We survived week 4 - and Where's Sid?

We just concluded our 4th week without a kitchen.  It's not fun.  Not fun at all.  I've fried another power strip and everything is covered with white/gray dust.  It's exhausting but we are finally all closed in.  We have siding and windows and a roof.  Most of the radiant heat stuff has been laid and we have plywood floors.  We are getting electric run today and tomorrow and if all goes well, the drywall will go up starting on Monday.  It's starting to make more sense in there. 

My husband told me the other day that apparently I have not accepted the limitations that I have been placed under.  I'm still cooking about 5 days a week.  Lots of simpler stuff although you can definitely make a white sauce in the microwave.  Bet you never tried that.  You can also boil pasta in there if you have a big enough bowl.  It's worked fairly well.

Wondering how the dog is dealing with this?  Sid has been spending his days with my friend Lillian.  She's a truly lovely person and is doing me the hugest favor since lately Sid has taken to darting through the plastic opening that is supposed to be separating us from the construction.  It's all fine when people like dogs but if they don't he seems to sense that and acts like an ass.  Anyway, he's enjoying his days with Lillian, getting treats and lots of walks.  The first week he howled when I left him but like any kid who goes to preschool, he got the hang of it and now could care less if I leave or not.

So, what are we having for dinner you ask?  I've successfully made the following:
- Lots of chicken and steak and stuff on the grill
- Baked potatoes
- Steamed Veggies
- Chicken Stir Fry
- Cajun Chicken Sandwiches (one of my absolute favorite things)
- Breakfast for dinner
- Spaghetti
- Macaroni & Cheese (from scratch)
-  Potato Salad
- Asian Noodle Salad
I also baked a carrot cake in my little toaster like oven. Who knows what I will come up with next.  I refuse to surrender to the confines of the basement kitchen.  I will win even if I end up with a concussion in the process.

How are we cooking?

Our temporary kitchen has been set up in the basement.  We've learned quite a few things about our basement in the 9 years that we have lived in this house.  The pipes overhead are very low.  They hit around 69 inches off the ground which would be great if I wasn't 70 inches tall.  A concussion is in my future.  The one outlet we use for the extra refrigerator goes out when it rains, we get water seeping through the floor sometimes, it's a yukky 100 year old basement.  We did not, however, learn that there are only 2 outlets down there until we decided to put the temporary kitchen and laundry down there.  Since the refrigerator is plugged in to the outlet, we decided to get a big old power strip to use.  Surprisingly enough, you can still only use one appliance at a time.  I've already fried one strip and it's supposed to be for power tools and things.  I did it with a toaster and a microwave.  I'm just good at destroying things.

We just finished week two of being completely in the basement.  It really isn't fun.  Especially when you can only use one appliance at a time.  I had envisioned being about to cook fairly well but that is definitely not the case.  So far my arsenal contains the following:

- Microwave
- A small oven (looks like a toaster oven but bigger and it bakes/broils)
- Toaster
- Coffee Maker
- A Crock Pot (which I am not fond of)
- Electric Skillet (courtesy of Mom)
- Electric Griddle (also from Mom...she had lots of appliances)
- A big electric turkey roaster
- A big weber grill outside

Luckily I also had a stainless steel work table that I bought from Ikea a number of years ago.  That has been incredibly helpful.

I think we have managed to cook about 5 days out of 7 so far.  Not too bad but I still think I need to pare down the dinner plans.  Less elaborate is better.  Also, I've started drinking wine out of plastic cups because the giant 100 year old work sinks down there are hell on wine glasses.

Week 2

This is what my kitchen looked like after it was emptied out.  Our dishwasher died on Christmas Eve of 2010.  Most of the minimal counter space was used for drying dishes.  I would show you the picture of what it usually looked like but I'd have to kill you and that's not nice.

Anyway, notice the drop ceilings and florescent lights.  The lovely plastic parquet floor tiles (they're self stick!), the wall paper (peach and turquoise), cabinets that have lost most of their shelves and drawers that are falling apart.  What you can't see are the beautiful backsplash tiles.  I had to immortalize these things for posterity.  Are you ready?

I believe they are monarch butterflies.  They are definitely unattractive. 

Here's what it looks like now.

Yikes!

Kitchen Progress

The demolition of my kitchen is coming along.  We have foundation and footers, the siding is all off and the inside is down to studs.  The inside of my house is covered in a fine white dust.  It actually is kind of fun to walk through the torn up space and imagine what it's going to be like when it's done.  I'm fortunate to have a lot of talented people working with me to make this right.  It's a lot more detail oriented than I ever imagined.  Needless to say I have a really big headache.

My kitchen

My kitchen could rival those on the ugliest kitchen renovation shows.  It's poorly laid out, has all really ugly 70's colors (beige!, brown!!, monarch butterflies on the tiles!!!), and it is drafty.  And when I say drafty, I mean it's usually around 50 degrees in the winter.  The people we bought the house from put a separate heater in to heat the kitchen area but it's hard to heat the arctic tundra when there is air flowing through the uninsulated crawl space and the beautiful drop ceiling tiles are moving with the blowing wind.  Why didn't we insulate the crawl space ourselves you ask?  Well, you would have to be able to get in there and you can't.  It's blocked by heat ducts.  You can't reach the plumbing under the sink either because it's down there too (and yes the pipes freeze...often).  Also, there's no hood over the stove and no place to plug one in even if you wanted to buy one.  Also, there was paneling in the table area.  Wood grain paneling.  It looked like it had animals burned into it (remember those wood burning projects you did in middle school?).  Pheasants and deer and elk and stuff.  I'll see if I can find a photo of it.  We actually painted it because it was more hideous than any of us could bear to look at every day.  All in all, it's awesome.

I've lived in this house and used this kitchen for over 9 years and we just started a kitchen renovation project.  It's been planned for more than 2 years but it's been a crazy mess to try to to figure out.  If my budget was unlimited, it would be great but it's not. 

Anyway, I thought I would chronicle the events on this blog and also see how Evil Sid deals with it.  It should be entertaining.

This is not a dog blog

I really never meant for this to be such a dog-centric place. I guess it's because I've had so much trouble with him that it makes me spew about it. Anyway, last week I made this stuff called "Chocolate Crack". The recipe is from Serious Eats. Very simple, very good, and according to 2/3 of my household y people, very addicting. You can get the recipe here: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/chocolate-crack-chocolate-bark.html

It's really simple. Just saltines covered in a buttery brown sugar goo and baked for 5 minutes then covered in chocolate that you spread around when it melts. Deceptively simple and good.

Just thought I'd share. I wish I took a picture but I didn't. Maybe next time I make something good I'll remember to do that.

Why my dog's life is so much fun

After the last dog fight debacle (see below), poor Sid started throwing up all over the place, he won't eat, he's a mess. I take the dog back to the vet (who is now wealthy because of me) and find out he has a parasite (and he lost 5 pounds...can I have some of that parasite?). $350 later I go home with 4 different medications. Dog gets better and we think all is well. But no. Apparently he has Fanconi Syndrome. This is an extremely rare disease usually found in Basenji's. You can google it. It's some renal tubule malfunction. Anyway, now the dog drinks a lot and pees a lot and it's all loads of fun. Nothing they can do but monitor the symptoms. Did I mention that every time I take him back to be "monitored", the lab work costs $200? I'm running out of dog related funds. Plus I'm tired because he wants to go outside at 4 AM. It's making me rethink dog ownership. I have had dogs since I was 4 (which is a really long time but I'm not going to tell you how long) and I have never had one that had this much trouble all within a month.

I have to take him back in 2-3 weeks which will be more like 4. Hopefully he'll be doing better.