Many people in the New York area have been hit very hard by Hurricane Sandy, and our thoughts go out to them. (UPDATE: Help The Sporkful help victims of Hurricane Sandy.) Other families are more fortunate, but are still struggling without power. Today I appeared on KPCC's Take Two to offer some tips for keeping your food fresh during a blackout, and cooking in the dark. You know how people like to stay huddled together to stay warm? Well it turns out foods like to huddle together to stay cold. Listen to the segment here.

And here are some interview highlights in text form:

What is the most important piece of advice for food when you don’t have any power?
“Eat your most prized foods first… the stuff you don’t really wanna lose if it goes bad. When in doubt throw it out. Also its really important to keep the refrigerator and freezer closed when possible. Open it once take a picture with your cellphone and now you have an inventory of what you have. Also group your food together in the fridge so it stays cool.”

What is some advice for cooking with out the lights? 
“Be careful, the hardest thing to cook without light is knowing when food is done. If you have steak thawing in the fridge that you want to grill, because you can still grill without power, find the heel of your hand, the part at the base of your thumb, when your hand is relaxed that part feels like raw steak if you touch it. If you touch your thumb to pointer finger, it feels like rare steak. If you touch your thumb to your middle finger, it feels like medium rare steak, thumb to ring finger, medium well, thumb to pinky, well-done steak.”

Obviously this is a tragedy, but do you think cooking without power could be an opportunity to get creative?
“Sure, a lot of folks whose stoves and ovens aren’t working may still be able to use their grills, which are often overlooked. You can boil water in a pot on a grille; you can cook bread on a grill... If you have cheese that hasn’t gone bad you can make pizza on your grill. If you have enough propane you can take sweetened and condensed milk and boil it for an hour and a half and you have dulce de leche”

How do you feel about canned food?
“Canned tuna has a lot of potential. You can make a great tuna salad with olive oil and vinegar instead of mayo, because mayo is perishable.”

Photo: Flickr CC / Andy Hay