Old Tricks For New Days

Last year we had a terrible ice storm. The electricity was out for almost five days. As you can imagine, things were a little tricky. I was not married to my husband yet, but I happened to be at his house when the “lights went out.” His ninety three year old mother and his brother live about a block down the hill from us. It was up to me to cook and care for them while my husband, Fran, did other necessary things, like going to town countless number of times. The reason he had to do this was because even though he said he was prepared for “something like this” he was not. He had no candles, no oil lamps, no oil for the lamps, only two flashlights. He said he had a five million watt flashlight that had been charged. It lasted fifteen minutes. He also needed to purchase all kinds of batteries. The thing was though, every one else in Stockton was out to purchase the same thing. I sent him for drinking water. We are on a well, no power (at the time the park had no generator). The grocery store only had little bottles of water. It was pretty much a mess.
Fran’s mother is a diabetic. She had to have three meals a day. Nothing to cook on. Fran brought in his propane cooker. I had big canners, so I made chicken and noodles, a pork roast one day and boiled potatoes on it. We had lots to eat, but what about coffee? Fran is like a crazy man without his coffee and so is his brother, as well as his mother. I got out an egg and mixed coffee grounds in it. I started a pan of water on to boil. When it was bubbling, I spooned the gooey mess into the boiling water. Presto! Instant egg coffee which my mother made all the time. When you mix an egg with coffee, it clarifies the coffee and makes it taste like gourmet. It is fantastic. I was kind of proud when Fran’s mother had never heard of doing that before. I thought to myself, “Thanks, Mom, you got me through this like you always do.” I think I just gained two or three points with my soon to be mother-in-law.