Ninja Pioneer Woman

A few weeks ago a blizzard hit here at Casa Tornado. Well, it didn’t hit only my house, but you know what I mean. We were sort of expecting it, the local meteorologists had forecasted 9 inches of snow and blowing, whipping winds. As much as I’ve come to expect the opposite of what’s forecast, this particular blizzard did appear. It started just as school let out on a Wednesday. My son, who’s been driving for less than a year, drove home from school and brought a friend. He had intended to drop this friend off but his friend’s house is halfway down a street with a very steep hill and they slid right past the house to the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. So Plan B was that Sanjay came to our house for the afternoon. I would have preferred Plan B to have been Plan A and that they had skipped sliding down the hill in the car, but then nobody asked me.

By 7:30 that evening the schools had closed for the next day. Bad news for me, I’d have to spend the day hiding from or arguing with the kids: “Yes, you will have school on Friday and yes you have to study, your finals will not all be canceled”, that kind of thing.

Sometime around 1:00 am, I woke up and saw that the clock in the bedroom was flashing. I thought “we lost electricity at some point, I’ll have to re-set that clock in the morning”. About an hour later I woke up and the clock had gone out, the charge light on the phone was out too. I could hear the grandfather clock downstairs bonging, it was 2:00 am and we had no electricity.

I woke up at 9:00 am, frozen solid. We still didn’t have electricity. Not good. Rick went down to the basement level and started the gas fireplace, then went out to snow blow the driveway. I went to the main floor and started the wood fireplace.

No TV, internet, music, I’d have to find ways to keep myself occupied. No problem, I’ll sit in front of the fire and work out the necessities. If pioneer women could do this so could I.

Yesterday I’d had my son bring plenty of firewood from the pile out back into the garage. Perfect, we’d stay warm, pioneer style. I’ll pull out the candles and matches and flashlights to be prepared for the evening.

I had cereal and pop tarts for breakfast. I had bread and peanut butter and chips, that’s lunch. Snacks were covered, I had made Chocolate Raspberry Meringues yesterday. Dinner would have to be subs. I had rolls and cold cuts. Wait, genius idea, we could use skewers to make hot dogs and sausages over the fire, camping out style. I just figured out a hot meal. Not just any pioneer woman, I’m a Ninja Pioneer Woman.

Chocolate Raspberry Meringues

Alright. More logistics olden days style. We may have to move food from the refrigerator to the garage. We may have to empty the freezer in the basement into coolers and put them onto the deck. Not fun, but we could do it. I am rocking this roughing it thing, just need to use my brain.

I have on my Kindle a book I haven’t finished so I can do some reading for as long as the battery holds out. The boys’ phones could get me internet long enough for me to publish my Fly on the Wall group posting and send out Secret Subject Swap prompts Friday morning. Never know how long these power outages will last but didn’t I just spend most of the morning keeping myself busy making plans? See, it’s  . . .what? . . . only 9:10 am? . . . I’ve only been sitting here 10 minutes? . . .  this may end up being a long day after all. Doesn’t matter, even without my beloved coffee, I’ve so got this under control. I could have been born a few hundred years ago and made it all look easy.

So I’m heading up the stairs to put on some warm sweat pants, and I’m in the little room off the Master bedroom. You know the one. I’m sitting there minding my own business when there’s a knock on the door. Now my kids are way too old not to allow me to go to the bathroom in peace, but the voice I hear through the door is actually Husband’s “be sure you don’t flush”. Don’t flush? What do you mean don’t flush? Nooooooo . . . Hellllppppp . . . Emergency . . .  Call out the National Guard . . . I am SO NOT cut out for this!

Chocolate Raspberry Meringues
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Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 – 3/4 tsp raspberry extract (depending on your taste)
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Opt: red food coloring
Multicolored sprinkles

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cover cooking sheet with parchment paper.
*Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Beat in the sugar, a little at a time.
*Gently mix in the raspberry extract and food coloring, then the mini chocolate chips.
*Scoop or pipe onto baking sheet, should make about 2 dozen cookies.
*Sprinkle with the sprinkles.
*Bake for about 30 minutes, or until they harden. Shut off the oven and let them sit for 10 minutes inside.
*Remove from oven. Let sit for 10 minutes before removing from parchment paper.