Problem solved?

This is my newest kitchen gadget. It's about nine inches long and two wide. The little white box allows the stuff being grated to be held in place without losing a layer of the hand doing the grating. I love it! It's for slicing garlic, and works wonderfully for that. But notice the grating section on the right. I'm so excited!

Recently, we had the horrible flood of 2011 that put the power here out for a day. Our phone still worked, and our son called to see how we were getting along. (I should re-phrase that, I suppose. That looks like he might have been concerned whether DH and I were at each other's throats. No ... he was asking how we were managing without power.) Anyway ... he commented that this would be a good test of our emergency preparedness.

I told him that I had already learned one thing I'd not done right. I need to stop buying only whole coffee beans! I have an old-fashioned percolator and a gas stove that will light with a match, so we're good on that front. I use a little electric grinder every morning to make my brew from coffee beans. Not good in a power outage. The thought ran through my head to use my old-fashioned cheese grater that has four sides, one a fine grating section. Not a good plan, unless you like knuckle skin in your coffee. Ghack!

Now, in an absolute emergency during which I might have to go without coffee for an extended period of time, I COULD improvise using this handy, dandy little gadget. (You'd think I'd wean myself from the vile stuff instead, wouldn't ya? I did it once, by drinking hot water with lemon. Yeah -- go figure!)