Wednesday, September 24, 2014

In the mean time

The remodeling is still on pause. There has been some missed communication, then I was out of town, then voice mail went unanswered, etc. I had to reselect tile for the area by the front door because the original selection (which supposedly had already been ordered - NOT) is no longer in production; installation is scheduled Sep. 30. There is an issue in the kitchen, too - besides not sealing the grout on the backsplash (which stains when tomato sauce is splashed on it - DUH), they did not seal the seams in the countertop, one of which is now humping up. I'm mentally rehearsing my kindly brontosaurus posture.

BUT. I did select a company for the deck and am waiting for installation to be scheduled. And I bought an apothecary (which I am slowly turning into a junk drawer condo) and a sofa. I've been rearranging furniture (and when I say "I", I mean "we" as my SO helps with the heavy lifting around here), so now the TV has been banished to the West Wing (which I think I shall rename The Den) and the livingroom is both fuller and more conducive to gatherings and conversation. That left nothing to sit on for TV watching, hence the sofa, which happens to be a sofa *bed*. I'm looking forward to hosting Women's Weekend once all the dust settles; there will be plenty of sleeping options.

Despite the snags, I am still very happy with the remodeling results. My house will never be in Better Homes and Gardens, but it suits me. I look forward to being here another twenty years or so.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

So many recipes, so little time!

Since I retired, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen, especially considering I live alone. While a lot of the cooking is because of the garden, a goodly portion of it is the result of running across dishes I want to try AND now having the time to actually make them. My MO is to leave a tab to each recipe open in my browser until I get around to making the dish, then if it is a winner, I add it to Pinterest.

For your own browsing pleasure, here are some of the goodies I have enjoyed the past few months (heavy on the zucchini):
This list does not include the recipes from cookbooks, like Tomato Jam from Food in Jars, Pizza Sauce from Preserving by the Pint and Shirley Estabrook Wood's Zucchini Bread from The Essential New York Times Cookbook. And there has been general canning and freezing going on as well. Needless to say, the eatin's been fine!