Dennis and I went to the Finger Lakes last week for what was supposed to be a nice long relaxing weekend. Once we heard about Hurricane Irene’s eminent arrival, we decided to return home to make sure all of are hatches were battened and our kitties were okay. We did our grocery shopping in Watkins Glen and loaded up my Mini Cooper with things like canned goods, cat food, bottled water, batteries and candles. We got home right before the storm rolled in and we prepared ourselves for the worst. While New Jersey was hit hard and some of my friends are still dealing with the aftermath, we were very lucky. We had a small amount of water in our basement, and we were without power most of Sunday, but other than that, we had an uneventful weekend. We spent Sunday reading, checking Facebook on our phones to make sure all of our friends were okay, and playing a nice long game of Simpsons Monopoly. And the lack of power didn’t stop us from eating good food!
When we called the power company to see how long the electricity would be out, we were told it might take a full week to restore power. A week! We wanted to cook some of the perishable foods first to prevent having to throw spoiled food away. Our stove is gas, so Dennis lit the burner with a match and I made a tofu scramble. Tofu scrambles are easy – just mix together some crumbled tofu with spices and whatever veggies you have in your fridge. In this case, I used onion, a red bell pepper, spinach and mushrooms. I threw in a little vegan cheese and nutritional yeast too. No package of vegan cheese goes bad on my watch!
For lunch I made some coleslaw along with chickpea mash sandwiches. The coleslaw was made with a bag of shredded cabbage and carrots I had in the fridge. I just mixed it together with some Vegenaise. The sandwiches were made with mashed chickpeas, mustard and Vegenaise. (I couldn’t let that jar of Vegenaise go bad!) Chickpea mash is another dish that you can just throw in whatever is in the fridge. I used shredded carrots, onion and a little more bell pepper. I also used some dried dill, salt and pepper for flavor. I had bought some really yummy rice chips in Watkins Glen so I served them along side everything. Sandwiches like this are perfect for power outages!
While preparing for Irene’s arrival, I made a pot each of brown rice and quinoa so that I could make dishes with them if we lost power. So for dinner on Sunday I mixed together a big bowl of quinoa salad. Once again, this is another dish that you can make with whatever is handy. In this case I used carrots, cherry tomatoes, onion, diced zucchini, some cashews and a can of chickpeas. I mixed together some lemon juice, olive oil, flavored vinegar with oregano and dill and mixed it in with the quinoa salad. This was really tasty and there was enough for a second meal for both of us.
Fortunately, it did not take a week to restore power, and the electricity came back on Sunday night, just in time for True Blood!
Oh yeah, and you know how animals are supposed to be able to sense impending storms and such? I’m pretty sure that’s a myth, as demonstrated here by the nap Tallulah Belle is taking in the midst of the house being pounded by rain.
