Utilities

This week the team worked on putting in electricity and water. We are adding a light in the shower as well as a vent fan. Code doesn't require us to but we'd like to. There's so much to think about when placing outlets and switches.

The light and fan switch to our bedroom had to be moved since the wall was moving out into the bedroom 21 inches.

 Three switches: the light above the sinks, the fan, and the light in the shower.

 Wires running everywhere. You can see the boxes where the plugs will go above the sinks.

 The fan and the light are put in place.

Tom does such a nice job cleaning up after he's done working for the day.

We have selected tile and granite. More than likely going with this tile. Looks like marble but it's not.

 Need to decide between one of these two granite pieces.

 And we really like the blue mosaic as an accent in the shower.

Today I must go order the cabinet!

The remodel is coming along!

The demolition is mostly done. The studs are going up.

 The carpet is cut.

 The bathroom door jamb is out. 

 Here's the gutted room. 

Here are the boys hard at work!

 Did you catch the sweat? They're working hard!

 The bathroom wall is down! 

 You can see the closet door on the left.

 Here's the top part that had to be built. (You like the way I sling those technical terms around? Top part.)

I better go find some tile, quick! They're going to be done before you know it!

Remodel!

We finally bit the bullet! The bathroom has needed to be redone for a while now. Our builder's schedule had finally cleared up. It was time to begin. Here's the before picture:

 See the mold that was growing on the ceiling?

 And in the shower?

 A shot of the other side of the bathroom.

 The first blows of the hammer...

 To speed things up, you grab it and shake it like this...

 Once all the walls came down, this is what we found inside. No surprise. It was wet.

 This was the wood that was part of the step.Rotted out.

The demo took one day.

Crockpot: Asian flavored chicken

I came up with this easy yet TASTY recipe (again, no picture! sorry!) which we served over rice. Man was it good.

Place chicken pieces (I used legs) in a crockpot. Add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, 2 pressed garlic cloves, grate some fresh ginger (I keep it in the freezer which also makes grating really easy), mirin. Cook on low for 7 hours, stirring a few times throughout the cooking time so that the chicken on top gets into the liquid.

Chicken will fall off the bone. You can thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch/water mixture. I didn't but it would make a nice thicker sauce.

Chicken Legs in Wine Sauce

I needed an easy chicken recipe the other night so I was trolling through my favorite website, My Recipes when I found this recipe. The flavors were wrong for what I needed, so I decided to swap out some ingredients and come up with my own version. It came out great! (Sorry I don't have a picture...we dug in and there was nothing left!)

Chicken in Wine Sauce

Slice an onion and a pepper (I had a cubanelle but any green/red pepper would do or you could even leave it out as the original recipe does) and saute' in olive oil in a non-stick pan for 3 mins. Remove from pan. In the meantime, create the following spice mixture:

1 t onion powder
1 t garlic salt
1 t summer savory
1/2 t paprika

Sprinkle on chicken legs (or any other cut) and cook in pan, browning on all sides.

Add 1/2 cup red wine and 2 T red wine vinegar. Bring to a boil. Add 1 cup chicken broth (or water mixed with bouillon which is what I did). Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins. This makes a nice sauce which would be great over rice or mashed potatoes.

Peach Blackberry Cobbler

I'm still on a cooking spree with all the produce I bought at the farmer's market yesterday. Today I canned more banana peppers and 3 jars of petite diced tomatoes. I cooked up another batch of oven roasted cherry tomato pasta. But the best thing I made today was the cobbler. I'm not sure why it's called a cobbler because I think of it more as a crisp. A cobbler has a more dough-y topping whereas a crisp has a streusel and this is definitely a streusel. Whatever you wanna call it, it's so tasty!

Start by assembling the topping. The recipe says it needs to sit for 20 mins. I reduced the butter by 2 tablespoons to lighten it up a little. Letting it sit did allow for the dry stuff to get all wet.

Then add your cut peaches (I didn't bother peeling mine because the skin has fiber! But some people don't like the way the skin feels when they eat it.) to a pan with sugar, flour and nutmeg. The recipe said to cook for 6 minutes but I didn't let mine cook that long. It was pretty dry and I was afraid it would burn. I'm not even sure why this step is even in the recipe. In other crisps I've made you add those ingredients to the fruit and place it in the baking pan. I think I'll try it that way next time. It may need to bake a bit longer but that's ok with me! One less sticky pan to clean!

Spoon the fruit into a baking dish. The recipe called for a 9 inch square pan but I had increased the amount of peaches so I used a 9 by 13.

 Sprinkle the streusel topping over the fruit. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Alas, we were out of vanilla ice cream. It would have been PERFECT with that but I did have whipped cream and so I added a squirt of that. Hubby judged it the BEST cobbler I'd made in a while (it HAS been a while since I made ANY cobbler!) I had to concur. The kids are off doing charity work. We'll see what their opinion is when they get home. Below is my adaptation of the Southern Living recipe. If you try it, let me know what you think!


I still have some blackberries left. I think tomorrow I am going to try a blackberry, strawberry, cherry crisp. Stay tuned!

************

• STREUSEL
• 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 6 tblsp butter
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• FILLING
• 6 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (about 6 large)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups fresh blackberries

1. 1. Prepare Streusel: Stir together sugar and butter in a large bowl; place in microwave and heat, stirring every 15 seconds until butter is melted. Add salt, flour and almonds, and stir until blended. Let stand 20 minutes or until dry mixture is wet through.
2. 2. Meanwhile, prepare Filling: Preheat oven to 375°. Stir together peaches and next 3 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and boil, stirring occasionally, about 5 mins or less or until juices have thickened. Remove from heat, and spoon peaches into a lightly greased 9-by-13 inch glass baking dish.  Top with blackberries then sprinkle streusel topping over hot peach mixture.
3. 3. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.
4. 
   

Melanzane al funghetto

Yesterday I told you about my trip to the farmer's market and all the produce I bought. With the tomatoes I made this dish also using eggplant from my garden.

This is what I picked from my garden after being gone for a week. The tomatoes are wonderful but the plants are all dead. Too much rain!

Anyways...what do you like to make with eggplant? Most people know about eggplant parmigiana. I never make that. It has melted cheese and I don't like melted cheese. But I *LOVE* this dish! It's pretty easy but not super good for you because the eggplant is fried. In oil.

Then drained on paper towels. When it's all done frying, remove most of the oil, leaving just a little bit in the bottom. Add a clove of garlic to the oil (I like to press mine in a garlic press but you can leave it whole and then remove it once it's lightly browned.)

Then add chopped fresh tomatoes. Canned will work in a pinch, but fresh is always best. Oops. The steam off the tomatoes messed up the picture. You get the idea...

Let the tomatoes cook about 10 mins, then add the eggplant back in and mix it all together gently. Add salt to taste and some fresh basil leaves. All done! Buon appetito!