I have finally emerged from my Hurricane Irene-induced hiatus. Given Irene’s long gestation period and the media frenzy as it slowly worked its way toward us, we had a bit too much time to prepare. We stocked up on enough food to survive Armageddon, particularly non-perishable carbs (pretzels, chips, cookies), nuts and canned goods (peas, corn, garbanzo beans). And, of course, we still had a freezer full of ice cream, much of it accumulated from gifts sent by thankful house guests and attentive blog followers (see Hurricane Advice , Ice Cream (Gelato), and House Gifts).

On the day of the storm, we were evacuated by the local fire department because our house is in a flood plain, so we left our ice cream behind and hightailed it to my sister’s house, a home which boasts three fully stocked refrigerators and a 6’6″ 275 lb. man-child who needs to be fed. There, we celebrated Irene with a home-cooked Italian dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce, eggplant parmagiana, and spicy Italian sausages followed by a breakfast of bagels, lox and whitefish salad, a typical combination of comfort meals for our Italian-Jewish family. When the storm passed we returned home to find we had lost power, so we started working our way through the melting ice cream. After several days of ice cream, chips and nuts, I must have slipped into a sugar-carb stupor, only to finally emerge today. Fortunately, our home suffered no damage from the storm. My waistline, however, will take a while to repair.