Safeway specials for your emergency kit

I shop Safeway for staples, paper and cleaning supplies, and other household necessities. I also keep an eye on the specials to stock our pantry. Remember I told you to build up your cupboards so that you have two weeks' worth of food stored in case of an emergency? And of course, eat what you store - use the food regularly and replenish.

Well, this week Safeway is running a $.75 cent sale: mix-n-match. I bought lots of Dennisons' Chili and canned tomatoes. If I needed canned green beans or corn I would have bought that, as well. I may go back for more of the chili before the sale runs out - my husband is eating it. I had thought it would be good to have some cans to take camping this summer, but clearly ten cans is not enough chili to keep in storage.

The Fruitvale Safeway across from Dimond Library also stocks an unbelievable value in chickpeas. It's a 29 oz. can sold in the Mexican food section - $1.19 regular price, on sale for $1.09. The cheapest price for a 14 oz. can of chickpeas is usually $1.25 on sale, and right now those 14 oz. cans are around $1.99. So the 29 oz. can is nearly ONE QUARTER the price.

Of course you can always make hummus with one of these cans! Double the linked recipe.

But we enjoyed the chickpeas dressed with a lemon-garlic vinaigrette and garnished with chopped parsley, scallions and cumin. I thought I was making a lot of this salad but my family demolished it all in one sitting.

The Safeway on Redwood Road carries Chicken of the Sea solid tuna packed in olive oil that was on special for under $2 a can. It's better quality than the usual sale tuna. I've been eating it dressed with lemon and pepper. Yes you should limit consumption of tuna due to mercury worries, but once or twice a month is fine, and the Omega 3s are so good for you, they make up for the mercury (so claims Erik Peper, Ph.D. and exercise physiologist).

We Made Marmalade!

Last Saturday the ladies of the Laurel District canning group got together for our first project: making and canning orange marmalade from foraged citrus.

We also preserved some lemons, Moroccan-style, for good measure. I brought along Claudia Roden cookbooks and we discovered recipes for chicken tagine with green olives and preserved lemon; sweet potato salad with preserved lemon, and artichokes stewed with the salty fruit.

Stella Lamb hosted us in her lovely, well-stocked kitchen. We divided ourselves into three teams, as there were eight of us, making three pots of marmalade: two bitter, with peel, and one sweet, without.

The afternoon was busy and entertaining; several of us remarked on how this activity reminded us of our grandmothers and mothers long ago, putting up preserves and socializing.

Joann Maggiore and MJ Barnes contributed equipment and canning know-how; Molly Stouffer brought scones and dashed out for more pectin; Sally went and got us more knives; Betsy and Katherine pitched in with peeling, chopping and stirring. People who contributed materials included Meg on Pampas and Dina Bedini.

We produced at least thirty jars of orange-lemon marmalade, plus several jars of preserved lemon which are curing in our kitchens right now. This project was lots of fun for me and the other women - we learned how to put up fruit, and we built ties to our neighbors.

There's talk of a sauerkraut party - I am not able to organize it myself at this time, but anybody who wants to move the project forward, feel free. We need a location and our sauerkraut teacher, Helayne, will discuss scheduling.

Thanks everybody for helping us make marmalade!

My preserved lemons aren't ready yet, but I'm going to adapt the recipe using regular Meyer lemons from our abundant crop; I'll also put it in the slow cooker - America's answer to the tagine. Note that any traditional tagine recipe works in a slow cooker.

Best Foods You Aren't Eating

The NY Times published a list of "Eleven Best Foods You Aren't Eating" last year that's still bouncing around the internet. I only saw it this week, and I love it.

The list made me think of two favorite obsessions: our local produce, and what to keep in the pantry.

Fresh in season right now and available at Farmer Joe's, House of Produce, Food Mill, and the Laurel Farmer's Market:
Beets - lower blood pressure
Cabbage - strong anticancer properties
Swiss Chard

Pomegranates went out of season a couple of months ago, but the fruits grow locally, and of course you can still buy bottled pomegranate juice. I want to plant a bush in my garden.

Dried plums - if you have a dehydrator, you could harvest plums for free in late June and make your own. Or buy them.

Frozen blueberries - not local at all, but of course Farmer Joe's and Food Mill have them, organic natch.

Pumpkin seeds - available in the Hispanic spices rack as well as in the bulk nuts and seeds departments. Look for pepitas.

Canned goods: Pumpkin and sardines. Don't leave home without 'em! Remember my pumpkin tahini recipe? And there's always pumpkin pie, and pumpkin muffins or pancakes. Pumpkin soup! I also like sardines and use them for fast protein.

Spices: cinnamon and turmeric. Look for Ramos brand spices at Farmer Joe's; they also stock various organic and non-irradiated brands for good prices. I like Food Mill for bulk spices and tea as well.

So scan this list and see what you aren't eating. If you eat all of these already, then congratulate yourself for making good healthy choices. Then notice that you can buy everything in the neighborhood.

What's for dinner: supper soup

Years ago I learned to make supper soups from Pamela Anderson's "How to Cook Without a Book." This is a terrific collection of recipes using rules of thumb for every dish, like stir fry, or pan-seared proteins, or supper soup. She offers a basic recipe, variations, and memory aids so you don't have to crack open the cookbook. You can also look in your pantry and see what you have, adapting the recipes accordingly.

Supper soups include a pound of veg, a starch, a pound of protein, a quart of stock, a can of tomatoes, an onion and other flavorings.

Today I didn't have a pound of protein - I had one Polish sausage. I didn't have a quart of chicken broth so I threw in a Knorr bouillon cube. I used a bunch of kale and lots of garlic - we were out of onions! (horrors. How can I say I'm ready for the Big One if there are no onions in the house?)

Saute garlic and peeled diced carrot in olive oil. Add a 14 oz. can of tomatoes, half pound of green beans, snapped, and a bunch of kale with ribs removed, chopped. Add water to cover, bring to boil, then simmer until the greens are tender. This is going to take a while. Towards the end I sliced the sausage and drained a can of garbanzo beans and added those. Tasted the broth, decided to add the chicken cube.

Hubby says he really liked it - he sprinkled parmesan cheese on it, which added a fillip of flavor and mouth-feel.

I wouldn't serve this to company but on the other hand, it was flavorful and warming on a rainy winter's night. I also made a couple of quesadillas to fill the children's hungry bellies, while I scarfed down a couple of homemade wheat rolls left over from last night.

Pantry Cooking

I want my neighbors to lay in a good supply of emergency food in their pantries, but I want it to be fun and useful and tasty, not a dreary slog of dried milk and Spam. Therefore I'm going to post a series on cooking out of your pantry.

Why should you do it?

• The earthquake - ok obvious, but remote in time (or not!)
• Save money - when you have a well-stocked pantry and know how to use it, you don't HAVE to order takeout.
• Eat healthier. Out of the pantry? Yes. Learn to cook with beans and whole grains and you've got a good dinner instead of KFC.
  
• Stay tuned for a list of healthy pantry foods everybody needs more of.

The SF Chronicle did a pantry cooking article last year that focused on higher-end ingredients like dark chocolate, mirin sauce, and top-quality honey. Recipes included. Read it and stock some yummy delicacies to jazz up your emergency supplies.

Vegetarian ideas for the pantry from the Chronicle.

Cook unplugged - useful for planning to cook under earthquake or power outage conditions. The SF Chronicle published this during our energy crisis of 2001 - remember rolling blackouts?

List of my recipes that work with the pantry:

Bulghur and Tomatoes
Hummous
Pumpkin Tahini
Rice Pilaf
Egyptian Red Lentil Soup
Basic Lentil Soup with variations
Mjaddarah - lentils and rice with caramelized onions

I will post tonno e fagioli soon, another pantry dish I love. My current pantry recipe list is incomplete online so stay tuned for more.

Store Food For a Crisis

What will you do when the Big One hits? The Red Cross and the government say they can't handle a really big crisis. In case of an earthquake, we are on our own, folks. Last fall after Hurricane Ike in Texas, Houston spent two weeks with bare supermarket shelves.

Your cash may lose value or get swallowed up in the bank these days. Some people have asked - with banks teetering, why shouldn't we just store our money in the mattress?

I say, if you seriously think your money is better off in the mattress, then consider putting some of it into durable goods and food staples which you can use, now and in case of emergency. Keep a bit of your "savings" in useful or edible goods, not just cash. Here are some suggestions for how to prepare:

Food storage 101 from Sharon Astyk

Food storage 102 - "Two weeks is not enough!"

Her weekly "baby step" storage and emergency preparedness posts, here and here.

Stock up on water, too. Consider getting a 55 gallon food grade water barrel.

Sharon points out that storing food is a way of life. Learn to cook regular meals out of your pantry, to save money, but also to get everybody used to such food. If your kids learn to love pumpkin bread, beans and rice, or pasta with tuna marinara sauce now, then if the Big Disaster hits and they HAVE to eat these dishes every night, they won't complain.

Consider what tools and implements you might need in a long term crisis. Gardening tools. Bicycles. Flashlights. Camp stove. Solar oven for when the municipal power and gas are out.

Look, you buy insurance on your property and your life which you hope you never use. Buy this stuff as insurance and you can use it anyway. Learn to cook out of your pantry and you've reduced your food bills, acquired a skill, and maybe added healthier meals to your rotation. Meanwhile, you have emergency supplies to fend off hurricanes, power outages, transportation stoppages, and sudden unemployment.

Do I have all these items stored? No. We add them as we get to it. But we have enough food for a bunch of indigent relatives and neighbors to get fed for quite some time...

These measures are largely intended as insurance against some weather or other natural disaster which disrupts food supplies for a time. They also make sense as a cushion against economic hard times. If you lose your job all of a sudden and run out of cash, you know you have food in your "bank" as well as cash.

I'm not going to buy a whole bunch of weird equipment and MREs that I wouldn't use or eat otherwise. I try to buy and store only what we will actually eat. Then I cook it and eat it, and replenish the stores.

Stocking up on all that emergency equipment recommended by the Red Cross is a good idea, too. We came home one night to find a neighbor's house completely burned up, with firefighters crawling over the roof amidst klieg lights, hacking at the attic to put out the last smoldering embers. A car on the street had caught fire and the house went up, too.

"Honey, we have to buy emergency ladders for the bedrooms," I said as we pulled into our garage. We and our small sons sleep on the second floor. What if our exit were blocked? And the $100 we'd spent might not gain much interest in our account this year anyway. Invest in equipment we hope never to use - as insurance.

Oh yes, in earthquake country you're supposed to keep a crowbar in the bedroom, too, in case you have to pry yourself out of the house.

Don't run out and buy everything you might want all at once. Take it in small bits. Keep your eyes open for garage sale and Craig's List finds; buy staples when they go on sale. I will be posting soon about shopping for the necessaries in the Laurel: your local drugstore, hardware store and 99 Cent store as well Farmer Joe's and Food Mill.