What to Eat When the Power's Out
Don't be alarmed, everyone's OK! You're looking at one small part of the neighborhood wreckage left in the wake of last Friday's Nor'easter and the reason why we've been living out of our suitcases for the past five days. We are doing fine. We shacked up with my sister and my parents' over the weekend and then checked into a hotel close to school. A quick scan through my emails and texts reminds me how lucky I am to have such generous neighbors and friends. Stay in our extra room. Come for dinner. Call me if you want me to do your laundry. What can I do? How can we help? Uggghhhhh that sucks! The older I get, the more I realize these gestures are everything. (And always trigger a deep ruminating session over all the times I should've been a better neighbor...followed by a pledge to do better.) Anyway, if we are to believe Con Edison, we should be up and running later today, just in time for a second storm to come rolling in. Yippee.
I have to say, the only part that made me really angry was cleaning out the refrigerator. As bad luck would have it, I had just done a pretty substantial grocery shop on Thursday, so the fridge was packed with all kinds of perishable items. Yesterday, while the kids were in school, I swung by my 45-degree house to assess and it wasn't pretty. I had to throw away two boxes of Applegate breakfast sausages, a package of lukewarm organic chicken thighs, a room temperature ball of mozzarella, six or seven yogurts, and way way more that I don't feel like typing because putting that kind of waste into words makes me feel kind of sick.
The vegetable drawer was a different situation. There was a head of red cabbage (seriously, a small tight head seems indestructible to me) baby cucumbers, a half bag of baby spinach, and a bunch of half-wilted cilantro. So I boiled four pots of water over four burners (we have a gas stovetop) to warm up my space, strategically perched my iPhone flashlight to illuminate the counter, and then got chopping. The pantry was unharmed, so I took an almost-empty jar of Grey Poupon from the sad fridge, added some rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, grapeseed oil, hot sauce, and shook it mightily. I packed up everything, swung by the grocery store for a rotisserie chicken, which I shredded into the salad with my fingers in the hotel room.
Later that night we sat on the floor around the hotel room's coffee table and ate our dinner. Maybe it was because we had been relying on takeout for so many of our meals and I can only do that for so long before a little piece of me dies, or maybe it was because at one point Abby said, "You know, this is kind of fun..." but either way, it was a good dinner.
Chicken & Cabbage Salad This is basically a poor man's version of what a lot of you know as my "Redemption Salad," pictured above from 2012, when it was prepared in a properly stocked and illuminated kitchen.
Dressing
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons rice vinegar 1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon soy sauce lime juice from half a lime 1 drop of hot sauce or Sriracha 1/3 cup grapeseed oil
Salad
2 to 3 large handfuls of shredded cabbage (savoy or red or both) half a handful of shredded baby spinach 1 handful of shredded carrots (if you have, I didn't) 2 tablespoons finely minced sliced red onion 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded sesame seeds (if you have)
In a large bowl whisk together all the dressing ingredients. To the same bowl, add all salad ingredients and toss until combined.