The Y2K Kitchen shifts into disaster mode JAMES ROMENESKO COLUMNIST

No Y2K catastrophes? Sally Strackbein's not disappointed; there's always the possibility of a hurricane or an earthquake down the road. At the very least, she figures, a winter storm's bound to hit -- and her kitchen will be ready.

As the creator of the popular Y2K Kitchen Web site (www.y2kkitchen.com) Strackbein spent much of last year advising the world to stock up with canned goods and other commodities in case the worst happened on Jan. 1, 2000. On her site, she shared recipes for Baked Bean Crown Roast, Y2K Chowder and other easy-to-make dishes that taste best when eaten in the dark.

``I'm not going to store 300 pounds of wheat,'' she wrote on her page, trying to convince readers she wasn't some kook in the kitchen. Last week, though, Strackbein admitted she did eventually buy a 300-pound wheat sack that's now sitting in her basement. (She also says her gaslight was cranked up on New Year's Eve as she played cards with her family.)

``I didn't expect to get off this easy,'' she says. ``We were real prepared, actually overprepared. The reason for it is we saw that our neighbors weren't prepared at all.''

She was ready to feed them, too.

Even though the world's been spared a disaster, Strackbein isn't ready to hang a ``Kitchen Closed'' sign on her Web site.

``I'm kind of rethinking my approach,'' she says. ``I'm astounded by the number of e-mails I'm getting from people saying 'Thank you, we want you to keep your Web site up for general preparedness.' ``

And so she is. Strackbein says she's going to tweak the recipe list to include dishes with ingredients that can be used in disasters that don't involve computer bugs.

``With Y2K, everything had to be completely nonperishable,'' she says. ``(For hurricanes and earthquakes) you can have a broader spectrum of recipes because you can include things like fresh eggs and milk.'' She admits the revised site will be more to her liking; she never was a tuna casserole kind of cook.

``I'm more of an exotic food person,'' says the 50-something Strackbein.

The Y2K Kitchen cook isn't ready to change her Web site's name; she's not even sure what the new Disaster Kitchen page will be called because she's not convinced we're in the clear yet.

``I'm already seeing evidence of things breaking down,'' she says, although unable to offer examples of even minor Y2K mayhem.

Strackbein says she put considerable effort into her page in 1999, but she emphasizes she's not disappointed that everything went fine.

``I'm ecstatic that nobody's suffering, but I was hoping Y2K would help us simplify a bit,'' she says. tp://www.pioneerplanet.com/tech/cyb_docs/031858.htm

-- Martin Thompson (Martin@aol.com), January 12, 2000

Answers

Martin:

Thanks. I didn't see that one. I guess I need to get to work on the site. I've been lounging too long.

I did grind my own wheat yesterday and make homemade pizza. It was actually pretty good, except that the yeast I used was a little old, so the crust was thin when I expected thick.

Anybody got any good gourmet recipes?

Y2K Kitchen

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), January 12, 2000.

Sally:

Gourmet recipes covers a broad field. Do you want possum recipes or Copper River Sockeye recipes.

Best wishes,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), January 12, 2000.

I guess possum would do if you can get it in the grocery store. *grin*

I'd love to get some interesting recipes using canned crab or something other than tuna. The original goal of the site was to collect and post recipes for inexpensive, non-perishable food. I still have lots of recipes to test that people sent.

Since I need to test all recipes and serve them to my family... and we don't want to eat tuna every day. Would you?

I'd like some weird and wonderful gourmet recipes for non-perishable food that is available at the grocery store.

Check out:

Hot and Sour Soup

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), January 12, 2000.

Looking forward to your new site. Always enjoyed the Y2K kitchen. Tried some of the recipes and still have them saved for other times.

Good luck

Martin

-- Martin Thompson (Martin@aol.com), January 12, 2000.

I must thank Mr Romenesko for being one of the few reporters left with an open mind...

-- matt (matt@somewhere.nz), January 12, 2000.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

Sally's place is great. I relied on it a lot in my approach to the rotating part of my food storage. I hope, eventually to get that up to about a full year of stock. One could conceivably get it up to a two year amount, if they were willing to eat only storage foods during the "before times" when the infrastructure is working OK. We like fresh produce too much to do that.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), January 13, 2000.

Hi Sally - I'm thinking we need some recipes that uses those ramen noodle soup. So cheap -got sooooooo many...LOL

-- April (alwzapril@home.com), January 13, 2000.