A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT

Crock-pots are the single greatest invention known to man—in my opinion—and since it’s just my opinion, I can still think it if I want to in America. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that it’s true.

Anyway . . . I wrote this book with a fictional apocalypse scenario where solar flares crash the electrical grid and the world never recovers. It’s really science fiction, but it gave me the chance to imagine a world without crock-pots or Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was eye opening, especially when it comes to the basics like eating food. What would the residents of the S-Line Ranch likely eat.

In the 1950’s it was common for families to sit down at the end of day and have dinner. Mothers were careful to make it balanced: two kinds of vegetables, a starch, bread, meat, and dessert. High schools offered “Home Economics” where girls were taught a government approved “food pyramid.” Sounds prehistoric. Doesn’t it? SIDENOTE: Just remember childhood obesity was unknown when I was a girl.

Now, families are more likely to eat processed food and fast food than not. 

Writing BEYOND THE STRANDLINE made me re-think the way a family would have to prepare and cook food without the power grid and vats of bubbling oil at Macdonald’s. 

Think crock-pots! Without electric. Take away the electric and you’ve got one pot cooking, tinfoil dinners: stews and soups. 

Meals with separate offerings of starch and vegetables and protein would not be practical or saved for special occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas. On a day-to-day basis, it’s going to be one pot cooking. 

And bread or hard tack . . . homemade cheese, hard-boiled eggs, jerked/smoked meat . . . portable . . . fruit in season . . . raw vegetables . . . 

Cast iron one pot cooking: Dutch ovens and cast iron kettles; pots tough enough to stand up to the intense heat of an open flame.

And bread . . . homemade bread. Let’s start practicing.