Adventures in Flood Land

I drove out to run some errands tonight, and on the way home, I ran into a torrential downpour. I took a turn I usually don't take to avoid a downed wire that I had noticed earlier on my normal road. Little did I know, nor could I see in the downpour that the road I was planning on taking was completely flooded. I began driving through a puddle, only to be stopped in the middle of the road by my car stalling. I was literally three blocks from home.

What to do, right? Well, I tried to start the car a few times, but to no avail and then sat to contemplate my options. I got Torey on the phone to come up with a few towing companies and then got myself in the schedule. It was going to be over an hour and cost me $68. Since there was still so much rain coming down, and the road was still flooded, it was out of the question to manhandle the car against the resistance of the water to the side of the road, so I decided to just sit and wait out the storm, though a kindly neighbor came out, wading barefoot in the flooded road and offered me the use of her garage.

I then got my peeps on the phone--talked to dad to get his advice and to my brother Steve. The word is that you have to wait until it's completely dry to start it up, and it had taken too long for me to move the car for there to be enough residual heat in the engine block for it to dry just because internal heat. I hoped for the best, and hoped that as long as I got the car towed home, with a sunny day tomorrow, I could get the thing started without having to resort to taking it to the garage.

After about a half an hour, the storm had passed, and the water around my car began to recede. I had the thought that I should move the car to the side of the road, park it and walk home and wait for the tow truck. As I was walking home with groceries in my hands, I just wished I knew someone with a truck. And then it hit me: Dave's got a truck, and he's probably got a tow strap or a chain. Bingo! So off went a call to Dave, and sure enough, he'll be driving over tomorrow morning and we'll move it the three blocks to my house.

I walked back to my car to retrieve the keys, and now I'm back home. Some popcorn just got popped, I'm going to melt some butter and go watch a movie and I may even whip up a batch of coconut sugar cookies from an idea that's been floating around my head the past few days.

Everything turned out all right. I've decided I've lived long enough not to get too fretful over stuff like this. It always works out, and it's always forgotten in no time at all. Some certain wisdom comes with age, thankfully!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed however with the car starting tomorrow...I'll update later!

Summer Living

This was dinner tonight. I love this time of year--produce is bountiful, whether it comes from my own garden or from someone else's. I bought the zucchini and squash at the farmer's market, and grilling is always my favorite choice for them. I like to cut them on the bias, and then just pour olive oil, salt, pepper and whatever seasoning sounds good. Tonight it was a Mexican seasoning that I picked up a couple of days ago called Adobo. I highly recommend it, and I think this will be my go-to seasoning for awhile.

My tomatoes are starting to come in, and I have more basil than I know what to do with. I decided to make the traditional salad of tomatoes, basil, olive oil, salt and black pepper, but instead of mozzarella, I used queso fresca, which is a terrific cheese. It's a traditional Mexican cheese that crumbles nicely, and has a creamy and salty flavor. I like it just as much as fresh mozzarella.

I wasn't sure what the main dish would be, so I popped my head in the freezer, and saw that I had some frozen ahi tuna steaks. I had a eureka moment, since I had a few oranges floating around from test baking my pumpkin cake (which uses orange zest). I made a simple marinade for the tuna: orange juice, soy sauce and a little rice wine vinegar to give it a clean, bright flavor. I've used a variation of this marinade for about a year or two, and I love it. I usually add some ground mustard or ginger, but I think I've moved on from that. I like how clean and fresh this was with only the three ingredients. I let it marinate for about a half hour, and then dug out some black poppy seeds to line the edges of the tuna steaks. That adds a really nice crunch to the tuna that I enjoy quite a bit. The dipping sauce is made just like the marinade, and man, it's tasty!

I think this has to be one of my favorite meals, one I'll be making for years to come. And I happen to think it would be a meal that would impress a date. I just gotta find one.