if I had a hammer....
Today, and every day since the middle of last week there has been the sound of construction coming from the downstairs of my house. The squeal of a table saw, the reverberations of hammering. I'm so excited to see progress on the new kitchen. This weekend, after the contractors leave, Doug and I will begin the process of doing the tile, drywall, painting and trim. Then the contractors come back and finish the job.
Fortunately we're working with a great company that is allowing us to do some of the work ourselves in order to save some money. With all the spending going on now, it's hard to see the money saved, but I know it's there. For example the billing on drywall was 3500 for material, and 3500 for labor. We've spent just over 500 on material, and will be doing the labor ourselves.
It's interesting having contractors in the house, seeing the same guys every day. You almost miss them when they're gone. Most of them have been really cool. Joe, the plumber, Mark the carpenter, and Ryan the heating guy have each spent a week here. Nice guys, all of them.
Last night I made Sauerkraut Soup from a recipe I saw over at nami-nami a few months ago. I've made it many times since I saw the recipe and have tweaked it to suite my tastes a bit - but not much. Oh my goodness it is good. I can't explain it right now, but I'll try to later. It's the kind of food I feel like I still have room for in my belly even though I'm absolutely full because it is just so tasty.
*drool*
I'll post pics later. But the cool thing was that I heated up the pot today and fed Mark and Joe and myself a lunch of hot soup and sour rye bread n' butter. I know, I know -- it's the feeding people thing, I just can't help it.
The other night I made fresh dumplings to go in the left over chicken and dumplings so that Doug could take some into work to share with his co-worker. They've been doing water testing all week, so they're out in the chill. It was important to do that - important to know, I suppose, that I was able to send a warm spot over into someone's day. Home cooking does that - perhaps is that all the love and reverent handling of the ingredients gets tranferred -- and food is more of the medium, carries it like water crackers do good cheese. I don't think this is true of all food, a lot of the time it's about the nuance and taste and so forth -- but homecooking-style food doesn't just feed the stomach, it really does warm the soul.
Fortunately we're working with a great company that is allowing us to do some of the work ourselves in order to save some money. With all the spending going on now, it's hard to see the money saved, but I know it's there. For example the billing on drywall was 3500 for material, and 3500 for labor. We've spent just over 500 on material, and will be doing the labor ourselves.
It's interesting having contractors in the house, seeing the same guys every day. You almost miss them when they're gone. Most of them have been really cool. Joe, the plumber, Mark the carpenter, and Ryan the heating guy have each spent a week here. Nice guys, all of them.
Last night I made Sauerkraut Soup from a recipe I saw over at nami-nami a few months ago. I've made it many times since I saw the recipe and have tweaked it to suite my tastes a bit - but not much. Oh my goodness it is good. I can't explain it right now, but I'll try to later. It's the kind of food I feel like I still have room for in my belly even though I'm absolutely full because it is just so tasty.
*drool*
I'll post pics later. But the cool thing was that I heated up the pot today and fed Mark and Joe and myself a lunch of hot soup and sour rye bread n' butter. I know, I know -- it's the feeding people thing, I just can't help it.
The other night I made fresh dumplings to go in the left over chicken and dumplings so that Doug could take some into work to share with his co-worker. They've been doing water testing all week, so they're out in the chill. It was important to do that - important to know, I suppose, that I was able to send a warm spot over into someone's day. Home cooking does that - perhaps is that all the love and reverent handling of the ingredients gets tranferred -- and food is more of the medium, carries it like water crackers do good cheese. I don't think this is true of all food, a lot of the time it's about the nuance and taste and so forth -- but homecooking-style food doesn't just feed the stomach, it really does warm the soul.
posted by Laura | 1:26 PM
6 Comments:
Somehow my low-carb protein bar dinner just became horribly inadequate. Will you start FedExing me food? *sigh*
P.S. Are you taking lots of pictures of the transformation? I plan on doing a scrapbook when we finally tear this place apart.
Ya know, I have a cooler that some turkey my mom ordered on QVC came in. They shipped it in the cooler, with dry ice.
hrm. a good excuse to play with dry ice......
and pics, yep taking all kinds of pics -- which is sort of fun, too :)
Laura, if you opened a restaurant it'd be full 24/7! Seriously, if not a restaurant, maybe some sort of business that involves food. Just a thought.
The problem is this:
1. I lack your ability
2. I lack your culinary motivation
3. I lack your cookbooks/knowledge
Now if you wanted to trade services, I'm sure I could fart around with website stuff or maybe tie-dye you some undies. Lol.
Hi Laura - I'm so glad to hear that you like the Hungarian sauerkraut soup I posted about! Looking forward to seeing pictures of it. I plan to make it again soon, too, this time tweaking a bit according to helpful tips left by Hungarian readers of my blog:)
You know, it occurs to me that the restaurant suggestion is actually a very fine one as it means you can work from home. I don't mean open an actual restaurant but you could produce to sell at local farmers' markets, start some kind of online order business, or agree to supply say desserts, cakes, biscuits and pies to local bistros and coffee shops. You're reliable, and gifted at culinary experimentation so I'm sure a sample batch would guarantee interest so why not make a few approaches?
The down side is that it would make cooking a task rather than play but you would be turning one of your skills into income, and who knows where that might lead? You might even want to open your own restaurant in time, once you know the ropes. Talk to Mr Barnhenge and see if the idea has legs :)
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