Well, it didn't suck, but it also was, um, different from what I said below.
The carrots are very good, but are one-of-a-kind, because of the shit I dumped in there, including some leftover caramelized onions and garlic from last week, a couple of tablespoons of cherry compote that has been hanging around (basically, just cherries cooked down), the remnants of the dried currants that have been in my cupboard for, oh, 5 years?, and some spices--cinnamon and cumin, I think, and some raspberry honey mustard. Instead of the orange juice in the recipe, I chopped up a couple of the meyer lemons and threw the whole things in there. I added a couple of tablespoons of orange juice, and something sweet; maybe some ginger syrup? Maybe some crystalized ginger? A splooge of honey? Whatever, it's very strong-tasting, but quite good.
When I went to do the eggplant, I realized I have no soy sauce. How the fuck can I have no soy sauce? Anyway, I took the remnants of some apricot ginger chutney (again, probably 5 years old, but chutney isn't going to go bad), some olive oil, some lime juice, and some of the garlic scape pesto that's been sitting in the fridge making everything smell like garlic and smeared it all over the chopped/cubed eggplant. I baked it for awhile until it was tender, then tossed it with low-fat coconut milk, lime juice, and parsley (supposed to be cilantro, but didn't have any of that either), plus some more crystalized ginger, I think; not a lot.
I had thought I was going to make a tart with the onions and kale, but instead I just caramelized a buttload of thinly sliced onions and eventually threw in the chopped kale. Finally, I chopped up some more onions pretty fine and sweated them awhile. (I typically use a mix of olive oil and butter.) I added more garlic scapes, and then the kohlrabi. I think I ended up adding a little water to that, too, so the kohlrabi would get tender. Finally, I added some shredded wild turkey meat from the freezer.
BT and I caught up for awhile and drank iced tea with lime slices. When we got hungry, I had her grate some gruyere and made some crepes and we filled them with combinations of the stuff listed above. None of it sucked.
I did not get to do anything with the shredded zucchini, of which I have a huge bowl, mixed with some grated onions and some pesto. I think I'll just make some zucchini pancakes, possibly, or . . . or I don't know what. That might be the best thing to do with it, that or a pasta salad of some kind.
In addition to it all tasting quite good, I have lunches and leftovers for DAYS, and I managed to use up a bunch of stuff that was sitting around--scraps of this, bits of that. I made the rest of the crepes and just stacked them between parchment paper and stuck them in the fridge. I suppose I could freeze them, but I think they'll make good wrap material for the aforementioned lunches this week. I say that I managed to use up a bunch of stuff, and that's true, but I ended up putting transformed versions of everything back in the fridge, so it's not as though there's any more space in the fridge, really. And? more veggies coming tomorrow.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
VegStravaganza!
The time has come, once again, to deal with the Refrigerator Full of Vegetables. I don't want it to sound as though it's a chore; I've been enjoying the exercise, this year even more than last year, because the variety this year is way better, and the quality of the food is really extraordinary. It's probably a teensy bit too much for one person, but I feed Friend often enough that I'm glad I got this size share, plus I'm getting nearly all of my meals from it, especially when I throw in a little bread. It also means that I really haven't needed to go to the market much at all; for fruit, maybe, and cheese, because I cannot stop myself (I bet I have eight varieties in the fridge at the moment).
Anyway, in order to use the current wad of vegetation, I'm going to make a batch of whole wheat crepes; the batter is resting in the fridge right now. For filings, I'm going to make broiled (or possibly baked) eggplant, Thai style (from a Moosewood cookbook, and Thai-style means it has ginger and coconut milk); Moroccan carrots (ginger, garam masala, I forget what else); a gratin with onions, cheese, and kale; and something with summer squash, either throwing that in the gratin, too, or making some summer squash pancakes. I also need to do something with the kohlrabi, so I think I'm going to do something with ginger and garlic, as one might with broccoli.
That will leave some Meyer lemons (which aren't from the farm share, and which I should just confit or something), way more dill than I could possibly use, and a couple of small cabbages, which will keep well enough. I'm supposed to be getting potatos this week, and a potato/cabbage/venison ring bologna mix will go nicely. I figure cheese of various sorts can go in or on the veggies, and all of it will be fine for leftovers with leftover crepes or whatever, especially with the tomatos that are also supposed to show up this week. There are surprisingly few recipes for kohlrabi--none, actually--in my cookbooks, many of which are vegetable-friendly cookbooks (mostly from Moosewood). But I figure it's just another brassica, so I'll pretend it's broccoli and call it a day. I'm not adding meat to any of today's dishes, but you could throw some in with just about any of it, I suppose. Actually, there's some wild turkey I should use, which I can add to something; the carrots, maybe.
And? Brazen Tart is coming to visit this afternoon, so I can feed some vegetables to her, too. She eats all kinds of stuff, so she's a good guest for extravaganzas like this one.
I was reading a post by Amanda Marcotte a few weeks ago (I'm too lazy to track down the citation), and the issue was whether "mixed" couples could work out--mixed as in vegetarian and meat-eating, or vegan and either of those, or, I suppose, even gluten-free and gluten-loving. The commenters seemed to agree that, so long as everyone was truly respectful of the other person's choices, it could probably work out okay. The two that would be most difficult for me would be gluten-free--because I bake so much, and flour does get everywhere, which would make it dificult to make the kitchen a safe place for someone who is really sensitive--and, to some extent, vegan, because of my love for butter and cheese and eggs and honey. I do like meat and fish, though I tend to eat it in small quantities, and much of it was killed by someone I know; I try to avoid commercially raised meat, unless it's small-farm produced, etc. Which, yes, a million dollars a pound, but I'm willing to, and privileged to be able to, pay that price.
I was discussing this with K, who doesn't eat a whole lot of red meat, and we decided that the most difficult restriction would be someone who is picky and not adventurous. There are things I don't want to try--like bugs, for example, or dog or cat--and a few things I really cannot tolerate; I accept my reaction to those things, because I have decided that it's basically my body telling me something important and I am otherwise an omnivore. (The list: bell peppers; cucumbers; iceberg lettuce; and cantaloupe. I also cannot stand mint "flavor," though fresh mint is okay. I can sometimes eat small amounts of the first two, but I avoid them all in my cooking.)
I can do anything for a few meals, and am more than happy to respect people's needs and preferences when they are my guests, and I have even enjoyed the challenge of meeting people's needs. But to have most or all meals with someone whose preferences or needs are very different from mine would be much more difficult. Mostly this is because I am old and cranky, and because I am such a taste/sensation junkie, and I want to eat everything. I also know, from experience, that I have an especially hard time with people who are just uninterested in food; I dated someone who would just as happily eat canned ravioli (unheated, from the can) as delicious homemade ravioli, and, even 30 years ago, that just seemed bizarre to me.
Anyway. There won't be any food at all if I don't get started on this stuff, so it's time to do that.
Anyway, in order to use the current wad of vegetation, I'm going to make a batch of whole wheat crepes; the batter is resting in the fridge right now. For filings, I'm going to make broiled (or possibly baked) eggplant, Thai style (from a Moosewood cookbook, and Thai-style means it has ginger and coconut milk); Moroccan carrots (ginger, garam masala, I forget what else); a gratin with onions, cheese, and kale; and something with summer squash, either throwing that in the gratin, too, or making some summer squash pancakes. I also need to do something with the kohlrabi, so I think I'm going to do something with ginger and garlic, as one might with broccoli.
That will leave some Meyer lemons (which aren't from the farm share, and which I should just confit or something), way more dill than I could possibly use, and a couple of small cabbages, which will keep well enough. I'm supposed to be getting potatos this week, and a potato/cabbage/venison ring bologna mix will go nicely. I figure cheese of various sorts can go in or on the veggies, and all of it will be fine for leftovers with leftover crepes or whatever, especially with the tomatos that are also supposed to show up this week. There are surprisingly few recipes for kohlrabi--none, actually--in my cookbooks, many of which are vegetable-friendly cookbooks (mostly from Moosewood). But I figure it's just another brassica, so I'll pretend it's broccoli and call it a day. I'm not adding meat to any of today's dishes, but you could throw some in with just about any of it, I suppose. Actually, there's some wild turkey I should use, which I can add to something; the carrots, maybe.
And? Brazen Tart is coming to visit this afternoon, so I can feed some vegetables to her, too. She eats all kinds of stuff, so she's a good guest for extravaganzas like this one.
I was reading a post by Amanda Marcotte a few weeks ago (I'm too lazy to track down the citation), and the issue was whether "mixed" couples could work out--mixed as in vegetarian and meat-eating, or vegan and either of those, or, I suppose, even gluten-free and gluten-loving. The commenters seemed to agree that, so long as everyone was truly respectful of the other person's choices, it could probably work out okay. The two that would be most difficult for me would be gluten-free--because I bake so much, and flour does get everywhere, which would make it dificult to make the kitchen a safe place for someone who is really sensitive--and, to some extent, vegan, because of my love for butter and cheese and eggs and honey. I do like meat and fish, though I tend to eat it in small quantities, and much of it was killed by someone I know; I try to avoid commercially raised meat, unless it's small-farm produced, etc. Which, yes, a million dollars a pound, but I'm willing to, and privileged to be able to, pay that price.
I was discussing this with K, who doesn't eat a whole lot of red meat, and we decided that the most difficult restriction would be someone who is picky and not adventurous. There are things I don't want to try--like bugs, for example, or dog or cat--and a few things I really cannot tolerate; I accept my reaction to those things, because I have decided that it's basically my body telling me something important and I am otherwise an omnivore. (The list: bell peppers; cucumbers; iceberg lettuce; and cantaloupe. I also cannot stand mint "flavor," though fresh mint is okay. I can sometimes eat small amounts of the first two, but I avoid them all in my cooking.)
I can do anything for a few meals, and am more than happy to respect people's needs and preferences when they are my guests, and I have even enjoyed the challenge of meeting people's needs. But to have most or all meals with someone whose preferences or needs are very different from mine would be much more difficult. Mostly this is because I am old and cranky, and because I am such a taste/sensation junkie, and I want to eat everything. I also know, from experience, that I have an especially hard time with people who are just uninterested in food; I dated someone who would just as happily eat canned ravioli (unheated, from the can) as delicious homemade ravioli, and, even 30 years ago, that just seemed bizarre to me.
Anyway. There won't be any food at all if I don't get started on this stuff, so it's time to do that.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Into the Wet
At what point does principled objection become mere intransigence? Interesting question, no? And, let me hasten to add, I'm the one who has the objection, and, indeed, it's principled. It would do little harm to break the particular rule for This One Time. But it's a rule that has been broken in the past, and I have spent most of my time at the organization cleaning up various messes that resulted from such breakage, so I am disinclined to do so. More to the point, I am disinclined to break it, or allow it to be broken, precisely because of the attitude of the people who want to break it. They want to break it for the sake of expedience--and not expedience that will actually result in more services being provided. In addition, they do not seem to regard the principle as an important one, and they seem to regard expedience as more important, and that is making me dig in my heels more than I otherwise might do so. Finally, they do not fully understand some of the pieces about which they are being insistent, and I do not like when people are trying to make big decisions when they do not have full information.
All that aside, I had to act like a Senior Management-Type Person on Friday. A string of circumstances led to the ceiling falling in, in several places, because of leakage from storms. Given that I was the only Senior Management-Type Person in the vicinity, I closed the place down. There was some immediate fallout from that--I sent people home, with pay--but, as the full extent of the damages became clear, the fallout has lessened. And then, last night, at my house, in addition to having to try to sleep through lightning outside the buiilding, and in addition to running around closing windows, the electricity went out. Which, normally, who cares; roll over and sleep.
Except, now that I'm a Property Owner (or, at least, I share ownership with a bank), I have an Alarm System. Which beeps, when the power goes out., every 20 minutes or so. (The first time this happened, I looked at the display, which says, among other things, "No AC," and thought, because it was the middle of the night, "But I don't HAVE air conditioning!" Eventually I realized this was "alternating current," not "air conditioning.") I could not, for the life of me, get it to stop beeping. Finally, at 2:45 am, I dug up a phone number and called the company. No, I do not, in fact, remember my "code word," but, for the love of FSM, tell me how to stop the beeping. (The unspoken threat, in my head, went something like, "Or I will take a fucking HAMMER to the thing.") I got it to stop, I think, and then the power came back, but not much sleep was left in the night, and then today I had to put together the report that I would have put together yesterday if the sky had not fallen on everyone's heads.
Yes, I AM tired; why do you ask?
But it is what it is. There are interesting challenges, which I would relate if i didn't want sleep so badly, and I could rhapsodize about the steamy weather, if I didn't want to collapse on the bed, and so on, so it'll all have to wait.
All that aside, I had to act like a Senior Management-Type Person on Friday. A string of circumstances led to the ceiling falling in, in several places, because of leakage from storms. Given that I was the only Senior Management-Type Person in the vicinity, I closed the place down. There was some immediate fallout from that--I sent people home, with pay--but, as the full extent of the damages became clear, the fallout has lessened. And then, last night, at my house, in addition to having to try to sleep through lightning outside the buiilding, and in addition to running around closing windows, the electricity went out. Which, normally, who cares; roll over and sleep.
Except, now that I'm a Property Owner (or, at least, I share ownership with a bank), I have an Alarm System. Which beeps, when the power goes out., every 20 minutes or so. (The first time this happened, I looked at the display, which says, among other things, "No AC," and thought, because it was the middle of the night, "But I don't HAVE air conditioning!" Eventually I realized this was "alternating current," not "air conditioning.") I could not, for the life of me, get it to stop beeping. Finally, at 2:45 am, I dug up a phone number and called the company. No, I do not, in fact, remember my "code word," but, for the love of FSM, tell me how to stop the beeping. (The unspoken threat, in my head, went something like, "Or I will take a fucking HAMMER to the thing.") I got it to stop, I think, and then the power came back, but not much sleep was left in the night, and then today I had to put together the report that I would have put together yesterday if the sky had not fallen on everyone's heads.
Yes, I AM tired; why do you ask?
But it is what it is. There are interesting challenges, which I would relate if i didn't want sleep so badly, and I could rhapsodize about the steamy weather, if I didn't want to collapse on the bed, and so on, so it'll all have to wait.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Baked
I have, in fact, taken pictures of the sunroom paintstripping project, but I'm too lazy to get up and find the fiddly bits needed to download the pics to the computer. Meanwhile, here are some pics of the furniture in its natural habitat (i.e., Richard's shop); the movers picked it up yesterday and I should get it by the end of the week.
This paintstripping project is a bear. I have a tendency to do this: start something, or get it in my head to do something, while not considering just how much work it's going to be. Or, really, I do know that it's going to be a lot of work, I just try to ignore this inconvenient fact and proceed with it. In this case, that's probably the best tactic anyway, as I really did want to strip the paint off the brick, and there's no way that's ever going to be anything but a pain-in-the-ass job. It's not something to job out, even, because there are no special skills or equipment needed, just lots of time and a paint scraper and a wire brush, and I have those. With the dining room panels, for example, I don't have any of the tools to do that job; same with the windowsill. Mike has an orbital sander, so it took him maybe ten minutes to sand it, and he did a better job of it than I could have done by hand. The paintstripping is just plugging away at it, trying not to get paint goo all over everything. There are a few things I should have planned out a bit better, but overall, it's just a lot of elbow grease. I will probably try to take some more days off so it doesn't drag on forever.
Yesterday I managed to get at least one layer of goop off of all of the bricks I could reach. I only have a little left in the current bottle, number one, and, second, I didn't want to commit to doing any tonight when I get home. So I cleaned up a bit, and formulated a Plan for the next phase or two. I'm really not comitting to doing anything this week, unless I take off a couple of days. Even then, it's so hot, and going to be hotter, and that room faces south, and the trees outside were cut down (because they were dead inside and about to fall, apparently). Today I'll get the materials I need for the next phases and be happy with that. I also found an old white cloth shower curtain left by the previous owners, and I'm going to see if I can hang that somehow in the window in the sunroom.
The other thing I did yesterday, because I am apparently moderately insane, was bake some bread. Yes, I know that it was nuts, particularly because I made double-barley pretzel rolls, which means the rolls had to be boiled before they were baked. And then I cooked dinner. So, yes, insane. But I'm managing to stay ahead of the produce in the fridge, just barely. There are a few things to which I'm not getting, but they'll all keep (cabbage, carrots, squash, onions, kohlrabi), and I think tonight's delivery is similarly keepable.
Okay, time to see if I can stay awake for work . . .
This paintstripping project is a bear. I have a tendency to do this: start something, or get it in my head to do something, while not considering just how much work it's going to be. Or, really, I do know that it's going to be a lot of work, I just try to ignore this inconvenient fact and proceed with it. In this case, that's probably the best tactic anyway, as I really did want to strip the paint off the brick, and there's no way that's ever going to be anything but a pain-in-the-ass job. It's not something to job out, even, because there are no special skills or equipment needed, just lots of time and a paint scraper and a wire brush, and I have those. With the dining room panels, for example, I don't have any of the tools to do that job; same with the windowsill. Mike has an orbital sander, so it took him maybe ten minutes to sand it, and he did a better job of it than I could have done by hand. The paintstripping is just plugging away at it, trying not to get paint goo all over everything. There are a few things I should have planned out a bit better, but overall, it's just a lot of elbow grease. I will probably try to take some more days off so it doesn't drag on forever.
Yesterday I managed to get at least one layer of goop off of all of the bricks I could reach. I only have a little left in the current bottle, number one, and, second, I didn't want to commit to doing any tonight when I get home. So I cleaned up a bit, and formulated a Plan for the next phase or two. I'm really not comitting to doing anything this week, unless I take off a couple of days. Even then, it's so hot, and going to be hotter, and that room faces south, and the trees outside were cut down (because they were dead inside and about to fall, apparently). Today I'll get the materials I need for the next phases and be happy with that. I also found an old white cloth shower curtain left by the previous owners, and I'm going to see if I can hang that somehow in the window in the sunroom.
The other thing I did yesterday, because I am apparently moderately insane, was bake some bread. Yes, I know that it was nuts, particularly because I made double-barley pretzel rolls, which means the rolls had to be boiled before they were baked. And then I cooked dinner. So, yes, insane. But I'm managing to stay ahead of the produce in the fridge, just barely. There are a few things to which I'm not getting, but they'll all keep (cabbage, carrots, squash, onions, kohlrabi), and I think tonight's delivery is similarly keepable.
Okay, time to see if I can stay awake for work . . .
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Brick, Paint, Wood
It turns out that watching paint melt is only marginally more exciting than watching it dry. And watching it melt ultimately means more work, because it doesn't just fall off the brick, it needs to be scraped. It also requires patience, because you really do have to let it sit for several hours, particularly because there are approximately 437 layers of paint on the brick.
It goes slowly, but it could be a lot worse. I found a soy-based paint stripper (SoyGel by Franmar, in case you're interested), and it works pretty well and, while it's not odor-free, it's not completely awful, either, and it's certainly not the nasty batch of chemicals that's common with paint stripper. It's going to take at least three, and possibly four applications (I ordered my second 2.5-gallon jug yesterday; guess I could have gone for the 5-gallon bucket after all), and the last bit is going to be annoyingly painstaking, but I will prefer it to the grey-green-beige paint that's there now. Or, actually, the grey-green-beige, over whte, red, green, and maybe some others as well.
I was hoping to finish before the new furniture gets here, but I think that won't happen unless I manage to get some done during the week. (Yes! The sunroom chairs, table, and ottoman, and the additional chair and ottoman, are done! I've seen pictures, and they look beautiful.) There are about 8 rows of brick that haven't had any application of goop yet, because I need a ladder (Friend is bringing one today, I think).
The other thing that's being completed is my dining room, where some of the panels had warped and kinda sprung (apparently from a leak behind the panels, as it backs on to the bathroom). The guy who's doing the work is a little vague, and a little slowish, but he seems to be doing a very good job of it. He also sanded and refinished the windowsill in the dining room while he was at it. It would have been nice if he could have done the sill in the living room, too, but I need at least one or two rooms where there's no work being done, no walls torn out, and no paint or solvent or varnish exuding fumes. The cat is a little stressed, but seems to be dealing with it pretty well. I've been here with her most of the time, which helps, but she still wants to go crawling around in the open wall. I don't think there's anything she could damage, including herself, but I dont' want to take the chance, so I've mostly kept the door between the dining room and the hallway closed. He just showed up, so he'll be able to finish today, which is great. I'll be able to clean the room before moving the furniture back into it, which will keep me from attacking the paint scraping before the remover has the opportunity to work.
Even though everything's torn up at the moment and there's dust or fumes or a plastic dropcloth or some combination in what feels like every space, I'm glad to be doing something, finally. I'm also glad I waited: Living here for awhile made me realize that what I really wanted to do was get the sunroom outfitted (though stripping the paint wasn't always part of the plan), and, if I found someone, to get the dining room fixed. Everything else can wait a bit, let me save up money and figure out exactly what I want.
But I love the sunroom; I spend a lot of time there, especially in the summer, but the chairs available are just uncomfortable, so doing something about that really became a priority. I wanted to fix the dining room wall--I've had a chair in front of it for a year, to keep people from snagging on the bits that bulged out--but didn't know anyone who could do the work. It'll be nice to be able to turn it into a real room again. Financially, that's as much as I really want to attempt this year, not least because I'm just not sure what else I want.
The one exception might be a rug or two, if I find something I like. The one I got from a Groupon is okay--it's sisal, so it's not exactly comfy--and it fits in either the dining room or the living room, but I still need one for whichever place doesn't house the sisal. I know I could spend a billion dollars, but a couple hundred is more my speed at the moment; I just don't have anything in mind, but want to protect the floors.
I think the next project will probably be the back bedroom, which might require a somewhat bigger investment, as it will need a floor and a built-in where the closet now is. That space was originally how the ice was delivered, and it has a window, so I want to take the closet doors off and turn it into a space where a desk or cabinets or something are built into it. That project will require a somewhat larger budget, I suspect, so I'm going to hold off for a bit. And I might want to do some stuff with the bathroom while I'm at it, so it's worth thinking about.
Anyway: I'm very excited, despite the pile of work that remains to be done in the sunroom and the large checks I've been writing.
It goes slowly, but it could be a lot worse. I found a soy-based paint stripper (SoyGel by Franmar, in case you're interested), and it works pretty well and, while it's not odor-free, it's not completely awful, either, and it's certainly not the nasty batch of chemicals that's common with paint stripper. It's going to take at least three, and possibly four applications (I ordered my second 2.5-gallon jug yesterday; guess I could have gone for the 5-gallon bucket after all), and the last bit is going to be annoyingly painstaking, but I will prefer it to the grey-green-beige paint that's there now. Or, actually, the grey-green-beige, over whte, red, green, and maybe some others as well.
I was hoping to finish before the new furniture gets here, but I think that won't happen unless I manage to get some done during the week. (Yes! The sunroom chairs, table, and ottoman, and the additional chair and ottoman, are done! I've seen pictures, and they look beautiful.) There are about 8 rows of brick that haven't had any application of goop yet, because I need a ladder (Friend is bringing one today, I think).
The other thing that's being completed is my dining room, where some of the panels had warped and kinda sprung (apparently from a leak behind the panels, as it backs on to the bathroom). The guy who's doing the work is a little vague, and a little slowish, but he seems to be doing a very good job of it. He also sanded and refinished the windowsill in the dining room while he was at it. It would have been nice if he could have done the sill in the living room, too, but I need at least one or two rooms where there's no work being done, no walls torn out, and no paint or solvent or varnish exuding fumes. The cat is a little stressed, but seems to be dealing with it pretty well. I've been here with her most of the time, which helps, but she still wants to go crawling around in the open wall. I don't think there's anything she could damage, including herself, but I dont' want to take the chance, so I've mostly kept the door between the dining room and the hallway closed. He just showed up, so he'll be able to finish today, which is great. I'll be able to clean the room before moving the furniture back into it, which will keep me from attacking the paint scraping before the remover has the opportunity to work.
Even though everything's torn up at the moment and there's dust or fumes or a plastic dropcloth or some combination in what feels like every space, I'm glad to be doing something, finally. I'm also glad I waited: Living here for awhile made me realize that what I really wanted to do was get the sunroom outfitted (though stripping the paint wasn't always part of the plan), and, if I found someone, to get the dining room fixed. Everything else can wait a bit, let me save up money and figure out exactly what I want.
But I love the sunroom; I spend a lot of time there, especially in the summer, but the chairs available are just uncomfortable, so doing something about that really became a priority. I wanted to fix the dining room wall--I've had a chair in front of it for a year, to keep people from snagging on the bits that bulged out--but didn't know anyone who could do the work. It'll be nice to be able to turn it into a real room again. Financially, that's as much as I really want to attempt this year, not least because I'm just not sure what else I want.
The one exception might be a rug or two, if I find something I like. The one I got from a Groupon is okay--it's sisal, so it's not exactly comfy--and it fits in either the dining room or the living room, but I still need one for whichever place doesn't house the sisal. I know I could spend a billion dollars, but a couple hundred is more my speed at the moment; I just don't have anything in mind, but want to protect the floors.
I think the next project will probably be the back bedroom, which might require a somewhat bigger investment, as it will need a floor and a built-in where the closet now is. That space was originally how the ice was delivered, and it has a window, so I want to take the closet doors off and turn it into a space where a desk or cabinets or something are built into it. That project will require a somewhat larger budget, I suspect, so I'm going to hold off for a bit. And I might want to do some stuff with the bathroom while I'm at it, so it's worth thinking about.
Anyway: I'm very excited, despite the pile of work that remains to be done in the sunroom and the large checks I've been writing.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Clean, Chop, Steam, Repeat
After three weeks of extreme stress (which, seriously, just keeps getting worse, though the immediate deadline got met), I've spent the weekend trying to catch up. All those chores that went undone--and all that produce that was crammed into my refrigerator--needed attention. Five loads of laundry (including a load of towels that got soaked Thursday by massive leaks through my sunroom wall under the window). Mopping up another cat's worth of hair. Defrosting the little freezer, since I had to wash the towels anyway.
But mostly food: shell the peas (caramelized some onions, added some garlic, then cooked the peas in there with chicken broth, then pureed it; I'm going to serve it cold, I think, with a little mascarpone in it); clean and steam the broccoli; clean all the lettuce and the mesclun mix (the quality of the produce is such that this lettuce, washed, dried, torn, and bagged, will last all week); slice carrots, scallions, and radishes; candy some lemon peel (and then use the juice with vodka and club soda for a lovely summer drink imbibed on the back porch); bake some muffins to use up the bananas in the freezer, and add some barley flakes which had been soaked in the banana liquid to soften them, plus dried cranberries and frozen blueberries; bake some barley rolls and some fruit tarts; make berry compote with the bag of frozen fruit discovered in the freezer, and use it on french toast as well as in the blueberry tarts; pit a buttload of cherries for the cherry tarts, and make a cherry compote to intensify the flavor of those tarts; decide the crust was kinda eh; make salad dressing; and, finally, last night, caramelize some onions, add garlic, add some cut-up venison ring baloney, and throw in all of the chopped-up kale, and serve over barley--which was also a "last-of" thing from the cupboard. Oh--and clean a bunch of strawberries, and serve those over the lemon cakes from the freezer, and over the french toast on top of the berry compote.
My feet hurt, and the fridge is still full, but mostly of food that has been transformed from its raw state. The only things I didn't get to were bok choy, turnips, and some beets. I might roast the beets today, if I get ambitious, seeing as how it mostly involves putting the beets in the oven for awhile. And I now have a fridge full of lunches. I'm getting more produce tonight, so I'll ship some of the stuff off with Friend. I could maybe have gotten the "micro" share instead of the small share (there's also a large share, for 4-5 people), but I have wasted surprisingly little of this. I do share it with Friend, to some extent, but I could probably eat it all myself if I had to. And the quality has been quite good; my only quibble is with the extent of the bok choy and turnips and radishes; I really don't need that many of those items. I like them okay, but I don't love them, and they're pretty tiresome to eat day after day after day. Some of the other things also freeze better--I had a bunch of various greens at one point that I knew I wouldn't get to right away, so I blanched and froze them; I can always throw them into a stew somewhere along the line.
Basically, a vast number of my meals have come from the share. I add onions and garlic to various things (onions, garlic, bok choy, and turnips, for example), I do the baking and make the salad dressing, I add the grains for various dishes, Friend adds a little meat (venison or wild turkey, mostly), and it's a meal (or, more likely, several meals), so, all in all, it's been a pretty good deal. Plus, because they deliver, I'm not hauling all this stuff on buses and trains; hard to beat that. For that matter, King Arthur "delivers," too; I've been getting stuff by mail order from them, so I have an unbelievable variety of grains and flours in my possession at the moment, which means, when I've been home on a weekend rather than at work, I have been able to experiment with various recipes. I like being able to grab a roll or two from the freezer to take to work to eat with the salad or stir fry.
Speaking of which, despite my original intention to do a lot of nothing today and give my feet a rest, I think I might make some ginger rolls after all . . .
But mostly food: shell the peas (caramelized some onions, added some garlic, then cooked the peas in there with chicken broth, then pureed it; I'm going to serve it cold, I think, with a little mascarpone in it); clean and steam the broccoli; clean all the lettuce and the mesclun mix (the quality of the produce is such that this lettuce, washed, dried, torn, and bagged, will last all week); slice carrots, scallions, and radishes; candy some lemon peel (and then use the juice with vodka and club soda for a lovely summer drink imbibed on the back porch); bake some muffins to use up the bananas in the freezer, and add some barley flakes which had been soaked in the banana liquid to soften them, plus dried cranberries and frozen blueberries; bake some barley rolls and some fruit tarts; make berry compote with the bag of frozen fruit discovered in the freezer, and use it on french toast as well as in the blueberry tarts; pit a buttload of cherries for the cherry tarts, and make a cherry compote to intensify the flavor of those tarts; decide the crust was kinda eh; make salad dressing; and, finally, last night, caramelize some onions, add garlic, add some cut-up venison ring baloney, and throw in all of the chopped-up kale, and serve over barley--which was also a "last-of" thing from the cupboard. Oh--and clean a bunch of strawberries, and serve those over the lemon cakes from the freezer, and over the french toast on top of the berry compote.
My feet hurt, and the fridge is still full, but mostly of food that has been transformed from its raw state. The only things I didn't get to were bok choy, turnips, and some beets. I might roast the beets today, if I get ambitious, seeing as how it mostly involves putting the beets in the oven for awhile. And I now have a fridge full of lunches. I'm getting more produce tonight, so I'll ship some of the stuff off with Friend. I could maybe have gotten the "micro" share instead of the small share (there's also a large share, for 4-5 people), but I have wasted surprisingly little of this. I do share it with Friend, to some extent, but I could probably eat it all myself if I had to. And the quality has been quite good; my only quibble is with the extent of the bok choy and turnips and radishes; I really don't need that many of those items. I like them okay, but I don't love them, and they're pretty tiresome to eat day after day after day. Some of the other things also freeze better--I had a bunch of various greens at one point that I knew I wouldn't get to right away, so I blanched and froze them; I can always throw them into a stew somewhere along the line.
Basically, a vast number of my meals have come from the share. I add onions and garlic to various things (onions, garlic, bok choy, and turnips, for example), I do the baking and make the salad dressing, I add the grains for various dishes, Friend adds a little meat (venison or wild turkey, mostly), and it's a meal (or, more likely, several meals), so, all in all, it's been a pretty good deal. Plus, because they deliver, I'm not hauling all this stuff on buses and trains; hard to beat that. For that matter, King Arthur "delivers," too; I've been getting stuff by mail order from them, so I have an unbelievable variety of grains and flours in my possession at the moment, which means, when I've been home on a weekend rather than at work, I have been able to experiment with various recipes. I like being able to grab a roll or two from the freezer to take to work to eat with the salad or stir fry.
Speaking of which, despite my original intention to do a lot of nothing today and give my feet a rest, I think I might make some ginger rolls after all . . .
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