Great Blackout of 2011 and other random stuff

So Thursday started off like any other day. The heatwave continued, the car thermometer was reading 104 or something. Mr. Burli stayed home to do something or other and then when I came home from class, suggested that I take the kids swimming in the afternoon to cool off before he himself headed into the office, claiming that he was going to stay late. All of the sudden it was 2:15 and I couldn't remember what time JT's school ended (new schedule, tiredness, heat fatigue, brain lapse?), so I jumped up and grabbed Tiny, who was resting on the bed, and hurred to the car, when I remembered he got out at 2:45. So we made it no problem. Normally on Thursdays we head to the Farmer's Market to pick up our CSA box, but the older child balked since it was so hot, so I decided we would wait and go at dinnertime. Too hot even for swimming (in the indoor pool), so we headed home to cool off in the kiddie pool. We put on our suits, did a little homework and started to enjoy the afternoon (and I was grading some online exams) when the power went out. No big deal, I was thinking, it must be a brownout caused by thousands of people nudguing their thermostats down lower and lower. (We don't have air conditioning, actually, and I would say more than half in our neighborhood don't either. Even those who have A/C don't typically turn it on until we hit the high 90s .) I didn't bother to call anyone. So we were fine. (There did seem to be an unusual number of fire engine and police car sirens out.) Until Mr. Burli suddenly showed up. Apparently the power went out at his office and as he headed home (which took about twice as long as usual), he realized that the local NPR radio station was out, along with most FM stations, so he did what any concerned citizen would and listened to AM radio.... which meant that he told me the power was out in SoCal and Arizona and the radio hosts were talking about apocalype and terrorism, etc. And as we were mulling this over in the backyard, the emergency siren (located over at the college) went off. Now, normal people might just think, huh, that is interesting. But I immediately assumed NUCLEAR ACCIDENT! and rushed everyone into the house and ordered all the windows shut. So then we stood there in the sweltering house wondering what to do and discussing our options since we didn't have a battery-powered radio. Then the 6 1/2 year old said he could build us a radio.

Behold: the radio that allowed us not to melt into puddles in our house. We checked and it was just a wierd random power outage, so we continued the emergency drill - filling up the bathtub, filling all containers with water, locating candles, etc., and splashing in the kiddie pool and chatting with the neighbors in the front yard. The power company claimed it would take nearly up to 24 hours or longer to turn the power back on, so before too long schools were cancelled for Friday and we decided to just enjoy ourselves.
That night it was still sweltering in the house, so we ended up sleeping on the deck. And around 3 am the power came back on and woke me up. So that was the end of the power outage. Luckily we were fine and we did realize that our earthquake preparedness water should have been restocked after we drank it at some point. Oops.
From what I have heard from others, it seems that the blackout was mostly relaxing for people (once they got out of the traffic jams) and a way to reconnect with neighbors. Probably a therapeutic thing so close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
And now some random chicken pictures just to entertain you.

Fluffy - she is not as fluffy-looking as she used to be. (We can tell them apart and they have different personalities - they are actually three different types of chickens!)

All kids who come over have to play with the chickens. This is our nieghbor squeezing Carmel.

Oh, remember the rat? Turns out the neighbor's garage wall had a whole rat extended family living in it. He didn't put out the poison and neither did we, so someone else must have put poison out. Actually, I think he only found dead rats when he opened up the wall from the other side. Mr. Burli helped him remove the cracked stucco and some crubling wood pieces and they sealed it up again.

Their attempt at rat-proofing the wall! (And the small garden bed waiting the next planting in a couple weeks.... what should I plant? I am thinking lettuce, carrots, radishes... I am not sure I want to do swiss chard since it just grows and grows and grows and I also get quite a few greens in my CSA box. Although I am not sure I can resist the lure of rainbow chard. Fava beans will most likely go in the front or other back garden bed. Most types of 'cool weather' crops will do well. Any favorites?)

And just because it was yummy - a picture of a half-eaten dinner. And in case you have a few more cherry tomatoes to use up. I still have one orange cherry plant still going in the front with some ripe and some green tomaotes on it and one steak tomato plant (planted late to try for a late crop) with several large green tomatoes as well: I simply put the whole cherry tomatoes in the hot pan where I had cooked the tuna steaks (they were marinated in something - I buy them frozen at Trader Joe's and keep them in the freezer) and cooked until they were about ready to burst. Delicious with the tuna. (The green beans were frozen - I decided we need to eat up the frozen stash since the things seem a little freezer burned since the blackout.) And I made apple strudel (with thawed Phyllo dough), too, but we ate it before I remembered to take a picture.
But just in case you feel like making one, here is the recipe for Apple strudel:
Slice some apples. How many you slice is up to you. I was trying to use up some we had picked in Juliamn and were attracting fruit flies. Toss them with a little sugar and cinnamon, if you like your strudel extra sweet.
Prepare some sweet bread crumbs: put some pats of butter and some spoonfuls of sugar in a pan and warm it up, then sprinkle in a generous handfull of breadcrumbs and toss or stir well until the crumbs just start to brown and the sugar carmelizes. (Can you tell this is a Chris-recipe?)
Lay out about 4-6 sheets of Phyllo dough on a piece of parchment paper - enough to make a double or triple thickness and a rough rectangle. Use melted butter to help hold the sheets together - I just sort of dab it on with my fingers.
Pour the apple slices onto the dough sheets and top with your sugary-buttery-crumbs. (You can add rainsins, too, if you like.)
Then use the parchment paper to roll up the strudel - mine only rolled once. I used a couple extra sheets of dough and extra butter on the ends since I didn't have a large enough rectangle to fold the ends up. Just make sure you 'glue' the pieces together with more butter and smear a bit on top. Don't worry if the dough cracks. It will still taste good!
I baked mine for about 35 minutes at 375. (Actually I started out at 350 and decided that wasn't hot enough.) Just watch for a light brown color. Sprinkle with powdered sugar after it cools a bit. Or serve with Schlag (real whipped cream - lightly sweetened).