Exciting Dinners

We have a joke between us.  “I’m cooking tonight; shall I disconnect the smoke alarm?” I will ask.  The smoke alarm in question is five feet from the kitchen, and sometimes it begins its insistent beep at the slightest provocation, like a few weeks ago while Martha doing nothing more than getting a good sear on some sautéed scallops.  Opening the front door and the balcony door will make it stop quickly enough, that cool north wind flooding in.  It adds some excitement to cooking dinner.  I took a turn at cooking one day last month and actually made it go off twice – a two-alarm dinner!

Tuesday night, it was Martha’s turn, and she prepared panko-and-parmesan encrusted flounder, roasted carrots, and couscous (delicious!).  The smoke alarm did not go off, but when it was almost time to plate.  I went out on the balcony and heard some sirens somewhere in the distance.  We sat down to dinner, but we heard the sounds of loud engines out front, so I went out to investigate  There were two fire trucks parked just outside, lights flashing.  Our concerns were dispelled when I leaned over the railing and asked one of the firemen if everything was OK.  “An alarm went off and we’re just checking it,” he said.  That was even more exciting than a two-alarm dinner!  

A peculiar and unsettling incident occurred yesterday.  Just as we were preparing to leave for an afternoon hike at Fort Macon - emerging from our burrow, as it were - Martha noticed a helicopter out over the ocean.  “Look,” she said, “It’s just hovering in the same place!”  While we watched through our binoculars, a figure descended on a line from the helicopter toward the surface.  There was a small fishing boat a hundred feet away.  Had somebody fallen overboard in a life jacket?  The figure ascended, then descended again.  Perhaps it was just a drill, a training exercise for the Coast Guard for rescues at sea, and we hope so.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and that ocean looked cold enough for hypothermia to set in quickly.  I took a photo of the distant helicopter but it was not a good one.  Sometimes I wish my little iPhone was equipped with a telephoto lens.

We had a good hike, taking the salt marsh portion of the Elliott Coues Nature Trail where we were sheltered from the wind.  On our return to the fort, we found that the J. S. Chatry was out in the inlet, just opposite the parking lot.  Tugboats were nudging it into place, and there were long floating pipelines connecting to the beach. 

It still amazes me that silt can be pumped such a distance.  The project at our end is now clearly visible from the balcony – in a day or two they will be past the condo, heading toward The Circle, a mile-and-a-half away.  I measured the distance from where we saw the dredge to the condo using Google Maps, and the distance is at least two-and-a-half miles.

I offered to cook again tonight, a new recipe.  It will involve nothing smokier than sautéing some onions and garlic.  Still, I am wondering . . . should I turn off the smoke alarm?

P. S.  I should have turned off the smoke alarm.  Although my white bean, tomato, and shrimp soup was well-received, I set off the smoke alarm three times. A new record!