Creative Cooking Part 2

A few more things you can do, without a kitchen:

Dessert has been almost non-existant... lucky for us, we have Schwans Home Delivery, where we get Rocky Road Ice Cream, and Strawberry fruit bars.  But, my son loves pudding.  So here's a not to Jello... thank you for instant pudding... I made it before I set out dinner, and it was ready when we were.  He was a happy boy.

And, I noticed on the Honey Maid Grham Cracker Box, there is a recipe for a dessert, that is no bake... And it looks really good, but pregnancy brain has set in, and I can't remember what it was called.

So, in an electric skillet, fix up maceroni and cheese, or rice (be warned, rice needs an extra few minutes).  Put it in a glass dish, and wrap the whole dish in aluminum foil, to stay extra warm.  Then, fix up pork chops, however you like your pork chops, I use a little EVOO, and Worchesire Sauce, some garlic, and some pepper, with a few shakes of basil or italian seasoning.  I prefer the sirloin chops, dark meat seems to stay more moist.  Cook those babies up for a few minutes on each side, while you prepare a salda, and viola!  Pork Chops!!!!  We are actually having these tonight.

Sausage and Squash...
last night, I fixed up some chicken and apple sausage.  I sliced up the sausage links, and cooked them in a little bit of EVOO.  (in the electric skillet).  When it was done, I transfered to a heavy glass serving bowl, and covered with aluminum foil.  I took several small zucchini's and two small summer yellow squashes, sliced them once length wise, and chopped them.  Threw them in the skillet with EVOO, and a bit of worchesire sauce.  A little garlic, a little pepper, a little oregano, cooked those up a bit.  Diced a big ol' red tomato, added that to the sausage, in the bowl.  When the squash started to get soft, I added back the sausage and tomatoes, coverd it up, cooked it about 15 more minutes, then served it with a fruit salad and a green salad... it was a hit.  And the squash was AMAZING!

My days of cooking without a kitchen are coming to an end, but maybe fun, new, exciting things I cook up in my new kitchen, will be worthy of a blog post or two :)

It's not just lipstick on a pig...

When we made the announcement, that we were going to remodel our kitchen, it was half assumed by my husband, and totally assumed by many, that it would be a cosmetic job.  Our house is more than 60 years old.  Why put lipstick on a pig?  Or a chandiler in a condemned house?  Not that our house is a pig, or condemned.  But before we moved in, many updates were just cosmetic. 

We chose our contractor wisely.  We chose my incredibly particular brother-in-law.  We chose him because we love every house he's done, that we've stepped foot into.  We chose him, because we know he is relentless when it comes to perfection.

We stripped our kitchen back to the studs, we added insulation to the exterior.

When taking apart the old plumbing to the kitchen, our contractor discovered just how much build up there was in our pipes.  Luckily, my husband was also witness to the build up, and they decided then, it needed to be a complete plumbing replacement, to the whole house.

This picture is in our "fruit room" (more of a basement pantry) where the water comes into the house, a new pressure gauge, and this picture was taken partway through the plumbing job.  We now have fast hot water, and clean clean water.  No more junk coming though our pipes.  My son LOVES getting to use the bath tub, for the first time in his life (almost 3 years).

And, since we did some moving of wall openings and doorways, some of which got closed, other openings were created, we are getting some updates to our central heat and air system.  Our mudroom/breezeway will actually have air flowing through it, and not be so cold in the winter and so hot in the Summer.  We are also getting a wireless system, to help our bedroom out so it won't be sweltering in the summer.  We will have two control pannels.  The A/C guy comes back to finalize plans this week.

My theory, and I hope my husband agrees, is, we spent money to get our kitchen updated.  It would not have been a good expierence if we had all the new flooring installed, and all of the new cabinets, counter tops, and backsplash installed, just to have to rip it all out, to get to those other projects that needed done.  Not to mention, the all new wiring to the kitchen and laundry room, making them much safer. 

The reason for this blog entry is because I wanted people to be aware, prepare for these types of things to come up while you've got the house open, guts exposed.  This is the best time to get it all done.  And, for those who aren't so happy that we are spending our money on updating these types of things, be supportive, even if you'd rather we just put the lipstick on a pig, know, we are raising a family here, we don't want to have to demo a kitchen again, at least not while we live here.  We want clean water, and safe electrical outlets.  Investing in us, our family, our home, isn't a waste of money.  If you're worried we've spent too much, we haven't.  We know our budget, and we know what our safety is worth.  Be supportive.  Be excited for us.  That goes a long way.

Food... fresh from the basement

Just what have I been fixing, in my basement laundry room turned kitchen??? (that almost sounds like I've been cooking up something illegal, no such luck.)  Paninis, lots of paninis. Although, Chicken Noodle Soup is in the crock pot right now, because it's April 18, and it's snowing outside...  Anyway, back to Panini's.  I found the Food Network's 50 best Panini Recipes, and printed them up, I also found "Panini Happy"  a wonderful blog, dedicated to Panini's. 

I've discovered my husband had NO CLUE what he was talking about, when we were in San Francisco, and he opened his mouth to tell me "I don't like sourdough bread."  Because what he ment to say was "I've never had sourdough bread."  It's a panini favorite for him.  He likes ham, whatever sliced Cheese I have on hand (kraft singles do not count as cheese when it comes to paninis, they're really runny, harder cheese, stiffer cheese works a lot better), typically Mozzerella, Provalone, Meunster.  Virginia Ham is terriffic.  Some sliced tomatoes, and something dark green; Spinach leaves, or Arugula, are delicious.  Put them on hard bread, Sourdough, Seeded or Unseeded Rye, Chibata Rolls, and press :).  Last night, we had Turkey Bacon Ranch sandwiches.  Sourdough bread, ranch on the bread (thin), Provalone, Spinach, Tomatoes, Turkey, Bacon, and Tomatoes.  Really good.

A few nights ago, I was tired, and I was stumped. I cooked up some Schwans chicken patties (my husband used to love these, almost as much as he loves a burger fresh off the grill), I brought them out, and his face fell.  He wanted a  Panini.  Oh, good to know, he's in love with the panini press too.

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto works great as a sandwich spread, so does traditional Basil Pesto, so does olive oil.  And I just keep mixing up the combinations...

And as great as Paninis are, I really miss an oven baked chicken breast.  I'm looking forward to my kitchen being done.  Soon.  I might even get to put stuff in cabinets next weekend... So soon... and when our kitchen is done, what will we do with the panini press?  Find a nice spot for it in the kitchen.  It doesn't need to live in the fruit room (pantry) downstairs, with the crock pots and electric skillet.  It will get used more often than those.  Because the man I married, who had said, "I don't like lunch meat sandwiches, I eat enough of them when I'm in the tractor" has become a fan of a hot deli sandwich, a Panini, and I've always been. :)

PS: even peanut butter and banana sandwiches taste better off the panini press.