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Another rolling blackout last night, lasting until 11AM.

As we still have gas and thus a working fireplace, I introduced myrialux to the concept of toasting forks when he was about to eat frozen waffles—he sometimes does normally—and he used our big BBQ fork to toast waffles in our fireplace. That felt very Victorian.

Sora is sacked out in my lap under a blanket, and D.Va is reposing in a cat bed we placed on the hearth—warm but well away from the fire—toasting her butt with her chin on the far side of the bed to keep an eye on the bird feeder where the juncoes insist in tormenting her by existing.

Quick recipe

Decide you’re bored with the options you’ve been grazing on, plus realize the necessity of fiber in one’s diet.

Note also that the power is currently on so that you don’t have to use an Aim-a-Flame to light the gas stove, nor have the other person in the house stand with a flashlight while you cook and prep.

Use the Supercook website to enter in ten or so ingredients that you have for inspiration. Choose a Martha Stewart black bean recipe that looks super-bland given that it calls for one teaspoon of chili powder for six servings. Also cut the recipe in half as you have one can of black beans and a limited capacity for leftovers at the moment.

https://www.marthastewart.com/314007/black-beans-with-lime

Green onions do not currently exist in your world, so chop half a Texas Sweet onion up small after realizing you don’t have to wash your hands in your precious ration of water to get rid of garlic and onion smells if you just wear plastic gloves to cook.

Pour some unmeasured amount of olive oil that looks good into the pan, set it to medium, and put the onions in with a generous pinch of kosher salt. While they cook, mince a garlic clove because why wouldn’t you put in a garlic clove, Martha? Why wouldn’t you? After the onions soften (or, more accurately, after you get bored), add the garlic. Also add two teaspoons of Bull Canyon chili powder, a 3 on a 1-10 heat scale but which has other interesting flavors to it as well.

You’re adding it now instead of when the recipe says because blooming the chili powder in oil does two things: allow the flavors to come out more, and also prevents the resulting dish from having grainy powder in it as you might get by adding it at the same time as water.

After 30 seconds or so tip in the can of black beans and their liquid. The original recipe calls for draining and rinsing them first, which rinses away extra salt if you didn’t get a no-salt version, but also rinses away a bit of fiber, if you’re into that. The recipe also calls for adding 1/4 cup water, but again there is limited water right now, so no point in wasting any. The liquid in the can will work just fine as the water.

Let it heat up. Taste it. Find it a bit bland. Shake in a small amount of cumin, which always goes with these things, in your experience. After a couple of minutes, decide it also needs tomatoes, so chop a handful of cherry tomatoes and throw them in. Simmer on low for 5 or so minutes to let all the flavors get to know each other, then cut off the heat and squeeze in half a lime. Debate adding a can of tuna but decide not to, given that the no-cook cannellini bean recipe you found for tomorrow will probably go better with it.

Serve in paper bowls with some of the metric fuckton of plastic cutlery you’ve accumulated by getting takeout multiple times per week during the pandemic, because fuck doing dishes. (We dampened paper towels and wiped the knife off, and the same with the nonstick skillet it was cooked in.)

Decide it was pretty good, after all. A bit thick in a slightly gummy way due to not adding water and using the bean liquid, but still totally fine. When next the outside world and grocery stores exist again, sprinkling it with green onions and/or cilantro at the end would probably add a lively freshness, and maybe a dollop of sour cream and/or a sprinkle of cheese would bring some more flavor and good gooeyness to the party.

Three and a half out of five overall, but five out of five for speed and the current conditions.