Hey Sandy!

For about a week, I've been talking about Tuesday. October 30 is my 13th wedding anniversary and it's the first day in weeks that I don't have school, work, volunteer commitments, internship and/or job interviews.

I was very much looking forward to this day.

Now we're getting a category 1 hurricane.

We have filled buckets, pitchers and other spare containers with water. We cleaned the yard, put the car in the garage and scrubbed the bathrooms and the kitchen with bleach.

We ate the contents of the fridge and freezer. Stocked dried fruit from Forks Mediterranean Deli. Have home canned salsa and corn salsa and tortilla chips. Bananas, apples, nuts and mocha bread. Peanut butter. Juice in boxes and bottles.

Flashlight batteries changed. Candles and matches gathered. Electronics charged.

So, we're ready. And right now we're having hamburgers made from ground beef from the farm made with spinach in them, homemade French fries, and the burgers will be served on zaatar bread with Bulgarian feta and calamata olives and a side of cole slaw.

I also stopped at the liquor store for wine and brandy.

Ocean Spray Sparkling Juice

When I was in therapy (don't ask, it's a long story), my therapist pointed out that I tended to be cheap without allowing any splurges for myself. That I would treat my family but not myself. While Hurricane Irene shopping last week, I bought Ocean Spray Sparkling Pomegranate Blueberry juice.

Now in my house we mix 100% juice with seltzer and make a diluted juice beverage we call "juice with bubbles" and that Ocean Spray now markets as this product.

But it was a hurricane and the thought of losing power and still having something more refreshing than a juice box, more exciting than water and almost reminiscent of wine or beer... I decided to try it.

The four pack of 8.4 ounce cans cost $2.29 ON SALE at Target. Even with an employee discount and RedCard discount (23 cents for one, 11 for the other) that's $1.95. Rounding up that's 50 cents a can.

But it is yummy. I can mix it much cheaper at home.

Hurricane Feast

The menu: steak with brandy cream sauce, salad with dried peas, sweet potato fries and iced coffee with almond milk, and for dessert Ghirardelli brownies (one box turtle and one box ultimate fudge). I mixed them together and used a cake pan, and I am pretty sure I used too much water, so they might be more like cake than brownies.

Nope, very rich and very much brownies.

The steak was selected to use it before Irene gets here, if I lose power due to the hurricane I don't want to lose my steak too. The salad was leftover from lunch the day before yesterday. The brandy sauce was in the freezer from the last time I made this dish (July 17) and it reheated just fine.

Hurricane Preparations

Today, once again, I headed to Target on my day off. I have already spent my grocery budget for this month, but with Hurricane Irene headed into the Lehigh Valley this weekend, I feel better getting a few victuals. Of the processed kind that I normally would rebuke.

Now I suppose I should 'fess up and admit that we went out to dinner last night. We were celebrating child's maturity in giving up some old toys, the start of school AND her scholarship that will allow her to continue dance. I had gone to the dance studio and paid for her shoes, having taken the money out of savings to do so, and, not knowing the value of the scholarship, had about $60 leftover.

Being prudent, I said we were going to go someplace cheap and reliable, and that there would be no dessert or appetizers. We went to Delahantys in Phillipsburg, NJ, one of those few towns where you can still get an hour with a quarter in the parking meter. And we've always loved the food.

Bill, with a nice tip, came to $32.05. And we all had a good meal and a relaxing time.

But back to the hurricane. I'm not a worrier when it comes to weather events. But having a small child in the house, I figure I better be prepared for her if nothing else. It has me more worried that my husband and I both have to work Saturday and Sunday, husband during the day and me at night. And my sister-in-law has a surprise party planned for prime hurricane time on Sunday, and being in her own world she refuses to reschedule because she ordered a cake.

So, headed to Target, much later than I had planned because my little diva had to finish her ensemble and her hair combing. Bought her two pairs of school shoes, one of which became two small on the ride home. Have to exchange that tomorrow. I spent $81.27 for everything, but minus the shoes it's about $50. I also used my resusable bags and saved another 15 cents that way.

What did I get?

HURRICANE PROVISIONS

• one of those fancy lighters, the plastic kind for lighting grills, because I couldn't find the matches and am really bad with a cigarette lighter. On clearance for $3.48
• Pirate Booty, veggie flavor, two bags at $2.79 each. Because if we lose power for an extended period of time, I'd rather eat Pirate Booty than cold canned vegetables.
• Market Pantry Ritz style crackers, $2.74 (we have a full BIG jar of peanut butter)
• Market Pantry strawberry fruit bars, $2.99 (50% of the days Vitamin C)
• Market Pantry blueberry peelable fruit bars, $2.99 (ranks much lower on nutritional content but still offers some vitamin C and looks fun, a lot like the Pull N Peel licorice I'm addicted to)
• Ocean Spray 100% Juice, two bottles at $2.29 each (because ironically all my juice concentrate right now is FROZEN so if the power goes out, I'm going to hesitate to open that freezer door because it's still full of ALL sorts of stuff. And I figure if we are all drinking it, a bottle will only last a day so it won't have a chance to go bad unrefrigerated)
• Ocean Spray Sparkling Juice, 4 cans, $2.29 (all of these ocean spray products are regularly $2.99 and I thought the juice might be nice to have on hand as something different should the power be off for a long time)
• Market Pantry 100% juice punch juice boxes, $2.37 (school's coming even if we don't need them for the storm)
• Bread: one loaf of Market Pantry Multigrain ($2.54) and one loaf of blueberry streusel bread ($3.69). More use for than peanut butter. Or a can of chicken or tuna.
• one jar blackstrap molasses, $3.29 (because eventually today if my daughter will ever cooperate, I hope to make a HUGE batch of granola with various nuts, oats, and dried fruit.
• two six-packs of Clif Bars blueberry crisp (it's my favorite flavor). They were on sale for $5 a box plus I had a coupon for $1 off. We still have at least six chocolate chip Clif Bars and a box of Market Pantry nutrition bars. 
• a four pack of everyday tissues, $4.99
• bleach, $1.92
• and other household stuff not due to the storm: dishwasher liquid ($3.44 minus a 50 cent coupon), rinse aid ($3.24) and dishwasher disenfectant ($3.99)