[cwcdesign]

Happy Anniversary Mike and Mrs Mike! That is a wonderful milestone.

We returned last night, full power and water was restored Friday night and Internet yesterday. They had allowed people to return on Thursday but told everyone not to shower, flush unless necessary, do wash or run dishwashers and use the sink as little as possible - half the sewer lifts were still down county wide. So there were idiots who decided to open car washes (mine posted a notice they would be closed until everything was operational) and power wash their houses!! Needless to say the system started backing up and they had to shut the water off.

It's amazing how much clean up has been done. We arrived at dusk and the piles of debris reminded of the snowbanks left by the plows after a huge snowstorm. Fortunately we had no flooding but the is a giant tree branch that misse my sliding door by an inch and cattycornered my grill without touching it. We have seen some mega trees down and the lagoons are full and some over flowing. We were lucky that Matthew took out so many trees last year or the tree damage would have been much worse. Despite the hard work that was done by my little community to take down iffy trees this year (the arborist had come the week before Matthew to start tagging trees) - it was over a hundred - 3 trees still came down across one of the roadways.

I think the breadth of the storm really hit home when we were driving down 95 and between Ridgeland and Hardeeville, there were flooded fields stretching back I don't know how for on the west side of the highway - the median was pretty full too.

All in all, very glad to be home and in excellent condition. The resort is tentatively scheduled to reopen on Wednesday- it will be nice to get back to work.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by cwcdesign.

[cwcdesign]

We will know later today when they will allow us back. Only emergency personnel allowed on for assessment purposes. No power, flooding seems to have been limited to the coast, marshes' edges and other low lying areas, some trees down, but we lost hundreds last year, so that helped minimize tree damage. Early reports indicate that where we live and my mom lives have sustained a few trees down. At least one condo in my complex has roof damage, and no structural damage at my mom's, just some ceiling tiles in the garage. They don't let us back until water,sewer and power are back on. We'll know more around noon.

I think my elder son and I are going to go to Gettysburg this afternoon since we're so close and neither of us has ever been.

[cwcdesign]

Joan, how are you how holding up now? The causeway has been closed due to flooding and there has already been a 6.1 foot storm surge and next high tide is at 1. The good news is they were originally anticipating 10-12 feet and the island is mostly at 12 feet! Our power is out and the 60% of the sewer lift stations are down.

[cwcdesign]

Joan, you stay safe. We had to evacuate but currently glad it's going further west. We're still expecting problems from storm site and wind and rain but hope that we'll be able to come home sooner than later. We ended up in PA cuz we had reservations in Milledgeville for Tuesday and when they called an earlier evacuation, we couldn't get rooms - the entire state of Georgia is booked! So, friends said to go west - glad we went North instead (free rooms at a friend's) I guess the storm is over the island now.

Today I made the mac and cheese that I was going to make to sustain us if we stayed.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by cwcdesign.

[cwcdesign]

I checked in with The Saint before the storm hit and he said they would be OK, that they were on higher ground. I haven't heard since, but I have a co-worker whose daughter's FIL had a house in the general vicinity that got flooded. I will check back in over the weekend. He had thought he might have work on Monday (last) ?

[cwcdesign]

On Monday, I made Sheet Pan Lemon Chicken and vegetables. It was really good - the chicken had a nice crust. With the leftover vegetables I made a frittata for dinner on Tuesday.

[cwcdesign]

On Friday, I made my continuing adaptation of the Barefoot Contessa's Honey Vanilla Poundcake - I'm getting closer. I bought some LorAnn vanilla bean paste at Michael's with a 40% coupon - it really amped up the vanilla flavor. I added extra honey, but forgot to reduce the sugar - it wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be but it was a little denser. And I used KAF's vanilla glaze, too. It was not as dry as it had been and it had much better flavor. Now I just need to work on the densness

Does anyone know how much you should reduce sugar if you add an extra tablespoon of honey? KAF just did a blog on substitutions, but it was about using one sweetener or another.

[cwcdesign]

Mike, they look beautiful!

[cwcdesign]

I might have to make my chocolate pudding cake which is called Eclipse cake - at least that's what Mollie Katzen calls it

I didn't realize until this past week that we are in the 80% zone - now the scramble is on to find glasses. However, one neighbor told me that you can look at the horizon and see the progression of light clearly. Since I'll be working at the Lighthouse, that will be a great opportunity

[cwcdesign]

I didn't bake yesterday, but I made chocolate mousse with the leftover ganache and cream from the Boston Cream Pie. Then I added mini chocolate chips.

And we agreed that the BCP tasted better after letting it sit for a day or two

[cwcdesign]

But how do you toast it? ?

[cwcdesign]

Hi Mike,

Just putting it in an 8 inch pan instead of the 9 inch might make a big difference - KAF recommends making their pastry cream minus the heavy cream for the filling. For the ganache, I used 1 cup heavy cream brought to boiling and poured over 1 ½ cups chopped dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli) I didn't put Saran or anything over it so it held its shine for serving. That has become my favorite ganache.

[cwcdesign]

I hadn't made Boston Cream Pie in a few years because of the various issues I'd been having (chocolate chip cake last year). So I decided to go for it this year. I started by seeing if Ina had a recipe and was directed to a recipe by Gale Gand on the food network. i thought I would compare it to KAF's and discovered two things. Gale Gand's recipe had horrible reviews and KAF had redone their recipe since I last made it to deal with issues the commenters made.

I was very happy with the new recipe for the cake - I even used AP flour just to see. I made it on Tuesday and called KAF about the best way to wrap it to save it for Wednesday. It is a tender cake, and would probably be even more so if you used cake flour. I made a half recipe for the pastry cream because that's all that was called for in the recipe. I had to call KAF Aagain to see how necessary the corn syrup was for the glaze they recommended- it was - so I made the ganache for the big batch brownies which worked perfectly.

It's really good and it held together, but there are changes I'd like to make next time. I don't think there is enough height in the cake - I would consider baking two layers and then cutting some off the tops to allow for the cream to soak in. I would also make the full batch of pastry cream and make sure I thicken it up a little more. The ganache was perfect. I might try to upload a pic later.

2 days later (neither of us had any yesterday)and it's really good. I do like this recipe except, as I mentioned, making bigger layers and more pastry cream.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by cwcdesign.

[cwcdesign]

Yesterday, eldest son Nate, turned 29. He requested "Dad's Ribs," potato salad and Boston Cream Pie. I'll talk about the BCP in the baking forum.

On Tuesday I made the potato salad but it probably took me an extra 45 minutes because I sprained my right wrist (I'm left-handed) at work and had to go to immediate care during work because of workman's comp. it was quite the process to peel the potatoes. I put a ziplock over my wrist and splint and had to carefully peel the potatoes without twisting my right arm. I got it done however.

My husband learned his version of ribs from a restaurateur down here probably 25 years ago. They get baked long and slow in Italian dressing until ready to fall off the bone. Then they go on the grill (we use gas) with the BBQ sauce for up to 20 minutes. We were really excited to use my new grill for this. But the weather decided not to cooperate - it poured like crazy ? So, I googled cooking ribs when you get rained out. And Mark Bittman had an article about that since he lives in NY and can't always count on the weather. Fortunately, he likes to precook (braise) his as well. The answer is the broiler. We did put them on a rack over a sheet pan and broiled until - as he said - they are "crisp" It worked out surprisingly well and we enjoyed them. I also made a plate of sliced tomatoes with mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar.

Tonight I roasted some shrimp which is local.

[cwcdesign]

Rascals, glad to hear you're doing better ??

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