ARE YOU PREPARED?
That old boy scout motto, "Be prepared," should be heeded as a forecast of yet another snowstorm looms over us.

Last Friday, my friend, Linda Henderson, e-mailed that she had finally gotten out of her snow-drifted cul-de-sac to swing by and pick up her 90-something mother, Lois Hayna.
"We need to get to the grocery store to pick up a few things for our Christmas dinner," she said. "When we got to the store Mother took one look at the produce section and said it reminded her of how stores looked during the war. There was hardly anything fresh left and what was there wasn't worth buying."

With a repeat of last week's weather in the forecast today, I dropped into the Safeway in Rockrimmon to see if they had recovered from last week's storm. There were still plenty of empty sections in the produce section. Almost all of the pre-packaged salad greens were gone. The frozen meat section looked sketchy, too. Fresh meat was on the slim side and the dairy case was only about one-third full. The cheese section was almost bare, as was the refrigerated biscuit section.

If this Safeway is any indication of how other grocery stores have recovered from the last week's storm, you'd better make plans NOW to get to a store near you to get what's left, just in case the predicted storm materializes.

Personally, I always keep a few cans of clams in the pantry so I can whip up white clam sauce to toss with pasta. Nothing could be easier and more filling. Following is my emergency recipe. How about you? Do you have a recipe you can fix in a snap when a trip to the store is out of the question? Please pass it along.


White Clam Sauce and Pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large clove garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon flour
4 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams, with juice
1 (8 ounce) package dry pasta
Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, in a medium skillet heat olive oil and garlic. Add seasoning and flour, stirring mixture about 2 to 3 minutes. Add clams with juice and continue to cook 3 to 4 minutes, until mixture is bubbly. When pasta is al dente, drain and toss with clam sauce. Serves 2.