Yesterday was anti-climactic in that Cyclone Vaianu failed to live up to its expectations - at least in our part of the island. As responsible citizens we did our duty even when the weather on Saturday gave little credence to an approaching storm (it was such a gorgeous day!) ... charged our cellphones and laptops ... made sure our water and food supplies were accessible ... stacked up our patio chairs ... made sure we knew where the emergency radio was even if we have no idea what frequency is used in an emergency and it likely needs new batteries (we have them somewhere if we can find them) ... had a plan if things became wild (my sister sat and watched Cyclone Debbie as it approached her house in 2017 but I was thinking I could most likely hide in a wardrobe) ... and basically ensured that everything that could get blown around was secure.
Sunday morning was eerily quiet ... some rain but we had been told to expect the worst to arrive early afternoon. But apart from a little wind and some rain, the Cyclone passed over.
That's not to say that there wasn't damage to other parts of the North Island (two sons reported leaking roofs and there were roads blocked and power outages) or to our neighbours in the South Pacific, but here it was no worse than any other storm we've experienced (in fact, it was probably less intense than some we've had in recent years).
Today it has rained steadily for most of the day so it seemed to be a good opportunity to spend a whole day in the kitchen.
But I over-estimated and had enough to make an apple crumble for dessert ...
I also wanted to make a batch of Oaty Choc Chip Cookies (just over 100 in total!) to go in the freezer ...
And a gluten-free Chocolate Brownie (I'm not sure the top is meant to crack like that - it may have something to do with the fact that I estimated amounts of butter and chocolate because my scales are broken - but, hey, it tastes great) ...
And my favourite grain-free crackers which I like to use for lunches (yummy with peanut butter or avocado on top) ...
I also made date and orange scones for lunch (I only made 2/3 of the recipe and used dehydrated mandarin instead of orange but they must have been okay because this is the only one left) ...
And, finally, put a roast on for dinner, washed the feijoas that had blown off in the storm, and made another batch of yogurt (not dairy-free this time so I hope DH remembers to eat it).
When that was all done, I reorganised my collection of handwritten/scribbled/typed/printed recipes and discovered that I had four recipes alone just for crumble topping!
All in all, it feels like a day well spent.
Tomorrow, I hope to dehydrate some of those feijoas and spend some time writing.
And because photos of food and my writing desk are not exciting, here are a few photos from Easter ...
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