January 25, 2012

Outside Temp: 33 F (it's been warm all day, but very, very windy... see below)

What I cooked today:
Pita Bread and Tzatziki sauce: I wanted to try the pita bread again.  Last time, they turned out okay, but not great.  They didn't puff up as much as I thought they would.  So, I thought maybe I rolled them out too thin.  This time, I rolled them out too thick.  And I (silly me) thought that parchment paper would be enough to keep them from sticking while they rose.  Next time, I'm going to grease them before letting them rise.  They stuck to the parchment paper, which made them lose any rise they had.  Still, they were pretty good and Patrick and I ate them all. 

Beef Stew: Allen has been asking for stew for a few days, so I grabbed a packet of beef out of the freezer last night.  Before I took Ryan to school, I browned the meat and tossed it in the crock pot with some potatoes, onions and carrots (I meant to put in celery, but I forgot).  A few spices and some water, and I just let it do it's thing.  Connor loves the potatoes, Allen loves the beef, Katie tolerates it. 

Biscuits: The best side dish to my beef stew... I made 12, which was just enough.  I think Katie puts too much honey on hers, but they made up for the stew that she didn't eat. 

Update:
It's windy.  Okay, that doesn't do it justice.  It's really windy.  Nope, still not enough.  It's like a hurricane out there!  That's a little closer. 

Overnight, both Katie and Allen woke up, asking if the house was going to blow away.

So, this morning, I'm snoozing in my nice warm bed (did I ever mention how awesome my electric mattress pad is?) and I guess something woke me up.  Perhaps it was the bus driver honking the horn, wondering why we were not rushing out of the house.  Perhaps it was simply my brain's way of letting me know there was something wrong.  I cracked open my eyes, and looked over at the clock.  I realized there was a problem when I noticed that it was light in the room.  It's usually still dark here at 7am, when my alarm goes off.  So, why am I in bed when it's light outside?  Then I see the clock.  1:43am.  Flashing.  No, that's not right.  Hmmm... Oh crap.  Power went out.

I jumped out of bed and grabbed my phone.  Amazingly, it had the correct time on it.  7:41am.  Crap.  Missed the bus.  I rushed around the house, waking up kids and getting them ready.  Katie didn't really understand that we were only a few minutes late, and she thought we had missed school entirely.  Not that lucky, girl. 

Exactly 9 minutes later, we were in the car, headed to school.  We got there around 8:05, which isn't too bad, considering school starts at 8. 

The best part of the story, is that my alarm clock has a battery backup.  I just never bothered to put a battery in!  So, I got home from school, I immediately grabbed a 9-volt battery and put it in my alarm clock.

The power continued to flash off and on for the next 4-5 hours.  Not really a problem, since Patrick and I both have laptops, which will just go over to battery power.  The dryer would shut off, but I just restarted it.  But when you're on the phone, the phone is cordless and obviously plugs in to an outlet.  I had to call the same person back 3 times during one phone call, since the power kept flashing off.

I talked to Patrick's parents later in the morning.  They have a 'weather station' that gives all sorts of useful information.  Apparently, we had sustained wind around 50 MPH with gusts around 75 MPH.  Hmmm, I vaguely remember that a Category 1 hurricane is around 65 MPH?

Well, it was a little windy.