I wish I had some news from Cabinet Guy, but I don’t. I’ve emailed him several times since he returned from his vacation asking if the cabinets did, in fact, arrive last week as he said they would. Remember - he was even promising to set up an installation date. However, he has not returned my messages leading me to believe the doors did not show up. I’ve been bugging him since May and I’m sure he’d be happy to tell me he’d finally received them if they did come in.
Someone forecast I wouldn’t have them until after Labor Day, and at the time I was more optimistic than that. Not anymore. I’m hoping I get them before Christmas.
I don’t actually own a grill, but it’s on my list of things to buy when I have some cash laying around. With the extra bricks from the patio project, I built a little patio extension over against my fence. This is just the right size to fit a grill, and once I buy one, I’ll trim the tree so I can fit in there and cook.
Apologies for the flashy picture - I finished this after it was too dark for a good one.
As I said in my zucchini post, I went away for about 10 days and came back over the weekend. The AC had been off, I had a cold, and my first order of business was to get a cold drink. I opened the fridge and it was dark. It was warm. It smelled weird.
I checked the circuit breaker and it was tripped, but it won’t reset (even if the fridge is unplugged). I called Dad for a consult, but we couldn’t identify anything causing the issue. It looks like I’m going to have to get an electrician out here and figure it out. The good news is the Contractor Sal, who I trust a lot, said this is something he can look at.
In the meantime, I have the fridge on an extension cord re-freezing everything until garbage day. I’m also starting the list of condiments and staples that were lost in the Great UnRefrigereated Disaster (pretty much everything) so I can make a big shopping trip.
Oh, well. If that’s the worst thing that happens when I’m away, that’s not so bad.
Here are a couple of my tasty zucchini recipes for those of you with extra on your hands…
Sorry I don’t have fancy cookbook photos. I’ll add some once the little zucchinis are available again.
Zucchini sticks
Start by making a breadcrumb mix, the finer the crumbs the better. I like to use crumbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese. Adding crushed up nuts or wheat germ is also good. If you’re not into making your own, I bet Shake ‘n’ Bake would work just fine.
Cut the zucchini into sticks the size of thick french fries. Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter (depending on how much zucchini you have cut up), pour it over the sticks, and mix well to coat the sticks. Thoroughly cover the sticks with breadcrumbs - I put the crumbs in a bag, add a few sticks at a time, and shake it around. Transfer the coated sticks to a cookie sheet.
Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs start to brown.
Zucchini with cherry tomatoes and garlic
Love love love this one.
This pretty much requires little zucchinis.
Cut the zucchinis in half long ways, and dig out the seedy part in the middle, so you have little boats. Mix olive oil and crushed fresh garlic to the side, and then spread this over the scraped out parts of the zucchini. Next, take some cherry tomatoes, halve them, and put them face up in a row in the little boat part of the zucchini. Add a little more olive oil if you like, plus some salt and pepper to taste. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese (I’m a cheese fiend, but I recommend only a little cheese - the rest of the flavors are too good to cover up) Bake for about 10-15 minutes at 400 or until the zucchinis are cooked but firm.
I’ve done some big things to the house, which have sparked some interesting blog posts (including the Saga of Cabinet Guy). However, I had help from professionals with those projects. When I was thinking about what to post for the Look What I Did contest over at Houseblogs, I decided the thing I’d put the most time into was the living room/entry/stairway. So here we go.
There was a lot of yellow paint that extended up the stairs to the landing and around into the living room.
As you can see, there was also some NASTY pink carpet on the stairs and upstairs landing. My first house project ever was to rip out that carpet with my fabulous sister in law Michelle. I should get bonus points for this because I NEARLY DIED. The POs had a cat which rubbed itself all over that carpet, and I am deathly allergic. We also pulled out approximately 5,000 staples that held that carpet to the floor.There was hardwood underneath, but the upstairs landing needed serious refinishing.
I refinished and added quarter round. This was my first time finishing something, and also my first time using a mitre saw. It turned out pretty good.
The most dramatic change was to paint over the yellow with a carefully chosen blue. Sometimes the painting was a bit dangerous…
But it made a huge difference:Before
After
The next step was to decorate. I got the only real piece of art in the house: William Tell’s Dog. I also added a candle holder to the fireplace.
With the help of my Wonderful Brother Tom, we tackled two projects. First, we added a light to the entry way - not replaced, but added. We drilled holes, did some electrical work, caused some big sparks, but it ended up looking great.
And then we mounted the TV on the wall…
And I added back lighting!
Wow. After writing all that, I’m impressed with how much work that was! I’ll end with my favorite view in the house, from the red dining room to the red front door.
I’ve discussed my bug phobia on my blog before, but I have another weird one. I get panicky when I see things grossly out of scale. Really giant things and very very tiny things trigger this - like seeing the big windmills up close. I don’t know where this phobia came from, but I do remember having a dream as a little kid that is the first time I remember experiencing it. The dream was sort of like that Powers of Ten movie. I was in space and then zoomed in really close on these hands trying to push up out of the earth. It was very weird - I had the flu at the time and my mom gave me apple juice when I woke up from it and was all freaked out.
ANYWAY, I don’t experience this phobia too often, but I did when I got home this weekend after 10 days away and looked at my zucchini plant. I had told my nice neighbors that they were welcome to pick anything from the garden, but they didn’t. Here are two of the grossly oversized zucchini and a couple of cucumbers that were there. I let out a scared gasp when I saw the zucchini. For reference, I have included my size 10 shoe.
They were crushing some normal sized zucchini which had become all moldy. There were lots of ants. It wad a mess. I had to dig out my machete to chop off all the zucchinis and trim back the plant a bit.
Edit: I’ve been eating zucchini off this plant for weeks now, and I’ve been picking them when they were only about 6 inches long and an inch or two in diameter. Those were tasty. Tonight, I actually cooked one of these giant zucchinis with a very tasty recipe I had, but they didn’t taste like anything. The middles were spongy, too. I do not recommend monster zucchini.
Last we heard from Cabinet Guy, my doors were guaranteed to arrive on July 7th, but they didn’t show up. This was allegedly because the warehouse had been closed the week before, but he was sure they would appear later that week.(”The week of July 7th,” he insisted, “I meant the week of the 7th”).
I sent him a couple messages this week, inquiring as to whether or not they really came in. Today he finally got back to me and said they should be in next Monday (though he will be out of town - that dude takes a lot of vacations!).
So much for guaranteed delivery the week of the 7th. As for arrival on Monday, I told him that I’d believe it when I see it.
Then, he tells me the discount will be 40%. I’m pushed Cabinet Guy a bit on that to get him to commit to a price because it wasn’t hard to see him him trying to argue that the 40% was off the insanely high initial quote he gave me. That’s was not going to happen. And, indeed, he warbled around on it but I got him to commit to 40% off the number that I wanted.
I proposed a date for installation and am waiting to hear back.
I am such a huge fan of the dog stuff at Orvis. One item I’d really like to get for the dining room is this box for their food. It comes in black, to match the rest of the dining room furniture, and would be a nice addition to their swanky eating situation.
Why is it that dog beds generally come in only plaid and other rustic designs? Some of us dog owners are chic, or at least design inclined. My dogs have beds that they use when the mood suits them. They are memory foam and designed for older arthritic dogs, which pi is. However, they do not match my red-and-blue living room. Here is one:
I didn’t want to replace these or even buy new covers, because I have to buy so much else for the house. However, I did have an old red flannel duvet cover that I wasn’t using. I almost threw it out when I moved. It now has new life! I chopped it up, put my sewing machine back together, and made two covers for the beds. I even reused the buttoning closure for the bottom. These still need to be broken in, and it’s not the most beautiful solution, but it works. The color is better, the covers are washable, and now the beds match the decor.
True, it’s not the ultra fancy Pottery Barn Dog Cabana, but it works!
