365 Photo Friday

 

Is it springtime yet?

  

Dinner: creamy broccoli soup, green salad, grilled cheese with caramelized onions and avocado

  

My new Bromeliad, a sale item I picked up after Valentine's Day 

  

Tiny yellow flowers

 

Another muffin teaser

New Kitchen!

And its courtesy of my pets. This is kind of a long story...

It was a Wednesday. About three weeks ago. I was woken up at 5:00am, by a sound that you never want to hear in your home, much less in the early morning hours when you had been soundly sleeping just before. I won't go in to detail, but suffice it to say I have a sick bulldog on my hands. Unfortunately I frightened him when I leaped out of bed and he ran through the house and onto the couch, taking his... sick... with him. Thank goodness I have a leather couch.

Anyway, we cleaned up and sent Mac outside. We had a Little Green Machine carpet spot cleaner, and Chris sprayed a bunch of cleaner on the carpet in the bedroom to clean up after Mac. It was then that we discovered that the carpet cleaner no longer had suction. Our carpet had become a sewer. Now, we had talked about tearing out the carpet in the bedroom quite a few times before and installing the same laminate flooring that we have in the living area, but its a good deal of work and we're inherently lazy. That laziness was cured!

On his lunch break Chris headed over to The Home Depot to pick up the flooring. That's when we found out it had been discontinued. Fortunately there were some packages of it still in the store, though they were nearly all opened and re-taped. The worker helping him told Chris he could have 15% off the opened packs, and the other worker who helped him get it all up to the register asked for 50% off, to which the cashier agreed. And then the cashier only rang up one pack, at 50% off, and completely ignored the other six or seven! Chris felt bad for a moment, but they would just throw out the opened discontinued packs anyway, so headed on out. Score!

That night we tore the carpet out of the bedroom. That's not quite as easy as it sounds, since we can't really remove the bed frame and the Bowflex, so we had to move pieces of furniture around and wrestle it all out. That completed, a few nights later we started the installation of the new flooring. I had to dismantle the closet organization system so we could run the flooring all the way across the room, but by the following evening we had it all completed. I still need to install the baseboards, but I really dislike miters so I'll get to it eventually.

How does this relate to my new kitchen? Well, my dishwasher died on the same day that Mac exploded and the carpet cleaner stopped sucking. It stopped draining and made horrible loud clicking sounds when I tried to run it. I have to admit, I was not disappointed since it was the loudest thing in the house. Seriously, I hated it. I would run it before bed or before leaving the house so I didn't have to listen to it. And Chris has been wanting a new fridge with an integrated ice maker so he didn't have to keep refilling ice trays. In fact, he's been talking about it forever, so we figured we'd buy a dishwasher and fridge. And hey, if we could toss in a range for a good price, why not?

After I played a concert that Saturday I headed over to Sears to check out their appliances. That was a mistake. They treated me like an idiot, I swear. And I can't even put my finger on what it was in particular, but I did not feel like a valued customer there. The guy "helping" me even gave me grief for wanting a specific height since we keep our microwave on top of the fridge. But we have limited counter space and are taller people, so it works just fine for us. I headed home defeated.

The next day we went together to Direct Appliance, where we had a much better experience. We decided on a floor model Frigidaire dishwasher for a great price, and ordered a matching range. They didn't have the fridge we wanted, so we headed on over to Lowe's where we found one that would match fairly well, though its not stainless steel like the other two but "silver mist" (easier cleaning!). A few days later the fridge was delivered and we installed it ourselves. Then I got a call from Direct Appliance that they have double-sold the dishwasher, so they would give us the next model up for the same price. Wow! Last week the range and dishwasher were delivered, and we installed those too.

I now have a new fridge that makes ice and has more room that my old one. I have a new dishwasher that is so quiet, its music to my ears whenever I run it. And I have a new flat-top stove/oven with two big burners rather than just one, and a window in the oven so I can check on what I'm cooking without opening it. And they're all energy-efficient. Its incredible! And the kitchen looks so nice now:

 

The new range

 
 

I made muffins, which I'll post in a day or two

The new, whisper-quiet dishwasher

 And the fridge!

This became our Valentine's Day and anniversary gift for each other. While Chris doesn't cook often, he does enjoy eating, so it works out for both of us. :)

 

365 Photo Friday

This was a busy week, so I only have some photos I took on a walk the other day.

Daisies

 Yellow flowers

 Blade of grass

 Tire tracks

In Bloom

There has been a glut of food posts lately. In fact, Chris is kinda teasing me about it and asked where the dogs have been. So honey, just for you...

We've had quite a bit of rain lately, which makes taking the dogs out for walks a little difficult and unpleasant. However all of this water has caused an explosion of greenery and the flowers are starting to really proliferate on our favorite walking hill. I took Mac and Ayla up there the other day, so here's a little slideshow of our walk. Ayla zooms around like crazy, bounding over the tall plants (and Mac), while Mac huffs along right in front of me, stopping to eat the occasionally tasty bit of green. The rainclouds filling the sky give a little extra drama to everything as well. Its a beautiful time of year in the Bay Area.

(You can pause the slideshow at any point by hovering your mouse over it and then clicking on the button with the square in it, aka "stop.")

365 Friday

Down the rabbit hole...

Home improvement (more to come...)

Chambord and champagne

My Reebok EasyTones finally arrived

Creepy Ayla will eat your soul

Happy Ayla will run around like a giant doofus

Bird's nest and tree buds

Tempeh Provenҫal

Tempeh is a fermented soybean cake that has its origins in Indonesia. And its much tastier than that sounds.


See? It boasts a higher protein, dietary fiber, and vitamin content than its cousin tofu, as well as a firmer texture and stronger flavor.

I made this recipe for Tempeh Provenҫal from Vegetarian Times, and its pretty good. A few changes I would make for the next time:

- Double the sauce recipe (at least!). Its tasty, but there was just about enough there for the two of us.- I don't know what tempeh they used, but mine did not turn out all pretty and golden like their picture. I think pan-frying rather than baking the tempeh would be good, to give it a crisper texture. And cut the tempeh into six thinner pieces instead of four.

- VT suggests serving it atop rice, but I used polenta instead and think it was a good choice. The soft polenta is a nice contrast to the crisped tempeh and slightly chunky sauce.

- I also sprinkled some blue cheese crumbles over the polenta to add an earthy flavor to the dish, which went well with the tangy sauce.

The recipe itself was straightforward, though I was doing a few different things all at one at the end:

Cut your tempeh and put in a baking dish. Bring 1/2 cup white wine, 1Tbsp. herbes de Provence, 1 Tbsp. oil, a couple cloves of crushed garlic, and a dash of pepper to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour it over the tempeh and stick it in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight to marinate.

When its ready, put the tempeh on a baking sheet (reserve the marinade) and bake in a 400°F oven for 15 minutes, then flip and bake for another 15 minutes.

While the tempeh is baking, strain the marinade into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and add a chopped red bell pepper. Simmer 5 to 7 minutes, until the pepper is soft and the liquid is nearly absorbed. Then add 1/4 cup tomato sauce, 2 Tbsp. drained rinsed capers, and a pinch of sugar. Season with salt and pepper, and cook for about 10 minutes over low, until the sauce is thick.

While the sauce is cooking, I whipped up some quick polenta: Bring 2 cups water + 1 cup milk nearly to a boil. Slowly add 1 cup polenta in a steady stream while whisking, so you don't get clumps. Cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring often, until thick and creamy. Polenta will set up quick, which isn't a bad thing. By the time I got our meal on the table, after plating and taking pictures, it was no longer porridge-like, but still yummy.

The pepper sauce and polenta should finish up at just about the same time. Add 1/2 cup chopped basil to the sauce (I didn't have any on hand), and plate.

I served mine with some roasted Brussels sprouts. This is a hearty meal!

Tools: Garlic Press

I've used a garlic press or two in the past, and have been woefully disappointed with them. They didn't seem to expel the garlic well at all, were difficult to clean, and just weren't worth the pocket change to me. However, that has all changed thanks to this Calphalon garlic press I picked up a few weeks back.

Simply put your garlic clove, with paper and all, in the cup of the garlic press. (This might be where I was going wrong before, since I always peeled garlic before trying to press it.)

And squeeze. There's some good leverage action here, so squeezing is easy.

The garlic is extruded from the perforated end.

Scrape off the extruded garlic, then open the press and remove the paper. If you don't press too hard when you're squeezing, its easy to peel off.

And you easily have a pile of minced garlic, ready for whatever you're cooking.

You can do this directly over your pot or pan, where the juices that are pressed out can fall right into what you are adding the garlic to. I think my fingers are especially thankful - I'm clumsy and have to be very careful not to nick myself when chopping, especially something fine like minced garlic. Love it!