Chicken Update

Oh my God, you guys..

This chicken was the best f-ing chicken I’ve ever had. No exaggeration.

I had stored her in the freezer after buying her because I didn’t know when I’d have time to make a full-on chicken dinner. I pulled it out and stuck it in the fridge to defrost Friday..and it didn’t thaw. At all. So, I made my brine and figured I’d let her thaw in the brine. When she’s ready, I’ll roast. Fast forward two days…

Chicken taking a brine bath.

The brine solution was really simple. I sautéed a chopped white onion in a pot with a few carrots and whole peppercorns – the heat makes the pepper flavor a little more intense. Once the onions and carrots had a chance to brown just a bit, add a clove or two of garlic and heat. I then added maybe ½ a cup of dry white wine to deglaze the bottom of the pot and add more flavor.

I let the wine cook down a bit until it was more concentrated in color and flavor, then I added ¼ cup of sugar, and maybe 1/3 – ½ cup of salt and a bay leaf. Pour in a few cups of water – just enough that it will cover (or mostly cover) the chicken when you put the chicken in the pot. Boil this mixture until the sugar and salt have dissolved and the flavors have been distributed throughout the solution. Let cool to room temperature, add your chicken to the pot, and cover. Let the chicken soak in this solution for a couple hours, overnight, or for two days because you’re painting baseboard in the garage and shopping for kitchen cabinets.

Monday night, I pulled the chicken out of its brine to make sure it wasn’t still freaking frozen. Not only was it not frozen, but the little bird smelled awesome! Always a good sign. A note here: don’t be discouraged or freaked out when your brine smells awful as you’re making it. It smells better when it’s not cooking, and it will make your bird taste great.

Pat the skin dry with a paper towel, drizzle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper the chicken inside and out. I then roasted the little gal at 375F for just under an hour – the skin was crispy and brown, and the juices at the leg joint ran clear when pierced with a knife.

In the activity of preparing the chicken, I had totally forgotten to make anything else to go with it. You know..to balance the meal. Vegetables and shit.



Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Then I remembered I had more wine. Problem solved!

No, I'm not dead.

I’m just a really bad updater.

But I’ve been busy!

Not only did I have my first (birthday!) party in the house, but I’ve welcomed two new roommates..one of whom is a cat.

A house-warming palm! And my giganto aloe..I told you I was turning this into a greehouse!

The birthday party was really great. 20-25 people..just big enough that we could have a dance party in the living room, and small enough that I got to talk to everyone and thank them for coming J It was also just a really good excuse to see people I haven’t seen in a while. Some of my best friends made the trip from Cedar Rapids or Des Moines just for the night..and I was so glad to have them! Everybody gets so busy that we don’t always take the time to hop in the car and go see one another on the weekends.

Wal-Mart plants on the window ledge in the dining room.

It was also pretty cool because I invited a bunch of people that I like, but didn’t necessarily know all that well outside of work or the occasional run-in. By the end of the night, I think everyone had met somebody new and become closer to people they hadn’t known as well before. Mission: Accomplished.

Lots of compliments on the house – especially the light fixtures. It made me feel like all the work we’ve been doing has really paid off (not that having a roof over my head wasn’t payment enough, but you get the idea).

My new (old) cupboard in the dining room! It's currently holding every dish, cup, fork and spoon I own..in addition to displaying all my moonshinin' stuff on top.
Disclosure: I don't actually make my own booze. I bought this because I thought it looked cool. Though, after watching "Moonshiners" last weekend, I think I might like to try it one day :)

The roommate thing has been in the works for a couple weeks. I didn’t say anything because I have this tendency to say things with regard to the house that don’t materialize.. (i.e. I’m moving in THIS WEEKEND!!  ..three months later). I thought pretty hard about it, and decided that it would probably be alright, even though I really like my alone time.

From the laundry, looking through the kitchen into the dining room (with more pieces of the whiskey still) and the living room beyond.

Granted, it’s only been a little while; but, so far, I think things are going well. The cat is actually providing a valuable service by killing any spiders it sees roaming the floor, and the roommate Swiffers said floor almost every day before I get home from work. It’s apparently a cat-hair-related Swiffering, but it’s a Swiffering nonetheless.

The cat-roommate is entirely against everything I have ever said I would do. Ever. I am not a cat person and don’t know that I ever truly will be. But, this cat comes with my friend who comes with a few hundred dollars a month in rent. Which is nice. Also, the aforementioned spider-killing is reassuring. As long as I stay on his good side, Charlie the cat will patrol the house for movement.

Charlie the Spider Slayer. I caught him between yawns..it's been another rough afternoon.

That said: if he pees outside his litter box, I’m sending him to “the farm” where he can “play with the other cats.”

Progress has slowed slightly since the roommate moved in. Helping her move in and then re-situating everything in the kitchen and bathroom took some time. But, this past weekend we got back after it and finishing routing, sanding, and painting the baseboard.

8 & 10" baseboard routed, sanded, and painted. Boom.

This has been a pretty cool project, actually. I was dreading it because I don’t know how to run the router. I tried two boards: the first was fine; the second looked like cooked bacon…a little wavy. Luckily, the former Roommates spent a good chunk of the weekend over here in the garage and we got it knocked out.

Now to hang it and finish it with quarter round. Then on to a new project!

I saw a version of this on another blog: using a painters canvas dropcloth as a curtain. I'll hang it from the 1/2" conduit and have a custom, made-to-fit system for my baywindow. Total cost: $18. I like the color and texture of this stuff.. More to come!

Tonights dinner: I've had this chicken soaking in a brine overnight (all the onions and carrots have sunk to the bottom)..I'll let you know how it tastes. By the way, those are peppercorns...just so you know! ;)

"Roughing It"

When I titled this entry, I knew I was completely full of it. I am in no way roughing it, as the name would imply. Though I have to make do without some of the things you might expect in a house…namely, a kitchen.

The kitchen has been somewhat delayed because my cabinet maker may or may not be going to prison. Which is interesting..

Initially, we thought we would build the cabinets ourselves because my former roommate/Dad has experience doing it. Then the jailbird..excuse me: potential jailbird stepped in and said he could do it better, faster, cheaper..blah blah blah. I don’t know how many times I’m going to fall for that line.

To (hopefully) put you at ease: he isn’t going to jail for butchering children or small animals. (For your own future reference, there is apparently a limit to the number of times you can get pulled over while driving and reeking of whiskey.) I trust the work he does..just not the personal choices he makes. My main concern was that he shows up when he said he was supposed to and do the work he said he was going to do. Now that I know that won’t happen, I get to regroup: He called the other night and said he didn’t want to start on it this close to his court date.

There is no shortage of interesting circumstances, is there?

I’ve looked at buying stock cabinets from IKEA, but I’m just not sold on that idea. I know they’re reasonably good cabinets for their price, but the styles aren’t what I’m looking for and the sizes are what they are..No customizing.

I’m also going to look at purchasing cabinets from a home store. To this point, I haven’t looked at stock cabinets at all because I’ve been on the build-my-own track for a while now.

Anyway, as I said, I’m doing without a “kitchen” and have since made my own. While washing dishes in the bathroom sink isn’t as convenient, the cooking setup isn’t horrible.

I have a big cutting board and a toaster. Who needs more?

I made a roast beef with vegetables and mashed potatoes the other night, and an apple crisp Monday night. Anytime I’ve ever lived on my own I’ll make these big family-sized meals and eat the leftovers for a week. Most of the time I’ll make two different meals so I can eat one thing for lunch and the other for dinner. That’s my solution to cooking for one. Plus, if someone comes over around dinner time, I have plenty of home-cooked food to offer them!

My "pantry" in the laundry room all ready to go. I've never had a spot like this before, and so far I'm really, really liking it!

Oh! Tomorrow is my birthday – the big 2-5. The number itself isn’t that big of a deal..I won’t be paying that additional fee to rent a car. But I never rent cars anyway..  No, this birthday will be a big one because I’ll be spending it with friends in my new, old house J

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck..

We have been woodchucks here at the house the last few nights. Chucking old wood trim up onto the wall and giving things a more finished look. Granted, I still have holes to fill and another coat or two of paint to apply, but things are looking really good so far!

The old trim we're using came from the house next door that's being demolished soon. It has these nice blocks at the baseboard level that make the doors look like somebody wealthy lives in this house instead of me :)

The molding over my bedroom door - the kitchen side.

My bedroom door from the inside. Fancy pants.



The trim around the window in the office.



The doors and windows that I know how to trim have been trimmed, and now I’m waiting for my knowledgeable reinforcements for guidance on the pocket doors and longer window “tops” to match the molding over the doors.

Aside from that, we vented the dryer and I did my first FULL load of laundry in the house. It was a very successful first run, and very nice to not have to lug a bag of clothes to a laundry far, far away. I’m also having a water softener installed. Water softeners might be more of a Midwest thing: when you talk to people out East, they kind of look at you funny. Because of the mineral content in the water here and the damage it can do to faucets and water heaters – not to mention how dry it makes your skin in the middle of winter – it’s a nice thing to have.

Otherwise, I’ve been nurturing my little Wal-Mart plants, testing out my new toaster, and getting my things organized.

And eating dinner, of course..

The garage has been taken over by sawdust and lumber again for the trim projects, so I have had to scrape the ice off my windshield in the mornings before work, but I can deal with that.

IKEA finally came through for me! BOTH lights hanging in the dining room!

The register covers I got for the hardwood floors. They have a brushed finish that doesn't come across in this picture, but I think they look pretty alright.

Things are coming along – trim isn’t as big a deal as I had made it out to be. Once the doors are finished up, we can start on the baseboard.. I bought all kinds of lumber last weekend for that project, and I’m excited to get started. What a difference THAT will make!  

IIIIIIII'm Movin' Out!

I'm almost ready for company!

The vanity - the container on the right is full of extra towels. The container on the left is for all of my bathroom junk. 

I went a little crazy on the tiny plants last night.. I've been looking forward to turning the entryway into my mini greenhouse, though. No time like the present!

Looking through the kitchen into the dining room and living room at the piles of moving.

A nice sturdy metal shelving unit for extra storage in the laundry room.

The bookshelves and my borrowed recliner :) Dad/Roommate and I built the shelves a few years ago...it's strange how well they fit here! Also, no laughing at the recliner..it's the best nap chair ever.

The finished hardwood. Initially, I wanted to stain it dark..then I saw how awesome the wood was all by itself.

Pretty big day. We moved enough stuff that I could actually use my garage! :)

Hello, New Neighborhood!

Well, my “How to Hang Trim Around Windows and Doors” educational session had to be pushed back from last night due to other scheduling issues, so we moved furniture instead!

When everything you own is piled around you waiting to be moved, it seems like you have quite a bit of stuff. When you move it into a full-size, grown up house, you realize you don’t, in fact, have any living room furniture aside from a borrowed recliner and a couple of bookshelves and the majority of your belongings are actually just old copies of “This Old House” magazine. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that..I have no business reclining or reading magazines now, I should be finishing projects.

But it does make me wonder what the hell I’m going to do with all of this space..

What to do, what to do...

Depending on everyone’s schedule this evening, I’ll either be learning how to properly hang trim or STARTING TO MOVE FURNITURE! J