Recovery Chicken

So, when I wrote the last entry I fully expected to be off the blog for a few days. I figured there'd be tremendous rain and wind and that we'd lose power for four or five days. It turns out I was completely wrong! Unfortunately it was much, much worse. Here's a quick recap of what you missed in our exciting lives!

Sunday:

I'm not sure exactly what time it was that we were lounging around in bed. All we could think about was how there hadn't been any wind or rain overnight as predicted. Our air conditioner was still on so we hadn't lost power as expected.



This is what I saw.

So, things were actually, much, much worse than we'd expected. We called 911, grabbed as much food and clean water as we could carry, and ran up to the second floor awaiting the police boat to rescue us. Jen's brand new car and my car of a year-and-a-half were both destroyed in the flood.



Here's a video from the news of my car being destroyed.



When we returned later that night we found that power hadn't even gone out for a moment. It turns out that all those batteries, candles, and flashlights weren't really needed after all.

We had something of a restless night.

Monday:

Monday, after surveying the damage, we were pretty sure the day was going to be a little better than Sunday. I came home from work and through together one of Jen's favorite comfort foods:



Baked scrod with cracker crust!

We hadn't lost power at all so I'd been planning on making something nice with the farm vegetables. The farm had been hit pretty hard by the hurricane but they were able to harvest some stuff before the rain and wind came.



Jen spent all day going through our destroyed Christmas ornaments and clothing from the basement. There' nothing that quite lifts your spirits as much as seeing irreplaceable family heirlooms that are destroyed beyond repair.

Jen also picked up the vegetables from the farm share but I wasn't quite in the mood to do my normal picture so I just dumped the bag on the floor the kitchen and we went to sleep.

Tuesday:

We came home, determined to return to normal. As I returned home the light went out so we had some cold pasta leftover from the dinner I'd made for the workers cleaning up downstairs.

In the dark.

Wednesday:

Wednesday we came home, again, determined to return to normal. Instead conEd showed up to cut off power to the building. Apparently it was too dangerous to allow to remain on, but not so dangerous that they felt the need to kill it at any point during the previous 80+ hours it had been on.



Again we had the leftovers from dinner I'd made for the guys outside, reheated hamburgers, potato chips, and warm beer. Cold burgers and warm beer is actually not that bad when you're wallowing in self defeat.

Today:

Today was going to be different! Mother Nature is a jerk but I'd had just about enough of her schtick by this point. She's got a lousy attitude and a fat ass! That's right, I said it.



Our grill was pretty much destroyed in the flood.



I found this grill in the wreckage. It belongs to a neighbor of ours. I asked him if it was okay if we used it. Having also lost two cars in the flood he didn't really seem to care if he never saw the grill again.



After a quick hose down I used this opportunity to grill up some chicken to go along with some of the farm carrots I roasted with thyme, olive oil, salt, and pepper.



What beer do you pair with such a meal? Well, why not this Delirium Tremens from Brouwerij Huyghe? This may be the beer that I've wanted to try the longest without actually trying it. I remember seeing this beer for the first time in a beer bar in 2002 and thinking that I wanted to try it. Nine years later I finally got around to it. This is proof that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything!

Also, I felt that the name of this beer most properly captured my current state of mind.

After the flood came the fruit flies. I'm not sure why. Maybe they decided, based on all the other horrific events of the past few days, to descend on the scene like a plague of locusts. My first trick to try to minimize their propagation I set up an enticing bowl of tomatoes in the sink. As they gathered by the tomatoes I attempted to drown them with a pot of water. It doesn't seem surprising in retrospect but this didn't really do anything other than shoot tomatoes all over the place. So it was that I decided to take other action.



I cut up all the pears, nectarines, peaches, and plums and tossed them with a small amount of cornstarch and salt. Then I made a crisp topping out of oats, granola, butter, brown sugar, and flour. I sprinkled some cinnamon, allspice, and then baked it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.

And that's it! We're back to normal, folks! Jen leaves for Montreal in the morning so you can look forward to some of my exciting 'bachelor life' entries. It'll probably mostly revolve around me using up junk we have in the fridge and drinking beer.

Beer that is salty with my own tears.