Tuesday, January 15, 2013

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.


Ninja Pioneer Woman | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

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 | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe

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!


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Chocolate Raspberry Meringues
                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

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.

33 comments:

  1. Great post!

    Reminds me of my mom telling me about NYC in the 60's when they had brown outs and limited water. Apparently the mayor at the time had a slogan "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." If it happens to you again, feel free to share that with your family.

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    1. So funny to think of that as being a Mayor's slogan. Now there's something it might be hard to live down!

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  2. This is perfect! Although I live in Florida where no one knows what the meaning of Blizzard is, we do get the hurricanes. Several years ago a big one took out our power for a week---in temps of 92 degrees--so everyone learned how to cook eggs on an outdoor grill and sweat in the dark while eating their cold dinners out of a can. The following year we were better prepared---got the best generator around and the first thing I did was hook the coffee maker up to that sucker. Pioneer woman I am not. You might want to consider building an outhouse before the next blizzard hits....

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    1. An outhouse and a generator, got it. You couldn't have told me this a few weeks ago.

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  3. Wanna know a surefire way to prevent power outages? Spend an arm and a leg on a generator. Trust me.

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    1. Believe me when I tell you that I wished I had a generator as I was sitting by the fire . . .

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    2. Since we moved here last March, we've lost power four times, during tiny rainstorms. So we got a generator for Sandy. My husband, our friend and I struggled for hours in the driving rain setting it up. And we never lost power. We still haven't. It's like some sort of opposite-Murphy's Law. Now that we have it, we'll never need it. Grrr.

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  4. YILES!! HUGS! At least you had plans! LOL
    This reminds me of Hurricane Irene. OMGOSH! 5 kids and no power for 2 days.... And when you live in the country no power also means no water.

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    1. I had a hard enough time with 2 teenagers, I can't imagine no electricity with 5 kids, or for 2 days. I barely made it a few hours.

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  5. Wow! You're a lot more ready for a blizzard than I am just for the power outage. In Hurricane Wilma, we were without power for a week. A neighbor had a generator (until it was stolen) and we were watching movies on a portable dvd player for the entire time.

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    1. You have no idea how sad that makes me that in an emergency situation someone would steal a generator. That is unbelievable.

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  6. Haha ... that is awesome! I am so not prepared for the power to go out in an extended period of time. I have firearms that's about it...
    LOL

    xoxo
    Lanaya
    www.raising-reagan.com

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    1. It seems I'm not so prepared myself. I don't have any firearms but that's good, it means I won't accidentally shoot anyone.

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    2. Wow you're pretty resourceful. I would have never thought to put the frozen foods outside or to cook by fireplace campfire. Thanks for the tips ;) I guess my brain doesn't think like that. In our great blizzard a few years ago we lost power also. Being the genius that I am, I thought it would make sense to light the fireplace. So I did, but forgot to open the flue. The dog was going crazy because the house was filling with smoke. I hadn't notice, too busy patting myself on the back. LOL I had to open all the windows and doors to release the fumes. The house went from to cold to absolutely freezing in about 10 minutes. Fool me once...
      Jae Mac, I'm Just Sayin'...(Damn!)

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    3. Yeah, I think we've all learned that flue lesson once or twice, LOL.

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  7. We had that huge storm last weekend and I was nervous for the kids that the power would go out. We were lucky to get to keep it. Sorry about your, time without electricity, but let's be honest. You would have rocked it out and then went out into the snow to make rock candy! Glad you hung in there long enough to give out such a delicious looking meringue! Miss you XOX

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  8. This would have let to extreme stress eating in my case. Which obviously would have let to disaster #2 (quite literally) if no flushing was allowed! I'm so glad you survived the blizzard lady! Who else would I have to lovingly pick on me if you weren't here? XOXO

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    Replies
    1. Remind me to make a stipulation in my will for someone to lovingly pick on you when I'm gone!

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  9. Sounds like you made do out of a bad situation. Always sucks when the power goes out. Hey, we had that here in NYC when Sandy hit a few months back. I feel your pain.

    Funny, we have not had any snow here. If stuck inside I eat everything in the house!

    Phil
    www.blog.theregularguynyc.com

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    1. My kids eat everything in the house whether they're stuck inside or not.

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  10. Unfortunately, in the mountains, we deal with winter power outages A LOT.

    One tip... Stick a pan in that fire, and boil some water! Great for hand washing (After cooled of course) and most of all COFFEE!!!

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    1. Aha, a plan for coffee. THAT I needed! Thanks for the tip.

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  11. You are absolutely a ninja pioneer woman!!

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    1. LOL, except for that little bathroom thing I totally could have rocked it!

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  12. I'm so sorry but I was laughing at this. Not at your misfortune but great post, I came for the food stayed for the laughs. Yep I'm never going to be a pioneer woman, we are in the hottest of summers here and no power means we are cooking. I think that may be better than the cold though :) Hope that's the last time youre cooking on the fireplace!

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    1. Don't be sorry, you were meant to laugh. I wasn't at the time, but even I'm laughing now.

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  13. These look fantastic! I saw this on Marvelous Mondays link up - I'm going to try these soon!!

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    1. They're perfect for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

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    2. At our sons for the Christmas Holidays in the mountains! A snowstorm then blizzard. beautiful on Christmas day but we were shut in for over a week. First we had peanut butter on bread till the bread ran out then peanut butter on crackers till that ran out peanut butter with a spoon. And the worst of all 7 of us ran out of toilet paper!

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    3. WOW, now that really is being a Ninja Pioneer. 7 people and no TP sounds like a nightmare. Glad you lived to tell the tale.

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  14. Thanks so much for sharing this on Manic Monday. I love them, and your blog, and you :)

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