Amy Middleton Loves New York

In a search query unrelated to food storage, I promise (it had to do with validating my claim I’d seen a commercial featuring a child telling his friend that his mom buys his cereal in a box rather than a bag because she loves him more), I came across a blog about a woman who purchased 114 boxes of cereal because they were cheap. Ordinarily, I might feel a little smug when I read about ridiculous efforts with minimal results. But I thought the entire story was rather creative, it WAS a good value for storing items her family actually enjoys, and everyone had fun with it. I was going to link to her blog but I can’t find it now. It’s like Brigadoon I guess. Maybe I should go back to searching for that commercial.

Remember how I went to the Emergency Preparedness Extravaganza the other day and gave a presentation on Food Storage? Well, that’s not all I did. I brought a treat–as we were asked to do–relating to the theme of Emergency Prep. I made this Puffy Grain goodness I sometimes make, especially when I have plenty of honey on hand. When I got there, the other treats were labeled (”Earthquake Cookies,” etc) and it was announced there would be judging. I folded my handout and wrote on it “Puffy Grain Bars- None of the ingredients require refrigeration” (technically the molasses bottle says it does, but guess what, it’s in my cupboard).

Apparently the strangeness of my treat was enough to convince the judges I’m awesome, because I won the category “Most true to theme” or some other title that equated to “most homeschooled.” There were definitely other items that scream “emergency preparedness” louder than my humble puffy concoction (trail mix?!) but I think mine must have seemed especially sadcore. It’s all good though because I won a double pack of mad libs for it (Mad Libs in Love and Diva Girl Mad Libs), which means in case of an actual emergency, while everyone else is panicking, I’ll be (action verb-ing) my way to celebrity crush (place).

Here is the recipe to my Puffy Grain thing. It’s based on a recipe I found on dollar stretcher, but over time I forgot some of their directions and adapted it to my memory.

• 3 cups mixed puffed grains (millet, kamut, wheat, or rice all work well)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 or so cup peanut butter
• almost a tablespoon molasses
• craisins
• chocolate chips

Heat honey, peanut butter, and molasses until it’s liquid and slightly simmering. Turn off heat. Add the puffed grains and stir. Add some chocolate chips and craisins if you like those things. Press firmly into a 9″ pan. Let cool, cut into squares.

Also, I want to say congrats to Holly for starting her adventures in food storage.  It’s pretty awesome. In spite of my tendency to constantly extol the virtues of being prepared, every time I see someone living the principle, it inspires me all over again. Thanks for sharing your vision of how it will work for you!

This is the handout I used for the FHE Food Storage presentation last night. It incorporates a lot of Chrysula Winegar’s Emergency Preparedness Flyers she used several years ago.

Food Storage: It’s What’s For Dinner

Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life,

not a sudden, spectacular program. – Spencer W. Kimball

Food Storage Basics

1. Store what you eat & use.
2. Buy two every time you need one.
3. Date your items before putting away.
4. Rotate. New items always to the back.
5. If you can’t store a year’s supply, store 6 months, or 3 months, or 1, or 1 week, but store something.

“We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with one week’s food supply and gradually build it to a month and then to three months. I am speaking now of food to cover basic needs. As all of you recognize, this counsel is not new. But I fear that so many feel that a long-term food supply is so far beyond their reach that they make no effort at all. Begin in a small way, my brethren, and gradually build toward a reasonable objective” (Gordon B. Hinckley Ensign, Nov. 2002, 58).

Financial Advantages of Food Storage

Prophetic ROI: “The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat.” - Brigham Young

Buy food when it’s on sale, not when it’s sold at a premium

Bulk discounts! Yourgrocer.com is cheaper than most NYC grocery stores, and delivers

ps- you can’t eat money.

Use Food Storage to DRASTICALLY REDUCE “EMERGENCIES”

Keep your food “ox” safely out of the mire

Never have to go to the store “right now”

Cut down on “emergency” fast food and take out

If the power goes out, your roommate’s rent check bounces, or your stocks crash, you can eat well while you plan your next step

Making Food Storage Work in Your Small Manhattan Apartment

Make it a Priority-

This is a repeated first presidency instruction, not a “nice to have.”

You are entitled to inspiration of how to do this and will be blessed with new ideas.

Be Creative-

You’re paying all this money for high ceilings- store vertically! Lift up your bed, stack anything you’re storing on the ground.

Make Room for Food Storage by Getting Rid of Clutter!

Nearly all thriftshops in the city will pick up donated furniture.

City Opera Thrift Shop 212.684.5344 (clothing pick up- minimum 6 garbage bags)

Housing Works 212.366.0820 (store credit up to $10 if you take a cab to drop off donations)

Freecycle.org craigslist.org donateitnow.com providentliving.org

One of the amusing things about living in Manhattan is seeing how everyone else manages to do it. Every visit to a friend’s apartment is another chance to see how Ikea furniture and minimalistic decor can transform a room the size of a glorified closet into a living space fit for entertaining. On Saturday, I was privileged to visit the home of a family in my church. Their midtown apartment not only was home to this family of five, it also housed their year supply of food and other necessities.

They were quick to caveat that they don’t know for sure that their supply would last them an entire year, although they are confident that the first four months without access to outside food or water, there wouldn’t be much change to their diet. Following that, they would start eating more wheat than they are used to, and fresher foods would be replaced by freeze-dried.

It was awesome to see how they did it–what they had and how they stored and rotated it. I got a tour of their entire apartment, with the main food storage areas being the kitchen, a nearby oversized hutch, and the children’s bedroom.

Here are some things I noticed, learned, or found inspiring:

• Freeze dried fruits and veggies can supplement–not strictly replace–fresh fruit in smoothies, casseroles, and soups. Mixing quality powdered milk with fresh 1% milk extends the shelf life of both. (Also: FHE all-you-can-eat ice cream night with freeze dried fruits as toppings.)
• Limited floor space doesn’t mean limited vertical space. Storage containers can be placed underneath most household wastebaskets without taking up additional room.
• Make it a priority. Ask “what can I get rid of? How can I better organize?” Take it to the Lord in prayer and you will receive ideas and inspiration that you wouldn’t otherwise be entitled to.
• Eliminate food clutter. This is an observation and was not a discussion point, but their food storage resembled a warehouse more than a flea market. Instead of stocking their fridge door with an eclectic array of dressings, spreads, and condiments with varying expiration dates, they stored extra items of basic things they regularly use (blocks of butter and cheese). Kitchen drawers housed 8 jars of the same sauce. While this may offend the culinary style of some, as with household or clothing clutter, things that aren’t used take up the space of things that are. For storage purposes, this is probably a bad idea.
• Get in the habit of placing new grocery items in designated storage spaces outside of the kitchen, and draw from those areas when the kitchen storage runs low. This creates a natural rotation.

Sources of bulk items they use:

• www.beprepared.com - for #10 cans of favorite freeze dried food, wheat, and milk. Orders by the case placed once or twice a year. Free shipping if minimum is met.
• www.yourgrocer.com - for large bulk items such as toiletries and rice bags. Orders placed 3 or 4 times a year. $10 delivery fee for orders above $75. (If you want to sign up, let me know…I can send you a coupon to get you 10% off your first order!)

Today at the Union Square green market I bought the first serious bulk product for Operation Food Storage; a 12 pound jar of honey from Tremblay Apiaries. I went to their website afterwards and found out that their “bulk” honey is actually 60 lbs, so if you’re truly hardcore about honey storage, you can get a 5 gallon pail that puts my jar to shame.

There were lots of flavors to choose from and I sampled several on toothpicks, but I ended up going with the kind that tastes the most like honey I’m used to (Spring Flower). While I appreciate the variety, I don’t yet have a need for 12 pounds of honey that only complements the taste of dark wheat bread.

Next on the list was finding a honey pot and dipper, but I’ve decided after looking into it that I’m going to use a regular recycled glass jar, since I don’t want to spend funds or space acquiring needless novelty items (however adorable).

Earlier last week I was asked to give a talk in church on preparedness (specifically, “spiritual principles behind temporal preparation”). Having served a church mission with an additional assignment in welfare, and having served as a relief society president (who helps oversee the welfare objectives of the ward), I have plenty of experience with the subject, but I didn’t want my talk to simply be a rerun of my own anecdotes. I gave the subject a lot of thought and was blessed with daily insights and discoveries that revealed the significance of both personal preparedness and church welfare. I also found some quotes that seemed more revelatory and appropriate than I ever realized. With the staggering price of wheat ($4 for a slice of pizza on Wednesday), threats of a recession, and the ever-weakening value of U.S. currency, I feel a very real application of some of the warnings:

“The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat.”
Brigham Young

“When we really get into hard times, where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep warm, and you cannot wear it.”
President J. Reuben Clark

Preparing for the talk reminded me of the importance of food storage, and rekindled my desire to be self-reliant. I am definitely guilty of feeling too transient and unsettled to want to acquire anything that I’ll have to carry up stairs or find a place to keep, but I don’t want that to be an excuse for being completely unprepared. My roommate and I made a plan to stock up before April and try to live off of our storage for the month. By Saturday night, I was committed to the idea of creating a food storage–if not a year supply, then at least a substantial increase to my current minimal effort– and I mentally set aside funds to do it. Sunday I was called and set apart as a Stake Welfare Specialist.

Since Sunday, I’ve been doing extensive research for food storage options and recommendations. There are a lot more companies and products online than when I last looked into this, and it’s exciting if not overwhelming for me to have so many resources. I’m still not sure what my food storage will look like–how it will be stored, purchased, or rotated have yet to be fully determined. But I think that as I do my homework and start to find solutions, I’ll try to post them here.

Every now and then I try to take pictures of things I make, and I end up wishing I had an eye for photography and a better camera than what is found on my cell phone. Still, I was pleased with the overall effect of this project. I taught a Sunday School lesson on agency during the week of Chinese New Year and made Chinese Fortune Brownies that all had the same fortune (2 Ne 2:27). I thought a treat would help people get to class on time, and it didn’t really do that, so documenting it on the blog at least gives me something to show for my effort.

Last week I offered to bring an appetizer to a Sunday dinner. Here is what that entailed:

Saturday, 8pm-
RiteAid. There is a RachelRay display extolling the deliciousness of Wheat Thins and Triscuits, but no crackers (Nabisco or otherwise) can be found in the store.

Saturday, 8:15pm-
In front of RiteAid. I remember that Becca bought several baguettes to go with the soup I made earlier, and I ask if there is enough bread to bring to the dinner the next night. She says there’s a half a loaf at our new apt, and a half loaf at my old apartment. I was going to the old apt anyway, so I decide to pick up the bread and bring that instead of crackers.

Saturday, 8:45pm-
Old Apartment. My roommate thought the bread was hers and threw it away when she was cleaning up the mess we had left.

Saturday, 11pm.
Walk to Fairway on 125th with Marcus (which I’d decided to never do again). On the way, we pass a park, and two police officers approach us. We keep walking. Fairway is closed.

Saturday, 11:20pm.
Walk to C-Town, DuaneReade, some sort of ShopMart store. All cosed.

Saturday, 11:45pm-
Marcus says he has crackers at his apartment I can bring.

Sunday, 1:15pm-
Marcus gives me a bag of crackers. I owe him $10. The only $10 I have was rejected at ShopFair on Friday for being counterfeit. Jessica’s friend who is visiting from China overhears and asks if he can buy it. I sell it to him for 10 $1’s.

I finally have crackers. Landen has a counterfeit $10. Marcus has ten real dollars. I bring crackers and the half baguette to dinner, to the delight of the hostess who informs me that the person asked to bring bread can’t come. Supposedly she was not feeling well. I suspect that they just don’t sell bread here either.

Dear Jen,

Ever since that moment in the kitchen when you were handed a container of fudge under the false pretense that you like chocolate more than I do, I’ve felt somewhat troubled. I am not sure how to reconcile this misstatement, as you really seem to believe it to be accurate. To the best of my recollection, my love for chocolate has never been challenged before, and I feel the responsibility, as one who values honesty and integrity, to set this straight. Please consider the following:

1. Your argument that you can eat more chocolate than I can, although technically correct, is misleading. You simply can eat more than I can. I have a smaller stomach. But I’m sure that my percentage of calories consumed from chocolate is higher than yours is. It’s not a bragging point, but it’s truth.
2. You admit that when selecting desserts, you will sometimes opt for a non-chocolate option. Some fruity type thing. This is insulting. Blueberry cheesecake is to a chocolate lover what buffalo wings are to a vegetarian: a non-choice.
3. You maintain that because you don’t like chocolate with nuts, your appreciation for chocolate is somehow purer than mine. This is another lie you have told yourself. Chocolate with nuts is a completely appropriate combination, providing increased opportunities for chocolate consumption.
4. I have: been accused of worshiping a chocolate baby Jesus, written chocolate poetry, attended chocolate sculpture exhibits, invented two different chocolate products (complete with packaging and jingles) as a small child, stained most of my current wardrobe with chocolate, almost bought the verizon phone just because of its name, and walked for miles while visiting new cities just to try different hot chocolate creations.

For your sake, I hope you can’t actually dispute my up-to-now undisputed title among my friends and peers of ’she who loves chocolate the most.’ If, however, you can, I would like to see some actual evidence proving such before you go around taking containers of fudge.

The hinge on my cell phone broke this weekend, so for the first time ever, I applied my “new every two” with Verizon and upgraded. Here’s the first pic taken on my new enV phone (my work food stash in all its glory):

I have been so excited about this gadget acquisition that the anticipation of its arrival actually SLOWED DOWN my week. I’ve never invested the time necessary to figure out Verizon’s easy way to spend money on additional ringtones, videos, “get it now” or any process that is preceded by a “v-”  or followed by a (TM), but my goal for this baby is to get through the two manuals at some point and at least know what I’m missing. Then it’s just a matter of time before i’m v-launching vMobile Instant vCast 2.0(TM) with the best of them.