Winter Storm Warning!

We're supposed to get a humongous winter storm starting tomorrow morning early.  We really have been fortunate to not have too many of these at Christmas.  The last one was Christmas 2001, and it was a doozy.  We were snowed in for 3 or 4 days, but we did okay.  We did not run out of food, firewood or toilet tissue. We were not tempted to eat the cat.  We played games we hadn't played in ages - something called Rummicub, sort of like Gin Rummy, but not exactly.  We ate away at the leftovers from a very large meal that had been intended to serve way more people than were actually in the house at the time of the storm.  Several were stranded just 10 miles away.  It might have been 1,000 with the road conditions.  It snowed and blowed and iced and who knows whatall.  Every so often, someone got all bundled up to the gills and crunched out cautiously out on the slick ice-covered snow to the wood pile, and crunched even more cautiously back with a fresh supply of logs. 

We decided that we would have sucked as pioneers.

Now the weather dudes are using words like "hazzardous", "warnings" and one I don't really like the sound of: "impact".
What's the impact of this storm?  How will it impact us?  We don't want to hear how impacted you are, Weather Dude.  Just be quiet and let us try to remember when exactly it was that we had the chimney guy out. Last year?  Before that?  And whether or not we actually have any firewood. 

We went out earlier and got all the basic supplies.  Library books and videos and some food.  The usual "French Toast" business.  Bread, eggs, milk.  Do we have anything to put on the bread? Who knows?  We have two kinds of chocolate chips; that ought to be good for something. 

Eggs? Check.  Sugar? Check.  Sounds like it's time to make a batch of Meringues.  (Recipe does indeed follow.  Do you think I'd just let you drop?  You know better.  Just for that, you're going to be the one who has to crunch out in the snow and crud to chunk off some firewood from the big frozen pile.)


Meringues




2 egg whites
1/2 teasp vanilla
1/8 teasp cream of tartar
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 mini chocolate chip morsels (optional)


Lightly grease baking sheet and set aside. Mix egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar to soft peak stage. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time while beating until stiff peaks form. (Gently fold in mini morsels if using.) Drop mounds of batter 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.
Without the chocolate morsels, these cookes are about 24 calories each, 0 grams of fat and only 3 mg. of sodium. In spite of this, they are delicious. ;-)