Why not buy bread and milk? I buy perishables that will last a week or two in case deliveries are disrupted. G and I both like milk and we go through about a half gallon about every 4 days. So when Weather is coming, I get some extra. In some cases this gets out of hand -- A few years ago we had, something like three remnant hurricanes that might hit here in a little over a week. I did an emergency supply run for each hurricane and we wound up with 6 half gallons of milk. We easily consumed them all before they expired, but they took up a lot of room in the fridge.

And this week I almost bought bread in anticipation of the cold because I thought having French toast for breakfast during a cold snap would be fun. Actually I thought it would be a nice reminder of winter mornings when I was a kid in Connecticut. But then I got sidetracked buying tortillas and forgot to buy the bread.

French tacos?

A friend of mine refers to "French Toast Emergencies" since the grocery runs here are for bread, milk, eggs & TP.

French Toast as comfort food?

Yup.

I think it's the small comforts that make it easier for kids (at least, my kids) to get through a weather situation. Being trapped at home by snow is far more enjoyable if you can have hot chocolate!

The bigger concern is a situation like this is losing power, which argues against stocking up big-time on perishables, and risk to frozen foods. After the Hanukkah Storm a few years ago, where we were without power for several days, I ended up throwing away all of the contents of our fridge and freezer. Next time we have a major storm incoming, I'll stock up on dry ice to maintain the freezer temperature.

With the weather we're having right now, I could keep my freezer food outside and keep my fridge food inside in a cooler along with some ice from outside to keep it cool.

There have been many times our garage has subbed in for a "larder" when it is in the single digits - another way of saying our garage has very little insulation, and it's definitely below 40 degrees out there, colder than our refrigerator.