Grandmothers,  morale, and team effort

Plan for more hot food than needed in the first weeks of any high stress time. I cannot stress this enough. During these first days there will be many demands on your time, and bringing a hot delicious meal on time to the family will be a huge comfort. The first week is the hardest! Start with tried and true items that are hard to burn (like a simple soup) and build your skill set as you evolve. Nothing breaks a cook’s nerves worse than choruses of “I’m hungry” in between meals and ever circling herds of family foraging while you are trying to work! Setting up a stockpot of constantly low simmer soup will help deal with the high stress, technology void and fear of the unknown and instantly supply a cup to anyone hungry in between meals. I recommend a slow cooker method such as a cinder block rocket stove so that few resources are used for hours of cooking. (good to add any leftovers into as well!)You can also have a constant pot/kettle of hot water on the ready with one of these. Our grandmothers knew this lesson and always had a soup pot on the stove and a kettle filled and ready. It brings normal into an otherwise surreal situation.