Be prepared

People, people. Do you suddenly forget everything you know about about cooking when there is snow in the forecast? Why does the mention of the white stuff in amounts over twenty centimetres send otherwise sensible folks to the supermarket in droves for bread and milk? Why those two items? What cataclysmic force will make you forget all the other good things in your cupboards and refrigerators in favour of a loaf of sliced bread and a two litre carton of Farmers finest one percent? What about the lure of fresh vegetables, diced and sliced for a crunchy stir-fry? Are thoughts of a slow-simmered lamb curry obliterated by the cascading white flakes outside the window?


It is unlikely here in Nova Scotia that a blizzard will interrupt our normal routines for longer than a day or so.  Our towns are well-equipped with snow plows and removal equipment, and we are not novices when it comes to digging or snow blowing ourselves out of the drifts in our driveways. "Snow events", as the TV and radio meteorologists like to call these storms, are nothing more than what we're used to living where we live. A good nor'easter or two is a fact of life in winter.


And yes, sometimes when the snow is heavy and wet, or the wind is wild, we do lose power. But what sensible Canadian doesn't have a propane barbecue or Coleman stove? Many have wood stoves for their primary or secondary heat source; it's not as if we have to subsist on cold sandwiches. But always at the stores, it's the bread and milk shelves that are emptied first. 


Milk, I can understand somewhat. There are things you need milk for, especially if you have kids who will eat cereal without hesitation but look suspicious when you offer them chicken soup that you made from scratch and cooked on your woodstove. You need milk to make (acckkk!) Kraft Dinner. 


But milk and bread? Come on, what are you thinking? Bread pudding? French toast? A poultice to draw an ingrown toenail? Are you planning to mix the two and use it to caulk cracks around that old window?


Sheesh.