it's Emeril LaGothy!!!
Yes, it's officially Autumn, so that means that every Sunday, Mrs. SOG is driven from the scullery and I take over... bwahahahaha.....!!!

Nothing too out of hand today, my own take on a Greek pasta salad...

(click to embiggen...)

here's what you need to whip it up:

a six pack of Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale;
a 16.oz box of ziti;
a teaspoon each of: minced mint; minced rosemary; minced basil; minced oregano (all fresh from the herb garden, of course...)
about 12.oz of crumbled Feta cheese;
a dozen or so Kalamata olives, halved lengthwise, with pits removed;
a dozen or so grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise;
a dozen or so seedless purple grapes;
about two cups of fresh spinach, coarse chopped.
a little bit of extra virgin olive oil;
some coarse sea salt;

Ok, start by pouring two bottles of pumpkin ale into a frosted 1 liter mug... sip at regular intervals during the process... repeat as necessary...

then, boil that ziti, al dente, you know how to do that, right..?

while that's going on, cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spread the olive halves, tomato halves and grapes on the baking sheet, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with some sea salt; roast for about 12 minutes in a 450 oven until everything is just starting to sizzle and the grapes are just starting to collapse and caramelize.

drain the pasta and rinse with cold water, let it drain until almost dry, then transfer to a large bowl. mix in the all the rest of the ingredients, toss and throw it in the fridge until chilled.

serve chilled with your favorite lamb dish, with a little dollop of plain Greek yogurt on the side...

Enjoy!

---

40...


If New Jersey can have a blizzard, then I guess it's upon us...

and it's not all about shoveling snow, wet gloves and cold noses... it's also about COOKIES!




YAY FOR COOKIES!!!
Seriously, at the rate it's coming down, I can't keep up with it, I'll probably still be digging out tomorrow.

---

spew accordingly below...

---

t

ooh, shiny...


nothing like a freshly waxed oak dining room floor...






go ahead, make your day...

usually...


I'm hammering to get the latest project finished right now, like last year, when I was piecing in the last of the living room flooring at ten o'clock on the night before Thanksgiving, but this year, the mantle and bookcase project are done. So, having time on my hands, I've decided that today would be a great time to wax and buff the dining room floor and the floor in the foyer. I started at six thirty and I'm already about a third done, I should be finished by early afternoon. Have to do it in sections so I can move everything about. It really needed it, though, it hasn't had a good wax and buff since the spring.
In other news, here's what I'm planning as my next woodworking project, a tapered Roycroft book shelf, with through tenons and driven keys to hold it together.



I found that image on the website of an antique dealer, they're asking $3200.00 for it.
The original piece was made by the Roycroft studios in 1904 and sold for $20.00! I'll feel lucky if I can just purchase the wood for ten times that. I'm going to go for quartersawn oak for the framing, and use quartersawn oak ply for the sides, backs and edge joined boards for the shelves, which is a bit of a departure from the original, but will be easier to construct and save a few dollars. Here's the original ad for the piece...



I wonder if what they thought was just a commodity piece in their day would turn out to be a coveted work of the wood crafter's art today?
It will fit nicely in the odd corner we have in our living room.

Well, I think the latest application of wax is probably dry enough to start buffing, so back to work I go.



go ahead, make your day...

yay...


The toilet seat has been repaired...
Nice set of hinges, too. They have adjustable tension so the lid and seat don't flop around or fall if you lose your grip. You can actually have them suspended in mid air, in a fanned out effect, like the petals of some strange flower. Gave the lid and seat a nice coat of paste wax while I was at it, too, although I'm wondering about the sanity of that right now. Some slipping and sliding to happen, I'm sure.
There's something almost religious about toilet seats, which were, I'm quite sure, a great revelation in the day of their invention...
"They will beat their swords into toilet seats and their spears into toilet paper holders. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they feel the chill of cold, hard porcelain against their skin anymore."
Chic Sale 1:29
And on that note, I think I should get back to work.



go ahead, make your day...

raking is for light weights...


After surveying the grounds proper, I decided that manual labor of the leaf raking kind was not something I really wanted to undertake, so I changed the regular blade of the lawn mowing machine and installed the mulching blade from hell, The Gator Mulcher Blade. This thing is fucking medieval... I have a six and a half horse engine on my mowing machine and it takes all it can give to hurl that thing around, but the results are incredible. It slices, it dices, it pulverizes grass and leaves into a fine molecular powder and leaves none of those hayfield windrows that a regular mulching blade does. Has no mercy on small branches, either. Sounds wicked, too, sort of like an industrial sized branch mulching machine powered by a P-51 Mustang. It has lifting wings on the trailing edge that suck the grass and leaves up into it. Makes the mower run a bit hot, though, so I have to take breaks more often to let it cool down, not that I'm complaining, though. I dropped the mower height down a few notches and gave the grounds a real Marine buzz cut. Looks like the felt on a pool table. Now all I have to do is fire up the noisy, high carbon emitting 4-cycle leaf blower and clean off the walks and front porch and I think that's that for the outside today. I'll attack the back wood lot next weekend.
Later.



go ahead, make your day...

It's a WEEKEND WONDERLAND..!


The foul malady that has been suppressing my usually sunny demeanor is starting to wane, so that means no more languishing on the divan, holding the back of my hand against my forehead, moaning and groaning and generally looking pathetic, trying for some sympathy from my beloved, or at least the cat, and it's back to work this weekend... and such a fun-filled list awaits the attention my less than eager soul...

1. Replace the hinge on the damned toilet seat that broke two weeks ago. Although sitting on an unsecured toilet seat has its moments of high hilarity and adventure, the new hinge has arrived and it's time to say adieu to bowel and bladder emptying acrobatics. This, of course, could have been remedied almost immediately after the hinge broke, had we been in possession of a normal, good enough to plant your ass upon, Walmart $9.95 pink metal flake plastic squatter, by purchasing a new seat right away, but we have the most darling, solid cherry, espresso color, hand rubbed wax finish toilet seat that $84.00 can buy, so it is repair, not replace. It is, however, the perfect color to match the cabinet work in the bathroom and it is a round toilet seat, not one of those absurd elongated things, which would look ridiculous on our vintage porcelain behemoth of a commode. It was made sometime in the early part of the Twentieth Century, when water was cheap, getting rid of crap was cheaper and no one gave a second thought to using five or six gallons of water to get rid of last night's dinner. There is no fear of ever clogging that thing up, no matter how manly a deposit is left. No need for a courtesy flush here, friends. In fact, I would caution against it, as the venturi effect of that much water being released while your ass is sealing the opening would cause such a vacuum that you would probably suffer the prolapse of some important inner bit. The sound it makes when flushed is probably not unlike that massive sucking sound that occurred when the Titanic went down to it's last ever after... perhaps during the flush cycle, I could somehow arrange for the playing of 'Songe d'Automne', the old Episcopalian hymn supposedly played by the Titanic's band, as they stood braced against the tilted deck, until the cold and dark salt water muted their last, heroic strains... but enough of such talk.

2. Finish the tape and spackle work in the upstairs spare bedroom, so I can clean it up to make room so I can have a warm place to work on the built in bookcase and mantle for the living room.

3. Empty the closet under the center stairs so I can rip one of the walls out to install the electrical work and thermostat for the living room floor radiant heating.

4. Rake leaves and generally tidy up the grounds, they are a wreck.

I don't know if that is the order in which these chores will be at least attempted, as the weather prognosticators call for wet and dreary tonight and tomorrow, so I guess today will be the outside work and tomorrow will be the inside work. Such a gay and carefree life I lead...

So, it's another cup of coffee, then off to the Post Office and recycling place, then, I fear, to the tasks at hand. I'll chat with you later.




go ahead, make your day...

it's saturday...


i wasn't all that confident that i would make it through the week past to today without quitting my job. or should i say, leaving my current place of employment, as i'm not really sure what my f'n job really is any more. that's another story for another time, i think, but it's frustrating as shit. however, i made it and it's saturday. doesn't have the same thrilling ring to it as when i was a kid, when it meant getting up in the morning and having a quiet, leisurely breakfast, followed, especially on those rainy days or winter mornings, a short spell in front of the tv watching science fiction movies or detective movies or sometimes even a western. if the weather was nice, it was out the door and adventure was afoot. i spent a lot time as a kid wandering around in the woods alone, whole days, sometimes. maybe just climb a tree and hang out and watch and see what came by. never worried, as my parents never worried, that something horrible was going to befall me. funny how things change. now i never wander through the woods out back, into the state park, without a sidearm or a stout staff, or at least a long blade strapped to my leg. too many f'n wetbacks have set up camp in the less traveled areas round here. scary. and now saturdays have become a day less intended for relaxation, but running around like mad, doing the stuff you couldn't get to during the week. mine won't be quite as bad as usual, though. i managed to get out of the office at 2:00 yesterday and was home before 3:30, so i managed to get three quarters of the property mowed. fun things still on my list to do, though, include the weekly trip to the recycling place and the post office, finishing the mowing, then doing the trimming and weeding and doing what i can to prep the various gardens for the coming colder weather, potting up some plants that are in the ground now so i can bring them in over the winter, replacing the hinge on the toilet seat, doing some more spackle work on the spare bedroom, listing more crap on craig's list, and myriad other things that will pop up. still have to do a crap load of work on the outside of the place before it gets cold, still have to build some new lumber racks in the little shed to store the piles of lumber i have in the spare bedroom, which now have to go someplace else, man, i could go on and on.
well, one more cup of coffee, then i have to start moving my ass.
see you later.



go ahead, make your day...

my weekend, so far...


I chased the lawn mower around for a few hours last night when I got home from work. (I'm beginning to get good at the mowing by moonlight thing). Got up at the crack of dawn today, drove over to a friend's house to borrow my cement mixer back, then went and picked up some pallets from another fellow I know, to expand my composting system. Came home, changed, went to the Post Office, the recycling place, did the grocery shopping, hit the local farm market for some sweet corn, came home and put the food away, changed back into my play clothes and spent the last few hours doing more spackle work in the spare bedroom upstairs. After I get done boring you to tears here, I'm going to go tidy up the perennial beds and do some weeding and start making room in the little barn for the mixer and the pallets. Mrs. SOG is on the way home from her vacation, I'm planning on throwing some cheeseburgers together, with some grilled corn and a green salad, then kicking back with her for the rest of the night. It's going to be a beautiful one, maybe I'll start up a little fire in the pit and we can wile away a few hours staring at the flames, I find that to be very soothing.
Later, gators.


go ahead, make your day...

life is good...
on occasion. I'm sucking down my second Skyy on the rocks, Mrs. SOG is manning the grill (I'm forbidden to approach Grillzilla, except to clean it and repair it... she is a goddess, but doesn't appreciate my burnt offerings...). She's making grilled Cubanelle peppers, grilled asparagus, and grilled corn on the cob. I made a side dish of huge slabs of mozzerella cheese, topped with marinated plum tomatoes and fresh basil from the herb garden. All will be layered on thick slices of toasted semolina bread (except the corn, that will be rolled in a stick of butter and doused with Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper), all to be washed down with my new favorite wine (more on that later - I'll save you a bottle, Bing).
Tomorrow night after work I will be making the prototype of the two dozen Arts and Crafts brackets that will support the book shelves that will run around the living room at the height of the top of the windows and doors. Once I refine the design, I'll throw a picture up here so you can ooh and ahh...
After some fierce calculations last night, I discovered that, barring some unforeseen disaster, I will be completely out of debt, except for the mortgage on this grim old pile, by the end of the year, which will allow me to fill the coffers with enough coin to start construction on the new woodworking shop next spring. YAY! Just in time to remodel the kitchen for the third time and the dining room for the second time. I have six base cabinets to build and five wall cabinets for the kitchen, with new solid wood counter tops. The dining room has been measured for five foot tall paneled walls, in the Arts and Crafts style, and a coffered ceiling with copper ceiling panels set in between the beams. Of course, that means all new trim and probably a new Arts and Crafts style mantle. I will probably be selling the period style mantle I built for the dining room fireplace at some point, if anyone's interested. It's big - almost six feet wide and five feet tall. It's in the Federal style, with dentil mouldings and such. I'll post a picture one of these days.
Well, the dinner bell has rung.
Have a wonderful evening, my fellow wanderers...

Touch me...

It's Emeril LaGothy..!


My Sunday started with a beer and percocet hangover, so much for Saturday night. I went grocery shopping, came home, put the stuff away, made some coffee and turned on the TV, which automatically tunes to our local CBS channel 2, out of New York. I was confronted by that smegma sniffer, Barney Fwank, extolling the virtues of King Uppity and his sham horror at the AIG bonus situation and blaming the whole financial crisis on W. I hope the next time he takes it up the ass from his boyfriend, he ruptures a roid...
Anyway, I did nothing of any worth today, other than watching college basketball and then NASCAR, then made some dinner... It has no name, I made it up as I went along, it's sort of an Amish version of Bubble and Squeak...

1 Medium head of green cabbage
1 Medium yellow onion
1/4 Pound of bacon
2 Granny Smith apples
4 Large red potatoes
1/2 Cup dry white wine
Caraway seeds
Salt
Pepper
Butter
Bread crumbs

I washed and cubed the potatoes, skin on and set them to boil in a large pot. While they were starting, I cubed the bacon and sauteed it over a low heat. I thinly sliced the onion and added it to the pan just as the bacon started to clear.
I sliced the cabbage into thin sections, as if I were making slaw or sauerkraut, cored and peeled the apples. When the onion just started to brown, I added the wine, cabbage, apple to the pan, with about a teaspoon of the caraway seeds and some salt and freshly ground pepper, put a lid on it and let it steam away over a medium heat.
When the spuds were ready, I drained and coarsly mashed them with some butter, salt and pepper and let them sit, covered until the cabbage mixture was well cooked and the cabbage was just soft.
I poured the cabbage mix into a 2 1/2 quart casserole, spread the mashed potatoes on top, added a few pats of butter and some bread crumbs, then threw it under the broiler for about five minutes until it was bubbly and brown.




Served with pumpernickel bread, slathered with butter and some nut brown ale.
Damned good.



I'm taking Monday off. I need some serious alone thought time. I think I'll build a new lumber rack in the little barn and think about what I want to do with the rest of my life, I mean, actually what I want to do, not what someone seven hundred miles away wants me to do. We shall see...


Touch me...

nom, nom, nom...
Mrs. SOG outdid herself tonight for dinner... grilled chicken and saffron rice over carrot souffle... she wouldn't let me help with dinner, but while she was cooking we did have an in depth discussion about the shotgun she fancies, the Mossberg SA-20 Autoloader. She thinks she'd like a .410 as a home defense weapon that she could swing about with ease. I think giving her a scatter gun would be an unfair advantage, though. She's more of the pistol type. She once shot out the bottom of a beer bottle, by placing a .375 ball from my Colt New Model Navy through the neck of the bottle... at about twenty yards. Dead eye...
Just sayin', but if I'm going to invest in a newer home defense weapon, I sort of fancy this...

Touch me...

Grocery shopping roulette...
this grocery shopping this I do every Sunday morning has started to give me a case of the ass, as Jimbo is wont to say. The prices on everything have been fluctuating without reason or limit lately and it's hit or miss if you're going to find what you need at the price you paid last week, or double that price, or half, depending on the whim of the grocery wholesalers, I suppose, or at least the store chain management. The trend seems to be that convenience foods, like canned soups, pasta sauces, frozen dinners and the like, which I usually never buy, seem to be off the chart. The store brand of frozen pizza, a box of five rectangular pieces, has gone from $3.49 to $5.99 in two weeks. However, in the freezer across the aisle, the store brand frozen french fries and onion rings, which are usually $2.99 a bag, were on sale for $.99 a bag, with a limit of two per customer. Of course, being a frozen french fry hound, I jumped right on that. Canned soups, except for Campbell's condensed, are all hovering around $3.00 a can, but the ingredients to make your own are being thrown at you when you walk in the door. I got a five pound bag of organic carrots this morning for a buck. I'm going to slice them into rounds, blanch them and freeze them for later use. $1.39 for a five pound bag of red potatoes. Yellow and green squash, $.49 a pound. Yellow onions, $.89 a pound. Cubanelle peppers, the size of a shoe, $.99 a pound. Broccoli, $.99 a pound. It goes on and on. I stocked up on what I could process and freeze since, next week, it will probably be give-away day on canned crap and fresh vegetables and fruit will be through the roof. I'm really not getting it. I'm not real big on using paper towels, but I got a 12 pack of Bounty Basics for $3.99, I mean that's hard to pass up. They'll last me for six months. Next aisle over, the laundry detergent I usually pay about $3.00 for is now up to $6.99. For a total of $4.00, I got a box of Borax and a box of Ivory Soap flakes, which will probably do a better job. I also picked up a box of left over Chanukah candles, 100 for a buck. They'll come in hand one of these days, I'm sure. (Don't mean to be sacrilegious, but they do...) I need to invest in one of those plastic bag vacuum sealer things and a small chest freezer for my utility room so I can start stocking up. I have two cases of Ball canning jars standing by, too. I think this summer I'm going to concentrate on growing tomatoes, lima beans and such things that can be easily processed and canned.
Well, I'm kicking back for a few hours, then we're going out to dinner tonight with my wife's family for her father's birthday.
Be well.

Touch me...

It's Emeril LaGothy..!


Not to be undone by Mr. Bingley, who, I should tell you, is the most gracious host and griller par excellance, I offer up this Sunday's repast; Sausage, Peppers and Onions a la Goth...

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced.
2 Cubanelle peppers, seeded and thinly sliced.
1 Red Bell Pepper, seeded and thinly sliced.
3 Cloves of garlic, chopped.
3 Hot Cherry Peppers, chopped.
3 tbs. of the juice from the hot peppers.
1 1/2 pounds of sweet and hot Italian sausage
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (don't you love the term "Extra Virgin"? reminds me of an old girlfriend... Ahem...)
Salt and pepper to taste.
Fresh Basil and Oregano.

Put the sausage in a deep saute pan, pierce the casings and add about an inch of water and red wine. Bring to a boil and simmer for about ten minutes.
In the mean time, seed and thinly slice the peppers, peel and thinly slice the onions and chop the garlic cloves.
Drain the sausage and add a bit of olive oil to the pan and brown over a medium heat until the casings are browned on all sides.




Heat another sauce pan over medium heat, add about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and toss in the onions, garlic and peppers. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until soft.



When the sausages are well browned, remove from the pan and cut into 1 inch thick slices, at an angle. Return to the pan and sear both sides.
When the veggies are thoroughly cooked, add to the pan with the sausage, add the spices and mix well. Add the chopped hot peppers and about three tablespoons of the juice from the jar.



Serve on toasted Italian bread, with melted butter, garlic, salt and pepper.
We enjoyed ours with a 2004 Ruffino Classico, just chilled.




In other news, I got the final trim on the living room windows today, I'll sand the filler and put a finish coat of paint on them tomorrow, then Mrs. SOG can hang her shades and I can move on to the built in bookcase and the mantle piece. I can see the end in sight, thank Bast.

Hope you had a wonderful evening, my fellow wanderers...
Fare thee well.



wander with me...

hell of a way to have to start a Saturday, huh..?
First, Tiger The Cat wakes me up at 4:25, just like every morning.


"hey... you awake? i'm hungry... hey... i'm starvin' here..."

I stumble down stairs, make her some breakfast, make me some coffee, put the news on and find out our Glorious Leader, The One, King Uppity the First decides that slashing the military budget is one way to finance his Socialist plan. So, hence the rant below. He really is a c**k sucker, isn't he?

So, anyway, that got the day off to a real bad start. I have much to do today, like taking the glass, plastic, cardboard and newspaper to the local county recycling center, so the grouchy old bastard who watches the place on the weekend can bitch at me for some imaginary offense to the recycling gods. We don't have to separate plastic from glass, so that just gets dumped into a big bin, but newspaper, office paper (including magazines and such) and cardboard need to be disposed of separately. The paper must be tied, using string, not wire, or in a recyclable bag. I tie mine with twine that I get from the local feed store. It's pure sisal twine. It's used to tie plants to stakes and such things like that and it's 100% biodegradable. The old fart yelled at me for using it because he said it's not strong enough to hold the bundles of papers securely and it might break and they could blow all over the place. I asked him if he had some special degree in tensile strength testing of natural fibers and he mumbled something surely obscene under his breath and stormed back to his little shack. One other time he accosted me for intermingling corrugated board with regular paperboard, saying that it made for extra work sorting it out at the recycling plant. I asked him why there weren't two separate bins, one for each style of board so the prisoners who are on work release programs at the recycling centers didn't have to strain themselves sorting brown corrugated board from printed paperboard, and, again, he mumbled some oath under his breath and stormed back to his little shack. I've been there when people have heaved old plastic garbage cans, plastic sheeting, vinyl siding and myriad other things into the plastic/glass bin, none of which are recyclable, and the little old fucker just sits there and watches them through his dirty window. He sees me pull up, who does everything by the book and he has to trot his ugly little troll ass out and harass me. I'm always pleasant, never raise my voice, justify my tasks by explaining what I'm doing or making him look like the ass he is and I go away. I'm beginning to get a complex over this. Perhaps he doesn't like the pony tail that hangs down to my ass, some sort of hippie-phobia. Can't blame him for that, he looks like he might have spent some time in the military in the sixties, maybe it's a Nam hangover thing. Or not... I can only assume he's one of the long time county employees who is friends with someone way up there who has hidden him away until he's too old to totter around any more, then let him retire with the bonus he's accumulated by never taking a vacation or sick day for forty five years. Probably some County Freeholder's father. One of these days I'm going to preempt him and as soon as I pull into the place, I'm going to run up to his little hovel and bang on the door and ask him to come out and look at what I'm intending on throwing into the bins to make sure it meets with his stringent regulations, although, on second thought, I'm not sure I want to see the inside of his "office", Bast knows what goes on in there during those long, lonely lulls between launching attacks on the recycling public...
That's just one of the merry tasks I have before me today. After the recycling center, it's off the my little post office to get the week's mail, then off to the lumber yard to get some stock to finish the window trim pieces that hold the sash in place so Mrs. SOG can hang her new shades and curtains in the living room before she beats me to death with them. Then I'm going to spend a pleasant evening, sitting in my new recliner, reading a book and looking up occasionally at a basketball game on the idiot box. I'm not going to watch the news...
See you later.



wander with me...

it's Emeril LaGothy..!
even after playing yard slave all weekend, I summoned up the energy and interest to make dinner tonight - Sausage, Onion and Pepper sammies!
Firstly, I chopped up a huge green pepper and a huge sweet onion, as well as three cloves of garlic...

then I prepared the bread; some olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano, which I toasted on the grill...

I applied a few of these during the process, just to make sure everything came out OK...

I then threw four nice, fresh hot Italian sausages on the grill...

and grilled them about ten minutes a side...

Then I cut them into half inch slices, threw them in with the onions and peppers for a few minutes, then made up the sandwiches...

Damn. Like my friend Red used to say,
"That's so good, if you put some on your forehead, your tongue would slap your brains out trying to get at it!"



wander with me...

busy, busy, busy...
I started the day early, not that I wanted to, but Tiger The Cat can't seem to grasp the idea of Saturday, even after all these years. She woke me up at six o'clock with the usual head-butting, breathing in my face and trying to lick my eyes. I usually sleep with my eyes open, which is just too tempting for her. Sandpaper tongue on the eyes is a sure fire alarm clock...
Anyway, after I fed her some breakfast and relaxed with a cup of tea and some pumpernickel toast (with butter, peanut butter and honey), I got dressed and hit the road. Stopped at the post office, then did the grocery shopping. Bought a nice Angus bottom round for making a pot roast for dinner on Sunday, can't wait for that. Came home, put the groceries away and spent the rest of the day cleaning up the grounds, pruning trees and made a minor dent in cleaning up the dead fall in the woods out back. Also cleaned out a few flower beds. Mrs. SOG made some great cheeseburgers and a killer salad for dinner. Now I'm going to settle in and watch some go-fast, turn-left. I love Saturday night races. Won't be going to any at the local short track this year, though, as they've decided to fold up shop after forty years or so, which is a shame. Nothing like sitting in the bleachers, sipping on a cold one, watching the local boys duke it out. Love that smell of burning rubber and high octane. Alas, no more...
Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day again, a little cooler than today, but perfect weather for yard work. Gotta get it done now, I've got a full plate of house stuff to do this spring and summer, including some rather heavy duty stuff like rebuilding the trough gutters on the front of the house and the impending living room remodel. That's not going to be a fun project, I need to replace some floor joists, so that means a lot of destruction and reconstruction before the remodeling and redecorating can start. We're going to be putting electric radiant heating under the new flooring, it will be nice to sit in the living room in the winter and not have your feet freeze. I'm going to re-sheetrock one of the walls and build a new mantle piece that matches the one I did in the dining room. Also built in bookcases and an interesting ceiling treatment; when we did the room the first time, I pulled down the plaster and lathe ceiling and we decided that it would be nice to leave the hand-hewn beams that hold up the upstairs floor. It looks great, but does nothing to hold heat in the room, it goes right upstairs through the upstairs floorboards. I'm going to be putting 2X2 furring strips along the beams, right up against the bottom of the upstairs floorboards and put up strips of sheetrock between the beams to help insulate the room a bit. Should look pretty nice. We haven't decided on a color scheme yet, but we're going for a very traditional look, something like you would see in the library of a manor house; overstuffed leather armchairs and sofa; Mission or Arts and Crafts style tables and lamps, stuff like that. The flooring is going to be a wide plank laminate in a gunstock color finish, which will match the oak flooring in the dining room and foyer. We're also looking at a 40" flat screen LCD TV to mount on the wall so we can get rid of the ponderous cabinet that stands like the Black Gates of Mordor against the front wall. I'm going to have to chainsaw the thing to pieces to get it out, I think.
Well, fellow wanderers, I'm going to go settle down and watch the race. I bid thee good eve.


wander with me...

it's Emeril LaGothy..!


Well, it's Sunday and that means I'm lurking about in the scullery. It's been pretty chilly and that means it's stew time! I sort of cobbled this together as I was making it, grabbing some left over stuff in the icebox and so it's a pretty loose recipe. It's been simmering away on the stove for a few hours and it smells great!

1 lb. beef cubes, cut into bite size pieces
4 slices of bacon, diced
1/2 large yellow onion, cut into chunks
1/2 head Savoy cabbage
1/2 package grated carrots
1/2 lb. sliced white button mushrooms
6 stalks celery, cut into chunks (use the leafy tops too, full of flavor!)
8 small/medium potatoes, cut into chunks with the skin on
1 cup red table wine
2 tsp. flour, dissolved in 1 cup water
1 cup roughly chopped parsley
about a tsp. of caraway seeds, chopped sage and celery seed
salt and pepper to taste
Worcestershire sauce, about a table spoon
32.oz container of low fat beef broth


in a deep soup pot, cook the bacon until crispy to render the fat, then remove the bacon and set aside.
brown the beef cubes on all sides, then remove with a slotted spoon.
(I added a little more bacon fat from the fridge, just to make sure they browned good)
Clarify the pot with the red wine, bring to a boil and add the flour and water mixture to create a nice, thick base.
Add the beef broth, stirring with a whisk to blend it well.
Add the meat, potatoes and onions, cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer. Add the remaining ingredients and spices. Return to a slow simmer and let it go for a few hours, stirring occasionally to blend the flavors.

I'm planning on serving it with some home made garlic bread, a green salad and a nice Shiraz-Cabernet.

Enjoy!
wander with me...

It's Emeril LaGothy..!


It's NFL playoff time and what would be better for watching the Giants take on the Cowboys, then some Potato Chicken Mushroom Corn Chowder?


10 medium potatoes, washed and diced with the skin on.
8 slices of bacon, diced.
1 large yellow onion, diced.
2 cans fat free cream of mushroom soup.
2 cans fat free cream of chicken soup.
3 cans low fat milk.
2 tablespoons salt.
Freshly ground black pepper to taste.
1 handful chopped fresh parsley.
4 stalks celery, diced.
4 cups frozen corn.
2 shredded carrots.
2 cups water.



Do up the bacon in a deep soup pot until almost crispy, then remove the bacon, retaining the drippings. Brown the diced onion in the drippings, then add the potatoes and water. Cover and bring to a boil. Bring down to a simmer, add the carrots and celery and let it go for a little while to let the flavors blend a bit and then, about five minutes before the potatoes are tender, add the frozen corn. When the potatoes can be pierced by a fork, add the soup, milk, bacon, salt and parsley.
Heat the mixture thoroughly and serve with a green salad and some garlic bread. I'm planning on having either a nice chilled red table wine or some raspberry Lambec along with it.
Enjoy!
Oh, yeah - GO GIANTS !!!

Update! Here it is!



*** Just a note, I only used 3 cans of milk, not 4. The pot wouldn't have held 4 and it came out nice and hearty. I've edited the recipe above!
wander with me...

i took a vacation day today...
in spite of my recent railing against being lonely, i needed a day to myself. no phone, no meetings, no computers; just me and Tiger The Cat. and the wind. lots and lots of wind. the power actually went out for about two hours, i don't know if it was because of the wind or if someone took out a pole, but it didn't take long for the house to cool off. i didn't have either of the coal stoves going, since we spent most of the weekend out, so it got a bit chilly in the manor before the power was restored. it's at times like that i wonder what it was like to live in the grim old pile when it was built in 1841, with only two fireplaces for heat. brrr...
anyway, i managed to get the inside of the house decorated for the winter holidays today, just have a few little things left to do and hang the outside lights around the front door and the icicle lights around the front porch and that's it. i would have done it today if i thought i wouldn't have gotten blown off the ladder. ten years ago, i would have looked at it as an adventure. these days, i actually worry about my safety. funny what getting older does to you, huh?
well, i'm going to go rustle up something to eat and relax for a while; tomorrow it's back to the grind, i'm sure i'll pay the big price for taking a day off.
hope your week started ok.

wander with me...