Kitchen Remodel Week 4 -- Floors are In!

So, in preparation for week four, we had to clear most of the first floor, most of which went down to our basement.  Below is how we're living for the next 10 days or so:

I feel a little like how it might be like living with a hoarder.  Stuff piled all over the place.  And this room isn't even the worst.  All of the little stuff is in our guest room, and I'm too embarrassed to share a picture of THAT!  Even though the floors and carpet are all in, the painting starts on Monday, so we figured we'd keep everything cleared to help our painter out. Fewer things for him to work around.

But the floors are in, and they are great!  I love the cork so much!  Thank you to Bruce Brown at Floor Max  (http://www.designbiz.com/net6/CompanyWelcome.asp?CompanyID=62345). He gave us the best price, the crew was really great, and even though there were a couple of minor hiccups, they followed through and made everything right.  Below is the finished install.  It's a little hard to get the full effect, with all the crap in the middle of the floor, but there's a close up to get a better view of the detail.

In case you were wondering, here's a link to the product, which is Almeda brand, style Tira, color Cinza. The only bad thing is that I'm now so paranoid about getting them scuffed or otherwise damaged, especially since we still have a lot of workers coming in and out this next week.  I've been making everyone take off their shoes right when they step inside the door.  Yup. I'm going to be the crazy lady making everyone walk around in stocking feet.  :-)

Also, the shelves from Virgin Timber Lumber Company came this week.  Here's a picture of the two smaller shelves:

They are gorgeous!  It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but the striations are part of the wood grain, with lots of interesting marks, and I can't wait to see them installed!  The only thing I would have done differently is maybe made the shorter shelf (which I specified at 12 inches) a couple of inches longer (like 15 inches -- nit-picky, I know!), but that's my fault.  The folks at Virgin Timber made these exactly how I specified, even finding the the exact same wood (maple) and the same stain (gunstock) as the cabinets that make up the island. They're still gonna look great!

Hopefully, with this next week, we're looking at the last of everything: paint, counters, sink and the last of the lighting.  I'm glad, because I think we're all getting a little tired of the close quarters, sandwiches, salads, eating out and microwave meals. The chaos is starting to take a toll, emotionally, on all of us.  It'll be nice to get back to a regular structure and routine.

Kitchen Remodel - Week 3: Cabinets!

The cabinets finally came in!  So after 7 idle work days (is that an oxymoron?), I was glad that they were able to get back to work.  All was going really great until Thursday night, when we discovered that (I'll let you infer exactly how) the workers punctured the waste pipe that draws the waste from the two upstairs bathrooms downward when they were reinforcing the upper cabinets along that wall. Not cool.  Maybe that was why there weren't cabinets on that wall in the first place...

That darker area?  Not supposed to be there.

I called the project manager right away, and he had the guys come back out.  I felt bad that they had basically just gotten home, then had to turn around and come right back (not bad enough for us to wait until the morning, though). But they did, and were relatively cheerful about it.  Got to work right away and stayed until it was right.  They had to put in a new section of pipe, seal it, then patch the drywall back up, then hang the cabinets again.  They had to at least put the lower cabinets back, because the granite guys were coming in the morning to measure for the counters.

Prophetically, I had just read an article that same morning about kitchen remodels, and part of what it said was to plan for at least one nightmare.  If this is the worst of the nightmares, then we will hopefully be okay. (Crossing fingers!)

The project is really starting to take shape, with the cabinets in and the handles on.  I love the handles I bought from Restoration Hardware for the island:

Close up:

The granite guy came to measure for the counters.  Good thing I was around to make some decisions, because there seemed to be some confusion about what kind of granite was going where.  :-)

So, here's where we are after week three:

Next week, we can look forward to getting the floors and (maybe) the counters.  Unfortunately, they pulled apart the powder room (it's the only bathroom on the main floors) so the flooring guys can lay the cork...on Thursday.  Not sure why they needed to do it today, but we still have three bathrooms to choose from, so I won't complain (much). It just makes getting a glass of water that much more of a chore.

Kitchen Remodel - Week One (and Week Two, unfortunately)

The first week of the remodel went as smoothly as one could expect.   All the demolition was done more quickly than anticipated, and the workers got going with electrical and wall repair. So far, my husband's favorite thing has been the zipper door.  They hung a sheet of plastic over the doorway (on the right), then stuck this blue strip down the middle (turns out it's a zipper), then pulled the zipper and it cuts a doorway.  Ingenious!

The most exciting thing that happened was that they were able to install the new ceiling fan and sconces.  Not to brag or anything, but we now have the coolest ceiling fan ever!

 

 
Watch:

In general the place doesn't look a whole lot different than it did after day one, because a lot of what was done was kind of "structural" in the sense that it was behind walls or under floors, so, once they patched everything up, you can't really see it.  But I know it's there, and it's going to be awesome. Really.


Hardware and Shelving Drama:

We ordered the cabinet hardware, but we had to go with our second choice, because our first choice was backordered until the end of April.  THEN, the shelves we were going to use for the kitchen turned out to be too deep, so we tried to order our second choice and those were on backorder, too!  I was getting really nervous about all of this, so I looked on-line and found a company in West Virginia called The Virgin Timber Lumber Company that uses reclaimed wood to build all sorts of things, including shelves.  So I emailed one of the owners, who was really nice and accommodating, and ordered 3 shelves from him, in the exact lengths and depths that I was wanting.  Maybe things work out for the best, despite ourselves.  :-)  Of course, the brackets we wanted were also on backorder, so we went with a different kind, but I'm just so nervous that all these different parts are going to come together and I'm going to hate it in the end.  I have actually lost sleep thinking about all of it.

Not only that, but the narrower shelves are going to only be 4 inches deep.  Little did I know that it is hard to find brackets for a shelf that narrow.  Luckily, I hope, our project manager said he might be able to float mount those. Still nervous about it all coming together, though.

That's about all for week one.  I'm not sure how well week 2 will go, but I'll keep you posted!

[One week later...]

So here's how week two has gone:  see week one.  Our cabinets AND our flooring have been delayed, so there was absolutely no work done this week.  Super awesome because, of all the weeks they could have taken a break, next week would have been so much better, because it's spring break.  So, instead of sleeping late and lazy mornings, we'll have workers in here at 7:30 all week. Apparently that's to be expected (but really, that's pretty lousy planning, people). So, I'm going to give myself a break and not take any new pictures or do a separate post, because there's nothing to post about.  :-)

The good thing that happened was that the shelves can be float mounted, so that's a plus. And all of our cabinet hardware is in, so once our cabinets are in, we can rock and roll.  :-)

I expect by the end of next week, there will be all sorts of new stuff to see, so tune in then!

Kitchen Remodel - In the Beginning

After living in our house for over nine years, we finally bit the bullet and are remodeling our kitchen.  I know I haven't posted in a while, but that's because we've been organizing, purging, and cleaning out the kitchen in preparation of the work, which started this week.  Here are some "before" pictures. I'd like to say that the kitchen is a mess because we're packing it up, but that's only half true.  It generally always looks that cluttered, although we don't usually have a trash bag in the middle of the floor.  I am so excited to get more cabinets, counter space, and a bigger room, in general.  See that half-wall and column (below)?  It's gone.  :-)

 And this country border that lines the entire back half of the house?  It's going, too.  Buh bye!  I'd like to say I'm sorry to see you go, but I'd be lyin'.  I forgot to get a close up picture of the vinyl floor, but it had hearts on it, too.  Yeah, I'm pretty excited.

 Here's what the kitchen looked like after the first day:

The most worrisome part for me is not having a kitchen for four weeks.  I think the longest I've ever gone without cooking is maybe a week, when we've been on vacation, so this is going to test my patience (and waistline).  On the bright side, it forces us to try restaurants that we've been wanting to try but haven't because we rarely eat out.

We do have a temporary set up in the dining room for now, with a toaster oven and microwave.  I'm also working on a way so my husband can have his coffee, otherwise we'll have to bump the remodel budget up about $500, which is approximately what he would spend at Starbuck's and Dunkin Donuts if he has to buy coffee every day.  I'm only slightly exaggerating.

Luckily, we have an extra fridge in the basement, so we have cold stuff -- milk for cereal, sandwiches, and salads will do some nights.  For tonight, I'm trying to cook some frozen meatballs from Ikea that we bought last week.  I'm giving it a go in the crock pot, bought some liners, so the only thing we'll have to wash is the cover.  I'm not sure the gravy will work that way (I just dumped the mix and water in the crock pot, gave it a stir and dumped the meatballs in), but we'll know in about 8 hours. I'm either brilliant, or...not.  :-)

I'll keep you posted on the progress, but, needless to say, I won't be posting any recipes for a while.

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

Monster cookies with dark chocolate chips, smoked peanuts, bacon bits, and bacon meringue crumbles.  Crazy?  Not until you taste them!  So, you know from my earlier post that I had some left over bacon meringue crumbles (crumbs, whatever).  I put a lot of sweat and tears into those babies, so I wasn't about to just throw them out!  It just so happened that I had a jar of peanut butter that my kids didn't like so much (the texture wasn't smooth enough), so I was thinking monster cookies.  Also, I didn't have enough peanut butter, so I added a little bit of this chocolate almond spread I picked up at Trader Joe's.  Don't be fooled: it's not Nutella.  I don't prefer the flavor as much, so I'll be using it up in some baked goods or maybe a frosting in the coming months....but I digress.  Because the peanut butter I was using was natural, which tends to be oilier and looser than more processed peanut butters, I did add a little bit of flour, so you may quibble that this is not a true monster cookie.  But you can get over all of that, especially when you take a bite of these bad boys.

Now, if you don't have bacon meringue crumbles, by all means, just use bacon bits and call it a day. I happened to have both, so I put both in.  No sense in doing things half-assed, am I right?  Also, you can leave the nuts out if you want, or just use regular peanuts or almonds.  I happened to have some smoked peanuts (which I mixed with plain roasted almonds) that I wanted to use up as well (are you sensing a theme??), so in the dough they went!  But really and truly, these were tasty!  Chewy, with a sweet/savory/salty thing going on that was heaven!

If you've never made monster cookies before, the real key is to not overbake them.  They will look a little under done when you pull them out, and it's essential to let them sit on the baking sheet about 5 minutes before you take them off.  Honest. Then you take them off the cookie sheet and let them cool all the way on a cooling rack.

This is what it looks like when you combine the eggs and sugars.  It's very loose, but just wait, things will tighten up when you add the peanut butter:

And after you add all of the dry ingredients, the cookie dough becomes really stiff.  I had to sort of knead in the chips, nuts, and bacon bits.  This is what the finished dough looks like:

Here's a shot of the finished product while they are still cooling on the sheet pans.  You will definitely need to line the pans with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

4 eggs
1 1/4 granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz natural peanut butter
3 oz. Trader Joe's cocoa almond spread
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3.5 cups oats, not instant
2/3 cup flour
2.5 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped smoked almonds and/or peanuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup bacon bits (or 1/2 cup bacon meringue crumbs)

Beat sugars and eggs together thoroughly.  Add butter, salt, vanilla, peanut butter and cocoa spread.  Cream all together. Add flour and baking soda. Mix until combined, then stir in nuts, chocolate chips and bacon.  Dough will be stiff.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined large baking sheets. Flatten each cooking down slightly. Leave 2 inches of space, because they will spread a bit. I could only fit about 10 on a large sheet pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.  The cookies should still look a little puffy and only lightly browned when you take them out. Let them cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before taking them off the baking sheet and finishing cooling on a cooling rack. You do not want to overbake these cookies so that they'll stay chewy and delicious.

Makes a lot -- 4 dozen or so.

Meat Day

Yes, you read that right. Some people celebrate the Super Bowl, but in my neighborhood we celebrate meat in all its forms (and in some forms you never would have thought existed) on the day of the Super Bowl.  It all started a few years back when our neighbors hosted a tail gate party in the alley.  For a couple of years, it was kind of normal, with chili, ribs, burgers and such.  But then, someone (I won't name names) brought a bacon log, then all bets were off.  After that, the meat-inspired creations took off, with more variations of the bacon log, bacon rose bouquets (I'm not kidding -- Slim Jim stems and basil leaves), buffalo chicken dip, hog wings (da bomb!!), maple bacon cupcakes, buffalo chicken cupcakes (both of those were my contributions).  This year, a good friend asked me to collaborate with him.  He wanted to do some sort of bacon ice cream.  His first thought was to do a pineapple-bacon combo, but he couldn't find pineapple ice cream, so he had do settle for salted caramel.  He asked me to figure out a bacon cone to go with it.

This is where it started to get real, people.  I tried tuiles and florentines, with bacon added. Neither of those attempts worked out quite right.  So I thought, "What about meringue cups?" I was worried about the greasiness of the bacon not working with the meringues, but it actually did work.  The main thing is to cook the bacon until it's really crispy and blot out as much of the grease as possible before chopping it up.


From this photo, you can see how well-cooked the bacon was. After I cooked it, I drained it on paper towels, chopped it, then put it on paper towels again and pushed out as much of the grease as I could.

Anyway, I first tried it using maple sugar.  It tasted great, but when Matt said he was going to use salted caramel ice cream, I had to switch course, because the maple sugar gave it a toasted brown color and beige + beige = unappealing visuals. Remember, we eat with our eyes first.  So, I went back to a traditional meringue recipe using regular, granulated sugar.  These turned out great, except for them sticking to the pan I used.  Trying to make a nicer cup shape, I turned my mini-cupcake pan over and used that as a form.  Unfortunately, the bottom side of the pan isn't non-stick like the inside (it was Pampered Chef, so I thought it was coated all around).  So, version number two turned into bacon meringue crumbles.

The third try, I wasn't taking any chances.  Piped circles on parchment paper it is! I made them small, about 2 inches in diameter, to be eaten in a bite or two.  When you're tailgating, you do not want to mess with a lot of eating utensils.  To scoop the froyo into the cups, I used my smallest cookie scoop (1.5 inch diameter), which was perfect.

Here's the final result:

Why yes, that IS crumbled bacon on top.  Crazy, you say?  Crazy Delicious!  They were a big hit, but unfortunately I only had about 2 dozen of the little meringue cups.  I had actually made three batches of the dang things (as noted above), but by the time I got everything right, I was so tired of making meringues (and has so many egg yolks to figure out what to do with), I was just done.  I try to do something different each year, but these bad boys might have to make another appearance, just so more people can have a taste.

 

Bacon Meringue Cups Filled with Salted Caramel Frozen Yogurt

3 egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar (if you happen to have super-fine granulated sugar, use that, but the regular stuff will work, too)
1/2 cup bacon, cooked crispy, drained well of grease, cooled, and chopped very fine
2 pints salted caramel frozen yogurt or ice cream
extra bacon bits (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees (F). Line 2 large baking sheets (11x17 inches) with parchment.  On the parchment, draw 2-inch diameter circles. Turn parchment over so the pencil marks are face down (you should still be able to see them through the paper).

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form (about 2 minutes on high speed).  Gradually start adding the sugar, about 2 teaspoons at a time, letting the sugar mix in before you add more.  This should take about 2 more minutes.  Beat whites about another minute until the meringue is glossy and holds stiff peaks.

Gently fold in the bacon bits.













Put the meringue into a piping bag.  Tip: I stand my bag up in a tall glass and fold the top part over (see photo). It makes it a lot easier to fill the bag.  You can use an actual tip, but I just used a disposable bag and snipped off the end about an inch up from the bottom.

Starting in the middle of a circle, pipe a spiral out to the edge of the circle, then build up the sides (piping about 2 other circles on top) to form a bowl.  Repeat for the other circles.

Place baking sheets in the preheated oven and bake meringues for 2 hours.  They should be dry to the touch on the outside, but not browned.  Turn off oven and leave the meringues in the oven for another hour.

Remove the sheets from the oven.  The meringues should feel dry and hard, and they should peel easily off of the parchment.  If they aren't dry, then turn the oven on again to the lowest setting (on my oven that was 170 degrees F), return the meringues to the oven and let them sit in there for another 30 minutes, then turn the oven off.  Keep them in the oven with the door closed for another thirty minutes. They can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for one day, but you should really finish them off after that, because of the bacon.  :-)

To serve, fill each meringue cup with one scoop of frozen yogurt, then top with more bacon crumbles, if you like.  You can make the cups ahead of time, and you can scoop out the ice cream ahead of time, but you can only put this together just before serving, otherwise the meringues will get soggy.

Makes 2 dozen.

P.S. As a variation, you could just drop these by teaspoons and bake them as meringue cookies, maybe even sandwiching them in between with some melted dark chocolate.  With the failed meringues (the ones that got stuck on the muffin pan), I stirred them into brownies (with chocolate chips and marshmallows), crumbled them on top of an ice cream sundae, and made Frankenstein's Monster Cookies (peanut butter oatmeal cookies with smoked peanuts and almonds, dark chocolate chips and bacon meringue crumbles).  More about those later.  :-)

Bonus Valentine's Day Post!

Hi All!

This is going to be a quick post, because you will get another one soon.  I'm not making any promises, but maybe Friday or Saturday.

Anyway, today was Valentine's Day, which, to be honest, is not my favorite holiday.  So much hooplah over something you should show people all the other 364 days of the year.  Am I right?  And don't get me started on the overpriced dinners out (only went out to a restaurant once on Valentine's Day, and I'll never do it again).

So, I was rummaging around in my Valentine's holiday box and found a couple of heart-shaped pancake molds that I bought (probably on sale) at some point in the past.  Let me point out that the only reason I have a Valentine's box of stuff is because I have kids in elementary school.  I buy valentines and such on sale the day after the holiday to stock up on class party stuff.  So I am NOT being inconsistent.  Thanks.  I felt I had to set the record straight.

So, when I saw the pancake molds, I thought I would do pancakes for dinner, since we hadn't done that in a while.  Super fun, right? Wrong. Those molds were a pain in the butt to use.  It probably would have been easier to put the pancake batter in a squirt bottle and just squirt the shape onto the griddle.  Lesson learned.

But, they were still tasty, and I made a strawberry syrup to go with them.  No recipes tonight (otherwise, it will turn into a day-after-Valentine's-Day post), but if you want me to post either the pancake recipe or strawberry syrup recipe, leave a comment, and I do a longer post later.  :-)