I love electrons!

My street before the real damage. We lost nine trees on this street alone.

The rumors are false. I did not run away and join the circus.

I just got power back Saturday evening. It was a long long week. I had just stocked up on groceries and wham! Goodbye four dozen eggs. Goodbye motley collection of condiments who had taken over my fridge. I think maybe it was a blessing in disguise - I got to scrub out every inch of my ancient refrigerator with bleach. At least that is what I am telling myself.

Actually, the eggs did not go bad. I boiled them on my grill. My neighbors thought I was nuts - until I used up all the mayo in the fridge and made a HUGE batch of deviled eggs. I think they were gone in about two minutes flat. Tony was sad because he only got three eggs worth.

I also put my collection of cast iron skillets to work on the coals and browned off some ground beef. I was going to try making chili but it got dark - boy was it dark. I could see the stars without any light pollution.

Hard Boiled Eggs!!

My big freezer had been packed full and when I finally opened it yesterday, a lot of things were thawed out, but still nice and cold. I am cooking every thing off that I can.

Part of my bounty was shared with Eric, my hubby's best friend. I cooked off three pounds of Thurn's bacon for breakfast yesterday. Yum. And Eric called me a bacon snob. Hell yes. If loving Thurn's bacon is wrong, then I don't wanna be right.

Now that I have lots of freezer room, I am looking into 'Once a Month Cooking or OAMC, or something close to that. More like "make some stuff ahead so I have something to eat when I am too busy to cook" or MSSASIHSTEWIATBTC. Hmmm... That is a bit much. Kind of defeats the whole acronym purpose. Lets see... Too Busy To Cook... Yeah. T.B.T.C. I don't think it will catch on, but hey, ya never know.

A couple items I am looking at are from Cook's Country, owned by Cook's Illustrated. I read a while back over on Tigers and Strawberries about the problems with reproducing recipes from the publishing group. Well that and Barbara has personal issues with how Cook's Illustrated treats non-traditional foods, such Indian and Thai. I am surprised she doesn't have an ax to grind with other venerable institutions such as Better Homes and Gardens or Redbook as well. I guess having grown up in the era of Home Ec for every gal, I just don't get as worked up about stuff like dumbing down exotic cuisines for American consumption. I think of it as cooking with training wheels. Personally, I use Cook's Illustrated like any other resource, pick and choose what I like and leave the rest. And yes Barbara, Chris Kimball has quite an ego, but no worse than any other famous persona I've encountered. You get use to heads that large when you meet showbiz folks from time to time.

So as for plumbing the depths for ideas, I am looking at the freezer lasagna, the freezer enchiladas and the frozen pot pies from the Cook's Country. I also have a lot of other things like Cincinnati Chili (which I've made for years), spaghetti sauce and beef stew. I've been over the OAMC books plus the sites and most of the recipes leave me kinda cold. Anyone out there have other resources they can suggest?

So that's pretty much it. The next week is going to be hell at work. I don't anticipate having much free time, but if I get a few minutes, I'll make another post. If not, I'll surface eventually. I always do.