I’m sorry, I don’t have a Meatless Monday recipe to share with you today. I hope you know that if you need ideas, you can always access our recipes through our main menu above under “We Are Meatless On Mondays.” I have some recipes to share with you, and I will share a new one next week.
There is a story behind why I didn’t get my Meatless Monday post together…
On Thursday night after work, David and I drove to Winchester Virginia to attend a cooking class at Nibblins. Nibblins is a family-owned gourmet kitchen store that makes it their mission to help food lovers and cooks make their culinary experiences more enjoyable. As part of their efforts, Nibblins offers a unique variety of cooking classes for every skill level of cook. All classes include a menu, recipes, samples of the food prepared, and complimentary beverages. The cooking class that David and I attended was taught by none other than Chef Sara Moulton!
Sara is a teacher at heart, and her mission has always remained the same — “to help the home cook land a tasty dinner on the table every night.” But, sitting in that class Thursday night, Sara made it very obvious that she has a passion for food and teaching others.
Sara is a teacher at heart, and her mission has always remained the same — “to help the home cook land a tasty dinner on the table every night.” But, sitting in that class Thursday night, Sara made it very obvious that she has a passion for food and teaching others.
She is so nice! She spoke with everyone, signed cookbooks, and welcomed pictures. She is genuinely warm and personable, not to mention funny! However, she and Deb from Chantal cookware (sponsor of her cooking and book tour) may have gotten more than they bargained for when they asked David to come up and help make crepes with her! Here’s a video clip from that…
At one point, Sara looked at me and said, “I bet you have your hands full at home.”
“It’s a full time job!,” I said.
If you don’t know David, he is crazy and makes me and everyone around him laugh hysterically. It’s one of his greatest qualities. Running his big mouth was what got him selected to come up. Sara may have gotten more than she bargained for, but she kept full control of what was going on.
Meanwhile, things back on the mountain were rough and not good at all. A terrible line of storms came through our area with torrential downpours, hail, severe lightning, and terrible wind, much like a Derecho. There were reports of a tornado in Martinsburg, West Virginia (about 50 miles north of our mountain). Apparently, there were more tornadoes within that storm line because something tore our mountain up!
Towards the end of our cooking class, I got a text from a neighbor that sounded rather frantic, asking if we were ok. Not knowing what was going on exactly, I got up and went out to call him on the phone. He told me that in the 18 years he had lived on the mountain that this storm is one of the worst he’d ever witnessed. Stuff was blowing everywhere, and trees were down, knocking out power to our mountain.
The cooking class wrapped up, and we headed home to see what was going on. We didn’t even know if we could get there. David drove up the mountain until we had come to a barricade made by one of our neighbors. There was a huge tree down, and it had taking power lines down with it. The neighbors were working to clear the road. David and I got out and went to help to pull limbs out of the way where we could. Other neighbors behind us that were trying to get home got out and did the same. About 20 yards or so from one tree was another, and so on. We were being cut into the mountain, and other neighbors on the mountain were cut out.
This was one destructive storm. Our road goes along the top of the ridge, and the trees were knocked down all across it. Our neighborhood came together to make the road passable again. It was quite the sight to see neighbors come together. One of the biggest helpers had a tree lying across his brand new truck and house.
Mountain neighbors are the best kind of neighbors. They pull through and help each other out in times of need.
The last tree that needed cutting was a doozy! It was hanging over the road, and they had to get the tractor with a front-end loader to lower it down to the ground to cut it out of the way. After that final tree, David and I were able to get home to assess the damage we may have had.
Low and behold, there wasn’t any! We had laid the deck furniture down on the deck in anticipation of the storm. Everything was exactly how we left it; the deck furniture, David’s smoker, even our porch chicken was still standing up, and he blows over in high winds all the time.
His Royal Highness was perfectly fine and was very confused as to why we were shining bright lights from our hands and not turning on the lights. The whole mountain was dark and remained dark. We had some emergency water stashed in the basement that I heated on the gas stove to sponge bath off. Thankfully it was a chilly night for June, and we slept well.
Here are some pictures taken from morning light:
All in all, it was a blessing that no one was hurt in this awful storm. It was an unforgettable night. David and I fell asleep with visions of food and the sound of chainsaws in our heads. We spent Friday night with friends in Centerville, Virginia. The power company worked through the night to restore power. By morning (36 hours after the storm), the power in our neighborhood was restored. The power company worked through the night to restore power.
You just never know what’s going to happen on the mountain…
elizabeth brinster says
Ok…so how did you end up with Chantal cookware???
I’ve never heard of it.
I loved Sara when she was on the food network..and had a couple of her cookbooks.
I didn’t realize she had a new one…guess I’ll have to go buy it!!!
The Mountain Kitchen says
We got a really good discount from Nibblins and I got a really nice pan and sautese pan with lid. It’s induction cookware, but you can use it on whatever you have. It is really nice; light weight and not very expensive. Can’t wait to try it out more. Try looking at their site for ordering. Sara is so sweet. Genuinely nice and so knowledgeable! Could listen to her talk for hours!
Annie says
Wow, what an incredible night, likely not to be forgotten soon! That video made me LOL – love that David got picked! And I’m so glad nothing happened to your house AND that you have such amazing neighbors, I can imagine that would be incredibly scary. Now you’ve got me spooked for the storm we have headed our way in Chicago tomorrow…I should probably just not go in to work, stay home, and snuggle the cats, right? 🙂
The Mountain Kitchen says
He’s got a big mouth…lol! I knew they were gonna pick on him. She said he reminded her of her husband, so I think that had a lot to do with it. I’m glad we weren’t home the other day. If you do stay home to snuggle with the cats, do it in the bathtub or basement… 😉
Patrons of the Pit says
That is pretty cool! You know, on Saturday mornings I like to sit in my pajamas on the couch, with my bowl of cereal, and watch cooking shows on PBS. There are several that come on, but Sara’s show is always my favorite. I’ve tried a couple of her recipes before, and she always puts out a good product. It’s good to hear she is in person as she seems on the show. Now you know famous people! Maybe you’ll have your own cooking show on Saturday mornings too! You never know.
We’ve been having storms often in Minnesota, it seems. Seems like every week a nasty one comes through. Been a sporty summer! Glad your porch chicken made it!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Thank you!
I miss quality cooking shows. Seems that their all about competitions these days.
Yes, that’s our “guard chicken” danggum think has a hard time standing up sometimes. Perhaps he gets into David’s beer when we aren’t home…
Keep an eye in the sky those storms can be tricky! Our neighbor will be heading up that way very soon. He love it up there!