The Blizzard – Preparedness and Food

Nemo, the Blizzard of 2013, was coming to the USA’s Northeastern corridor. In Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick sent a stern warning that people must prepare. A citywide car ban was mandated after 4 pm yesterday. So I prepared. After all I had prepared for Sandy and needed very little supplies. I just followed the emergency preparedness guidelines from my years around the “five” seasons of mudslides, floods, tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes in places I lived in — California, Costa Rica, Texas and Puerto Rico. In Costa Rica earthquakes were nearly a monthly affair and a horrible mudslide during my stay, which took more lives than the big earthquake a year earlier in 2009. In California we had four of the five “seasons” mentioned above. Below are my Blizzard 2013 photographic memories in food and nature in chronological order as the storm developed.

Beginning of The Blizzard 2013 (Photo: Margarita Persico)

Temple Ohabei Shalom view during onset of Blizzard (more at bottom)

Supplies such a water, candles, matches, crackers, medicine and first aid kit.

While winds gusted at 46 miles per hour in Brookline, MA, I did a lot of cooking and photographing. I prepared all the greens I had in the fridge: kale and collard greens sautéed in olive oil with garlic and ginger, and garnished with dulse seaweed flakes. I made a huge salad of Romaine lettuce, spinach and watercress – enough to serve a soccer team! I juiced 5 pounds of carrots with a lemon, 5 garlic cloves and a piece of ginger. The previous night, Thursday, I had guest over and had made them arroz con gandules, pasteles, salad and baked chicken breast. I had some rice left over for 2 servings.

Thursday 

 Arroz con gandules — rice with pigeon beans

Flan

Friday

Temple Ohabei Shalom

Kale and Collard Greens – Soul Food with an Asian twist!

Saffron brown rice and pigeon beans, chicken nuggets, kale and collard greens, red cabbage pickle and carrot stick

Refrigerator carrousel and storage canning jars

Early Friday night it had been snowing non stop for hours and I was starting to get a sweet tooth, I had already decided to stay away from my Cherries & Almond in Dark Chocolate bar, which I want to stretch for a few days, a little piece at a time. Instead I made raisin cinnamon Mochi, a Japanese food treat made from short grain sweet rice. When baked it puffs up like a square muffin.

Mochi, a Japanese food

Mochi, a Japanese food.

Uncooked mochi store in canning jar.

Saturday Morning

Snowed in at home.

“R u OK?” Was message from my husband who is out of town.

“U have electric?”

I had gone to bed at 9:30 pm and woke up at 7:23 am with the sound of the first text message. Then he called. “Everything seems OK aside from being cold, 62 degrees,” I replied. We were lucky we had no problems. But overnight there were over 400,000 people without power, which dropped to 398,503 early this afternoon. The people at MEMA bunker in Framingham, MA, had been working overnight along with Governor Duval Patrick. MEMA is Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. The people staying at MEMA bunker besides employees and Governor Duval Patrick were other government and utility employees and even suppliers for equipment and materials. They have worked around the clock and will stay in the bunker until tomorrow.

The car travel banned will be lifted after 4 pm according to State government. The purpose of the travel ban was to ensure people’s safety, prevent cars stranded and helped emergency responders do their job, but some people were unhappy and said it was an overuse of authority. Anyone violating the car travel ban could incur a $500 fine and a year in jail. In spite of the ban, I heard on the news that there were 30 cars stuck in the heart of the blizzard, according to MEMA director Kurt Schwartz.

It could have been worse if there had been more cars on the road with zero visibility early last night, but unfortunately today two people die of carbon monoxide in Boston while digging their cars out of snow, according to Boston.com.

But as Gov. Patrick said, quoting his grandmother’s words, a term Boston Mayor Menino is known also to also use, “a few knuckleheads” were driving in the wrong directions on highways because they couldn’t see.

So I did my shared and stayed in last night after all we had nearly 24 hours of snowfall, a little over one inch a minute, and this morning after a failed attempt to go out, I was snowed in, I decided to stay in for a while. After all in my backyard’s city view I see a sole, beautiful, sycamore tree and the lovely Temple Ohabei Shalom.

Temple Ohabei Shalom view during onset of Blizzard

Cars buried in the snow in Brookline, MA

Temple Ohabei Shalom view during middle of Blizzard 2013

Temple Ohabei Shalom view during middle of Blizzard 2013

I had met the artist who had made this menorah.