Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 16, 1994 TAG: 9402180028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Have you ever heard of `Royal' baking powder?" the first caller of the day of the big snow storm asked. It was a little past 9 a.m.
To pass her snowbound time, the caller was cleaning out her recipe drawer - you know the one we all have in some form, where we stash those great-sounding recipes that, although we haven't gotten around to in the last decade or so, we fully intend to try any day now? From her drawer, she'd unearthed a cookbook that once had belonged to her deceased aunt.
The book's pages are yellow with age; its covers are long since missing, the caller said. But it holds a recipe for an "absolutely beautiful-looking Blue Coconut cake," calling for Royal baking powder. The caller wondered whether another brand of powder would do.
After much deliberation, she decided to try the cake with the baking powder she had on hand. After all, she reasoned, if she could get to the store she'd also be able to get to other places and probably would be too busy doing other things to bake cakes from scratch.
"Wednesday, you all ran a recipe for a King Cake that I'd like to bake to surprise my co-worker, who's from New Orleans," another caller said.
Unfortunately, she'd misplaced that newspaper, and with the weather being what it was, she was snowbound....
I read the recipe to her; she had all the ingredients on hand. She said she might start baking the cake as soon as she hung up the phone; she'd let me know how it turned out.
"I'd just not long ago put my pan in the oven, and now my power's gone out," the third caller said. The brownie-like concoction she'd been baking when the lights went out contained eggs and milk but didn't need to rise. Obviously a true optimist, the caller decided to put her half-baked batch in the refrigerator to keep it cold until the power was restored - which she was sure would be shortly - then resume baking it later. She'd let me know how it turned out.
Then my friend, who could make big money in a career as a needless worrier, called to lament that she had no survival plan in case her power went out. She, of the fresh, dried or frozen but never-canned persuasion, would have plenty of food on hand but would be figuratively and literally powerless to prepare it.
Her power stayed on; it always does. But she got me thinking. What foodstuffs should you have on hand? So I dug down into my own recipe drawer - actually, a big burlap bag - and culled a gem from 1980 that gives some guidelines for stocking a basic survival pantry: all-purpose flour; baking powder; baking soda; rice; pasta; cold and hot cereals; instant cocoa; sugar; coffee and/or tea; nonfat dry milk; vanilla extract; bouillon cubes or granules; peanut butter; jelly; ketchup; prepared mustard; salad or vegetable oil; vinegar; salt; pepper; vegetable powders and/or flakes; dried and canned fruits, vegetables, fish and meat, legumes and nuts.
For goodness` sake, don't forget the can opener. Or the bottled water.
It's funny how people go to the trouble and expense of buying water but pay little attention to its maintenance. That's probably because most people don't know that it's needed.
Water jugs are made of a very porous high-density polyethylene, through which vapors easily travel. One bottled-water company executive advises: Pay attention to the "use by" date on the jug, and don't buy so many at a time that bottles sit around for months unrefrigerated. Store jugs in a cool, dark spot because water exposed to sunlight will eventually grown algae; and keep the water bottles away from open containers of turpentine or other chemicals, or even away from onions," or your water will taste like the turpentine, onions or whatever was close to it.
For more information, call the Bottled Water Association at (800) 928-3711.
When Friday's storm cleared, no-longer snowbound shoppers stormed supermarkets in search of the basics: bottled water, milk, eggs, bread, as well as lots of kitty litter and rock or regular salt, Williamson Road Food Lion manager Teddy Boston said.
Then there was the shopper with the cart full of nonperishable, microwaveable ramen noodles in a cup. She and her mother had been forced by the storm into temporary residence in a motel. "We've only got a small microwave and a small refrigerator in our room," she sheepishly explained.
I have no problem with that. Microwaves are wondrous things, as long as the power stays on.
A recent survey found that about 94 percent of all Americans now own a microwave oven, and about 72 percent of them use it at least once a day. But you ain't seen nothing yet. Some restaurants are using FlashBake, a new software-controlled oven that cooks with conventional oven quality and microwave speed. Brown tasty pizzas take about 46 seconds; juicy, charred steaks take 105; chicken breasts are roasted and ready in 120 seconds flat.
Before you instruct the thrift shop to come pick up your current stove, though, note that FlashBake's interior is only three inches high, and the ovens cost between $7,500 and $9,500. Home models, in the $1,000 range, are anticipated within a couple of years. But for now we'd probably do better to just concentrate on surviving the next five weeks till spring begins and we can hopefully put behind us the threat of being snowbound.
Shelf Life runs twice a month in the Extra section. If you have an interesting new product, cookbook, contest, gadget or gew gaw, tell us about it. Write to Shelf Life, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010.
by CNB