders in a fry pan piled with fresh onion, peppers, tomato and zucchini...with a side of rice..
When I got my oven back after 3 months without...I made baked potato!! and next was frozen pizza! LOL!
Hang in there....as if you had a choice!! We'll store our leftovers in your name!!
Linda C

Thanks for the ideas, keep em coming! Probably going to eat out tonight again and start cooking tomorrow. I'm definitely inspired!

I would love to have a cooler going but ice is scarce, so for now it's going to be buy & eat.

Jessy, I'll get your emal AFTER 9/22 LOL!

OT question...If you can do the internet, why not email? Is your email server down too? Just curious.

A variation of the grilled potatoes is use sweet potatoes. I roasted some veggies the other night including sweet potatoes, and dusted them with cumin, smoked paprika and rosemary. It was really good. The only problem when I roast veggies is that I tend to over do it, so we do always have left overs. I don't see why you couldn't use the grill for sweet potatoes.

Sally

After an ice storm last year, we went days without electricity and I discovered the value of a box of individual-size Half & Half creamers I had on hand.

We keep a 72-hour Emergency Kit stocked with single-serving sizes of foods that don't require cooking or refrigeration. Think of things that go into kids lunch bags - individual portions of fruit, pudding, tuna, SPAM sandwich spread, crackers, cheese, instant soup, instant cocoa, dried fruit, fruit roll-ups, nuts, etc.

The Half & Half creamers don't require refrigeration and work anywhere you might need a small amount of milk. If you can't find Half & Half, Nestle Coffee-mate sells boxes of 50 single-portion coffee creamer that would work just as well, and are great for anyone who is lactose intolerant and can't have Half and Half. I've seen the Coffee-mate creamers at Wal-Mart.

We would boil water each morning on a camp stove in the garage and fill every thermos-type container in the house and use the hot water throughout the day. It was used for individual packets of instant oatmeal and a couple of the Half & Half creamers added the dairy.

The hot water was used for packets of Instant Cocoa and we added some Half & Half to add some richness to the watery cocoa. I drink milk in my tea and coffee, so the Half & Half worked well for that. The Half & Half creamers worked on dry cereal.

I added some Half & Half for scrambled eggs and toast we made on the camp stove.

At the end of the day, we used the remainder of the water to do the few dishes that might need washed and take a warm sponge bath. Luckily, we keep large quantities of water in 3- and 5-gallon jugs in storage. We also filled our hot water bottles to keep us warm in our cold beds, since the only heat we had was a Mr. Heater Buddy propane heater that can be used indoors.

We also have a couple 5-gallon camp showers. Normally you can heat the water in them by sitting them in the sunshine, but in the middle of an ice storm, we heated water to fill them so we could take a "shower".

-Grainlady

Poor May! You could go on vacation and come stay with me--I'll cook for you both.

This is one of my favorite recipes that serves exactly two people. I often just use boneless loin chops since I think they're easier to work with. Except for the pork, I always have the other ingredients on hand, so it's quite convenient and pretty healthy too.

Chrissy

(Copied from foodnetwork.com)

Pork Chops alla Pizzaiola
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (1-inch thick) bone-in pork loin center-cut chops (about 12 ounces each)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, in juice
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle the pork chops with salt and pepper. Add the pork chops to the skillet and cook until they are brown and an instant-read meat thermometer inserted horizontally into the pork registers 160 degrees F, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the pork chops to a plate and tent with foil to keep them warm.
Add the onion to the same skillet and saute over medium heat until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices, herbes de Provence, and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes. Cover and simmer until the flavors blend and the juices thicken slightly, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and more red pepper flakes. Return the pork chops and any accumulated juices from the plate to the skillet and turn the pork chops to coat with the sauce.

Place 1 pork chop on each plate. Spoon the sauce over the pork chops. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Hi May. I'm in the same boat. I scored some olive/pimento loaf lunch meat and some bread two days ago and ate like a king. It was good. As for what to eat and left overs, the local Subway opened yesterday and I'm eating there after work until I get power back. The trash pickup is supposed to resume today and I've got the contents of my freezer and fridge sitting on the road waiting. What a mess this is.

May and Jim, We will be gone all weekend. Ya'll want a place to stay...kinda like a mini vacation? LOL!

May, I can offer no guidence on the food for two but it looks like you have some great ideas above.

Can you believe that our stores are having a hard time keeping the shelves stocked and I'm 2 1/2 hours from you guys.

I agree Jim, what a mess.

If you can do the internet, why not email?
Sally,
I have internet and email access at work. However my gardenweb email goes to my home email address which I can't access. No power, no internet at home.

I thought about leaving town for the weekend but I think we're going to just stay put. So far the best money I've spent is on a portable dvd player which I can charge at work. I'm probably going to do laundry at my sister's house on Sunday.

Planning on doing hamburgers for dinner tonight. Thanks for the great ideas! Any others are welcome. I have no idea how long this is going to go on.

Cathy, Karen, Be careful what you offer! We might just show up on your doorstep! LOL

Jim,
I assume you're also in the "you're hosed indefinitely" category? Mess is a nice word for it. :(

I agree, omelettes and toast are easy and doable. It's sort of like camping, except I get to have a cooler.

The Progresso canned soups aren't as disgusting as the Campbell's stuff is and although I avoid "processed cheese food", Kraft slices and Velveeta will keep at room temperature. Maybe forever.

Homefried potatoes and onions with some deli corned beef makes a passable corned beef hash and half a pound of ground beef, a small jar of spaghetti sauce and a handful of pasta (which also keeps indefinitely without refrigeration) makes a spaghetti dinner.

Canned salmon can be used for salmon patties and a lot of things can be cooked on the grill, from chicken to steak, from pork to burgers. Brats, sausages, hotdogs.

Canned beans and some tahini makes passable hummus, even without a fresh lemon.

A bag of frozen oriental style vegetables can be the basis for a stir fry and minute rice can be used for lots of things, from fried rice to breakfast to a base for that stirfry.

Personally, I could live for a couple of weeks on peanut butter and jelly, a few cans of sardines with crackers, some cheese and some hummus. Ah, but I'm odd and there have been times, even in my adult life, when I've gone without and subsisted on whatever was available.

I went without power for a couple of weeks several years ago when a tornado came through town. Fortunately I had city water, so I had water. It was cold, but it was water, so I'd just bite my lip and get in the shower, LOL. All cooking was done on the campstove and everything in the fridge and freezer had to be thrown out. Thank goodness for my well stocked basement full of canned goods and that peanut butter and jelly, and for the fact that I had an old stovetop "percolator" that I used to make coffee while camping, or I'd have been much worse off.

Annie

Endless stew! Rather then no leftover make a huge pot and keep is simmering all the time. Keep to fairly liquid soups. Bean, pea, or lentil tends to burn to the bottom.

I often put a pot of "chili" on the stove and eat it for days. Sometimes I even add more meat, beans, cabbage, squash, tomatoes to make it last longer. By the time I'm done it resembles a spicy stew more then chili. Bring it to a full boil once a day. Stir is every couple hours so the whole pot stays hot. If only the bottom by the fire is hot it can spoil very quickly.

Things that are pickled won't spoil. Smoked meats can sit out for a couple days if protected from bugs. Hard boiled eggs last a few days.

Think Grandma and pioneer days! They didn't have a fridge back then either. Smoked, pickled, dried, canned... ways other then a fridge to preserve food. I linked to a general article on food preservation that might help bring to mind foods you enjoy but forgot about at the moment.

: )
lyra

Here is a link that might be useful: food preservation

This is one of the reasons we've always got a fairly large supply of jerky & loaded granola around. Dehydrating also makes storage much easier than canned goods. Even on our much reduced storage program I still maintain 10 lbs. of jerky & 20 lbs. of granola in our food storage. Besides the usual suspects of rolled oats & triticale, nuts, seeds, & fruit...I also use dry milk powder in our granola.

DH loves grabbing a big handful of jerky for a fishing trip.

/tricia

I really sympathize, May. The longest we've been without power was 4 days in January. For me, the hardest part was that the house was so cold (getting dressed and undressed was tough, and showering/hairdrying was impossible), so be glad that it isn't winter. It's also hard to read by candlelight or flashlight, so, as in the olden days, I crawled into bed early.

There are lots of great suggestions above. I can only add a couple: you might try Knorr (formerly Lipton) Sides--rice or pasta with various flavorings and sauces, just add water. Then you could add some kind of meat, tuna, veggies, etc, and it's a one-pot meal.

A similar idea is to use Green Giant frozen stirfry vegs, which come with a sauce, and add Perdue (or your local brand)frozen chicken or turkey, which is already cooked and sliced. This can be cooked on the stovetop in a skillet with a cover.

Good luck getting through this! And early greetings for a happy new year!

Sue

Just remembered: The chicken strips aren't sold in frozen form; they're in a refrigerated meat case--in my supermarket, anyway. They come in flat boxes with approx. 2 servings, but that's a little skimpy; you may want to use 2 packages if you're big eaters.

Leave it to me to be the expert on ready-made products, not recipes! ;-)

Sue

Sue,
That's funny, it's all about perspective.... or maybe geography. You said, "be glad that it isn't winter". In fact, if it were winter, we'd be much better off! Winter here isn't harsh, but summer here (and believe me, September is still summer) is. We've been extremely lucky with the cold front that blew in a couple of days after Ike but temps are back on the rise. High is 85 today and even that is cool for Houston for this time of year. We're only a few degrees away from it being unbearably sweaty hot at night with no a/c. By Monday night we may be doomed to the heat. Yuck!

I can't say which is worse, because I'm a southern girl. My guess is they are both their own kind of horrible. And on that LIGHT note... I'll end this post. LOL

This cooking with no leftovers is a lot harder than it looks, isn't it?? I've been in your shoes and have little to add. Sounds like you have access to grocery stores. We didn't after we were hit with a hurricane in 2004. Now, I think the grocery people have learned their lessons (really BIG generators), and so have I. Pouches of tuna in the cupboard to eat as is. Can you make a tuna/noodle type dish? Small containers of fruit so they don't spoil. Soups, breakfast bars. We did get a small generator so we could power a small fan and some lights. I know the heat is a killer--we did had running water which really made it easier.

Grainlady, where did you find the single serve half and half? I've looked for nearly 2 years because that would be a good thing to have in the "hurricane supplies."

Good luck all!

beachlily, I've found the single serving half and half at our local Sam's Club and also at something called Gordon's Foods, it's a food service company that sells to restaurants but the public is welcome.

Annie

This talk of single serving half and half reminds me of a product called Parmalat. It's milk that has been processed at an ultra-high temperature, so that it's completely free of bacteria and therefore stable at room temperature. It comes in a small box, like a juice box. Once it's opened, it won't keep without refrigeration, but it could be kept on hand till you're ready for it (so you could stock up and have milk for your breakfast cereal, if you don't mind that it's not cold).

p.s. I know what you mean, May. The devil you don't have always seems better than the devil you do.

Sue

Few I can think of that I keep in my "emergency stash" here & at camp that haven't been mentioned-- there's all kinds of "string cheese" in small packs-- good unrefrigerated until opened-- & of course the small cans of cooked chicken & ham, Vienna sausages, potted meat, sardines( warm in a frypan then toss in a little cooked pasta-dash of red pepper flakes)-- Bisquick for making potato pancakes-- small cans of evaporated milk for making milk gravy that you can add anything to & serve over rice , pasta or potatoes--

Good luck staying cool--hang in there !

Sorry, craftyrn, we are retirees who don't eat most of your "supplies". Even in emergency, we try to eat healthy--my husband has survived cancer and doesn't trust anything that is fatty or whatever. I'm good with that! So far, we haven't experienced more than 8 days without electricity. I will say that 5 days is the max that provides for good attitudes.

Heat and humidity can sap the strongest people! All we can pray for is continued "cool temperatures". Those that are luckiest are the ones who work. That means there is electricity and a/c. Unfortunately, they have to go home to stuffy, sticky, and downright ugly!

Sounds like a great opportunity to revive foil cookery. You could make packets of food in heavy duty foil and cook them on the grill. Here's one I make on the grill. You could cut the quantities in half.

STEAMED MUSHROOMS AND ZUCCHINI

1 lb. medium sized fresh mushrooms
2 small zucchinis
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1/ 4 tsp. paprika
1/ 4 tsp. dried marjoram or dillweed ( I always use marjoram)
1/ 8 tsp. pepper
1/ 4 cup (1/ 2 stick) butter or margarine
2 Tbs. dry sherry
1/ 4 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Wash mushrooms and zucchini. Leave mushrooms whole and slice unpeeled zucchini into 1/ 4 inch slices. Place them in the center of a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Sprinkle with salt, paprika, pepper and dill or marjoram. Dot top with butter. Sprinkle sherry over all. Bring foil together and seal securely but leave room for steam. Place foil in shallow baking pan. Bake 20 minutes in preheated 400 degree oven. Open foil carefully and sprinkle vegetables with chopped parsley, if desired. Serves 4

Note: Foil packet may also be enclosed in a second sheet of foil and cooked on a grill over medium coals. Cooking time is about the same.

Annie, thanks for the pointers on the half and half. It gives me a really good excuse to go to the two local restaurant supply stores. In a pinch, I can ask a neighbor to check at Sam's. I've already put it on to to-do list for next year.

I don't know what other people in hurricane country do to keep their "hurricane supplies" fresh. Timing is everything, so after the end of hurricane season in FL (Nov. 1), I keep my eyes open for food drives. All my supplies go food drives around Thanksgiving because much of what I stock up on has short use dates. This keeps my cupboard up to date and gives to others who really need it.

I live in hurricane country, South Florida to be exact. For years I would stock up on canned goods at the begining of hurricane season and then donate them in Nov. I did that for many, many years. And when we went through our first hurricane I wound up buying a generator right before the storm. For two years in a row I was without power for 6 days straight. The generator kept the fridge cold and powered the coffee maker. So it turns out that we grilled every day and ate like kings. My better half ran around the house the first day screaming "eat the perishables" with a half gallon on ice cream in his hand. LOL

My house is on a well so we had no water. I had to jump in the pool for a mock shower and use the pool water to flush the toilets but we ate really well and never opened one single canned item. So I have not stocked on canned goods since the first hurricane but I have a generator, gas, and a spare propane tank. The hurricane box now contains paper plates, cups, forks and bug spray.

I hope you get your power back soon. I remember how awful it was. After Wilma I drove down to Ft Lauderdale and bought a window AC unit. We had 6 people and the dogs sleeping in one room and the generator powered that AC until 6 am every day. I can't give enough praise to portable generators. I never lost an ounce of food.

I have never had to go without power for more than a day, but I used to go camping by myself quite a bit and didn't want a lot of leftovers either as there is only so much room in a cooler.

Pasta is great. You can cook exactly as much as you need and can put just about any protein and veggie in it. I believe that Classico offers some small jars of pasta sauces, both tomato based & creamy style. A white wine, garlic butter (or olive oil) sauce is easy...if you want to go easy on the fat, use only enough for flavor and then add a bit of chicken stock. Knorr makes a powdered bouillon that is better than the cubes, not as salty, and you can make exactly the amount you need to use. A very nice sauce can be made with some bouillon, a chopped fresh tomato, garlic, some fresh basil or other fresh herb,& some red pepper flakes or black pepper. I generally buy Parmesan in wedges and grate it, but the Kraft pre grated in the green can keeps fairly well without refrigeration.

Top Ramen is a great base for a meal. Just adding any meats & veggies you like makes a wonderful lunch. If sodium is a problem, toss the dry soup packet and use canned low-sodium stock instead. The noodles can also be cooked, and then tossed with blanched or raw veggies, meat or seafood and a vinaigrette for a cold plate meal. I like it with an oriental type vinaigrette...rice vinegar, soy sauce, grated ginger, sugar, & a little sesame oil.

If your grocery store has a deli, speak to the store manager and suggest that he could probably do a rousing business if he ordered things like the individual packets of mayo, coffee creamers(the kind that don't need to be refrigerated) and salad dressings and offered them for sale.

Some random tips...

If you use half an onion, don't wrap it. Let the air dry the cut side and then when you want to use it just discard the first, thin slice. (If flies are a problem, cover it with cloth, not plastic). You can do the same thing with cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, oranges. In warm weather, wrapping unrefrigerated veggies and fruits seems to "boil" them somehow, and they actually go bad faster.

Fresh basil and other herbs last pretty well without refrigeration if you trim the cut end of the stems when you get them home and put them in a glass of water, just like cut flowers. A few snips of herbs can "freshen up" the flavors of canned foods.

You can keep your butter in a small bowl, and then invert the bowl in a larger bowl of water. The water should be changed every day. Butter will stay fresh like this, unrefrigerated, for weeks.

Eggs can be left unrefrigerated for at least a couple of days, so if you buy half a dozen, you don't have to eat all of them at once.

I know this is all a pain, but it will be over soon and it will give you something to tell stories and laugh about years down the line. :D

Ah, I forgot...

You can also keep celery, greens & lettuces unrefrigerated if you trim the end and put them into a jar of water like the herbs. With lettuces, romaine seems to do the best this way, but I have done it with red leaf & green leaf as well. Iceberg just doesn't taste good to me if it isn't chilled. Naturally, these things don't keep as long as they would in a fridge, but at least you could buy a head of lettuce and have salad for a couple of meals. With all of these things, the water should be changed every day.

Carrots and cabbage can be kept in a cool, dark place if you have such a thing. If not, they will keep better on the counter if you wrap them in a damp (not soggy) towel, and again in a dry towel to keep the inner towel damp for longer. If they get a little limp, you can soak them for a couple of hours before cooking and they should crisp up (peel the carrots first).

I am thrilled to report that we got our power back at 6 pm yesterday. Thanks for the wonderful support and meal ideas. I'm going to keep this thread (hard copy as well as electronically) for the next time. I hope there will never be a next time but one never knows!

I'll just say one more time how lucky we were through Ike. Aside from losing power for 9 days and a lot of tree debris in our yard, we escaped pretty much unscathed. It will be a long time before Houston and Galveston are really "back to normal". My heart goes out to all who have real damage and problems from this horrible storm.

Congratulations on having power. I still think I'd miss my hot morning shower more than anything else, though.

That Ike was a big storm, I'm still amazed it didn't do more than it did. Elery's daughter lives in Ohio and she doesn't have power at her apartment yet. She works at a Bob Evans and they got their power back on Friday evening. So her power has been out 8 days now and that's in OHIO, fer crying out loud.

Annie

It is amazing how far reaching this storm was. It's crazy that Ohio was so badly affected! I hope she gets her power back soon!

I'm fortunate to have a gas water heater (and cooktop), and although the water pressure was low for a few days, we were able to shower. Whew!

May, I have a gas hot water heater too, one of the older ones, so with my city water I can have a shower, even in the dark.

Amanda and Dave have a newer gas hot water heater and it doesn't have a pilot light, it has electronic ignition. So, no electricity, no hot water, not even with a gas heater! One instance in which I think modern technology kind of sucks.....

Annie

Oh Annie, that sux! My cooktop also has electric ignition but that's easy to light with a match. I will keep that in mind whenever we have to replace the water heater.

May, I don't even know if they make water heaters without those electronic ignitors, but I sure hope mine lasts for a long time. I can also light my stove with a match, and I have a percolator for camping, so I can have hot fresh coffee and a hot shower in the dark.

I suppose I ought to check into that myself too, now that I've said it, something is going to break down, I just know it.

Annie