A Cabin Fever Menu

Where were you when Snowpocalypse 2009 hit?

Me, I was still at our office holiday party festivities around 9pm on Friday. I looked outside to see the fat white flakes starting to fall. By Saturday morning, things looked very dubious and by late Saturday morning, I decided against trying to take the train to Baltimore. (Probably a wise choice, as Amtrak is severely delayed and the metro is still not running above ground as I write this on late Sunday afternoon.)

So, what to do in a blizzard? Listen to holiday music, of course. Maybe a few loads of laundry? Read my book. Ah, yes . . . and cook, cook, cook.

I didn't want to venture to the store for ingredients until today, so I had to be a little creative with the ingredients I have. So, this is what I ended up with. What did you cook? What are your favorite "cabin fever" dishes?

Saturday breakfast:
Leftover pumpkin-walnut-cranberry muffins. Defrosted and toasted, with a big cuppa joe on the side. Miraculously, my Saturday newspaper arrived, so I enjoyed the paper with my breakfast.

Saturday lunch:
Spaghetti squash, roasted, and tossed with butter, garlic, sauteed mushrooms, sage and thyme. The spaghetti squash had been sitting on my counter for over a week, so I knew it would be the perfect day to bake it.
Slice of leftover bread (our friend Greg baked it and brought it last Saturday for a potluck), with butter and apricot jam)

Tea:
Well, good black tea, of course. And banana bread. I had to alter the recipe to make it vegan, because we were out of eggs. Fortunately, banana bread veganizes very nicely using ground flaxseed.

Saturday Dinner:
Red lentil stew with basmati rice. This is a recipe from Gourmet magazine (RIP) that I had made once before. I had every ingredient I needed (red lentils, onion, frozen peas, garlic, ginger, and spices) except spinach, which I would have otherwise sliced into strips and added to the stew at the very end.

Saturday dessert:
I sliced two otherwise sad looking golden apples into an oven-proof bowl. I sprinkled a mixture of brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and a little bit of flour over the top and baked in the oven for 25 or so minutes. Served perfectly with a bit of vanilla ice cream on top (which miraculously I did have!), while I watched some sappy Irish feel-good film on Netflix on demand.

Today, I managed to get to the grocery store. Unfortunately, nary an egg to be seen. (Given the opportunity for "southwestern-style" Eggbeaters, I demurred.) So I am experimenting right now with coconut cookies and a pecan-pie style bar cookie recipe, to see if they will work with egg whites only.
I think we'll be plowed out by tomorrow (though a plow has yet to touch our street, it has touched the more major roads in our neighborhood.) And to think...they are predicting another snow later this week!