Monday, March 14, 2011

Blackout Cooking

{ice}
March weather in my neck of the woods of upstate New York is often a "wintery mix" - which brings ice. In my neighborhood of majestic towering trees it also brings blackouts when the branches fall.

{the thermometer on the stove top read 350 degrees}
Last Monday the schools closed for bad weather, and the kids and I started baking banana bread to celebrate the snow day (it should have been called an ice day!). But then the power went out and we tried to bake it in a cast iron griddle on the woodstove...

{Rosie being a good sport}
It came out quite burnt but we ate some anyway! Luckily our kitchen stove is gas and works during blackouts, and husband added some milk and oil to the remaining banana bread batter and made some really tasty banana pancakes! Power finally came back at 9:00 that night, and although the woodstove did not cook well, it kept us toasty all day.

Loretta

correction - I'm sure the woodstove would cook well if I knew how to do it!

6 comments:

  1. How fun to try! Sorry about all the ice, I hope it starts getting warmer there soon. Banana pancakes are so good!!

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  2. sounds like quite the cooking adventure, glad you were able to salvage the bread into pancakes!
    p.s. pancakes.

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  3. Been there too as we live in the midst of a lot of trees. Makes for great family memories! Candles are great for roasting marshmallows too.

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  4. It was a day for great family memories! You have no choice but to relax a bit and slow down. We were reading the book The Curious Adventures of Edward Tulane outloud by the woodstove with a lantern when the power came back on. And the kids asked to turn the lights back off and keep reading in the dark!

    Loretta

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  5. Thank goodness for a wood stove! I have been wanting to get a pellet burning stove for quite sometime...maybe next winter! Hope to hear from you soon...

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  6. Danielle- I'm considering a pellet stove for the basement. But did you know pellet stoves don't work when the power goes out? They need electricity.

    ...and thank you to Vanessa who suggested a stone slab under the cast iron pan next time!

    Loretta

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