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| Actual satellite image of this monster |
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Perfect Storm
Hurricanes: Deadly Wind, Deadly Rain
This is part of The History Channel's Wrath Of God: Disasters In America series. It's basically a nice overview of exactly how one of these storms can tear you apart. It is a reminder, though, that no one on the east coast of the US are immune from one of these killers rolling over them, whether they live in a tropical or sub-tropical zone or not.
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| From A NOAA aricraft |
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| This is New England 1936 |
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| This was what remained of a local hurricane that I lived through in 1985 with my parents. |
Theme Recipe: Grill Top White Limas With Ham Bone
This is pure Hurricane aftermath food! When a hurricane knocked out our power for a month years ago down in Tallahassee, not only did we have to eat off the grill, we had to try to eat out of the freezer after the FEMA dry ice, well, dried up. I made these one evening because there was a meaty ham bone in the freezer that was thawing out, as my Dad kept all the really sensitive stuff as close to the dry ice as possible (this also occasioned him the excuse to eat what was left of his birthday cake, which was an ice cream cake, for dinner one evening, with no excuses needed). We had quite a lot of dried and canned goods set aside for hurricane season--but thought we had dodged a bullet, because it was November....not so. Funnily enough the power came back on Nov. 30, the end of Hurricane season, and my birthday.... I have since made these a few times on the grill and love the smokey taste. They are best cooked over charcoal that has wood infused and/or with soaked wood chips thrown on the hot coals. They can be made on the stove or in the slow cooker, of course, but they will not have the same smokey flavor. For the same meal, I also managed to cook a blackberry cobbler on the grill and was surprised how good that came out as well. Just to give some idea what we go through down here every year, here's the list supplies we need to ride out a bad one.
This is easy, but if you are going make them on the grill, it has to be larger than a table top grill. Set the charcoal alight and cover when the fire dies down and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Have extra bricketts available to add more. If you are using wood chips, then soak them for 40 minutes.
1 1lb. bag large white lima beans (or any dried beans you like)
1 hambone, with some meat left on
Water to cover
1 tbsp. salt
Combine all these ingredients in a large pot and place on grill. Add extra bricketts every 30 minutes. If using wood chips drain well first, so that their soaking water doesn't put the fire out of the bricks. This cooks in about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Check the salt level, if it's low add a bit more (check it first, ham is salty)
VARIATIONS:
As mentioned above, any type of dried bean can be used, and stock can replace water.
You can add herbs, dried or other wise. Vegetable can be added in, and this is a good way to use up vegetables in the fridge that are a bit past their prime.
You can use a mixture a beans and other dried grain, like barley.
Leave out the meat and add some black or other type of pepper to make them vegetarian. In this case, they benefit from having some tamari or other soy sauce added or vegetarian liquid smoke. Braggs amino work really well.
It can be made with any type of smoke meat (or even smoked not meat products), if pork is not OK to eat.
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| Bon Apetite! |
The Killer Shrews (1959)
This is another film whose plot could not advance without extreme weather, in this case a full blown hurricane. If those sailors had never seen the need to seek shelter from the approaching storm on some island unknown to them, they never would have been in the wrong place at just the wrong time. Of course, it's the storm also releases the shrews to do their worst!
X-Files: Aqua Mala (Season 6)
Episode: Agua Mala
Agua Mala translates from the Spanish to English into "bad water," and besides the Hurricane that Mulder and Scully find themselves in the south of Florida...there is something else much worse than just storm surge pollution that's bad about this water!
Poltergeist (1982)
Poltergeist has a TON of bad weather in it. In fact, the bad weather kind of is necessary for plot advancement. Without it, the Freelings wouldn't be able to explain away all the strange crap that is going on around them. They blame thunder storms, lightening strikes and even a tornado for all the weirdness that they have about them, going so far as to blame serious house shaking paranormal activity on an earthquake....one that no one else felt! Talk about denial. And...where would be at the end of the film, without that nasty storm that floods the unfinished pool that Diane falls in??
Internet Troubles
Having serious internet troubles here today! Called, but to no avail, maybe they will improve later. Meanwhile, here's a storm surge scare.
Weather Day
Today is June 1st, which is also the first day of Hurricane Season....although....we have already had two named storms in the "pre-season:" Alberto and Beryl, the later of which rolled over my area. Although it was the strongest May tropical storm since 1908, it wasn't really that scary, considering that we needed the rain....that is until you start factoring in why we keep getting out of season storms in the first place....global warming, not that is scary! So today it's weather, just as a kind of psych-up on my part to try in get ready for the storms; I pretty sure this year is going to be a doosy! So buckling up down here! First up: blizzards.
Episode: Failure To Communicate
The episode centers around House's amazing ability to properly diagnose a patient from the bowels of a Maryland airport during a blizzard that has grounded all flights.
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