Chocolate Cookies...

A recipe for Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies is up today on Saucy Little Dish. Click here to go see!

Yum!!

Putting the kitchen to use...

I love my friends. I love having people in my life who will try anything - who get an idea in their heads and then follow through.

Rachel and Tannaz are the all-stars of making good ideas happen. Months ago, we were riffing about our shared love of cured meats...and thought, WHY CAN'T WE DO THIS!? And our club, which we named "Panacea" was born. (Apologies in advance for any photos that may be NSFW!)

Our first attempt was simple - curing salmon to make grav lax and some homemade ricotta. It was quite a success if I do say so myself. Check out Tannaz's blog - All Kinds of Yum - for pics from that glorius evening.

This time, we got a little closer to our dreams of cured sausages and animal legs (I need to get a thermometer and see if a dark corner of our basement might be right for hanging meat!) and ground up pounds of pork and fat with a lot of herbs and spices to make spicy italian sausage.

Our day began with an email chain about where to get pork back fat and some pig intestines as sausage casings. (One of the grossest things I've ever purchased.) Then we met, over white whine and some homemade potato leek soup, and started grinding and mixing.

Using Michael Ruhlman's great book CHARCUTERIE, which I'd given Rachel as a wedding shower gift, we used my kitchen aid attachment to grind the pork, fat, basil, oregano, garlic, paprika, chiles...

...mixed it up with water and vinegar, and began the process of stuffing.

Yeah, not that pretty, but man was that stuff tasty!

Rachel manned the stuffer like a pro.

I have to say - this was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done. (Warned you about potentially gross photos.)

Take the finished, um, tube of sausage and give it a twist every six inches. VOILA!

Thanks to Jared Mark for the photo of his dinner last night. Grilled up with a salad. Mmmmm...

What's next ladies?

Veggie "Lasagna"...

Did a post over at Saucy Little Dish today...go check out the super easy Veggie "Lasagna" I made for Neal's return home from a weekend in New Orleans.

Hope everyone is having a good week. We did a few little projects this weekend that I'll put up soon. AND we're finally having our housewarming party this weekend!

The Kitchen!

FINALLY! Our much overdo kitchen pictures! Hurrah! Let's first remember what we started with...

Gross. And NOW (almost the same view):

Ahh...so much better and brighter! I can't imagine having that terrible WALL where the peninsula now is. Yesterday I prepped dinner while watching the Olympics and was happy as a clam. There will soon be a dining room table in the middle there.

Here's a BEFORE of the actual kitchen - 

And AFTER: 

 I still want to put something on that back wall - maybe these cool graphic prints we got as a wedding gift in colored frames? And I will paint that wood stool something fun someday.

Here are some other details for you:

Normal size stove! (If you remember what I had before...)

Awesome flexible faucet.

Big deep drawers for storage - LOVE THIS.

Some green friends in our window.

Big ass sink.

Breakfast area.

SO HAPPY!

Here's all the materials we used if you are curious:

Cabinets - Ikea Akurum Adel Off-White

Drawer and Cabinet Pulls - Pulls Direct

Countertops - Honed Absolute Black Granite

Stove Hood - Pacific Sales

Appliances - From Sears

       - Bosch Dishwasher

       - LG Convection Range

       - Kenmore Elite Fridge

       - Kenmore Microwave

       - Kenmore Washer & Dryer

Sink - Kraus

Faucet - American Standard

Hanging Lights - Restoration Hardware

Kitchen Chairs - Restoration Hardware - On Sale!

Table - Neal's Grandmother 

Map - Style De Vie inside HD Buttercup

Good News!

We FINALLY took some DONE kitchen pics yesterday and will fix em up and post them very soon. Back in the swing so vow to do a little more posting.

Stay tuned!

Kitchen Details...

I know we owe you guys pics of the whole kitchen, but here's one of my favorite details in the kitchen. In the end of peninsula, we had our contractor put an outlet for mixers, blenders, and in this case, my sewing machine (had to hem some curtains!). It's inside the cupboard, so no ugly plug out in the open and it's in a perfect place for utilizing that counterspace.

The cabinet door DOES actually shut most of the way, so don't worry about me accidentally filling the cupboard with flour and goo from the mixer.

Our kitchen is done...

...and I promise will take some pictures of the full unveiling soon!

 

In the meantime, we finally peeled all the protective plastic from our appliances! It's a mini-unveiling! 

Kitchenless Cobbler

I did, however, document a little bit of our Kitchenless Adventure on Saucy Little Dish this weekend. Check it out!

Also, everyone should buy our dear friend Rachelle's book, WOMEN FROM THE ANKLE DOWN, on sale today!!

And the winner is...

Carrera Marble 2x4 Tile. Going up as I post this. Got a great deal on it (and a road trip to Orange County with Neal to get it). We can do Heath Tile in our "forever home".

Dishwasher thingy...

Does anyone know what this thingy is called?

The knob thingy that would squirt water out if your dishwasher overflows?

And more importantly, do they sell ATTRACTIVE ones anywhere?

I need your help...

Tomorrow our countertops are installed. We chose a blackish/dark grey honed granite (Absolute Black Honed if you want me to be exact) thinking that it would look like a natural stone and be durable enough beyond our time in this apartment. Our cabinets are white. Our knobs and pulls are satin nickel.

Now is the time we must choose a backsplash. I am torn. I had been decided on white subway tile with dark grout, but have changed my mind. I want more texture and more interest than that. But I'm stuck between two ideas. Help me.

FIRST OPTION:  Fern Green Heath Tile from their Modern Basics collection. We'd get the 2x6 tiles. I like the varied tones, I love the texture and gloss, but worry about committing to a color.

This is a pic of the actual tile we'd get - It's in a bathroom, and stacked instead of "running" like subway tile would go.

This is an inspirational picture of white cabinets, dark counters and the same kind of pulls. This green might be a little yellower than ours, and this kitchen obviously has some crazy light going on. Jealous.

OPTION TWO: Small Carrera Marble Tile from wherever is cheapest. I'm thinking 2x4 or even a herringbone, though that can get pricey. I love that it's a neutral, yet bright, and that the natural variations in the marble give the wall a lot of texture.  I also think it might be cool to have this blank slate and then have fun accessorizing the kitchen with all sorts of other textures and colors and fabrics and pottery, etc

Here are a couple inspirational pics of marble:

Which way should we go? HELP!

Washer Update...

I know you were dying to know...Neal was right - the guys forgot to remove a couple of those safety bolts when they installed it. Now they are gone, and the machine purrs like a kitten.

Our first "emergency"...

Saturday early afternoon, one of our tenants knocked on our door. A pipe in the garage was leaking all over her car. Neal and I went down to investigate and, sure thing, one of the sewer branch pipe that heads towards the street was dripping from the end cap.

LANDLORDS MOBILIZE!! We called AP Plumbing - the guys we would always call at our old place (who would bill our landlord) - and Tony was able to come by a couple hours later.

 

After taking off the end cap and letting all the water drain out,  Tony discovered a blockage in the pipe. Using an incredibly scary rooter machine, Tony and his guy basically raped our pipe, got out whatever gunk was blocking it and put a new end cap on it. Problem solved...until we have to replace that pipe sometimes in the next month or so to keep it from happening again.

It wasn't a particularly cheap fix, but he did it on a weekend, pretty much right away. We got to tell our tenants that the problem was fixed within only a couple hours. GO LANDLORDS!

However, only hours later, while doing our first load of laundry in our half done kitchen, the washing machine went bananas. Rattled and walked itself out of the nook, and somehow wedged itself between the brand new fridge and the freshly painted wall, while shaking the entire house like an earthquake. Oh man, this will not do. Imagine running downstairs to see a double stacked washer/dryer shaking like a paint mixer on your brand new wood floors. Freaky.

 
Neal did some research and we think there's some bolt they put on for transportation that wasn't removed during install...if it's not that, this could be a big problem. Stay tuned.

Exciting progress...

You guys, exciting things are happening in our kitchen. Here's a little status report.

Here is what it looked like when we bought the place - can lights AND hideous boob lights, gross tile, and just gross everything:

Then our contractor's team ripped EVERYTHING OUT. Fridge, washer and dryer got craigslisted, stove was moved to the front rental unit. Gas, water, washer hookups were moved to fit new kitchen plan, and hardwood replaced the nasty tile - it's still covered here. Our Ikea kitchen was delivered in boxes and bags.

Instead of waiting on Ikea to install - last month was the kitchen sale so it wouldn't have been til May 23rd! yikes! - our guys tackled the job. They actually used powertools though - not the little wrench that comes with Ikea furniture.

This was the place last night. Cabinets in, new recessed light, that's our new deep sink leaning against the back wall. Appliances come today and fabricator gets started on countertops next week!

We're so close!!

A little less bittersweet...

Sold our old 22-Inch Stove on Craigslist for $125. Here it is, awaiting it's new owner.

I managed to cook and bake a lot of amazing things in this little sucker - but man, oh man, I can't wait to meet our new LG Gas Convection Range. Its a whole $30 inches wide guys!!