Next On My Stockpile List: Aluminum Foil

I tend to stock up on things like canned food (because, well, you can eat it) and toilet paper (because I hope I never have to wipe my ass with a stick). But I rarely have more than one extra box of things like ziptop baggies or plastic wrap. I guess I've always kind of figured that those things were nice to have, but they weren't necessary.

Then I read the cookbook Fix It In Foil. Now, I've done a little foil cooking on the grill in my time. Hubby and I have made the usual hobo packs (hamburger, potatoes, onions and carrots in foil), and potatoes & onions in a foil pack are a standard summer side dish for us. Every once in a while I make fish in parchment paper in the oven, which is in the same family as foil meals.

But this cookbook has some surprisingly unique ideas, including breakfast foods (sausage, eggs and hashbrowns in foil), ethnic foods (bean burritos in foil), and side dishes (broccoli casserole in foil). And these meals can be cooked in an oven or over coals.

And it got me thinking: if the fecal matter ever hits the fan, how will I be cooking food for my family? Most likely, I'll make meals in my woodstove fireplace (in the winter) or on a charcoal grill (in the summer). So foil cooking could be a really ideal way to prepare meals. Moreover, because no pots need to be cleaned, it's an especially useful cooking method when water is scarce.

The downside, of course, is that you need to have an abundance of aluminum foil. Which isn't cheap. But I'm going to keep my eye on sales, and hopefully I can score a nice stockpile without spending a lot of scratch.