Easter weekend

Finally getting around to installing the drawer organizers from our trip to Texas...another IKEA find!

The second drawer is a little lighter on the organization, but everything still has a place.

The highlight of Easter was looking through piles of old family photo albums and laughing at everyone's hairstyles :)

Weekend = Too Fast

I took a slightly longer lunch Friday because I knew I wouldn't have time over the weekend and I needed to do something about my giant bowl of tomatoes before they went to waste. The bowl just keeps filling, by the way..

I’ve been thinking about this technique I saw a while back – you take the innards out of the tomatoes and slow roast the..hulls, I guess you’d call them, until the flavor is really concentrated. I salted and peppered to add flavor and sprinkled with sugar to take the acidity out of the tomatoes. I also rough chopped a few cloves of garlic and threw that on the pile. Roast on a sheet pan with a wire rack for as long as you like..you'll smell garlic and tomato all over the house.

A couple black cherry tomatoes, yellow, beefeater, Roma, and others. Not a job you do in your dress pants.
http://beyondthebluegate.blogspot.com/

I didn’t roast mine for as long as I would have liked..again, because I was doing this on my lunch break..but I think the end result was really great, nonetheless. The tomatoes still had enough moisture in them that they created a sauce-like consistency when run through the food processor, but weren’t as ‘bright’ tasting as they would have been right off the vine. The garlic added a lot of flavor, and the sugar helped mellow everything out. Because I had so many different varieties of tomatoes, it’s a really deeply flavored sauce. Once I’ve got some pasta, I’ll add some herbs or wine (or nothing at all) and enjoy truly homemade pasta sauce!

Saturday morning, I got out of bed ready to rumble! Before breakfast, I decided to go outside and start salvaging the bricks from the two front steps that I’m having redone. Once I started chipping away at the brickwork, I realized just how bad the condition of the steps really was. The brick was actually the best part of the step..they really didn’t want to let go, save for a few.

This was taken shortly before I bought the house..and the cracks had only gotten wider.

A couple of the bricks had been falling out anyway, and a few came with a little help.

10 minutes later..

The rest of the bricks were STUCK and wouldn't budge..but the whole step would. As I see it, the steps were poured on a short, shallow limestone foundation, so there was a lot of heaving with every freeze/thaw cycle. This explains the cracks and out-of-level appearance.

About an hour later, my parents came by and we made quite a bit of headway on the baseboard project, finishing up most all of the kitchen and laundry areas. All that is left to do is the bathroom, my bedroom, and a small closet!

Laundry all trimmed out and painted!

Dad worked on the toe kick part of the kitchen cabinets – very snazzy (and very FINISHED looking!)

From the laundry: notice the area under the cabinets? Dad finished that up Saturday. Our friend Aimee came and fixed my kitchen outlets, too..everything's coming together!

Mom and I wandered around caulking and touch-up painting. Everything looks so much better once it’s all been ‘tightened’ up a bit J

Saturday was my time away from my projects. I went to Des Moines to spend time with friends and ended up staying through to Sunday night. A couple really cool stops along the way:

·         http://zombieburgerdm.com/ - been here several times. The food is awesome!

·         http://www.continental-lounge.com/ - super classy/sexy bar. Had a sidecar and listened to jazz with a lady friend. Instantly felt like Don Draper.

The "Planet Terror" at Zombie Burger: Cheddar cheese, bacon, BBQ sauce, caramelized onions.
I had the "Dead Moines", not pictured: ham, prosciutto, gouda, and truffle mayo. Gets better every time I go!

Yeah..this basically sums up my Saturday..

More trim, more paint, more better :)

Kind of a low-key night on the homestead.

I walked through the farmer’s market, bought some eggs, and picked up my farm box after work and went home to see what I was getting into this week. Looks like a good mix – and things I’ve had before! Sometimes the familiar can be good, too J

Lovin' my farmer's market brown eggs!

Contents of my farm box: green onions, mixed lettuce, herbs, misc. tomatoes, chard, little yellow things I have to research, purple peppers. Healthy, healthy!

 My only real project last night was taking the door down between the laundry room and the garage and painting everything. It has been cool enough (FINALLY!) the last two or three days that I felt comfortable enough opening the house to the elements.

Pretty easy process..I unscrewed the hinges from the jamb and set the door up in the garage for painting. I would alternate between painting the jamb and painting the door, giving each time to dry between coats while I worked on the other. Pretty efficient, I’d say!

Garage door all painted up!
My wire rack is looking a bit crowded these days. Another coat of paint on the inside of the kitchen cabinets and I'll clear this out a little better.

I also took a minute to snap a picture of the work we did the night before. In addition to the quarter round from the previous post, we hung the ‘headers,’ as we’re calling them over the doors to the garage and the driveway. It looks so much more finished now! A little caulk, a little paint, and it will look crisp and clean..and, most importantly, DONE!

Trim: in place.

All painted..and glowing :)

Kitchen mini-update

Getting all the trim installed around the kitchen doors and windows. New beadboard and stainless steel backsplash, too! There's more stainless to come, so stay tuned.

Italian Plum Tart: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/italian-plum-tart-recipe/index.html
I subbed a little fresh orange juice for the liquer and left out the tapioca entirely.

Good night, sink.

I pick up my new farm box this afternoon – I wonder what I’ll be eating this week?

Farm Box Soup

Did I tell you I signed up for a CSA membership?

Well, I did.

For those who haven’t heard of it, a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture and basically gets me my percentage of all the crops harvested from a local, organic family farm! I’ve read a lot about them, and known people here in town who have bought shares before, but never been in a position to do it, myself. Not having a kitchen will do that..

Ahh..the good old days. Er..

I took the plunge this summer, and have been very happy with it so far! I only ever really know what I’m going to get on the day I go pick up my box full of goodies..the farmers send out an email to everyone letting them know what will be in the box, new developments around the farm, how they’re doing at the market, etc. It’s a really cool way to stay in touch with what’s happening around you, AND the farmer gets a much larger chunk of your food dollar than they would if you bought the same produce from the grocery store.

It’s also way fresher (picked right before it goes into the box), local (less fossil fuel to transport AND it helps you develop higher tolerance to local allergens..a big selling point for me because I really suffer through the fall allergy season) and chemical free (never a bad thing).

http://www.bluegatefarmfresh.com/

The cost of a big box of goodness once a week throughout the growing season was $460 – kind of a big chunk of change to drop all at once, but it’s not that much more expensive than buying the same foods from the grocery store over the same time period.

Plus, it’s delivered to the bookstore near my house (http://thenextchapterbooks.wordpress.com/) so I don’t have to drive across town..I can pick it up on my walk home from work! It also forces to me try new things..otherwise I waste food and money, neither of which I want to afford to do right now.

Anyway – I got my ‘farm box’ on Tuesday and took it home to see what I had to work with.

Two different kinds of summer squash, snap peas, Swiss chard, new potatoes, hard-neck garlic, lettuce, beets, squash blossoms, assorted herbs, and a few other things. You can purchase an egg option, extended herb option, honey, or goat cheese through the program..I went with the base share this year.

Another cool thing: I haven’t been exposed to a lot of the things that come in this box. I’m learning so much, and experimenting with new things all the time! Up until yesterday, I had never eaten or cooked with a summer squash before..I decided I like them a lot!

Anyway, as I said, I had no idea what I would do with some of these things so I decided I’d make something up: Farm Box Soup..or CSA Soup, which rolls off the tongue nicely.

I large-diced the new potatoes, squash, and a few carrots I had in the fridge and spread them out on a big sheet pan. Didn’t even peel anything..very colorful..very hippie-healthy. Olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast these at about 375F until they get to be fork tender..kind of al dente, I suppose.

In the meantime, I started warming a quart of store bought chicken stock that I mixed with a little homemade chicken stock I had in the freezer. I plopped a few cloves of farm garlic into the stock to infuse a little more flavor..and let that come to a slow boil. The homemade stock used all kinds of herbs and you could really smell them all at this point.

(http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-stock-recipe/index.html - I never follow the recipe completely. She uses way more chicken than I do..because she makes millions of dollars. Also, what the hell is a parsnip going to add? Cost.)

I pulled the roasted vegetables out of the oven and scooped them into the stock to soak up all that flavor. I also mounded some chard and leftover fresh spinach into the pot and stirred that in to wilt.

At this point, I also pulled out a couple old parmesan cheese rinds from the freezer. I keep the rind to use for sauces or soups because there’s a ton of flavor left in them. I salted and peppered a bit and let everything simmer away.

About this time, I minced up some green onion for a little more flavor and pulled some pesto (that I made with the basil from last week’s farm box) out of the freezer and dropped those into the pot.

Cubed up some homemade bread from earlier in the week..use the leftover olive oil on the roasted vegetable sheet pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Parmesan and toast in the oven. Homemade croutons are better than anything else you’ll ever eat. Ever.

After all of this, I still wasn’t totally sure it would be any good. Like I said, I’d never had a summer squash, and I’m still pretty new to chard. I had tasted things along the way to make sure I wasn’t going to screw up a huge pot of vegetables and I felt OK about things..but whoa.

Anything with chicken soaked croutons, though..right?

This stuff is good!

And wicked nutritious. It’s so different from the chips and salsa dinners with an M&M dessert I had eaten the previous days..

The difference food like this makes is really amazing. I don’t get to sleep as much as I’d like, but I don’t feel tired when I eat this way. There’s so much good stuff in this soup it makes me feel...good!

Anyway..highly recommended made-up soup here. Exact proportions should be decided on-the-fly..that way you can’t blame me if it doesn’t turn out right J Give it a go!

This weekend

This weekend saw lots of changes around the house – most noticeably, paint!
As I mentioned in my previous post, my friend Anna came down for a couple days last week to start the painting project. She was excited for it and I was not..so it was a good match.

I have no idea why, but for the last several months I've just felt like part of the dining room needed to be blue.

The other two walls are the tan color from the living room and kitchen.

Moody blue..

Well, once she started, I got the fever and have been picking at it ever since. I stopped to attend the Iowa Craft Beer Festival Saturday afternoon in Des Moines (work-related…I promise) and to putter around in the yard a bit on Sunday.

My painter: I know how to pay my debts..

Painting around the kitchen.

My bedroom door. Even with this lighter color, the trim paint really pops!

Living room: painted, sans TV.

The other big change is that I’m flying solo again. No more roommate, no more cat..no more rent money. It’s really for the best – this was always meant to be a temporary thing, and it was. Roommate found a place of her own, and I get my house back. Free of cat hair and other people’s laundry. J

The other (random) project I created for myself was sort of…just more work? I moved the large pile of foundation stone out of the side yard and into the driveway. This way, I’ll be able to see what I’ve got when I’m using it to edge around the landscaping. I’ll also be able to kill off the weeds in that area and start fresh with new grass once I’ve got everything the way I want it. It will also be nice to have that out of the way when we start up the siding project in the front of the house.

I still have that little bit of siding to replace on this side..and, of course, the lawn is overgrown and weedy here now, so it will be easier to deal with all of that with these stones moved. Did I mention these stones before? They came from the foundation of the house next door. $30!!

You have no idea what this did for my OCD. Soo goood.

Speaking of which, I’m getting ready to refinance my construction note so that I can actually AFFORD to start the siding project in the front of the house. When I bought the house, my banker and I decided that it would actually be better for me to go the way of the construction note – this way, I didn’t have to put money down (my sweat equity and the improvements made counted as a down payment) and it afforded me a lot more flexibility. I pay a higher interest rate for it, and it expired after a year (had to get a small extension to finish up the kitchen), but now I’ll be able to refinance (at 2.86%, thankyouverymuch), get a little more money for this last big push, and then – one day – just come home and ENJOY being here rather than feel like I have to work at it all the time! J

If you've never had fresh broccoli...

OOH, I’ve also got broccoli popping in the garden! Several green tomatoes on the vine, lots of carrots, a few herbs..peppers..a cucumber..Brussels sprouts, and a lot of weeds. Pretty exciting stuff!

It's a kitchen! And color! Whoa!

So, “beeswax polish night” turned into “beeswax polish week.” It turns out, the beeswax I used made the counters look like someone had peed all over them..just kind of generally yellow with bright yellow spots where the grout holes are.

I will say this, the countertop was super smooth and shiny after the beeswax. It just had that...urine..tint to it I wasn't crazy about :)

Not what you’re 'going for' in a kitchen.

I’m still confused by that because everything I’ve read has said beeswax is the way to go – all natural, food-safe, blah blah blah. So, I don’t know if I got the wrong kind of beeswax, or if there’s more than one type? Again, because nothing out there is really specifically marketed to concrete countertops, no one at any hardware store knows ANYTHING about making them or what to sell you to finish them.

My giant beeswax. I chopped it up and melted it down so I could remove any impurities, many of those were just stuck on the outside, though. I wonder if there's a lighter colored beeswax that wouldn't yellow? I should have known this one would - being yellow to begin with and all.. 

Oh well. A little wax remover and a couple days of random, half-hearted sanding here and there and it all worked out.

We set the tops in place a few days ago and I’ll seal them in the near future. Not as convenient this way, but the show must go on.

Speaking of the show going on: I’ve got cupboard doors and drawer fronts! I’ve even got knobs and pulls! And a sink! And a dishwasher! Holy freaking moly!

Giving everything a test fit. Of course, it had nothing to do with my need to take pictures of everything..

Coming together!

A place for everything! Now I'll just finish painting the cabinets and we'll really be in business!

I called my favorite local plumber – the crew that installed my new furnace/AC/water heater – and he had all of the above knocked out in a couple hours. He also installed a new outside spigot for my hose, and hooked up the garbage disposal. For the first time ever, I was really happy to be doing dishes J


The maiden voyage. I was making sure the dishwasher wouldn't explode and figured I'd get the hang of my giant faucet in the meantime. Big fan of this sink!

 I’ve also picked out some paint – I’m just in the process of deciding where it will go. My friend Anna is coming over this afternoon to paint. She volunteered, I accepted. Things are going to start looking a lot different very soon! :D

The brown in the upper left will go in the living room, the blue in the dining room, and I haven't totally decided on the other colors. Suggestions?

Picture Update: Concrete Countertops!!

Productive weekend around here! Well, again, not crazy productive..but I feel accomplished J

I spent a few hours grinding on the countertops, as promised in my last post. Once you get used to the grinder, it’s a really easy process.

Grinder/sander/buffer loaded with a coarse-grit sanding disk.

As mentioned, I used a premixed grout to fill the holes in my tops. Once that layer was ground off using the 60-80 grit disks, I was able to go finer and finer. After a certain point you’re actually polishing rather than grinding. I finished after 800 and 1,500 grits and cleaned the tops of all the stone dust that had accumulated. A good wipe down with clean water and you’ll really get a chance to see what you’ve got.

Unless you've got a fancy-pants wet grinder, you'll need something to wet the surface. People have used ketchup bottles, gallon jugs with tiny holes punched in the bottom, or - like me - a sprayer and a watering can.

Top of this frame shows the area that hasn't yet been sanded. The bottom shows how the concrete looked after grinding the top layer of excess grout.

After one round of sanding on the coarsest grit.

A diamond grinding pad - by 3M. This is used to smooth out any rough spots the coarse grinding pads may have caused and help give the tops a shinier surface. 

I let the cleaned tops dry overnight and started wiping on my sealer the next day. I thought a lot about the sealer because of the location of the countertops. They’ve got to be resistant to moisture, staining, and all that..but they also need to be food safe because they’re in the kitchen. A lot of people online have said you can use a standard concrete sealer, but I still wasn’t sure.

Rather than risk it, I went back up to the Tile Shop where I picked out the stone for my floors. They had a food safe, water-based countertop sealer, but its instructions didn’t say anything specifically about concrete. Marble, granite, slate, quartz..all good. Concrete… maybe?

The sealer of choice. Penetrating sealer will give me the look I'm going for - a topical sealer or epoxy would make the concrete look kind of plastic and defeat the purpose of going to all this work!

Because I had read that there’s really not a sealer out there marketed especially for concrete countertops, I figured every manufacturer would omit the one thing I was looking for. That said, if this sealer would work with porous marble, it’s got to work with concrete. Right?

Anyway, I bought a couple quarts of it and went about my business. I ended up putting five coats on – it looks so good! J

Very dark when wet.

After a few coats - still wet.

Getting to be pretty dry. The penetrating sealer should leave it looking pretty natural while giving it more resistance to staining and things like that.

Tonight is beeswax polish night. I wanted to give the sealer a chance to fully cure as recommended in the instructions and those 24 hours expire after work this evening. I bought a (giant) chunk of pure beeswax from my friend Melissa from Wee Bee Apiary & Farm (http://www.weebeeapiary.com/) – I’ll melt that down and buff like crazy. After that, we can install them.

With help.

These babies are heavy!