ANOTHER POWER OUTAGE! AND ANOTHER BIG STORM COMING

Make that TWO storms coming: read about them here.

I am writing this from work ...I was going to blog yesterday, had some recipes tried and photographed, and was all set to apologize for blogging only once a week lately. But yesterday we had the worst wind and rain storm I have ever seen! Now our power is out again, and may be for some days or even weeks, because there was so much damage!

On top of that, an even worse storm is predicted for Thursday and another after that! Evidently, we are getting the tail-end of the terrible storms hitting the Philippines. We get it about 2 days after they do-- not as bad, but it was really scary yesterday. We live in a very forested area, as you can see from the photos in my snowstorm post. Branches were flying past (one big one almost hit the dining area window!) and hitting the roof, and the end of our driveway was almost flooded (fortunately, it stopped raining overnight). (I hope the reports of upcoming storms are exaggerated!)

There is debris and tree branches all over the yard and the entire driveway. DH walked down the our powerline and there are three big trees that smashed our powerlines, broke the glass covers on them, etc.. There were two big trees down on our little road, but we could get around them. There are two trees hanging on power lines on the hill down to the ferry, but people are driving under them since there is no power. There were trees on lines and lines down on the road we drive on to get "downtown". We have heard of other extensive damage all over the island, and on Hornby Island, where my daughter lives.

The Hornby ferry did only a few runs yesterday, and I believe the Denman Ferry, which can almost always make it, stopped for a while. My 14-year-old grandaughter, who goes to Jr. High from Hornby on two ferries and a bus to Courtenay, stayed in Courtenay with a friend last night. She's coming home today, though, because the power to her school is off. Parts of Courtenay and other outlying areas are without power still, so the Islands will be last on the list!

My daughter who lives north of Courtenay had part of their metal roof come loose!

So, I'll be documenting some more power outage meals! One problem this time is keeping food cold. The last time, I had to keep food from freezing outside when the fridge got too warm. But this time we are having unseasonably warm temperatures from this tropical storm hitting us.

We had a great meal last night, which I took photos of, but I can't resize them here. I made "Breast of Tofu" in a sauce from veggie broth, white wine, marinated artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, thyme and basil, and then melted soy mozza over the top! With leftover re-steamed basmati rice, and stir-fried broccoli and garlic (all done on our little butane burner), it was a feast!

I also had made a new version of my old Christmas favorite, "Chinese Chewies", from my first cookbook, but with pecans, dried cranberries, and gluten-free flour! I made them just before the power went out.

So, stay tuned and stay warm!