Monday night we got to experience our reactions to crisis first hand. Lucky us!!! Our toilet overflowed without our knowledge, flooded our living room and hence flooded the office I work at downstairs. We live in an old building and the toilet constantly runs water. We can sometimes get it to stop by wiggling the handle a certain way but it doesn't always work and sometimes it starts again on it's own. So when the toilet started running water we didn't think anything of it. I finally got up to try and get it to stop and walked into a puddle of water in my living room. You can imagine my horror!!! Then I proceed to freak out, finally settle enough to go downstairs to see if it's gone through to my office and to walk by the window and see the ceiling tiles and insulation hanging by a thread. More freaking out ensues. All awhile my husband has turned off the water, started soaking up water with towels, took our pots and pans downstairs to catch some of the water (not that it helped) and continue to try and calm me down. What a guy! Eventually I calmed down enough to call my boss/landlord who got a restoration company out to start the clean up process. Lucky us we have insurance. =)
Here's a shot of the apartment now with all the lovely machines cleaning up the mess. The bathroom is to the left of that doorway and the floor must slant into the living room because the water came right in. That wood was under the carpet and is now almost 100% dry. Hopefully only another day of these machines (they are so noisy!), and new carpet on Saturday! Of course I have to wait a few weeks before the restoration company cleans and returns all of my towels. Luckily my mom is to the rescue with plenty of towels for us to use in the interim. My apartment didn't get the worst of it though. Pretty much just the carpet had to be torn up and the machines put in to dry everything up. Downstairs in my office got the worst. The carpet torn up, ceiling tiles and insulation ripped out, not to mention the desks, computers, files that got drenched. Luckily some of it they can salvage some we have to replace. What a nightmare!!
So needless to say I haven't done any cooking. My kitchen table which is normally where I do my prepping is in the living room with stuff piled high (as you can partially see) and I only have one pot to use for cooking since the rest are soiled with water filtered through the floor/ceiling, mixed with pieces of the drywall/insulation. Not the ideal situation for making a meal. Last night we had chipotle and tonight I just wasn't in the mood to go out for dinner. I had food that needed to be eaten in the fridge. I figured I could put something together with my one pot. I had half a head of cabbage left over from the soup I made so I figured I'd make some pan fried cabbage over noodles. Those yams I was telling you about are just going to have to wait. =/
I started the cabbage and put my pasta in the microwave to cook...about 2 minutes later all the power in the apartment goes out. Apprently my microwave triped the breakers because of all the machines they have going...Nice!! So after about 10 minutes of not being able to find the breaker box (my husband isn't home mind you), calling my boss to come help me in the dark, him fixing it and getting the power back on, I try to be smarter than the system and move the microwave in my bedroom since I thought it was on a different breaker but no...it proceeds to blow the breakers again. I got the message loud and clear..NO pasta tonight!
I'm not going to let it get me down though...I took some left over rice and added it to the pot with the cooked cabbage and heated it up. So now we have some fried cabbage with rice instead of pasta. Here's what I came up with:
I heated about 1 Tablespoons of olive oil, along with about 2-3 T of butter in my pot, chopped one shallot and added it to the pot with 2 teaspoons of brown sugar. Let that cook down a little. Added the chopped cabbage (I used half of a small head) and let simmer until cooked. Added the left over brown rice and heated through. It didn't need anything extra, no salt, pepper or other spices. I ate with a few slices of left over rosemary bread that I got at the farmers market this weekend.
I have to say for a half kitchen, one pot and no microwave it was a pretty good dinner. Although the night warranted half a bag of skittles for dessert. =). I'm off to bed early tonight. I'm still trying to catch up from my lack of sleep on monday night/tuesday morning and honestly I can't handle much more drama tonight...I figured my bed is calling my name. Here's to hoping the next few nights are uneventful. Maybe I'll stick to eating out in the meantime. =)
Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler
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