As I was saying, dinners haven't been normal due to the snow storm, we have had no power more than we have had power,we do have a back up generator, but that doesn't run the stove or microwave. Luckily on Monday I made a large batch of spaghetti sauce in the crockpot and 4 loaves of banana bread, other than 2 loaves of the bread, everything went in the freezer. It started snowing harder Wednesday.
Thursday we woke up to a foot of snow and no power. I improvised and made chicken with stuffing in the crockpot, but daughter #1 does not like food that has been cooked in the crockpot. She ate it, but not without looks of death every once in a while. The power came back on for about 3 hours, so I scrambled around in the kitchen, I cooked a pound of pasta, a loaf of bread and almost a pound of bacon minus a few slices. I figured, I could thaw out one batch of spaghetti sauce in the crockpot and add the already cooked pasta to heat it all together. The bread and the bacon could be for lunch, blt's minus the l and t. We had banana bread for breakfast.
Last night we ate the pasta, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't fresh cooked either. The bacon sandwiches were delish as was the banana bread. The power came on for a little while but I used that time to do a load of laundry and by the time the dryer was done drying the power went out again. In the middle of the night it came back on, I can tell you this because all of a sudden it was daytime in my bedroom, i'm guessing the kids had the lights on when the power went out. It has stayed on all day, it has been a productive day in the kitchen and the laundry room.
The first thing I did this morning was run the dishwasher, boy I didn't realize how much I would miss doing the dishes and the laundry. Then I made granola to go with yogurt for breakfast, then baked 2 loaves of bread, may as well have some in reserve. Tonight for dinner I wasn't sure what to make, I dug around in the freezer a few hours before dinner-time and came up with a package of tortellini, a little bit of leftover ravioli and a package of chopped spinach, to that I added a cream sauce that I made up the recipe for, with the ingredients I found in the pantry, fridge and freezer, I'll post the recipe below. Everyone ate it and i'm shocked....they all said they liked it!
Creamy Garlic Sauce
3 Tbsp butter
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat, add the garlic when the butter is melted and let it cook for a few minutes, then whisk in the flour, let it cook for 2 minutes. Slowly, whisk in the heavy cream, then add the basil, salt and pepper. Stir and cook over medium heat until it thickens. You can serve it over any kind of pasta, stuffed or not.
