2026, Family, Food, home, Uncategorized, Weather

Blizzard Fare

21 Comments

I have been reading with some amusement and sympathy for our East Coast fellow citizens dealing with the reality of snowstorms. I can’t imagine having to manage something like that with no experience. It would be like me having to prepare for and sit through a hurricane.

I was very tickled by the NYT cooking site yesterday posting a number of recipes titled “Cooking For The Storm”. If you have to stay in you might as well cook, was their attitude. They highlighted lots of filling soups, pastas, and stews. There was no mention of making a mad dash to the store for provisions, however.

My mother was a very dedicated Grade 3 teacher who didn’t like to cook. If we had to stay at home due to bad weather she always made rather complicated waffles that called for the eggs to be separated and the whites beaten into a meringue and folded into the batter. I absolutely loved them. We called them “Blizzard Waffles”, and I made them for years until I moved on to Husband’s sourdough discard waffles. They are the best.

In our ND town, the minute bad weather was predicted the main grocery store would be overrun with customers stocking up before the storm hit. I have yet to experience this in our MN town, but I imagine it is the same here.

Husband and I seem to go to the grocery store every day for one thing or another, but in a pinch we could manage for weeks with what we have in our fridge, freezers, and pantry. As long as the power stays on and the larder is full, how fun to be snowed in!

Quick! A blizzard is coming! How will you prepare? What do you need to get at the store? Any advice forEasterners on how to deal with the snow?

21 thoughts on “Blizzard Fare”

  1. Like you, there is plenty of food in the house. I might check to see how much milk is in the fridge but even if I got caught unawares and ran out of milk, I could go for a while. As I’ve mentioned before, I regularly go for 4-5-6 days without buying any groceries when YA is out of town on business.

    Jigsaw puzzles and books are my go-tos when the weather outside is frightful. And having the most wonderful neighbors, especially Don, who love to get out and deal with the snow. I was just the grateful recipient of snowblowing just last week.

    Snow advice? Keep the shovels on the porch or in the house, not in the detached garage.

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  2. I can’t remember the last time we had a real blizzard. In any case, we have plenty of food on hand and whenever we make soup or chili we freeze the excess as future meals, so there would be no compelling reason to defensively cook.

    We are also well equipped with books and inside projects that engage us even in non-blizzard circumstances.

    In advance of a blizzard, I would make sure my elderly snow blower will start and then hunker down until the snow stops.
    So far this winter I haven’t needed it.

    I don’t think the folks on the east coast are entirely unfamiliar with snowstorms. They don’t need my advice.

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  3. The fresh veggies for salads would be the one I’d want to run to the store for – like others, I have plenty of canned and frozen things. When I cook pasta now, I make extra and throw some in the freezer, so there’s that, too. I used to have powdered milk on hand – should check that, since it could help if I couldn’t get to the store.

    Today we’re cooking down the next-to-last bag (from the freezer) of tomatoes from the garden. If there’s too much resulting sauce to use soon, the rest will go back in the freezer.

    Renee – You may have done this before, but say more about sourdough discard waffles.

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    1. Well, you make a sponge of discard, buttermilk, and flour and put it in the fridge overnight. Then you add more flour, baking soda, etc, and cook them. They taste so good!. King Arthur has a recipe for them.

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  4. Prepare by going shopping ASAP before the bad weather hits for things like milk, fresh produce, etc. Otherwise, pretty much nothing. Being of a retirement age, we rarely are forced to travel in bad weather, so that’s not an issue. Otherwise I just make sure the snowblower is gassed up so I can clear the driveway afterward.

    We always have lots of food in the house. I doubt we’d empty our pantry and refrigerator in less than a month if we didn’t get new groceries. We’d do without milk, fresh fruits, and veggies for a while, but we wouldn’t starve.

    For the northeast states that probably get more snow than we do in many years: “You know the drill.” For the southern east coasters: “Don’t try to drive in that sh*t! You could die! Stay home, stay warm. Go out and play in the snow so you can understand why most of us northerners LIKE the snow. It’ll also help you understand how cold snow is and how dangerous cold weather is if you don’t dress properly.”

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. Aside from their inexperience with driving in snow, I suspect a big part of the problem in southern states when they get a snow is that none of them have the correct tires for it. We have all-weather or snow tires. They probably are equipped with performance tires. It makes a difference.

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  5. Rise and Shine,Baboons,

    I do not do much either. I usually have soup or a casserole in the freezer, plus many ingredients on hand. If it enough snow that we cannot safely get out for a while, then I bake bread (Scandinavian Rye with pumpkin seeds). The guy who removes snow from the driveway has been very reliable this winter, and my snow shovel is tucked in by the front door. Our neighbors across the street snowblow the end of our driveway after the street plow comes through–they are so good to us.

    This video illustrates what they are doing in NYC:

    The power outages in some of the cities would be difficult to experience and to repair. I cannot imagine trying to move snow around the crowded city streets to restore traffic, though. That seems to me to be a big issue.

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    1. 35 years ago when I worked in Fairmont, MN, we had a big snow, but not a blizzard, during the work day. It had been a distressing day following a client tragedy. All of us in the mental health unit donned our winter wear and had a huge snowball fight in front of the courthouse. Best therapy EVER.

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  6. I make sure I have ingredients for some kind of soup. I like to use fresh veggies in soups, so I’d have to make sure I have them on hand. I can live without milk, but it’s nice to have some oat milk on hand for smoothies.

    We’ve had a couple of blizzards here this winter. The first one was earlier in the season. The wind was 50-60 mph and travel was not advised. Some roads were closed. Snow blew in through the bottom of the threshold of my patio door and I had snow in the house! The window screens were covered with snow like it had been sandblasted onto them. I need a new patio door. A neighbor who needs one too priced them. She told me that Andersen Windows and Doors offered her a “sale” price of $10,500 for a standard patio door! I guess I’ll find another way.

    If you must drive, go slowly. Stay farther away from other vehicles than you usually do. If you can, just stay home. Make soup.

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        1. Maybe try one of those draft snakes (that’s what they’re called) that can be pressed against the bottom edge and block at least some of the draft. We had one for a regular door many years ago. You might need two separate ones for each half of the patio door.

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  7. While a lot of snow falling on us doesn’t make me panic, I am a complete wuss where ice is concerned. Went out to go to the gym and run a couple of quick errands this morning just as the ice pelts started to fall. Even in the time it took me to take my books from the car to the return slot at the library and back I had to sit for a minute and turn up the defrost as far as it would go. I did my second errand, saw people slipping around corners and decided just to head on home and leave the gym for another day.

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  8. When I went to my massage appointment this AM the roads were dry and nothing was falling from the sky. An hour and a half later I came out to a car coated in a thin layer of ice plus a thin layer of snow on top of the ice. The windshield and rear window defrosters set on high plus some scraping managed to clear most of it – thank goodness the temp was near 30 and not minus thirty! Sidewalks were pretty slippery along with road intersections but I got home with no injuries to myself or my car.

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