Lights! Power! Lectricity! revisited

Power went out sometime around 3 am Thursday night. We could cope in the morning as the hot water tank is gas and we could run hot water for showers and even get it hot enough for dripping through the coffee pot to produce tepid coffee.

Dan hung out at JSB, waiting on deliveries. Tony and I went downtown to get a radio at Bartell's, and some other "add Hot Water" type meals. Downtown and Capitol Hill were fine. Stop lights work, everything. I decided to call around the closer grocery stores to see where I could get groceries. I hit "bakery" at the Rainier Ave QFC. They were open, but not selling anything that had been refrigerated or frozen. That's good policy from the store branch that actually sold some Mad Cow Hamburger. "well, can I get some Beer?". "No, sorry, that was refrigerated." Maybe I should keep an eye on the dumpster for that bad Beer they're going to have to dispose of...

We got back home and I got the kitchen lit with many of the tea candles from the 50 ct Bartell bag. I snagged groceries at Union St. QFC, were one of my mystery customers is the Vegetable Dude. He came in from Kirkland, no power and trees down everywhere on the Eastside. I glanced at the gourmet cheese cooler and found a Raclette and another Schmantsy Swiss cheese that screamed FONDUE!

Tammy's Sterno Fondue

1/2 lb (or so) Schmantsy Swiss cheese or any Gruyere (if you make this with Cheddar it's Englsh Rarebit)
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
white Pepper (or fresh ground black)
1 tablespoon coarse ground Mustard -or- 1 heaping teaspoon dry powder
Some Beer -or- White Wine
maybe a grate or two of nutmeg

Grate the cheez into a bowl and sprinkle/sieve the Cornstarch, pepper, (dry mustard and nutmeg) overtop. stir and toss to coat.

Dump half the Cheez mixture into fondue pot (or old sturdy kettle) and hold over flame, slog in a half cup of beer and the coarse mustard, stir until lumps are gone and it thickens.

Add in the rest of the Cheez, in two handfuls, stirring and thinning between with more Beer/Wine.

Cube up some bread, and anything that needs to be used out of the fridge. Dip to your heart's content.

It was an amusing meal that kept us busy until the lights came on at 9:30. It was gettin Hella cold, So this was a GOOD THING.

Today was spent getting back on track. And then the lights went out again at 4:30pm. Tony was actually the first person to call it in. In our dark despair, we decided to go to Dick's for dinner A-and who should we meet? Fran and Lillian! Dick's: where the desperate meet to eat! The chilly temperatures and bad James Brown Busker forced us back to our respective (warm) cars.

We went to the "Miracle on 34thSt." Radio Show, and got to say Hi! to Nick Morrison afterwards. A lovely production and always good to see Chris "Don't call me JP!" Wedes is still kickin' it.