Surviving Irene

Last week the islands of The Bahamas and the eastern United States were hit hard by Hurricane Irene. On the island of New Providence, right before the storm traffic was heavy on the roads as everyone hurried to the supermarkets to stock up on canned goods and whatever else they considered to be hurricane supplies. I went to the supermarket as well, but while people were buying canned tuna and canned soup I was purchasing raw chicken and ground turkey, cheddar cheese and fresh vegetables. Now I knew the power would go out, but I've managed my way through quite a few storms so this time I was going to prepare my way. I turned my back on traditional hurricane preparedness and I know everyone in my home was glad I did.

By sunset on Wednesday the storm shutters were down and we were ready for Irene. The power went out around 8 p.m. The outage lasted four days, but that was o.k. because we had quite a few activities planned to occupy us while the winds and rain rumbled outside. We played monopoly and scrabble. We watched movies on my well charged laptop. We listened to music on a battery operated boom box and we ate great.

Late Wednesday night as the storm approached we ate delicious grilled cheese sandwiches and drank homemade ginger lemonade. Thursday morning while the storm was in full effect, for breakfast, we ate banana pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. We washed that down with orange juice and coffee. No can food here! Tasty snacks throughout the day and for dinner fried chicken, peas and rice, coleslaw and plantains. Friday we had hamburgers, vegetable medley and macaroni and cheese. I laughed to myself when I heard what some of my other family members had to eat during the storm. Maybe next time I'll invite to them weather the storm at my house; if there's a next time.

Boy I'm glad I prepared in advance. Before the power went out my meals were prepped so that I would have little to do once the power went out. I kept the food in the freezer so that it stayed cold longer. Then when the power went out we already had ice for our coolers so our food would last for up to a week with no power. I also have a gas range. So cooking is a breeze without electricity.

There was no traditional storm preparation in Caribay's kitchen. That's why I survived Irene!