Hurricane Irene

What a drag!

Nothing major--High Anxiety, shopping, relocation, packing up irreplacable treasures~~just annoyances, really~~~~

No Cable TV, no telephone, no PC connection... [skylights that LEAKED!]... a large, old tree across the road where we live for 5 days...Nothing some towels, bucket and broom (and a Detour) couldn't mend.




But wait! Did I neglect to mention my husband had had an aphasic stroke on the Wednesday before, and was still in ICU? (I KNEW I forgot something......Poor man is home now, in outpatient therapies and making a remarkable recovery)




Never-the-less...We commenced to eek out some Good Eats and Fun Times~~~~{My brother had POWER}




My Mom and my kids spent 2 days at my brother's house----5 cousins, 1 grandma, 2 sibs [and sister-in-law], 3 old friends from Arizona, one cat and 3 doggies!

While the grown-ups were watching the Weather Channel...... the kids were online, and playing Wii (sp) and texting and tumbling about the house with the dogs.....(Naturally) I made my way into the kitchen to cook.

(my personal response to most of Life's situations..)




It was our "Hurricane Irene, Are u kidding me" party---

ENJOY!

For the Appetizer:

I rolled a Thanksgiving Day sized platter (twice) of smoked turkey, roast beef, chesses, and assorted crudite'.

Next, side dishes of Mixed Olives,

Roasted Peppers,~~

Chick pea/artichoke heart/marinated mushroom cold salad.




For the Entree:

A pot of saffron rice/cannellini beans ~~ and a pot of ground beef with onions, garlic, cumin, smoked pimenton, salt, pepper, and a big bay leaf. (to spoon over rice)

One of our friends made a huge, beautiful salad of heirloom tomatoes, (from his 90 year old father's garden!) cucumbers, purple onion salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil ~~~and cubed a big fresh artisan loaf of sourdough bread to sop up the juices! Amazing..




For Dolce:

And, at some point, in the midst of this, while afterwards were we washing dishes and throwing in a load of laundry~~~~

While the kids decided to bake cookies and brew coffee and steep teas.....Jose Cuervo did make an unannounced appearance....(well, always room for another friend at the table)




Soon after, the compressors came out and it was time to blow up the beds...

We watched "Meet the (Focker) Parents" and all fell sleep by 1am.....to the sounds of some rain and some wind, but nothing as spectacular, as The Weather Channel was relentlessly predicting.




Now, it is a week later, and the sun is shining, the winds and waters have receded, my husband is back home and I still have dishes and photographs to unpack and restore to their original places of grace within this little homestead.




School begins on Tuesday again, I need to get organized!




Bye for now..I hope everyone is back to normal on the East Coast!