We May Wobble But We Won't Fall Down

Most people use a matchbook or a piece of cardboard when their table wobbles.

Not us.

We use a level.

Work is progressing nicely on the dining room and home office.  I said nicely, not quickly.  The ceiling is done, wiring is done and the fan and light are installed.

The new walls have been drywalled, primed, and painted, some trim has been installed, and the flooring has been put in.  The cabinets in the office are have also been installed, but we are waiting to hear from the installer for the desktop.

There's still a good amount of work to do, but we should be able to complete it in the next couple of weeks.

But one thing is sure - our dining room table is not going to wobble.

There's an App for That

I got my new iPad.  It's awesome. 

Its awesomeness is increased tenfold in that I used it in the kitchen to make a recipe that not only was healthy and incredibly delicious, but also used some of that darn mystery phyllo dough that I found in my freezer.

I can't even tell you how good this recipe tasted.

 So instead, I'll just share the recipe with you.

Phyllo Chicken Potpie

• 6 cups water
• 2 cups fresh pearl onions (I used a jar of cocktail onions)
• 1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 2 medium red potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (ick, no one in my house likes mushrooms but add them if you must)
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons sherry or additional reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 10 sheets phyllo dough (14 inches x 9 inches)
• Refrigerated butter-flavored spray

Directions:

• In a Dutch oven, bring water to a boil. Add pearl onions; boil for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water; peel and set aside. (Note: if you use a jar of cocktail onions, you can skip this step entirely)
• In a large skillet, cook chicken in 1 tablespoon oil over medium no longer pink; remove and keep warm. In the same pan, saute potatoes in remaining oil for 5 minutes. Add onions and mushrooms; saute 3 minutes longer. Add the broth, asparagus and sherry or additional broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
• Combine cornstarch and milk until smooth; stir into skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Drain chicken; add to onion mixture. Stir in the thyme, salt and pepper. Transfer to an 8-in. square baking dish coated with cooking spray.
• Stack all 10 phyllo sheets. Roll up, starting at a long side; cut into 1/2-in. strips. Place in a large bowl and toss to separate strips. Spritz with butter-flavored spray. Arrange over chicken mixture; spritz again.
• Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 6 servings.

Makes 6 servings

Nutritional Analysis: 1 serving equals 325 calories, 8 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 63 mg cholesterol, 542 mg sodium, 33 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 29 g protein.

Oh My Aching Back

That's what Vern is saying right now.

We started with a couple of coats of primer on both the new drywall and over the existing walls.

(Awww, doesn't it just make you sick?)

Then we moved onto the beadboard ceiling we installed.  We primed all of the boards before we put them up.  Each and every little board.  All 7,657 of them.  Seriously.  But it was totally worth it - no more sparkly popcorn ceiling.

Then we cracked open the paint color we selected with our super scientific method called "Spin the Paint Wheel."  I'm not kidding.  After months of trying to select a color and painting 15 different colors on the wall before dismissing them all, we decided to just throw caution to the wind and the paint cards in the air.  The lucky winner (in other words, the one that landed face up) was Sherwin Williams Relaxed Khaki. 

We still have to paint another coat, paint and install baseboard and crown moulding, install the lighting and the office cabinets, finish the tile work, and install the laminate flooring. 

Oh, and I really should do something about my super fancy curtains. 

I know, you're almost as jealous of those as you are my fabulous photography skills.  Don't be a hater.

At least we are making progress.  Aching back be damned.

Project, Project on the Wall

Who is the most urgent of them all?

One of the things that I struggle with is keeping track of projects that I've either started or want to do.

I created an inspiration/project board in my craft room and divided it into sections for various types of projects.

For my purposes, I created a section for knitting/crochet, a section for sewing, and a section for other things that don't fall into one of those categories. (Although now that I look at it, it appears some of the projects have wandered out of their categories.  Bad projects.)

I also have room for clippings from magazines or drawings that I want to use for inspiration as well as a place to temporarily put receipts for craft projects in case I need to calculate the cost of a project, make a return, or contact a store about inventory.

It's easy to move the cards around in any order you want and once the project is completed, just remove the card permanently.

Unfortunately, I've been adding more cards than I've been removing lately.  I see a few things on my board that need some time and attention.

Now I no longer forget about projects I want to do.  But I do apparently still ignore them.

Finally

Well hallelujah, my iPad finally shipped.

 

It's about damn time.

My House is a Little Dusty

Drywall dust, that is.

This is the reality that we call home.

It's also the reality of doing all the work of a major remodel by yourself.  What you can't see behind those walls are the hours and hours of electrical and HVAC work that Vern had to do.  

This is the room that was originally the formal living room.  There was a solid wall separating the very small kitchen and the living room.  We opened up that wall (which was a support wall, so we had to add a laminate beam for support), enlarged the kitchen into part of the area, and are going to use the space as a dining room, a small home office, and a small entryway.  

Fortunately, there's progress and we are going to begin putting on primer today.  If luck is with us, we might even start to paint tomorrow. 

And no, that's not the paint color we choose either.  We're going to at least attempt to be a little more subtle than that.

Color Picking Time

I love color.  It's one of the things that I'm almost obsessive compulsive about.  Walking into a fabric store and seeing the wall of fabrics arranged by color just makes me want to run my fingers over them.   When I was little, my crayon box had to be arranged in a very particular order (boy colors separated from girl colors, but we won't delve into the psychology of that just now).

My love of organized colors is one of the reasons that I think I own more paint decks than a non-painting professional should reasonably own.  But I love thumbing through them and seeing the organized explosion of color.  Peter Walsh will have to pry my paint decks out of my cold dead hands.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, the cabinets for the home office should be arriving in the next week or so, and the office and dining room are close to the point where we can start to paint.  I'll be the first to admit that we've made some poor color choices in the past (electric aqua blue bathroom I'm looking at YOU.).  I have spent hours pouring over these paint decks, lots of money purchasing quarts of paint so I can paint samples on the wall, and nearly sleepless nights worrying about the ramifications of another poor paint color choice.  Overly dramatic?  I think not.  YOU walk into that blue bathroom day after day and then see how you feel. 

We have decided to go with a tighter color scheme for our home rather than trying to make some sort of a statement in each room.  We narrowed our choices down to about five colors and decided to sleep on it.

So what did we decide in the light of the morning and after a good cup of coffee?

None of the above.  

Back to the drawing board.  Or the coloring board as the case may be.

Life's Great Mysteries - The Refrigerator Edition

It's trash day at Uno Acres and while Vern is out in his shop trying to prove to me that he is not a hoarder (I can throw this away, really I can . . . ), I decided it was a good time to empty out our refrigerator and freezer and give it a good spring cleaning.

Life has many great mysteries.  You can find them everywhere.  Today I found them in my refrigerator.

Mystery 1:  I found out that I have three boxes of phyllo dough.  Count them - one, two, three.  And yet I've never used phyllo dough in my entire life.  In fact, not only did I find massive quantities of phyllo dough, but I also found a box of frozen puff pastry, yet another thing I've never used.

Mystery 2: Along the same lines as Mystery 1, I found a brand new jar of Smuckers cherry preserves.  No one in our house likes cherry preserves.  An internet search provides lots of ways to MAKE cherry preserves, but not one damn way to use them.

Mystery 3: Despite the fact that I know for certain that I've cleaned my refrigerator since 2007 (we didn't even HAVE this refrigerator then), I found several items that expired in 2007.  Three YEARS ago.  This happens every single time I clean out the refrigerator.  It's as if the Expiration Fairy blesses me with a visit every month or two and adds a few special treats just to see if I'm paying attention.

Mystery 4, 5, and 6: Mystery meat, mystery broth, and mystery leftovers.  Enough said.

Mystery 7: Someone is hiding their candy in the freezer.

Come to think of it, that's more of a perk than a mystery.  I say finders keepers, and while Vern is in the shop proving he is not a hoarder, I'm going to be eating a candy bar and proving that housework really DOES make you fat.

Frogging the Baby Alpaca

Spaghetti?

Nope, just frogging the baby alpaca.

For my non-knitting friends and readers, frogging is a knitting term that refers to ripping apart knitting that has already been done. Sometimes it's just a row or two and sometimes it's an entire garment.

Why is it called frogging?  Because of the sound a frog makes - ribbit, ribbit.  Get it?  Ribbit, ribbit.  Rip it, rip it.

I know - we knitters are a clever group.

Unfortunately, not always clever enough to get it right the first time.

Even more unfortunately, this

was supposed to become a Dream Shrug, but instead it became this:

Sometimes, despite careful gauging and careful knitting, good yarn goes bad.

I'm Questioning Einstein's Genius

The Einstein Coat, that is. 

Truthfully, I should be questioning my own genius.  Why I decided to knit a heavy wool jacket in May, when the temperature is just beginning to rise is a mystery.  The only answer I can come up with is that 1200 yards of bulky yarn is taking up too much space in my yarn stash so I need to make it into something so it can move to another closet.  It would be far easier to just drape the yarn over a hanger and hang it in the coat closet.

But knit it I am.  And knit and knit and knit and knit and knit.  

Miles of knitting in fact.  

So much knitting in fact, that I'm convinced that there is errata to the pattern somewhere that says "knit until the fingers on your left hand fall off."  And then in a sadistic tone it goes on to say "turn work and knit until the fingers on your right hand fall off."


Einstein makes me want to