Friday, June 27, 2014

Kitchen Remodel Leads to Redecorating

Of a sort.

Since hubby is home now, I'm trying to use him as much as I can.  This afternoon's project involved unloading a bookshelf in the kitchen and relocating it.

The items in said bookcase have dedicated homes in the new kitchen, .i.e. wine rack and open shelves.

So bookcase had to be reloaded in new location.  Which meant moving another piece of furniture and shopping in my own home.

I feel certain that this will change (like when Mom comes) but for now, this is what I've done.

the peanuts really aren't part of the decor. and the rug doesn' belong in the dogs bed.

Kitchen Remodel--I have seen the cabinets

Sometimes life seems to go in slow motion, and other times it's moving at break-neck speed.

And there's the hurry up an wait times.

Right now this project has me feeling all those ways.

But, my project manager from Lowes and the lead guy on my project from the GC came this morning and opened all the boxes to make sure everything looked to be right.  And me, being me, hung around snapping pics.

Here they are:

Upper cabinet

Lower bank  of drawers

:Lower bank of drawers.  I have a third one that will house my cook top--that means the top drawer is fake/

Wine Rack!  This will actually be hung vertically with some open shelves next to it for my cookbooks.

I also saw my pantry cabinet.  I love, Love, LOVE it.  Floor to ceiling with roll our shelves. Just like Gramma used to have.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Date Night--Wednesday June 25

For the next several weeks, maybe months Date Nights are going to present several real challenges. The first challenge is that, my kitchen is soon to be gone.  I don't know for how long and it will come back to me in stages.  But it will be so worth it.  (Keep checking my blog...there will be a photo record of the craziness.)

Second, I've got to do them on the cheap.  That means no purchased flowers from the market to adorn my table.



That doesn't have to mean no flowers at all though.  Probably the neighbors and most definitely the landscapers would consider these weeds.  Well, friends, one girl's weeds are another girls flower arrangement!  Tada!

By the by, Josh loved the little yellow flowering weeds!  Amelia, he wants me to have a fresh bunch for your dinner with us on Sunday.

On to the rest of dinner.  There is a new show on the Food Network that I love.  It's called The Kitchen. Basically, it's a talk show with a whole lot of cooking happening at the same time.  Anyway, a few weeks ago, I guess it was around Father's Day, they did a show showcasing cheaper cuts of beef.  2 of the cuts (flank and skirt) I know and use regularly, the third one (hanger), I've eaten in restaurants but never cooked at home.

Can't say that anymore!  I made one last night and it was good.  Really good. I used this recipe for the marinade, but Josh thought it was so good I could treat it like a filet (I do love it when he talks cooking to me)--just salt and pepper.  The flavor was really good and it had beautiful marbling--that means fat.  Made for a very unctuous mouth feel. From a WW perspective not so great, but from a $ perspective it was at $6 a pound.

Now I can't just make meat.  Well, I could, but that's not really my deal.  So what goes with meat?  Potatoes.  I hadn't made mashed potatoes in a while, and I needed buttermilk for dessert so mashed it was.  They were a little tangier than usual as I didn't have sour cream, but did have plain greek yoghurt.  Snipped some chives from my jungle, and away we went.

Josh loves french cut green beans.  I found some frozen, so that finished up dinner.


(fuzzy picture doesn't get larger...I'm so embarrassed!)

Now for dessert. I've never made an upside down anything cake.  But Josh and I were watching Good Eats on the Cooking Channel and saw this recipe.  I actually had all the ingredients except for the buttermilk on hand! It was purely providential!

And it too was delicious.

 Before baking.


So that's why they call it an upside down cake!

Well, that concludes this weeks installment of "Date Night."  We may be taking a picnic to the Botanic Garden next week.  Those pics will be fun!

happy cooking

Kitchen Remodel--We Have Cabinets!

Now don't get overly excited.  They are far from installed.  In fact they are still in their boxes, all 1,433 lbs of them.  In my garage.




First time in 10 years we couldn't get both cars in the garage

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Freezer Cooking Day

It rained pretty much all day yesterday.  I knew it was going to and planned for it.  I cooked.  All day long.

I made 6 different recipes. 7 if you include my pasta sauce, which you should since not only did  I freeze some of it but, I used it in at leats two of the recipes.  Because most of the recipes were divided into 2 pans, my husband says I prepared 14 meals yesterday.




The picture of my freezer is just so you can see all the foil crammed in.  The tomato sauce and the chili are in zip-top bags. Please don't judge me by the other contents. The picture of the recipes is, well, it's what it is.  I also made a recipe from my iPad (Bruschetta Chicken).

The majority of the new foiled items is for the in-laws.  One of the perks of my new kitchen (see earlier post) is that this freezer will move to the gargage.  There it will pretty much only house foiled-covered make-ahead meals.  I do like to have one or two meals like this at the ready for easy meals after busy days.

So I'm still tired from my whirlwind day of cooking.  It's not so much the cooking that wears me out, it's the cleaning up after wards. It's all done, though and my kitchen look as good as it can.

That's all the news from me and my kitchen.

happy cooking


NEW Kitchen

Please don't take my quietude (not really a word, but it should be) to mean that I've stopped cooking.

It's really just the opposite.  I've just not taken the time to blog about what I've been making.  Let me tell you what's been happening over the last 3 months.  Too much, really, I'll just sum up.

I've been planning a kitchen remodel!  I mean a whole Kitchen remodel.  Kitchen with a capital K.  Floor to  ceiling, appliances to cabinets and counters, too.  It's overwhelming to say the least.

But I've had help.  Not exactly from the Love of My Life (loml) (he does help when I can give him choices) but from my parents who came out to help me with just this endeavor and my "team" at Lowes.  They've been great!

This is the basic idea.  Not the cabinet style, but the color. I describe the color as whiskey.  It's not red, it's not honey, nor is it chocolate or ebony. It's really just brown. But it's a warm, comforting brown.  Maybe it "feels" like whiskey more than it looks like it.



Now the floor I love.  That's one tile you see here.  They interlock kind of Leggos do.  The grout will match the "grout" in the tile.  Thank you Dave (my project manager at Lowes) for anticipating that desire. I love this floor.  I mean LOVE it.  Right now my floor is too small white tiles with what started as light grout, but by now looks like the "grout" in this tile.  This will be a dream to clean (or at least keep clean looking!).

My appliances are all stainless.  There will be minimal paint and much backsplash.

Since a picture is worth thousand words, I'll be posing pictures as the project moves forward.  Right now there's not much to see.  I've started to clean out my cabinets. Not really picture worthy.

On that topic, however, if you need any odd or super specialized cooking gadgets, let me know.  I don't have enough stuff to have a garage sale, but I do have some good things that I used once and then never again.  So they're all in great condition!

That's all I have right now on this topic.

Ooooh!  The cabinet hardware should be arriving first.  Soon actually.  Here's a pic.