Things got interesting in Southern California last night.
About 3:30 in the afternoon the entire region lost all electricity. I was on
the road trying to meet up with my boss, but even the cell phone towers were
down so we could not make phone calls. Traffic became a nightmare with all the
traffic signals down, it amazes me how many people don’t know what to do at an
intersection when the lights are flashing!
Did I mention today is my husband’s birthday?
By the time I got home, it was clear that the power was not
coming back on soon, and it was going to be a long night. Fortunately, I had
time to gather an assortment of candles, flashlights, BATTERIES, water, and matches, before the sun
went down.
The one thing I was not prepared for was what to eat. Mark was
scheduled to work late, I had a simple grilled cheese sandwich in mind
before all the chaos, when he got sent home early, we had to reevaluate the
dinner situation.
Thank goodness we still had propane in the BBQ.
Since you shouldn't open the refrigerator unless totally
necessary, we quickly grabbed the half frozen Italian sausage and the yellow
mustard, oh, and the bottle of white wine that was luckily still a little cool!
We found just enough sliced wheat bread for each of us. Then Mark mixed
up some of his famous mustard sauce, simply yellow mustard, honey and a little
cayenne pepper. Yes, by candlelight.
The sausages were perfectly grilled, and of course nice and spicy!
It was not a fancy meal, and it was
certainly NOT a photo op evening, but it was kind of fun. Our "first Crisis" as a married couple! I think we both agree, we need to get better prepared for this type of thing, our fathers would both be disappointed....
The rest of the evening was super fun. With no phones,
TV’s or computers to distract us, we sat outside, looked at the stars, visited with the neighbors,
and of course we sort of felt compelled to eat as much perishable cheese as
humanly possible, it was going to go bad, right?
We are all back to normal today, our power came back around 10PM last night. Now, I need to go
through the fridge and figure out what can be salvaged and what has to be
tossed out. According to this, I should throw out most everything in the fridge, but the freezer stuff should be OK.
I better get to work....batteries, I NEED to put batteries on my shopping list.....
Stay tuned to find out what we make for Marks REAL birthday celebration meal!
PS. Please notice I highlighted a bunch of words in my post today.....these are all IMPORTANT things to think about in case of an emergency!
Glad you had a lovely evening despite the blackout. At least you we're prepared. I gathered all my candles and mind you they were all scented so you would think you came to a Yankee candle store haha.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right the good thing of having no distrations is you get to bask in the beauty of things that you take for granted for. The evening was indeed so lovely. Without light pollution,the stars and the moon were glistened the city like it never did before.
What successful blackout cookery!
ReplyDeleteWhat a delicious way to enjoy the black out!
ReplyDeleteI'm a little late in responding, but I'm with you on needing to be more prepared. I'm nearly out of candles and my radio batteries were not long for this world. We did however, sort of enjoy the black out. No tv, no phones, not computers. It was kind of nice to unplug. I talked to the kids, had wine with neighbors, went to bed early. I could sort of use a day like that just about once a month!
ReplyDeletePS... was thinking of you the other day, we made your beans that rock again, I just love those!!
Wow-intense! I'm glad your power came back on quick but it sounds like you made do with quite a lovely evening.
ReplyDeleteTiff.. What a romantic evening you had. Those sausages and special mustard sauce looks perrrrrfect. I agree with you on the blackout deets. A fun evening had by most, but I know I need to be a bit more prepared. :)
ReplyDelete