Grilling and Hurricanes

So I figured the best way to herald the arrival of Hurricane Irene would be to grill - a nice leisurely summer activity. That and surfing. So with the rain coming down, I set up my new grill and went to work. The recipe below I've now tried a couple of times and it's pretty darn good:

Grilled vegetable salad
Zucchini sliced thin lengthwise
Red pepper
Onion slices
- Grill the above (on the wonderful stove-top grill that Erin bought) with salt and pepper
- Add cilantro and balsamic vinegar and mix it all up to make a grilled veggie salad of sorts
- Can add feta or goat cheese as you like...

I did go surfing before Irene rolled in fully - it was some of the best surf I've had in New York. Here's a pic from this morning when it's all tossed about at the spot:

Not very good at all now... but you can see that there was some swell - wish I had some pics from before when it was cleaner though there was always so much rain that it was hard to see the waves from a distance. It wasn't Teahupoo where Peter is now (below), but it was still fun...
One thing that prevented me from paddling out when it was really pumping was the creature that bumped me the day before the storm - I was sitting on my board with my feet in front of me (sometimes they're to the side hanging off), and I feel this bump then another jolt that was fairly strong... then my leash is getting pulled and turning me around... all happened rather quickly and I figured at first that it was another surfer tangled for a second since there were quite a few people out, but turned around to find no one close... and came to the alternative hypothesis that a sea creature of some sort had decided to investigate me a little. Not going to jump to conclusions about what kind of sea creature and he/she showed no malice, but I took the next wave in anyway.

It's almost time to bake the Hurricane Bread that I started last night
- 3 cups flour, 1 tsp yeast, salt, thyme
- mix the above, let rise overnight after adding a little less than 2 cups hot water
- toss again with a bit of flour for molding and let rise for 2 more hours
- bake in preheated dutch oven at 450 (with lid on) for 30 mins

One of the funnier things about the news folks on TV during episodes like this is that they basically run out of things to say and always seem to want to make their particular situation seem extreme!!! It must be hard to be on camera with one story like that (that's not really changing - rain and wind is the bottom line) and keep coming up with something new and interesting to say. One guy kept saying how much worse it was just before they got to him like a fisherman about the one who got away... I'm sure it was a bad storm for some folks and tough in many ways and hopefully people recover quickly.