Chapter 22 · Pantry and cooking without power
22.14 Common mistakes
- Buying "survival" food that nobody in the house eats.
- Keeping the pantry in the patio closet or the garage, at over 100 °F (38 °C) in summer.
- Having buckets of rice and beans but no water or fuel to cook them.
- Counting "servings" instead of calories.
- Forgetting the manual can opener, salt, coffee, or something for your pets.
- Using the camp stove "just for a minute" inside the kitchen.
- Opening large cans that you cannot finish and keeping the leftovers without a refrigerator.
- Home-canning vegetables or beans in a water bath.
- Tasting a swollen can "to see if it's good."
- Giving dogs leftovers with onion, garlic, grapes, or peanut butter with xylitol.
- Not rotating: discovering in the middle of an emergency that everything expired two years ago.
