Going Strong

Well we made it through week 2 and we are going strong. I am actually really enjoying being challenged to cook with ingredients I would have never purchased. Ben and I are discovering we really do like a lot of vegetables we didn't think we would. This week I was especially dreading eating collard greens, more on that later. Let's start at the beginning.

On Sunday Ben and I spent the majority of our day working on our basement tearing up the remnants of vinyl/linoleum flooring that was glued to the cement floor. Terrible project and I am very glad to be finished with it. Ben did 2/3 of the work, and I would work shifts. At one point I begged to go to the grocery store (my least favorite place on a Sunday), in order to take a break. Luckily Ben loves food just as much as I do, so I was granted a free pass to run to the grocery store.

Sunday night as a reward for our hard work, I whipped up a locally grown meal (for the most part). I picked fresh basil from my overgrown pot of basil on the patio and made Grilled Chicken with Basil Dressing. I actually followed the recipe for the most part, I omitted the fennel, and used boneless chicken breasts but other than that I followed the instructions. Last week we were just dipping our toes into the world of Kale and Kohlrabi, so this week I decided we need to try them more natural. I made Sauteed Kale with Kohlrabi. The only change I made was replacing the salted pistachios with unsalted roasted sunflower seeds. I have to say this is one dish I would absolutely make again, in fact I could eat a bowl of it right now (and is 5:50 in the morning). I definitely do need a mandoline slicer to slice the kohlrabi. I used a box grater that had slicing blades on the side. While the Kohlrabi came out fine, it took my thumb about 3 days to recover from being sliced open then covered in lime juice when I juiced the limes. As with everything else, I am not a graceful cook. We rounded out our plate with grilled garlic scapes. I didn't use a recipe for this, just brushed them with olive oil and grilled them in our veggie basket on the grill. They have a very mild garlic flavor and were fine...I wouldn't purchase them, but if we get them in our CSA box again I wouldn't be upset. We also split a bottle of wine (locally grown at Trader Joes) to celebrate finishing the basement....yum! 

Yes, my chicken is half gone...I forgot to take a picture earlier :) 

Ratings:
Basil Chicken: Ali-8, Ben-7
Sauteed Kale with Kohlrabi: Ali-10 (Lets take a moment and appreciate this, I started out 2 weeks ago claiming to HATE Kale). Ben- 8
Grilled Garlic Scapes: Ali-5  Ben-6

On Monday, the food I was dreading was up for cooking. We made burgers on the grill (locally grown at Costco- ha!), with Sweet and Tangy Sauteed Collard Greens, and the left over Sweet Potato Turnip Swirl I made on Friday. I had a heck of a time finding a recipe for collard greens that seemed even a tiny bit healthy, every recipe contained bacon (which here is a confesssion, I don't really like bacon) or a ton of cream cheese. Don't get me wrong I love unhealthy food, love it, dream about it, eat it pretty frequently but the point of getting the CSA box was not to figure out how to eat vegetables covered in bacon mixed with a brick of cream cheese. So I searched for recipes with collard greens without bacon and stumbled upon the recipe linked above. In this recipe I used Olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and replaced the 5 tablespoons of melted butter with olive oil. This recipe was pretty good but I would decrease the amount of dressing by 50%. Our collard greens were dripping in dressing. I do realize this is my fault for just dumping the whole thing of dressing I made on the greens, but then I poured a ton of it off the greens and it was still dripping in dressing. The balsamic vinegar gives the greens a nice kick, and Ben and I were both pleasantly surprised not to hate Collard Greens. 

Oh yes, there was cheese on top of the potatoes and collard greens. Ben is from Wisconsin, we LOVE cheese. :) 

Ratings: 
Sweet & Tangy Collard Greens: Ali- 6  Ben- 6


Lets review how we did this week, here is what I have left from the box: 
Broccoli, Cucumbers and Cilantro that are going to the cabin with us
Green Onion that will hopefully still be good
A little of the speckled romaine lettuce (we used this in salads, on sandwiches but not main dishes)
Green Onions
Beets from week one

So far I have not let any vegetables go into the garbage.....so I am considering it a success. The box for this week that we pick up today is loaded with goodies, nothing I am scared to cook. 

Here is the list: 

Curly kale

Red romaine lettuce

Parsley

Beets

Carrots

Cucumbers

Zucchini 

Peas

Scallions

Okay I lied, there are more beets this week. Help me out people, what do you do with beets? 

Happy 4th of July!!! 

Cheers, 

Ali 

Pressure...

The pressure of getting a new box of veggies every week and trying to use them in a week is huge. I have to say our first week went pretty good, and we have used everything except for the beets. Great news....except we got a whole new box yesterday.

To use our veggies this week we tried a few new recipes, and I ate a couple salads. I have to say Ben has been liking most of the veggies more than I thought he would.

Ben and I had lettuce wraps at a restaurant a few months ago and ever since then he has been wanting me to make them at home. Since we had a head of butter lettuce in the fridge we decided now was the time. I used the PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe from the site Damn Delicious, and as usual the recipes from this site never disappoint. Ben claims to hate water chestnuts, I love them, so I put them in the dish. I also ended up using ground turkey breast in this recipe since that is what I had in the freezer. Ben and I both really enjoyed  this dish. I also made Sauteed Radishes, which we both enjoyed.

Ratings: Lettuce Wraps- Ali: 8 Ben:8   Sauteed Radishes- Ali: 7 Ben: 7

I was dreading using the kale because the last time I ate Kale, I hated it. I made Kale chips and ended up throwing most of them away. The pasta dish I made this time made me not hate Kale. To be honest you really can't taste the kale in this dish. I thought this recipe was okay, I like the pasta but I think it was missing something. I would consider adding fresh tomatoes in addition to the sun dried tomatoes and some more heat to this dish. This dish was a little risky to make for Ben because he hates beans, usually I just skip beans in recipes but I decided to take a risk. Besides pouting about the beans, Ben did eat the dish and I think he liked it. I didn't take a picture of this one.
Ratings: Ali-6 Ben- 7

Finally, tonight on my exciting Friday night in (that might sound sarcastic but I was thrilled to be at home tonight after a busy week) I decided to listen to the thunderstorm roll in, drink a spotted cow, whip up a salad, and some Sweet Potato Turnip Swirl. This recipe was good, I enjoyed the citrus flavor the orange zest added. I did not add the sugar it calls for, and I did not miss it at all in the dish. Ben is out at happy hour tonight, so he has not tried these yet, but I am sure they will be a snack when he gets home.
Ratings: Ali- 7 Ben-TBD

Here is a preview of what we got yesterday in the new box of veggies:
1. Kohlrabi
2. Freckles Romaine Lettuce
3. Garlic Scapes
4. Scallions
5. Cucumbers
6. Collard Greens
7. Broccoli
8. Cilantro
9. Rainbow Lacinato Kale

I have to figure how to eat all of this, plus beets before we leave to go out of town on Thursday (and pick up another new box). I am enjoying the challenge so far and we have had some fun new meals. If you have any meal ideas for the items above, I am open to suggestions. :)

Cheers,
Ali

A New Series....CSA Cooking

I am going to start a new blogging series, hopefully this will be more than 1 post. :) Ben and I have had a busy few months but we finally wrapped up the wedding activities last weekend. The weddings were awesome but we are ready to get back to boring normal life.

We decided to sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share. We get a box of produce every week from now through mid October. We decided it would be a good way to try new vegetables, eat a little healthier and try new recipes. I love to cook, and it gives me an excuse to use all my new kitchen gadgets. :)

Yesterday we got our first box of veggies, and it contained a whole bunch of items I have never eaten. Here is the list for this week:

1. Kohlrabi
2. Beets
3. Hakurei Turnips
4. D’Avignon Radishes
5. Cilantro
6. Green Butterhead Lettuce
7. Lacinato Kale
8. Swiss Chard

I have never tried Kohlrabi, Beets, Turnips or Swiss Chard.

Tonight for dinner Ben and I decided to try Roasted Kohlrabi and Sauteed Swiss Chard. Ben and I were both more nervous about the Kohlrabi. It turned out that even though Ben pretended to gag while chopping it, we both really liked it. I think it helped that it had cheese all over it. :) I think it tastes like zucchini and has the texture of a potato. The Swiss chard was a little hard for me to choke down, it was kind of slimy. I think I might like it better in a different recipe.

Chopped Swiss Chard

Kholrabi Roasting

Swiss Chard all finished

Roasted Kholrabi

Dinner is served!

Here are our ratings (Scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being "never again" and 10 being "please make every night")
Roasted Kohlrabi:   Ben-6, Ali-7
Sauteed Swiss Chard: Ben-6, Ali-2

My goal is to blog about our adventures trying new veggies or at least new recipes at least once a week.

Cheers,

Ali

January Update!!

Happy 2015! I still don't believe that it is January already, but here we are enjoying subzero temperatures and hibernating so I guess I need to accept it. Ben and I have slowed down on the house project front, we have instead been spending more time at the gym, getting ready for the wedding, and binge watching TV series. I have to say, I have enjoyed the change. That said, we have done a few projects and have a few lingering I would like to see done this winter.

After much debate and discussion we decided to have Home Depot install our counter tops for us. Ben was pretty determined he was going to do it himself but somehow after 6 months of discussion, I wore him down. We decided to install new laminate counter tops; while stone counter tops are lovely we didn't want to invest that much money in this house. We picked out a color right before Thanksgiving, and they came out to measure the next week. 

We had been discussing what kind of sink we would like. I did not want stainless because we have terribly hard water and I didn't want to be constantly cleaning up water spots. I really wanted a granite composite sink. I did a bunch of research on them and there were pretty mixed reviews. The sink I was originally going to buy from Home Depot had terrible reviews, so after a lot of researching I found a sink I wanted. It was about $100 more then I wanted to spend. Being the bargain shopper that I am, I ended up finding the sink on Overstock.com, used a day after thanksgiving coupon and gift card, and ended up paying only $10 more than I wanted to spend. Problem solved. I was a little nervous about the sink because we had never seen it in person, I randomly picked a color from the swatches online but when the sink came we both loved it. 

The second week of December, the installer called to tell us the counter tops were ready to be installed. Ben and I were both shocked because this was about 3 weeks earlier than we were originally told, but also very excited. This led to me to do some very quick purchasing of a faucet for the sink (water spot and fingerprint resistant), I spent a little more than I wanted to but it was worth it to not have water spots. 

The day of install Ben and I both had the day off. We were told that they would be there between 9-11:30 to install the counter tops. We rushed through our workouts at the gym in order to be home and showered prior to the installers arrival. Ben had removed the counter tops and sink the night before so I was really hoping that the installer would show up, as our only sink at this point was the bathroom sink. :) At 9 am I convinced Ben to help me work on our playlist for the wedding dance and for the next 2.5 hours every time Ben or I thought we heard a car, Ben would jump up to look out the window to see if it was the counter top guy. For the record he didn't arrive until 11:27, so Ben spent a lot of time looking out the window. The installer showed up, and spent 3 hours installing the counter tops and cutting the hole for our sink. About half way through the process Ben stated that he was "so glad he was not installing the counter tops". Win for Ali!! 

After the counter tops were installed we had the fun 'couples bonding' project of installing the sink, faucet and hooking up the dishwasher. It was so much fun (please sense the sarcasm), Ben did most of the work, thank god and by the next afternoon I had a functioning kitchen again. 

The new counter tops are beautiful but I think my favorite part is the new sink. It is larger and deeper than our old sink and it is clean. For those of you that have never been to our house, our old sink was disgusting, it was stained, had huge chips in it and it never looked clean. It drove me crazy. The new sink is a huge improvement. We purchased some bar stools this past weekend, and are loving our new larger island. We had dinner "at the bar" last night. :) 

I was going to talk about other improvements but this post is way too long already...onto the pictures! 

Before pictures:  

In process pictures: 

Our first glance at the counter tops! 

Counter top installation complete!

All Done: 

Huge Improvement!

My favorite part!!

And just for fun- look how far we have come in 2 years: 

This is the oldest picture I could find of the kitchen (Before I moved in and Gary painted):

The paint, the doors, the floors, the appliances

And now: 

 More updates soon, I promise!

Cheers,

A

An Early Christmas!!!

Well the day finally arrived to take the plunge and buy appliances. Our fridge had been making weird sounds for months, and our stove had become almost non-usable. By the end of this summer I was down to one burner that actually functioned, and 3 that only 25% of the coil would head up. Yes, I probably could have bought new coils for the stove and got by, but I made a good case to Ben on why we should buy the appliances (okay, really a good case for myself because Ben just said okay when I said I wanted to get appliances).

We got a really good deal on the appliances from Lowes over labor day. I don't love ordering things from Lowes, their website is annoying and they are terrible at keeping you updated on the status of your order but price won out. In addition to their Labor Day sale, we had a 10% off coupon from Lowes that I was sure was not going to work on order but it did. So after a few days of research on the appliances, going to Lowes and seeing them in person, I ended up ordering them online (mainly because our stove was $100 cheaper online).

We were going to have to wait 3 weeks for appliances according to the website because they had to order our stove and dishwasher. Based on my experience in ordering things from Lowes in the past I was hoping to have appliances by Christmas. :) The appliances were supposed to be in on September 28, and someone from Lowes called me before that to confirm that everything should be in the September 28, and then they would schedule delivery. On September 29 I hadn't heard anything and being the patient person that I am I called them promptly at 8am to inquire. They super helpful (please sense my sarcasm here) informed me that the appliances had not arrived and were not scheduled to arrive for another week. I asked if they were planning on letting me know this, but as usual that question lead to an awkward silence. He did suggest calling later in the week to confirm things were still on track. Probably not bad advice, so a few days later, I decided to use my 4 minutes of free time at 3pm to call Lowes. The poor guy who answered the phone informed me that my appliances were in and they had called to schedule my delivery but since I hadn't called them back they pushed out my delivery another week (I later found out they had called me 15 minutes prior and just because I didn't answer they moved my delivery date by a week). Lets just say I wasn't super happy with the guy and I did get him to agree to move my delivery to the following Tuesday.

Remember the fridge problem when we put in the new floors? Well after much shopping around for a fridge that would fit under the cabinets, we determined that it was time to rip out the cabinet over the fridge. Ben and I spent many nights after work, fixing the wall where the cabinet used to go, painting the new end cap for the cabinets, painting the walls, installing new trim around our back door, etc. Our delayed appliance delivery left plenty of time to get everything done.

I scheduled delivery for a Tuesday afternoon when I could leave work early and Ben could also be home. I was freaking out that our floors would be scratched, the appliances wouldn't fit, they wouldn't be the ones we had ordered. I have to say that after all of my frustration with Lowes trying to get the appliance delivery scheduled, the actual delivery went pretty smooth. The new stove and fridge were plugged in and I immediately fell in love. The dishwasher was delivered to the middle of the kitchen because we still had to get the plumbing correct for the dishwasher. Ben spent the last two nights working on the plumbing and finally at 10:15 last night, we ran our first load of dishes in the dishwasher!!! WOO HOO! There were 2 things that were hilarious about this, 1. We actually argued on how to place the dishes in the dishwasher - mind you were only had like 2 plates and 4 glasses to wash. 2. We laid on the floor and monitored for leaks for the first 20 minutes of the cycle. Awesome couple bonding time. At this point in the night I went to sleep but Ben stayed up for the last 40 minutes of the cycle to make sure nothing went wrong.

We are down to replacing the counter tops and the kitchen sink and then we are done with the upstairs!

Here are a few pictures from the process:

The cabinet is gone!

Making progress....

All ready for new appliances!

Here they are!

I hate to pick favorites, but this is definitely an upgrade!!

I love these too. Fully functional appliances!

We hope to get counter tops and a new sink soon!! 

Cheers,

Ali 

Summer Update....

It has been a long time since I last posted but it was summer and Ben and I enjoyed every minute of it. It feels like it just began and it is already Fall. We spent summer just as it should be, at the cabin, visiting friends and family, and eating as many meals as we could outside. Not working weekends this summer made it extra special, I definitely enjoyed every minute of it.

The best part of this summer was that we took the majority of the summer off from house projects. It was much needed and well deserved (in my opinion). I can never totally stay away from house projects so we did some small projects outside. We tackled tearing down our shed, and redoing some landscaping in May. Also one Saturday this summer my Dad came over to help trim some trees. Well that project turned into Gary and Ben cut down 3 trees. There was a lot of screaming (by me) and only a small injury when Gary fell off a ladder. That was probably one of the scariest things I have watched happen. Luckily he was only 5 feet off the ground and managed to fall onto a bunch of vines that cushioned his fall. I of course instantly went into nurse mode and was ready to call 911, but he was fine. Of course 2 weeks later when we were at my parent's house, Ben and Gary started strategizing about cutting some huge trees down in the yard. My mom wasn't thrilled with that idea so she smartly hired some trained professionals for that project. :)

Labor Day weekend Ben and I didn't go to the cabin but instead decided to do some house projects. Really what I should say is that I decided I wanted to some more landscaping projects. Ben was just the lucky guy I chose to help me with them. We moved a bunch of rock from the back yard to our side yard, planted some new bushes and laid down mulch. On Sunday we finally decided to install our new window in the kitchen. It was the only window on the main floor that hadn't been replaced since Ben bought the house. Ben tore out the old window and then we realized we had purchased the wrong size window, back to Menards we went. We couldn't find a window that would fit exactly, the guy at Home Depot suggested special ordering a window. Thanks, sir, super helpful but I already have a hole in the side of my house. Instead we went to Menards and found a window that would be a tight fit but we thought we could make it work. Ben and I had a wonderful time installing the window (alright that was a complete lie). The important thing is that at the end of the day we had a new window that functioned properly.

Here are a few pictures of the window project, the landscaping you might have to wait to see until next Spring. :)

Out with the old and in with the new...

We still need to finish the inside trim around the window but we are going to wait to do that until we get our new counter tops.

That is all for this post, next post I will fill you in on one my favorite but most expensive purchases.

Cheers,

A

The little touches...

So this post is delayed by 3 months. After the marathon floor installation I thought putting in trim was going to be a breeze. Now that I am writing that I can't stop laughing. It's okay though, this project was just more ammunition for our next house to be in 'turn key' condition. :)

Ben went out of town to help his brother move for the weekend and my parents were dying to see our new floors so I conned them into helping me paint all of the base boards for the upstairs. Again this project was supposed to be easy. We already had most of the trim for the family room and all I had to do was go to Lowes (where Ben positive he bought it there...or Home Depot, but definitely not Menards) and purchase the trim for the kitchen and hallway. So parents arrived on a Saturday in April, we loaded up in the Prius and headed to Home Depot with a sample of the existing base boards. No luck at Home Depot. Granted, Ben had purchased the base boards about 4 years prior, so I wasn't so sure we were going to be able to find the same thing. Next stop Lowes, nothing even close to similar. I googled the sku number, and came up with nothing. I figured it no longer existed. So I call Ben...he doesn't answer. Time for an executive decision. I find some base boards I like, and I decide to just buy all new baseboards for the upstairs. Problem solved. Or...so I thought. We got all of the baseboards home, and had a very productive afternoon painting everything white. The baseboards already were white so they just needed a quick coat of paint so they were the same white as everything else.

My dad- (aka Mr. Detail Oriented) was assigned the task of painting my favorite door in the kitchen white. I was extremely nervous about this, because I loved the door in it's current condition but we already had enough colors of wood going on the kitchen. Luckily, it turned out lovely.

Fast forward to Sunday evening when Ben gets home. He sees the baseboards I purchased and he instantly hates the material they are made out of. They are not styrofoam but something similar-ish. I offer that we can return them, ignoring the fact that they are already painted but Ben decides we can keep them. We spend the next 2 weeks installing these baseboards. There were lots of colorful words to go along with this project. The first saw blade we used to cut the boards melted them. Cue my laughing and Ben's colorful language. We tried another saw blade and had no problem. Next up, we don't have a 90 degree angle in our house, so every cut was frustrating. I officially became the fixer...Ben would cut, install and I would follow behind with putty, filling in the gaps. Then I spent my day off the next week laying on the floor doing touch up painting. Fun...not!

The next weekend we had to run to Menards to get some trim for around the cabinets and my worse nightmare happened. We are walking down the trim aisle and low and behold there is the baseboard I was looking for. Cue Ben's laughing and my immediate frustration. Ben was so sure he hadn't purchased the trim at Menards...he was positive, and he was lying. We did decided to buy enough of this baseboard to complete the family room. The bad news Menards takes terrible care of their trim so it was all nicked or dented in spots. We negotiated with the guy at Menards and walked out with $50 worth of trim for $11. It didn't matter that it was beat up in some spots since we had to trim the pieces anyways.

I think it took about 6 weeks from start to finish until the trim was done. I hated most of this project. I have no desire to repeat it but it does look really nice.

Here are a few pictures:


First a few to remind you where we started:

My favorite door before....

The old hallway view....

And now for the after- SO much better!!!

I love this door...it is the only cool anything we have in the house, I wish all the doors were original. 

The windows finally have trim, that only took 7 years :) 

The new hallway view!!

Absolutely nothing to do with trim, but it is my favorite spot in the house.
My best find on craigslist yet! 

I so far behind on blogging I cant even remember what we have done since then. I will be honest- not a lot. We did undertake a little landscaping project but other than that we have just been enjoying spring and summer. To finish the upstairs we need new countertops, appliances, and a window above the sink. The new window has been purchased and I think we may hold off on the countertops and appliances until after the wedding.

On a side note...some crafting disaster posts might return in the next few months. I was looking at one of my pinterest boards last night and there were a few projects that I forgot about that looked like they might be fun. We plan to spend the rest of summer outside as much as possible and trying to delegate as much wedding planning as we can to other people (ha)!

Until next time (which may be a week or 6 months)!

Cheers,
A