We were not the only people heading north on Saturday.Well, I guess we dodged a bullet. The news would have your believe that the world was ending, when in reality, we had rain. It is what we, in Florida, call “summer”. Everyone who lives in South Florida has a few similar hurricane rules:
1. Buy bottled water. Bad for the environment? Yes, but good for you after a storm comes through and you are either under a boil
Babka was unimpressed with the "storm"water alert or have no water service at all, and need to flush your toilet.
2. Buy batteries. These are for your flashlights and radios (you know, that one, lone battery-operated thing you always wonder why you keep). You wouldn’t want to miss a single moment of the scintillating news coverage.
3. Bring in your patio furniture. In Key West that really means wedging the furniture between the deck and the fence as there is absolutely no room inside to bring stuff.
4. Buy canned food. Because, you know, after a storm and losing power all you want to do is eat tuna fish.
Nothing pairs better with impending doom than champagne!There are more rules, for when actual storms come, but Isaac was a big bust, and that is a good thing. We watched with horror as the entire southern part of Florida was in the Cone of Doom. (Wait – you are not familiar with the Cone of Doom? You must not be from these parts…. The Cone of Doom is that fancy cone-shaped graphic on the news that typically covers the entire state of Florida, and sometimes other states, for every single storm. The Cone of Doom is the media brainchild that makes normally calm citizens start hoarding bottled water and spam.) It seemed that the storm was losing strength, but the media was ever vigilant. They inspired a new drinking game: Every time a newscaster says something incoherent or just plain stupid, take a drink. Needless to say, I had already had plenty by 7PM.
We rode out the rainy weather in Hollywood, since we had to be on the mainland during the week anyway. To make sure we were well fed throughout the storm, I made chili for dinner on Saturday (with some Nicolas
Why yes, we did have a full topping bar for our chili.Feuillatte champagne and a Nadeau Family Vintners Zinfandel, The Epic, 2008), lovely whole wheat blueberry pancakes for breakfast, leftover chili for lunch and pasta with eggplant, mushrooms and tomato sauce with blue cheese garlic bread for dinner. All in all it was a successful eating weekend, I mean, a successful non-hurricane.
At some point on Saturday evening I did ask FKGiy to please get me some more wine. I told him that I could not possibly get up and get it myself, as I was already hunkered down.
AUTHOR
Stephanie Goldberg-Glazer
I am a fun-loving, wine drinking, Key West living gal sharing restaurant reviews, food and wine tips, crazy stuff that only happens in the Keys and more. Happy reading.
Additional drinks whenever you hear “hunker down” or “batten down the hatches,” or when you see live storm coverage from the beach.
I seem to recall after Hurrican Wilma, we all BBQd all the defrosting meat from our freezers on day 3 post-storm. The big tropical cyclone food tradition in our house involves a large box of Lucky Charms.
Finally, thank you for clarifying that this is just like our typical summer weather. I commented to DH yesterday that if someone hadn’t told me there was a TS, I’d have never noticed that anything was out of the ordinary. Today, OTOH, is worse weather than yesterday . . .
One thought on “(Non) Hurricane Isaac”
Additional drinks whenever you hear “hunker down” or “batten down the hatches,” or when you see live storm coverage from the beach.
I seem to recall after Hurrican Wilma, we all BBQd all the defrosting meat from our freezers on day 3 post-storm. The big tropical cyclone food tradition in our house involves a large box of Lucky Charms.
Finally, thank you for clarifying that this is just like our typical summer weather. I commented to DH yesterday that if someone hadn’t told me there was a TS, I’d have never noticed that anything was out of the ordinary. Today, OTOH, is worse weather than yesterday . . .