Eggs Florentine

It's Sunday morning at the end of Thanksgiving weekend and so I must make my Eggs Florentine and Dutch Pancakes as a last hurrah to the weekend before various children depart. I have to give credit where credit is due because this recipe originally came from my sister. Through the years I have modified it somewhat by adding the hot sauce and making this completey vegetarian.

While the Eggs Florentine are in the oven, I make the Dutch pancakes, which take a longer while to take-- it's really an exercise in patience! This recipe is really in-exact, as it takes experience to learn how much milk and how much flour to add to the batter.

Usually the first 2-3 pancakes are too thick and when I get the "feel" for how they should be, then I adjust the batter with some more milk until it's just right. They are especially good with freshly whipped cream and fruit-- our favorite is blueberries.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! The sun is shining and the temperature will be in the fifties today, a warm and almost balmy Thanksgiving Day for Delaware. Thanksgiving Day seems to be everyone's favorite holiday and officially kicks off the holiday season in the USA. I begin the day with a cup of coffee and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. Ed's busy with the turkey, the kids are doing whatever it is they do, and I'm enjoying warm feet because I'm wearing my lovely slippers. What more could I want? Every winter I suffer from cold feet because Fawn won't let me wear anything on my feet around the house...

... she has this thing about always taking off my shoes and socks. She also carries my shoes into the middle of the family room and then guards them there. Guess she associates my wearing shoes with me leaving. For some reason, she hasn't bothered me about my new slippers yet-- so it will be a nice, warm Thanksgiving for my feet!

Mom's Taxi Service

It's the evening before Thanksgiving Day in the USA, and so I'm running "Mom's Taxi Service"! Already made a run up to the Philadelphia Airport to pick up Michael who flew in from San Diego. The airport was a zoo, of course! The worst part of the trip was driving to the airport, as traffic just screeches to a halt when 95 and 495 merge near Chester. From there it was a slow crawl to the airport. Thank goodness for the cell phone waiting lot! Got there early and enjoyed reading a book on my new Kindle paperwhite (makes me feel like a Nook traitor!). I even enjoyed watching the sunset as flights rolled in, were somewhat delayed, and cars lined up to fetch their human cargo. Now I am waiting for Sophia to come in on the Chinatown bus, which is notoriously unreliable and late! On the plus side is that it does make a stop in Wilmington, so I only have to take Fawn along with me to pick up her Mamma on 4th Street. Hopefully, this bus should get in by 11:30 PM, so I have enough time to make the jello salads before making the "taxi" run! In the USA, Thanksgiving weekend is the most heavily travelled day of the year...even more so than Christmas. It's my favorite holiday. No gifts or shopping craziness-- just a good meal with turkey as the central focus of the meal, and family togetherness. What could be more satisfying?

Judy 'N Me

Life is always good when an old and dear friend comes to town! Judy came up from Georgia where she is building a new nuclear power plant, and stopped in the Philadelphia area on her way North to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with her family. We met for breakfast at our usual place, the Sunrise Cafe in Kennett Square.

Judy is an amazing woman! She is a known authority in the nuclear power industry with expertise in training accreditation. She works in a man's world and has taken on some big challenges.

I can't express how good it was to see Judy! We even loved kissing the rooster!

Socks from Santa- Thoughts About the Holidays

The Nor'easter charged up the East Coast earlier this week and added insult to injury as North Jersey and NYC were blanketed with snow. Even my sister in Cape Cod had to rely on her generator to keep the lights on during those high winds. The irony of this is that I am teaching a new course in emergency management this semester! What timing! Those affected by the storms are in the process of cleaning up and salvaging what they can... Sophia was basically, as she likes to call it... "homeless" for 10 days while she crashed with friends in Harlem. Several of my Ripkanista friends have been without power for 12 days and trying to get back to some semblance of "normal." New York is an amazing place... the subways are running again! I never would have imagined that this 100+ year-old subway system could withstand the flooding. So now it occurred to me that we have just one weekend before Thanksgiving... which means a lot of getting ready to do. To put myself in the mood Santa began her socks-and-underwear shopping today!

My son said that he told his friends he has never bought socks or underwear ever in his life because Santa brings them every year! My girls are very picky about socks, and I have to have one of them with me to pick them out, or they write a detailed description about what to get and where to get it. In many ways the boys are so much easier! The socks are all stowed in the back of my closet... now let's hope that on Christmas Eve I will remember where I've put them.

Next Week's Nor'easter

As if the recent devastation from Hurricane Sandy wasn't enough, a major Nor'Easter is forming offshore and could impact the East Coast this week. Following a similar storm pattern as did Sandy, this storm would bring more high winds, rain, and snow to affected areas.

For my Dutch family and friends-- Nor'easters are storms with hurricane-force winds that circulate from the northeast combining with warm moist air from the south, and so these storms bring either much rain or snow. They also cause a lot of beach erosion at the shore. This weather pattern explains what I have been feeling and smelling in the air the last few days...it's gotten wintry-cold here, and the skies have been grey and overcast looking very much like winter. The air feels damp and it's bone-chilling cold. Let's hope the Jersey Shore and NYC are spared another blow!

Hurricane Sandy

As Hurricane Sandy barreled up the East Coast who would have thought that NYC would be flooded and experiencing the worst case scenario? With the tunnels into Manhattan completely flooded, and the subways as well, there is no way to get Sophia out.

She's crashing with friends in Harlem right now because her apartment was right near the substation that exploded in the lower East side.

Although she was technically in zone B, and stayed in her apartment throughout the night watching the storm come in and the waters rise, as soon as she stepped off the edge of the sidewalk she was in zone A-- the mandatory evacuation zone. The next morning she realized that living without power and water was not fun,

and so she took a cab to her friend's place. I'm sure it cost plenty as cabs or on foot were the only modes of transportation. Today the subway is partially up and running above 34th street, but she lives further down. Cell phone communications have been spotty, but she is able to get text messages through now and then (the cell phone carriers have experienced damage to their towers) or through FB. I asked if she needed a rescue effort from Delaware, but she assured us she's OK. Let's hope the big Apple gets back on its feet soon!