why I love electricity

This begins a series of blog posts that I planned and took pictures for a billion years ago but didn’t get it together to publish til now. Enjoy!

The most ambitious “cooking” one can make when the power is out and it is 100 degrees out:

So living in Northern Virginia we were part of the exceedingly exciting derecho that knocked out billions of peoples’ power. Well millions. Okay maybe hundreds of thousands. Still.

While the storm was actually happening, I was enjoying a tasty post-Magic Mike beer with a friend. Heh. The power flickered a bit, and the bartender generously announced that if any women were feeling afraid, he’d be happy to give them a comforting cuddle. Heh. Anyway, then we left and the power was out in the garage in which we’d both parked. Eesh number one. I walked her to her car, she drove me to mine. Safety! Then I pulled out of the garage and quickly realized how insane the storm had been when there was no electricity around me for my entire drive home. Let me tell you, it is a frightening experience. Driving down one four-lane turnpike, I gave thanks for my highbeams as they helped me avoid the tree branches/limbs/trunks blocking much of the entire right lane. I tried multiple routes into my neighborhood, all unsuccessfully blocked by fallen trees. At this point on the verge of hysteria, I reached my sister and learned she and my mother were, yknow, alive, and got a tip on how to get in my neighborhood.

Getting home and looking up at the beautiful and mysterious owl atop the power line, seemingly guarding our driveway, I was reminded what’s important and what isn’t.

Anyway, following an unsatisfying night of sleep, I brewed some sun tea! Not iced tea. Warm tea. A little weird but very flavorful.

But really we were WIMPS and almost immediately (say, 40 hours in) bailed and went to my aunt and uncle’s, who have a generator.

They cooled us and fed us, sheesh. Lucky us. This was SO GOOD. Salad (we contributed farmer’s market tomatoes) and seafood pasta (made with Trader Joe’s seafood mix, which is SO GOOD and I should REMEMBER TO BUY, as well as some extra shrimp). Plus Trader Joe’s garlic naan, mmm.

This wine tastes like grapefruit and is fantastic.

The rest of the time at my aunt and uncle’s consisted of walking on the beautiful GW trail along the Potomac (I saw a great blue heron catch a fish!) and reading THE BEST BOOK I’VE READ THIS YEAR-

Attention loyal blog readers, YOU MUST READ Neversink, a completely enchanting and beautifully written (for what is ostensibly a children’s book, no less) mythological tale about PUFFINS! Get it. You want to. It’s also by a really good friend of ours :)

Continuing with the luxurious life at the generator-owners’ home, lunch was preceded by a delicious cheese plate:

And I used farmer’s market green beans and eggs we’d rescued from our fridge to make a rather spectacular salade nicoise.

   

So duh-licious!