What I Did (And Made) While The Power Was Out

If you don't live in Connecticut, you've probably heard about unseasonal winter storm Alfred that led to some massive power outages across the state this week. If you are from CT, I sincerely hope you have your power back and are enjoying this post from the comfort of your home instead of an overcrowded Panera Bread. I was one of the lucky and very few that only lost power for about a day. Our cable and internet was out for about four days though and classes were cancelled all week. This resulted in me having a lot of downtime with very few distractions. So, what did I do? Take a look:

I started off the week with some creative bread-baking. I had a couple pippens left from my excursion to the orchard last week that needed to be turned into something delicious fast. I made a bastardized version of the bastardized baguette, an Apple-Walnut Batard, from Amanda Hesser's lovely book The Cook and The Gardener using a box of Hudson Mills multi-grain bread mix. It came out pretty good, though a bit dense for my tastes, but it makes a great breakfast bread.

Then I tackled those quinces I bought for a Renaissance-style Quince and Date Tart (post to follow.)

After a hard day of baking (really!) I went out for Halloween. Yes it was a Monday, but everyone was depressed because no one had power or work.  I was Norma Desmond and James was a vampire--I mean, a greaser.

Day 2 saw me tackle homemade pasta via the instructions on the bag of Bob's Red Mill semolina flour. Time consuming, but tasty. I made some rather wide noodles and tossed them with goat cheese and peas.

By Day 3 James' family's restaurant had internet back, so I spent some time there taking up a booth and checking my e-mail. And maybe being generally obnoxious. However, if you ever make it to Townline, definitely as for the mustache pizza.

Then I went home and made some quince butter.

Which went great with the Faster No-Knead Bread I made last night! Seriously, you have to try this recipe. You'll never buy bread again.

In addition to adding a few more culinary skills to my burgeoning repertoire, not having cable/internet/etc for a few days made me realize how much time I spend bumming around on the internet, as well as how stressed out it makes me. If Facebook was the problem, that would be one thing, but my problem is that I'm a bit (ok, a major) info junkie. It's easy for me to fall down a rabbit hole of mostly useless information when I could be spending that time making my own pasta. New resolution: spend less time on the internet starting.....now!