Miami Heat Wave...

Dang if it isn't hotter than Haiti out here in Beantown with more hot. hot. hot weather predicted to take us through the weekend. It's already 90 degrees this morning and it's not even noon yet, but I'm not complaining. It's just with these extreme climate changes, our temps have gone from 60 to 90 in a flash!

It feels like California in July around here, so check out below how hot that really is.
Happy weekend Bloggers! And try to keep cool.


YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN California, USA
IN JULY WHEN...

~ The birds have to use potholders to
pull worms out of the ground.

~ The trees are whistling for the dogs.

~ The best parking place is determined
by shade instead of distance.

~ Hot water now comes out of both taps.

~ You can make sun tea instantly.

~ You learn that a seat belt buckle makes
a pretty good branding iron

~ The temperature drops below 95 and
you feel a little chilly.

~ You discover that in July it only takes
2 fingers to steer your car.

~ You discover you can get sunburned
through your car window.

~ You actually burn your hand opening
the car door.

~ You break into a sweat the instant
you step outside at 7:30 a.m.

~ Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is,
"What if I get knocked out and
end up lying on the pavement and
cook to death?"

~ You realize that asphalt has a liquid
state.

~ The potatoes cook underground, so all
you have to do is pull one out and
add butter, salt and pepper.

~ Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed
ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.

~ The cows are giving evaporated milk.

Those Who Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail

Once again as a Nation we are riveted by tragedy 

This time it was Mother Nature and she delivered a most beastly devastation. The tornado in Oklahoma, an EF-5, on a scale to 5, spanned a mile long and wiped out an entire town with catastrophic damage. The Death toll was revised to 24 with 9 of them children.

Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with them. News videos of the complete destruction, and cars twisted and tossed in piles like jigsaw puzzle pieces in the suburban area's remind us that life is so precious and can be fleeting. It seems residents had less than 16 minutes to prepare for the deadly tornado.

What I took from this "nightmare scenario", is that everybody needs a plan. Experts are warning that a global climate change is upon us, and that nobody is safe from violent storms. They predict that Midwest tornados and storms will get stronger and the Northeast will experience more powerful and violent hurricanes. History so far has supported these claims.

So I decided my family, my staff, we all need to have a plan of emergency, one that we can put into action if needed. We are not strangers to extreme weather, especially here on the East Coast and I think it's time to prepare. As climate changes become more severe, we must adapt to the threat of danger and prepare. It's beginning to become cliche, like a TV sitcom episode about an emergency preparedness drill gone awry. But there's nothing funny about any of this.

This isn't an episode of "Happy Days". In fact these aren't Happy Days at all.

Baby, It's Cold Outside.

Nothing says lovin like a heapin, hot bowl of chili. I love all kinds of chili, as long as it's got a kick to it, and when the weather gets cold and icy, there's no better time for some hot lovin.

I'm always trying new kinds of chili, too. I just got a new recipe for chili that looks easy, but the recipe makes 16 gallons of chili, and I'm not sure I could feed that many people in my house. I'll keep you posted on how that one turns out.

While I love a good beef chili, the past few years have seen me coming back to my new favorite recipe, and it's not the chili of my dreams. Nope, its a vegetarian chili that is every bit as rib stickin', tummy satisfying as it's older brother, and it comes from Emeril Lagasse.

I stumbled upon the recipe a couple of years ago when I had been served a delightful bowl of veggie chili that had me yearning for more. I think I googled vegetarian chili recipe and his was the first to come up. A Food Network 5 out of 5 stars recipe, it's tattered and stained print out has been my go to chili for the past few years because it never disappoints.

Do your tummy a favor and give it some warm lovin. Cuz Baby it's cold outside...

Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
• 1 cup chopped red bell peppers
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 to 3 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, and minced, depending upon taste
• 1 medium zucchini, stem ends trimmed and cut into small dice
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 3 ears)
• 1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms (about 5 large), stemmed, wiped clean and cubed
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespooon ground cumin
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 4 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 3 cups cooked black beans, or canned beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup vegetable stock, or water
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• Cooked brown rice, accompaniment
• Sour cream or strained plain yogurt, garnish
• Diced avocado, garnish
• Essence, recipe follows, garnish
• Chopped green onions, garnish

Directions

In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, garlic, and serrano peppers, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini, corn, and mushrooms, and cook, stirring, until soft and the vegetables give off their liquid and start to brown around the edges, about 6 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and stir well. Add the beans, tomato sauce, and vegetable stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro. Adjust the seasoning, to taste.

To serve, place 1/4 cup of brown rice in the bottom of each bowl. Ladle the chili into the bowls over the rice. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream and spoonful of avocado. Sprinkle with Essence and green onions and serve.

Sandy's Not So Dandy

It seems I can remember a time when I thought living on the East Coast was truly a weather blessing. Sure, we get belted with snow in the long and hard winters on the East Coast, but if you live here, that's what you sign up for. We also get glorious, sweltering summers, like the one I am looking at in the rearview mirror right about now. I also remember, years ago listening to National news reports about frequent earthquakes on the West Coast and severe storms, twisters and flooding in the Midwestern parts of the country. I used to think that stuff only happened to other people. The ones out there. Not us here in the East.

But over the past couple of years our luck has run out. It's like payback for all that good weather karma, and we really are making up for lost time, fast. In the past two years alone, our region has been hit with devastating, severe storms, tornadoes (virtually unheard of in these parts) and ice storms more frequently than  previous history will tell. I, myself, have been affected by long lasting power outages at least three times to date. Last week we even had a "4.5  on the Richter Scale" earthquake.

So it should be of no surprise to me that yesterday, it seemed like there were millions of "Chicken Little's" running around the area, cleaning out the Home Depots of batteries and water in preparation for today's Tropical Storm Sandy. I was one of them. Gone is the warm and cozy feeling of hunkering down for a day off with family watching the storm. The fun has been replaced with worry and aggravation over the prospect of long lasting storm effects and the costly damage to homes. And I'd rather not even think about people's safety. It's not so fun anymore.

Preparing for severe weather has become a competitive sport around here and some become the envy of the neighborhood with their storm prowess. Personally, I'd rather be popular in the neighborhood for my grilling prowess, but who's complaining? This has become our "new normal" and I've got to ride it out and say my prayers. Sandy, please spare us all your wrath. These frequent Tropical Storms are messing with our lives and our livelihoods. Last year Halloween was CANCELLED, and if this continues as it's supposed to, this year is not looking promising either. Have you ever? Rescheduling Halloween?

This "new normal" just isn't normal at all. I pray that everyone rides out Sandy's wrath in safety. May the "force" of storm preparedness be with us and not the force of the storm. Please, not the force of the storm.

You're Not In Kansas Anymore

So we had a tornado hit Massachusetts yesterday. In fact we has more than one tornado hit Massachusetts yesterday. It was some wild stuff, I gotta tell you. This is how it went down for me:

5 PM: I'm at the store and I get a call from my mom. She's worried and telling me to get home, as they just issued a tornado warning for our county until 7pm. I am scheduled to meet a friend for dinner, so I, of course, pooh pooh her pleas, laugh, and think to myself that it would never happen here.

6 PM: By now everybody in the store is talking about the tornado warnings and watching the TV news. Western MA has been hit by these fast moving storms causing severe damage. I call my friend and tell her that I'm going to go home and wait till 7, because they are also reporting that traffic is at a standstill. I tell her I would wait to see what happens and that I would stay in touch.

6:30 PM: The news stations are showing all weather reports with heavy rains and wind and hail moving close to our area. They are also reporting that there is more than one area that has been hit with funnel cloud tornado's. In all 19 communities have been affected and at least one death has been confirmed.

7 PM: Nothing has happened where I am so I decide to go meet my friend, to which My Guy says, "Are you nuts?" I, again, laugh and decide to think for a minute whether or not I should risk it. The TV news reporters are talking about emergency preparedness, going into the basement or the lowest level of the home, turning up the TV and staying there. The Emergency Broadcast System is popping into the telecast about every five minutes with that annoying beep, notifying us that in the event of an emergency....blah, blah, blah.

7:15 PM: I decide to cancel, to which my friend laughs, but it's no big deal. We re-schedule. (in hindsight, we would have been FINE)

7:30 PM: We are transfixed on the TV because now they are showing live shots of some incredible devastation in the Springfield area. It looks not too different from some tornado pictures of Missouri last week. What the? This is New England. Stuff like this never happens here. I thought it only happened in other parts of the country.

7:40 PM: Gov Duval Patrick comes on TV declaring that MA is in a state of emergency, and that Springfield has been devastated by tornados. A reporter ask him about whether or not this is the worst weather the state has ever seen, to which he replies, "Well, it's not over yet. These storms are still strong and the threat is still very real."

8 PM: I switch to the Bruins game. I got my priorities, ya know. But during the commercials, we were flipping back to the news. One of the huge storms is headed in our direction. We figured if we were in danger the Emergency Broadcast System would keep us posted, but we have one eye on the game and one on the news.

8:50: The dogs are going berserk, the light show outside my window is amazing coupled with some nasty, banging thunder. I see rain beginning to hit my window in a way that is not ordinary.

9 PM: Full blown wind and hard rain are now pelting my home. We are still in Bruins mode, but the outdoor events are hard to ignore. We are now watching both the storm and the game.

9:30 PM: We see blue, flashing lights go by the house and turn onto the street where my parents live, then go right into their driveway. Red lights then follow up the street, as a fire truck then pulls into my parents driveway. Their phone goes right to voicemail. My Guy gets a call that my parents alarm went off at their house, so we waste about a nano-second getting into the car to go check it out. It's still whipping rain and wind.

9:31 PM: My dad opens the door to his house, laughing. (thank God) Their house was hit by lightening and it set off the alarm. My mom said it was so loud that it scared the Bejesus out of her. They are fine. We check the house, like the fire department asked us to, for any smell of smoke or smoldering. Check. They are all set.

9:50 PM: The rain, lightening and thunder have stopped. It's over. We were lucky. Just some wild wind and rain and save from a few branches scattered around we got nothing.

4 confirmed deaths in the aftermath of the storms. The photos from Springfield are unbelievable. Unbelievable because tornados don't happen here.

It was some wild stuff, I gotta tell you.