SO, IF YOU ARE CONFINED TO YOUR HOMES WHAT ARE YOU GONNA EAT?

Does all the Swine Flu hype have you a little nervous? Is your imagination galloping off into the murky distance, leaving you looking in the fridge, muttering, "If they quarantine the nation what will I eat?" as you are shaking the milk carton with half an inch of questionable stuff inside.

I'm going to answer your question. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has asked it's members to store food and other necessities for times of need. So we do--or at least we try to, but some of us don't really have much of a plan.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Costco when I met Liesa Card, the author of "I Dare You to Eat It," a book about food storage and actually being able to eat what you store. Her book is excellent. She gave me permission to share it on our Relief Society bulletin, which I will start doing this week. She also has a blog by the same name. Click here to check it out.

One of her premises is to store enough "comfort" food for three months. That is food you would normally eat. She keeps three recipes worth of groceries for five meals in five categories: wheat, beans, pasta, potatoes, and rice. That makes three months worth of recipes. She uses these recipes all the time so her stored food is always naturally rotated, as she replenishes the used items.

I made her Fiesta Wheat and Bean Salad twice in a week. (I used more lime juice, some garlic powder and more jalapenio and it would be good with hot sauce.) I took some of it to five families along with a bag of tortilla chips to eat it with. I don't know if they like it but I do. I even eat it on corn tortillas, lightly fried in a little olive oil and topped with hot sauce. I eat it for breakfast, weird I know but tasty.

We can do this. We can get prepared for times of emergency. It will take a little planning and a bit of work but won't it feel good to be prepared when/if the store shelves are all of a sudden empty?

Check out her web site, and there are other "Food Storage" web sites on the Internet, too. Let's get busy and do what we have been told to do for so very long. It feels good to be prepared. At least that's what I've heard. Ask me later in the year, when I've figured out my thirty meals times three.

THIS AND THAT--VAMPIRE BEST SELLER, EMERGENCY PREPARDNESS, PIONEER WOMAN and PLANE CRASH SURVIVORS

NON-SIGNED VAMPIRE BOOK: My--coughtotallyinsanecough--nephew--who I adore--promised his Sunday School class full of teenagers that if they read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year he would give them a signed copy of Stephenie Meyer's book, the last book in the TWILIGHT series, BREAKING DAWN. He thought it would be easy to obtain--coughdidn'tdoanyresearchfirstcough. He didn't know she's only had three book signings and signed copies of her book are $200 EACH, on EBay. Does anyone know Stephanie? He could send her some bookplates to sign if he had her sympathy. He certainly has mine.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: Are you worried that if we loose power you will freeze to death right in your own home. Go here and see some things you can do to prepare for emergencies. The link for foam clothing is there.

Phil and Kraut went to Jim Phillips' class years ago. Jim is the inventor of this amazing clothing. Who knows where the handouts are--somewhere in the garage--with the chairs. You can buy the clothing or make your own. There is a link to a video you can watch that explains the "Thermal Johns" and how they work. The test was done in a freezer at minus 18 degrees and the woman wearing the Thermal Johns started the test wearing them soaking wet.

The video that follows is about a portable composting toilet. It is called "Nature's Head." Honest, it is. I know you are thrilled to know this stuff. If you keep watching the video's you will see Jim give lots of good preparedness information. I've been watching for a l-o-n-g time. He said, "May we have the courage to create joy in our lives." That goes for more than preparedness, doesn't it?

You can click from one video to another by clicking on the second single forward arrow. He gives you information on everything unimaginable from a camping shovel and axe, bug spray, to the best books to read on survival. One short video is about a product called the Whiz Freedom. Yes, it's what it sounds like. Girls, you too can have the "stand up" experience.

PIONEER WOMAN: I know everyone on the planet knows about Pioneer Woman but just in case you don't follow the link and go see what she's up to. She has a cookbook blog, which I call the Add-Butter-Directly-To-Your-Thighs blog. She runs contests. My favorite was the one where people sent their recipes. When I'm bored I go read some of these. There are over 5,000. I've read about 200. It really gives you an idea of what people in America really eat, even though they say they steam their vegetables and eat whole grain bread, without butter, which Pioneer Woman doesn't believe in.

PLANE CRASH RECOVERY: Probably everyone knows about this too. In August a private plane crashed and burned in Arizona. The pilot died of injuries, the two passengers, Stephanie and Christian were burned badly. They have been recovering in Arizona while their four children were being cared for by Stephanie's siblings, here in Utah.

c jane enjoy it is a blog by Stephanie's sister. She has been giving updates on their recovery. Their recovery, by the way, has been nothing less than a miracle.

Their brother, The Jolly Porter has a blog too and it is good for a good chuckle. Only one problem with this site. He doesn't update often enough and he doesn't allow comments so people can't nag him about it. But he's in my ward so I nag every Sunday but I'm a failure though.

C Jane has links to Stephanie's blog which was written before the crash. Her posts are being re-posted. Stephanie is a lovely young mother who loved her role as wife and mother more than anything else in the world, even shoes.

You can donate to Stephanie and Christian's recovery efforts or even have an auction of your own and donate the money to this cause.

I wasn't going to write a book tonight or stay up this late, either. Don't tell Phil. He thinks I'm a reasonable person. Well, okay, he doesn't really think that but lets not add fuel to his list of reasons that I might not be reasonable.