HURRICANE GUSTAV ARRIVES

I am sitting here on the front porch watching Gustav arrive. This hurricane is not going to be a destroyer. It is making landfall in Louisiana and we are in Southwest Alabama. It is only 115 miles per hour there, not the 150 mph of Katrina. We are on the northeast side of the storm, which is the worst quadrant, but are far enough away that our only damage may be wind, and may not even be that. The wind is beginning to gust a little, but just enough to set the wind chimes tinkling.
They don’t usually ring in the summertime unless there is a pretty good wind because they are sheltered by the trees that surround the porch.
We have not had a really damaging hurricane here in a couple of years. Before that we all remembered 1979 as the Big One. In my lifetime, I don’t remember a hurricane until then except for Camille in 1968 when someone I cared about was at National Guard Camp in Biloxi when it came through. We in rural Southwest Alabama don’t live in fear of hurricanes as our friends on the Gulf Coast proper do.
We have learned to give the warnings proper respect. Until a hurricane makes landfall, we do watch the weather bulletins. Friday, I went to the library and checked out enough books to last over the Labor Day Weekend. Saturday, I did buy batteries and pick up a few groceries. Yesterday, I did charge my lanterns that I might need if the electricity went off. After Hurricane Dennis, when we were without power for a few days, I did buy some lanterns to read by. If I have a good book handy, I can weather any storm. I cooked a pot of Chef Dodd’s New England Cheddar Cheese Soup that I could reheat on the gas grill if I needed to. I made a shrimp, mushroom and Conecuh sausage pizza that I cut in slices and put in the refrigerator.
My friend Nell gave me a new recipe for Almond Skillet Cake which I made just because it was good therapy and would do for breakfast with tea. It is so easy and so good I’m going to share it now. It tastes like something you get at a little European bakery. It could actually be made over a campfire or on a gas grill. I would have sworn it had marzipan in it.

Almond Skillet Cake
1 ½ sticks of butter melted 4 oz sliced almonds
1 ½ c sugar
1 ½ c plain flour
2 eggs
Put a sheet of foil, ungreased, in an iron skillet. This is a 10 or 12 inch skillet, the kind you fry chicken in, not make cornbread. Mix all ingredients together and pour into skillet. This will be a thin cake. Sprinkle almonds on top. Sprinkle a little sugar on top of the almonds. Start in a cold oven. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool in pan. Cut in small pie shaped wedges.
This will be good if you have anybody come by for a Hurricane Party. This could happen. After all, this is rural Southwest Alabama. We will celebrate anything. Not getting hit directly by a hurricane is definitely something to celebrate!