Projects in Progress: Bedroom Part II

The paint is done. The floors are waiting for some finish. Then we can move in!  I'm hoping by Christmas!!

Getting Organized

We have a couple of very deep shelves in our kitchen. They are great for storing all of our canned goods and baking supplies.  But they have not been very functional when trying to find ingredients.  I've found myself pulling everything out of the shelves several times to track down some spaghetti noodles or powdered sugar.

Enter sliding shelves!  Tony got them in the mail this week and installed them the night we got them. (Thank you honey!)

Turns out we have more than enough flour (five bags to be exact).  Guess I better start making some Christmas cookies and bread? :)

I'm too embarrassed to show you a picture of the shelves before they were cleaned out, but here is a picture of the empty shelves...

 ...and here is a picture of all the food that was on the shelves....

 ...and here is a picture of the finished product!

Holiday Gifts for Co-Workers

I exchange small gifts with several co-workers during the holidays. A lot of people give each other coffee gift cards but I like to do something more unique and personalized. Last year I gave office plants to everyone, but only a few of the plants made it. This year I'm giving away some of my homemade holiday cranberry-strawberry jam.

I've dressed up the jars with some festive fabric and ribbon and made homemade tags for each jar.  I like to use the previous years' Christmas cards to create my tags for Christmas gifts.  There are a lot of great images that can be cut out and glued on to cardstock to create gift tags.  The tags can be dressed up with anything you have in your craft box. I used glitter glue, some holiday stamps from cards we've already received this year, and scalloped edge scissors.

I love lamp.

Sideways view of stairway lamp (can't get this picture to turn for some reason)

Tony has been doing some re-wiring.  So far he has added four plugs to our future bedroom, a light to our future closet, and a light in our stairway leading downstairs.  The bedroom plugs and lighting will be much appreciated once that room is in use but right now I can't get over how much I love that extra lighting in our stairway (except, of course, for the fact that I can see the dirt now ;)

Cookie Jar

My sun tea jar also makes a really kick-butt cookie jar. Check out those giant snickerdoodles!

Creative Dinner...

We hadn't been to the grocery store in a while so I planned to pick up sandwhiches for dinner tonight.  Unfortunately, by the time I stopped by the sandwhich shop they were closed!

One of my favorite dinners when our pantry is low is "breakfast" because we always have eggs and milk and usually we have bread so I can whip up some sort of hot meal with limited supplies. 
On my drive home I decided on french toast and scrambled eggs, but when I got home I realized that we had eggs and bread but no milk.


While staring into the fridge, I realized we did have some eggnog from Golden Glen Creamery. (I would highly recommend their eggnog!)  When I took a peek at my french toast recipe I realized it has almost all of the same spices and ingredients that are already included in the eggnog.  I substituted eggnog for milk and all the other ingredients (except eggs) and the french toast turned out great!

Projects in Progress: Bedroom Part Ib

We found a color....and I've got just the guy to paint it :)

"The" color is called Brittany Blue and it is the one immediately to the left of Tony's head in this picture (your left not his).  Isn't he cute in his painter's hat? :)  I can't wait to share pictures of the finished product!

Book Review: Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates

We just had a fabulous pre-Thanksgiving meal with friends last night. I already got a follow-up note from a friend asking for my cranberry sauce recipe that I made. I told her that I can't take credit and that it is from one of my favorite cookbooks: Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates. I realized that every time I make a recipe from this book it turns out fabulously. I always receive compliments on the dishes!

The organization of the book is also very user-friendly. It is divided by "celebration" and it includes a menu for celebrations ranging from the Superbowl, to Mothers' Day, to Thanksgiving. The cranberry sauce I made is from the Thanksgiving section and it is delicious and gorgeous. You will never be able to eat the canned stuff again. I would highly recommend getting this book if just for the Thanksgiving dishes.

Paint Shopping...

...is hard!  After over an hour of reviewing paint swatches we bought a quart-sized sample of one color that we were liked for our bedroom.  It is the color "Petite Blue" at this link. We are looking for a soothing blueish, grayish, greenish color that will be subdued but not too gloomy considering that it is always raining here!

I think it might be too dark but I'm so eager to have the walls painted so we can move onto the floors and finish up our room (so we can finish up the next room, and so on).  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works once its up on the walls.  It will be kind of hard to tell without a light fixture installed yet. Hmmm maybe that needs to happen before we decide on a color?  It sure would be nice to have the light on while we are painting too! :)

Contractors

We have contractors at the house today.  They are putting drywall up in the bedroom and stairwell.

Tony did some major demo work in the past week and a half.  He removed all the plaster, re-wired and added several oulets, and light fixtures, AND added insulation.  He did this all while working a full-time job and we even hosted a party this past weekend!

 I am SO GLAD they are there!  I know Tony is too.

When the contractors are done the rooms will be primed and ready for fresh paint!  Then the floors will be finished in the bedroom and it will be DONE! (Well, the windows still need to be replaced and the closets need to be built out, and the trim needs to be cut and added to the windows and baseboards...but you get the idea)

Pictures to follow.  I promise!

Projects in Progress: Bedroom Part Ia

I'm trying to stay away from the house this weekend so Tony can do some demo without me in the way.  Here is what I could make out through the plastiic when I came home tonight :)

Book Review: Put 'em Up!

My mom came to town last weekend with a grocery bag full of tomatoes from her garden.  (My parents live in Eastern Washington, where the sun shines and tomatoes grow happily.)  When I looked through the bag the next day I realized the tomatoes didn't have long before something needed to be done with them. 

Thankfully,  I just got this new canning book, Put 'em Up!, which has a great salsa recipe.  I'm really loving this book because instead of being organized by food type (jellies, pickles, whole fruits) it is organized by food. 

At first I did not realize the genius of this, but it makes such great sense. Usually you would be preserving food when you find yourself with so much of it that you can't possibly eat it all before it spoils.  The way this book is organized makes it easy to find options for whatever food it is that you have too much of.  Another great thing is that it provides multiple options for preserving most of the recipes.  So you can make something with your tomatoes, for example, and have the option of refrigerating, freezing, or canning. 

I made the salsa , which gives you the option of refrigerating and canning.  I ended up with a little too much for the number of jars I prepared so I refrigerated the remaining salsa and canned four jars.

Flowers from the Garden

This lovely little guy has been brightening our living room for over a week.  I love the contrasting yellow with that blue vase. 

Pickling Party

Pickled Carrots

I had some girlfriends over last weekend to try a couple of pickling recipes.  We made spicy carrots and dilled carrots, both recipes I had never tried before.  I've been really enjoying the canning and pickling process since I got my canning pot but I think it is a whole lot more fun to do it with friends!

Here's hoping I've got some more food preserving parties in my future!

Close-up of dill carrots

Close-up of spicy carrots (you can't see in this photo but these ones have jalapeños!)

Mushroom Kit

Tony got a mushroom kit for his birthday from Fungi Perfecti a company in Olympia, Washington that sells various mushroom products.  Tony's mushroom kit is for growing shitake mushrooms.  It comes with a "starter" that has shitake fungi living in it.  The starter looks like a gigantic moldy marshmellow.

To get the mushrooms started the starter is soaked in water that has been boiled and cooled and then it is placed under a "humidity tent" to promote the growth of mushrooms. We got it going about a week ago.  The mushroom blob needs to be kept in a room with light (but not direct light) and misted regularly.  Funny how the mushrooms that pop up in my yard seem so much less high maintenance. :)

Preparing the humidity tent

After 7 days we already have some mushrooms to harvest!

Sunday...

I have been travelling all week for work and I can't wait to get home.  I have been dreaming about doing some garden clean-up since I left. The garden looked so sad before my trip.  After almost a month without any upkeep and a LOT of rain the slugs and weeds have invaded.  They are competing to see which species can multiply faster.  I have a lot of work on my hands.  But something about garden "work" is so appealing after a week of meetings, flying, and hotel rooms. I have yet another conference to attend this Saturday but Sunday...Sunday is all mine!

Cover Crops

In an effort to increase the soil fertility of one of our in-ground beds, and to cut down on weeds while we are out of town, I planted a "cover crop" of barley in the open bed space.

A cover crop, also referred to as "green manure" is a method to introduce nitrogen and other great nutrients into the soil between crops. After growing the crop for a specified period of time, the young plants are tilled/plowed into the soil to improve soil fertility and quality. Typical cover crops include beans, alfalfa, and barley. These crops are also used in commercial-scale farming as an alternative or supplement to nitrogen fertilizer.

I picked up this barley in bulk for about $5 a pound. Before planting I tilled the soil and watered very well. Then I spread a thin layer of barley seed and watered over the top .  I made sure to keep it well-watered during a few hot days but haven't had to do anything else. The barley is sprouting now and should crowd out weed growth until I come back from vacation and plant these areas of the lot.

* You might note in the back of this photo that a lone pumpkin plant has come back from the dead now that I have been watering that area. We may have some jack-o-lanterns from the garden after all!

Product Review: Plant Nanny

This morning we are headed out of town for almost two weeks and I have to admit that I'm not too excited about leaving the garden at this time of year. I'm worried that it might be too hot and the plants won't get enough water. I've been sowing rows of lettuce, and planted some starts recently. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they all make it!

We have a house sitter that will be watering, but I especially wanted to make sure that our potted herbs have a steady source of water while we are gone.

I picked up a 4-pack of these plant nannys and will be trying them out while we are gone. Here is the product description on amazon.com: "The Plant Nanny is a specially-engineered ceramic stake that waters your plant easily and beneficially. Inserted into moist soil near the root base, the Nanny will release water as the soil begins to dry, so it won't under-water or over-water your plants. A recycled wine bottle serves as the water reservoir and adds a decorative flair to the plant. The water level can be seen through the glass so that you know when it is time to refill the bottle."

I'll do a follow-up post when we get back so you can see how things have gone. In the meantime, here are some pictures of my planters with their nannys...

Last harvest (for a couple weeks)

We are headed out of town just as our tomatoes are starting to ripen and the cucumber plants are producing enough for a few jars of pickles! :O( 

I told a few friends to swing by and grab some groceries from the garden so the veggies won't go to waste.  I do hope they take me up on it!

Tonight's harvest. Tomatoes, zucchini, & cucumbers. Nom Nom!

My Garden Kicks...

I found this magnet at a book store in Hood River.  I had to get one for my mother and, of course, myself. 

Pretty sassy don't you think? :) You'll note an awesome picture directly below the magnet of my mom and me in a hot air balloon. We are both rocking amazing hot pink and teal outfits...it was the early 90's...

Flowers from the Garden

The first of (hopefully many) mammoth sunflowers.  Oddly enough...this opened on the rainiest day in a month. Ahhh nature :)

Birthday Pig Roast

We roasted a pig for Tony's 30th Birthday party last weekend.  I wouldn't say it was easy but it was surprisingly straight-forward.

Tony did quite a bit of research in advance.  He got a lot of tips from this New York Times article. 

The weekend before the pig roast, Tony and his dad, Terry, dug a large pit by hand.  On the weekend of the pig roast, Tony started a big fire mid-day on Saturday and let it burn for about 3 1/2 hours.

The pig was prepared by rubbing a mixture of spices (paprika, kosher salt, cumin, brown sugar, garlic powder, sage, and oregano). If we did it again I would rub the pig with a sauce and maybe some molasses and beer for a little more flavor infusion in the meat.

Then we stuffed the pig with fruits and veggies (pineapple, yams, sweet potatoes, red onions, and squash). 

Once the pig was stuffed.  Tony added some hot rocks from the fire to the inside of the pig to cook it from the inside out.

Then the pig was wrapped in corn leaves and wet burlap coffee sacks. 

Then the whole package was wrapped with medium-gauge un-galvanized steel wire to hold it together through the cooking process.

 

After it was wrapped up tightly,the ends were connected to large chains so the pig could be lowered into the pit of hot coals and covered with dirt.

 

Then. 24 hours later. We ate :)

Afternoon Snack

I've never had a FRESH cucumber from the garden.  I really can't believe how lovely they are.  Especially compared with store-bought cukes!  This little plate made for a heavenly afternoon snack...

Hummus and white cheddar cheese from the farmers market. Cucumbers and tomatoes from the backyard garden.  A nice smooth white wine would have gone great with this combo.  Lucky for me there are a lot more cucumbers on their way so I'll have the opportunity to try that pairing :)

Cleaning things up...one room at a time...

Sometimes, especially in a small house, the clutter builds up rather quickly and turns into one big mess.  The upside to having a small house is that the cleaning is usually faster as well! Lately, it seems, we cannot keep ahead of the mess.

In an effort to keep myself sane. I'm committing myself to have one room of the house that is clean every night before I go to bed.  Ideally, this will rotate.  But, if it has to be the same room over and over again I'm thinking that is not a bad habit to develop.

I'll let you know how it goes...

Happy Birthday Tony!

It's Tony's birthday this weekend!  We are putting garden and house projects on hold to celebrate with a pig roast!