Thursday, February 19, 2015

Dinnertime blog


Finally up for air.  All the houseguests: family and near-family, have gone back to the frigid northern temps (oh, dear). And while I am sorry to be alone for the next four weeks, I will survive, with the help of food, drink, and my sewing room. And a walk every day (or almost every day).  

Since the nearest Whole Foods is a half-hour drive, I am not there very often. Publix is around the corner but the less said about that particular store, the better.  Today, I found a sort-of farmer's market and wondered why I ever bought produce elsewhere.  They had tomatillos for .99/lb (which I did not buy, but will, because I make my own salsa verde and it is wonderful), cabbage 3/$1 (if you don't mind
trimming a few questionable leaves), and ridiculously low prices  (all those sweet peppers for $1 and practically free eggplants) on other things. I bought fresh turmeric root, too.  Part of today's loot:
  I will not buy meat or fish except at Whole Foods; one is due to open at the end of this month in West Palm Beach.  But until then, I will eat the WF salmon in my freezer and otherwise, be a veg of some sort.  This is not difficult...at least until I think I will die unless I have a rare steak.  But I had one a few nights ago, so I am fine for a while.

Yesterday, I bought brown rice, dried lentils, and a few cans of chick peas.  This morning I made a fabulous lentil stew (improvised from a NYT recipe: I used Indian spices instead of Italian ones), and tonight, brown rice and kale sauteed in garlic and olive oil. Healthy and I have to say, the best meal I have had at home in weeks.
Still stalled on the kitchen - it's complicated.  The IKEA dishwasher door is too high and caused a problem with the dw not working. It works just fine, pulled out a couple of inches from the counter.
 Suffice it to say I ordered a regular Bosch stainless front to replace the IKEA door, which is too tall and wide, and hope that will help.  I won't go into the details - but argh. I have been waking up at 4:30 a.m worrying about this every morning.

Hopefully, that will be resolved and then the soapstone counter will be where it needs to be and then I can put the toekick in and call the floor people to finish the edges....  Then there is the ceiling and the a/c vent, which prevents the upper cabinet doors from opening in one spot....
Never mind.  All will be sorted out and I am assured it will be fine.  (If I live long enough).

Still haven't found a backsplash I love/can afford, so am sending for samples from a variety of sources.
We shall see.

Saturday, I am driving to Jupiter to teach a one-day class at the South Florida MQG. I'm really happy to be teaching improv piecing to a Modern Quilt Guild - it seems ironic, since "modern" had improv piecing in its original definition, but gee, there are all these patterns for modern quilters. Patterns. Just like we had, more decades ago than we care to admit. Well, I'll admit to 4+ decades since I discovered Quilter's Newsletter (in black and white, mind you) and was hooked.  (also another conversation).

Dinner is over and it is time to clean up the kitchen so I can sit down and read for the rest of the evening. Also need to find some recipes for the cabbage/eggplant/peppers (not necessarily together).

Sorry this was not exactly quilt related (except for the one paragraph), but I am sure you will forgive me.
I did spend all afternoon putzing around in the sewing room, but not ready to post anything.
xo

3 comments:

Linda Hicks said...

I enjoyed that post immensely. Yesterday I had gone looking for a recent post of yours and did a major cooking, for me, as well. Joe cleared high levels of snow and ice for a dryer delivery and I jogged indoors to Netflix. Some semi synergy there. Fascinating, the activity and observations about Modern Quilt! The kitchen will work out as you said. Much painting here.

Judy Sall Fiber Art said...

I'm sure you will be very glad when all the issues in the kitchen are resolved... meanwhile, I hope you get to relax and enjoy the rest of your stay there... hopefully by the time you return north, Spring will be on its way!

Sue Erdreich said...

off topic but...I love your vintage cooking pots!

I too was hoping that MQGs would be more focused on improv, which is my favorite. I have now joined two "Modern" guilds, but have not found kindred improv spirits.

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