So...whats for dinner?
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Ilona, Minus—thinking of you. An NBC reporter said something tonight that made my blood boil: that people inland who suffer flooding damage will be screwed if they don’t have flood insurance—because the reason they didn’t buy it is that their lender didn’t require it, so they think they don’t need it. Well, guess what: if you live outside an official Federally-designated “flood area” (inland, away from rivers…or here in Chicago away from a river but close to Lake Michigan, which hardly ever floods) you can’t even buy it for love or money! The policies are Federally-subsidized, the fund is finite, and if the Feds think you won’t need it, it is completely unavailable in your neighborhood. And the insurance companies don’t offer non-subsidized flood insurance. It’s like a health insurer refusing to sell you a policy because they think you’re so healthy that you’re statistically unlikely to get sick. We have a sewer back-up rider, so we had to say three times that the basement toilet backed up so that we could pay to rip up the flooded carpet. Third time, we said the hell with it, painted the concrete floor, and installed a sump pump.
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Joycek, ChiSandy - All good here, even better when I get that first sip of coffee.
Minus - How are you
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Awesome Illimae.
waiting to hear from Minus.
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Thanks all. I'm fine. Intermittent rain - light winds but it obviously stormed last night. Thankfully no trees down in my neighborhood but I did have an 8 ft plumaria just lay right down. I dumped 3" out of my rain gauge at 10am. The ground is saturated so the forecast for 4" more today and 4" more tonight & then 3-4" more on Sunday, etc. will be a real problem. Luckily no punishing winds so far.
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Whew....good to hear from you Minus.
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Careful, Minus & Ilona—though Harvey's been downgraded to a tropical storm and on the way to a “just" a depression, he isn't going anywhere any time soon. For the next few days, perhaps as long as a week, he will be The Thing That Wouldn't Leave—the weather equivalent of the party guest from Hell. Storm surge won't be the problem inland—just rain, rain and more rain; the ground is super-saturated (or, alternatively like S.E. FL, concrete in the developed areas), the ditches (if any) too shallow, and no basements—nor first floors—will be immune. Brace yourselves for having to move everything you can't afford to discard to higher levels, the smell of muck & mold, and possibly even having to relocate to a motel or trailer for weeks if not months.
Last night Bob worked late, so I spiralized all but the heel of the giant zucchini (the center parts were very wet), squeezed out as much water as I could, and mixed it with an equal amount of fettucine and then pesto. I ate the other half of the tomato I had with my Gruyere omelette aux herbes from brunch (which reminds me—time to eat the remainder of the one I sliced for today's avocado toast). We're going to Cirque du Soleil tonight (I hate it, but Bob wants to go and he gets so little time off), so I'm off to WF to replenish the larder before getting ready to head off to the United Center parking lot (unfortunately, Lionel Richie & Mariah Carey are playing inside the building, so parking and traffic will be a bee-yotch). Dinner will be whatever's open and has availability on Restaurant Row once we can get out of the parking lot after the show—probably Little Goat Diner or the restaurant portion of City Winery. (Not Bar Louie—I break out in hives when placed amid huge crowds of ex-frat boy “bros" and screens full of ESPN).
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Good advice ChiSandy. Tornado warning in my area and one touched down nearby about 20 minutes ago. My dog is harnessed and our bunker room is ready. My neighborhood is calm but I'm ready, if need be.
Once the warning expires, I'll start prepping/cooking fish tacos.
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Sandy - yes I know we're in it for the long haul. And I know the heartbreak of flooded houses & mold since I've lived in Houston for 45 years, through 3 hurricanes and tons of tropical storms and had many friends who's homes flooded. However, I don't have a two story house. And even if I did, I wouldn't be able to carry furniture upstairs by myself. My street usually drains, but if the water looks like it will come in from the back yard, I'll load pictures & books & records from the bottom shelves up onto sofas & tables and consider myself lucky. Hopefully it won't come to that.
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As for food - I had a leftover twice baked potato at noon & just cut up a bunch of Gouda cheese hunks to enjoy with my wine.
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My experiment today was pressure cooking a whole chicken. It was perfectly cooked but the spices need some attention.
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Eric, it's been my experience that pressure cooking requires almost double the seasonings. Don't know where they go but go they do.
Illimae and Minus, fingers and toes crossed for you. I have niece in Missouri City who had a tornado hit one street over from them so more worries about that. Another niece, her sister, in San Antonio but they are expecting the worst tonight. Concerned for all of you.
Between the weather channel commercials, I'm making Swiss steak and braised green beans.
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Went to Cirque du Soleil’s “Luzia” touring production. There were a few twists I didn’t expect, which made it just different enough from the other Cirque shows to hold my interest. The concession foods were limited to popcorn (a no-no this week), hot dogs, pretzels, candy and ice cream bars. So we had hot dogs & shared a pretzel. Afterwards, we realized that Cirque had let out before the adjacent Mariah Carey/Lionel Richie concert, so we had no traffic and made it to Restaurant Row. Went to Little Goat Diner. Bob had a “Sloppy Goat” sandwich and I had a scallion pancake topped with pork belly and Asian cabbage slaw. Walked 1/4 mi. ea. way to Do-Rite Donuts, to see what all the fuss was about (definitely burned some calories). Treated myself to half a chocolate glazed when I got home. Very filling, especially with a decaf espresso.
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Good morning all,
Auntienance, I heard about that tornado in Missouri city, scary, hope your niece continues to be safe.
Many highways are flooded and the city looks a mess. I awoke to a text from a coworker advising me to get ready for emergency contracts, ugh. My neighborhood is all good, thankful for that.
Reports I'm hearing are that this storm will dump a years worth of rain on Houston over the 4-5 day event and we get a lot of rain under normal conditions, yikes!
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My neighborhood is still OK too. Streets are draining between storm bands that come like waves. I dumped 7-1/2" from my rain gauge at midnight for Saturday. This morning it was overflowing the 6" capacity at 10am. We've already another 2-1/2" in the last hour. Lots of frogs last night during a lull.
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..hoping that you two "don't get your feet wet"....well, I'm hoping that for everyone there, but from the news reports, that's not likely. :-(
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If ever I move to the Gulf Coast and S. TX, I'm investing in wetsuits, hip waders and at least one inflatable boat
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Hahaa! Good idea ChiSandy. I don't think my friends are going to make it tonight for dinner and the Game of Thrones finale, looks like I might be having leftovers.
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Tonight was last of the lasagna that I made last week and froze the last two pieces and salad
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Leftover quiche & salad or scallion pancake—exhausted, stomach too touchy to go out to dinner.
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Leftover bow-tie pasta with squash & mushrooms & Rao's sauce.
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Chicken quesadilla with cheese, onions, avocado and sour cream and a Sierra Nevada
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Auntie, I took your advice and doubled the spices. The spices are now good. The next attempt will be with a slightly shorter cooking time so that maybe the chicken won't be quite so "fall off the bone" tender.
I cooked the chicken while Sharon made enchiladas and a chicken quinoa dish. So, we have enough leftovers for the rest of the week.
My retirement is still on track. I kept a little log of when I left home and got to work, and when I left work and got home. 16 hour, 12 minutes in one week and this is typical. I'll be glad when this is done and Sharon is getting excited as I will be able to take care of stuff around the house so we aren't trying to catch up over the weekend.
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Dinner was leftover scallion-pork belly pancake from Little Goat Diner (across from The Girl & the Goat, both—along with proto-Chinese takeout Duck Duck Goat—owned by Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard). Dessert was a Valrhona chocolate cake donut from Do-Rite. I prefer raised, but this was phenomenal. OK, I’ve been to the well—so back to fruit & yogurt from now on.
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Tonight was marinara with organic chicken Italian-style sausage over spaghetti squash. Happy to see our Texas folks reporting in - happy to know y'all are safe!
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Special - looks like there's a storm about to get Florida too. Double whammy!! Let us know if it turns out you are in the path.
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Louisiana ladies, heads-up as well. Baton Rouge & NOLA are now in the path of the mega-rainfall.
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Illimae and Minus......how you doing today?????
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I'm good, working from home, still safe and dry
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so good to hear from our texas ladies. like you minus I've lived through 4 hurricanes. All in south florida. wilma destroyed my home as it picked up strength when it crossed the everglades, which basically is a body of warm swamp water. i was in Boca Raton, I found the after effects were worse than the storm. No power, nasty water everywhere.
My sil is in a part of Houston where she is still safe and flood free. Her 2 daughters on the other side of town are flooded out and one barely made it to safety. Go figure. These storms have their own mind. Now a friend in NOLA is facing floods.
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Valstim, my mom lived in Kings Point just north of the Delray/Boca line—Wilma devastated the complex, ripping the walls off some of the upper back porch utility rooms. But her 4-unit bldg. was untouched. The drainage channels (aka alligator havens) & floodgates worked, keeping the first floor units from flooding. I went down a week later and it was still like the aftermath of a war zone. But what Houston is going through is unimaginably worse. Thousands will lose their homes, millions will have to relocate for awhile.
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