New Guest Bath Remodel Underway

After shaking our heads at it for years and then doing remodels in other spaces around the house, the front deck, the back deck, the kitchen, the downstairs washroom, etc., etc., our sights have now fallen on the room at the top of the stairs.

The toilet has been removed, the old cabinet and sink, the backing of the old linoleum is being removed and then we will essentially have a bare to the walls rectangle to work with.

Our old buddy, Dave Ivey, the mastermind of almost every other remodel project in our home, is back on the job and ready to do battle once again.

In a couple of weeks he will begin by retexturing the walls which had been smoothed out by the previous owners so wallpaper could be put up. We want to paint so back goes the texturing. Then we will lay down a base coat of paint, probably a coat of Kilz, which will resist mold and mildew, a big problem up here. Then we decide on the color and paint the room.

When that is finished, Dave will move back in to lay down new linoleum. We have spent quit a bit of time on this decision as one might expect. However, we have had our eye on Marmoleum for some time and finally settled on a color. It isn't tile but we decided that the house isn't worth the expense and then there is the upkeep and cleaning of tile. So, no to that.

When the Marmoleum is laid, Dave will install the new Toto toilet, a low flow toilet with E-Max flushing that reduces clogs. The salesperson told us she had seen it demonstrated with a tennis ball. Go figure!

We purchased a custom made cabinet from a local cabinet maker in a craftsman style. The counter will be granite with an undermount sink and an 8" faucet set. We also plan to replace the bath/shower hardware to match the new sink hardware. Otherwise the bath/shower will remain unchanged as it still looks and functions great.

Finally, new towel racks and the room's art back in place will complete the look.

As we got started on this project it occured to us that the master bathroom could stand a little help as well. And we do have Dave's attention. So we've decided to replace the counter top in there, install a new sink and faucet, new linoleum in the shower/toilet area and to replace the toilet with another Toto like the one in the guest bathroom. Finally, we'll replace the hardware in the shower as well and we'll have a minor remodel done in the master bath as well. The master bath really isn't in bad shape except for the items I mentioned so we should get off pretty easily on that project. No new cabinet as the old one is really nice and the sink area of the bathrrom has new carpet.

Ultimately, we wanted to get that guest bath done in time for a visit from our in-laws who are coming in July. They'll walk into a very nice new bathroom when they arrive and it will look great when other guests come by or stay the night.

With these rooms redone we will pretty much have our home remodeled. We have done so much to it, inside and out are pretty much fresh and new. Now to keep it that way! Ah, the joy of home ownership!

Famous Chocolate Wafers

Nabisco brand Famous Chocolate Wafers have been around a long time, but during lunch today I noticed one of my students had a few of these wafers in her lunch. The memories that came flooding back! Let me tell you. . .

One of my family's favorite desserts was the Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake. I remember my mother sitting at the kitchen table meticulously frosting each wafer with Cool Whip before connecting it to another wafer. Then, like a bricklayer she frosted the next wafer and placed it in the line of wafers forming on the plate. And so it went until all the wafers were connected forming a log shape. Then she smothered the entire log with the rest of the Cool Whip. Into the fridge it went until after dinner. When she sliced through the layers of wafers which had softened just enough, and placed a thick slice on our plates. The moist, chocolatey dessert melted in our mouths.

I got to thinking about that dessert from long ago and did a little research on the Internet. Turns out the recipe is easy enough to find and there were some interesting design options to be discovered as well.

Alice Q. Foodie layered her cake vertically and left some of the wafers exposed. It looks like a chocolate cloud.

So I started thinking about how I could improve on this classic dessert. I couldn't find anyone who had done what I was thinking so here goes. A simple and easy to do modification on my mother's way of creating the Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake.

Chocolate Lovers Wafer Icebox Cake

2 packages of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers

1-2 pints of real whipping cream (depends on how grand your design plan)

1 bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup

Chocolate shavings

Chill your mixing bowl and beaters. Pour whipping cream into chilled bowl and whip at high speed until it begins to peak. Slowly squirt the chocolate syrup into the bowl and continue beating until you have a soft peaks.

Use the chocolate whipped cream to create your icebox cake in the design of your choice, either the log shape usually found on the wafer box, Alice Q. Foods vertical design or one of your own creation.

Chill in the fridge overnight. Serve on chilled plates. Garnish with chocolate shavings, mint leaf, squirt a chocolate design over the serving with the chocolate syrup, maybe a strategically placed few fresh raspberries! Yum!

Options: Try adding some mint flavoring into the chocolate whipped cream to get a chocolate mint flavored whipped cream. Do some Internet research! There are a lots of variations that sound interesting.

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I know, I know, it isn't exactly "good" for you. And it isn't exactly gourmet. Who said everything has to be made completely from scratch. Ah, the memories it will bring back for many and with my easy to do twists it will not only bring back those memories for your company, but it will also look much more gourmet than the way your mom probably served it. Bon appetit!

My New Toy!

I love my Canon Powershot G5 dig camera. I have thoroughly enjoyed the great photos it puts out. But I have recently gone through a creative growth spurt, wishing I could do more and had the device that allowed me to do it. So after a few weeks of searching, study, comparing, talking to photographers with nicer cameras, asking how-do-you-do-that kinds of questions, I finally realized it was going to take much more camera than I currently have.

Back to research, study, more questions, etc. I finally decided yesterday and ordered the camera. A brand new Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. Wow! I also ordered two lenses with it--an 18-55mm DX VR lens and a 55-200mm DX VR lens. What a match up. Oh I wanted more camera but at some point you have to weigh your budget with your level of sophistication. Will I see a big difference between the D90 and the D80 for an example?

So my D80 is a 10.2 megapixel machine with lots of cool bells and whistles. More than twice the megapixel megatonnage than my current camera. The Nikkor lenses will also far surpass the ability of my little Canon. The D80 also allows me to bracket shots easily, takes up to 3 frames per second in rapid fire, has a much brighter LCD screen for looking at taken photos and to make adjustments for a shot. But the what you see is what you get through the lens eyepiece is one thing I am really looking forward to. Just like my first 35mm SLR camera from back in the late 70's, only on steroids!

The two lenses cover just about anything I could imagine needing from upclose shots of bugs and flowers to distant objects and with the VR (vibration reduction) device built into the lenses the shaking on zoomed in objects should be greatly minimized.

The D80 isn't a pro model but it is a huge step up for me and should give me years of enjoyment, especially as I near retirement.

Shepherd's Pie

Whilst in the U.K. I picked up a little of the lingo as you may have noticed, but I also had the opportunity to do a bit of cooking.

One evening I prepared a Puttanesca sauce and served it over pasta for the entire group of about 20 that had come to Wales. The group included us, Nick and Kate, Liz and Ray Abbott, Nick's folks, a number of Kate's Peace Corps friends, and a few of Nick's friends. After a strenous day of hiking along the Pembrookeshire coast, they had returned with quite an appetite. I'd made two large pots of sauce and it was nearly all eaten with only a few servings leftover.

On New Year's Eve, Nick and I had planned to make Shepherd's Pie, a classic English dish consisting of minced lamb (English for ground lamb)and mashed potatoes. We purchased the ingredients in Bristol before leaving for Wales.

That evening we chopped onions and garlic and browned them off along with the lamb. At the end I needed to add some Worchestershire, but we'd forgotten it. I suggested a sauce called Daddies sauce popular in England. It tastes a bit like HP sauce which is available in the States, but has a bit more BBQ flavor to it. It doesn't really matter as it turned out. Nick declared my idea brilliant and so a few squirts of Daddies went into the lamb mixture. As I stirred it in I also poured a cup of red wine in with it and stirred until it was reduced to a thick mixture.

In another pot we boiled peeled potatoes until ready for mashing. Adding butter we mashed the potatoes until smooth. We spread the potatoes over the lamb mixture as if frosting a cake. Into a very warm oven it went, the Shepherd's Pie is already cooked so it just needs to be kept warm until serving. However, I think it would have been helpful to broil the Pie a few minutes until the potatoes were golden brown.

Shepherd's Pie

2 lbs ground lamb
1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic--minced
2 cups carrots - chopped Or add in some peas as well
2 lbs potatoes--peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)

2 T Olive Oil
4 beef boullion cubes
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 cup red wine
Salt and pepper

1. Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch chunks, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).
2. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil until tender over medium heat (10 mins).

3. Add in lamb, crumble in boullion cubes and cook until browned off. Add carrots and or peas into mixture and cook until tender. Add worchestershire sauce and wine to mix and cook until reduced add mixture begins to thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Mash potatoes in bowl with butter, season to taste.
5. Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.
7 Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.
Serves four to six.

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Shepherd's Pie, a big salad and 15 bottles of wine later, the group was ready to step out to the pub and an evening of New Years revelry. The pub was stuffed with revellers all with one thing on their minds--making their way to the bar to get a pint! At the stroke of midnight Auld Lang Syne was heard about the pub and a great deal of hugging and kissing with friends and strangers alike.

Happy New Year to one and all!

A Fairytale Wedding

Your mother and father read them to you from the time you were a little tyke sitting in their lap. You read about them yourself when you were finally able to read on your own. But did you ever think you would be suddenly pulled into the pages of one and experience it first hand? Of course not! They're only fairytales and they never actually happen to anyone unless they are royalty or exceedingly rich.

But last Saturday, January 3, 2009, my wife and I not only experienced it first hand, but were part of it; a fairytale wedding with our own daughter as the princess.

The Ashton Court Manor House needed no help to look the part of a royal palace and our daughter looked every bit the princess as I escorted her down the aisle while the choir sang My Spirit Sang All Day. Handing her off to her beloved Prince Nick, was a bittersweet moment for me despite having absolutely no reservations to their marriage. This was my little girl all grown up and heading off into life on her own with the love of her life, arm and arm.

The ceremony lasted about a half hour and included poetry readings, scripture, more beautiful singing by Exultate, the choir with which both Nick and Kate sing.

The wedding party and guests retired to another beautifully appointed room of the manor for champagne, gin and tonics, appetizers and jazz. The wedding party also drifted outdoors long enough to have lots of photos taken. The pub was open and everyone mingled.

A British tradition of a Wedding Breakfast was served after a bit. Though it in no way resembled a breakfast, roast beef with veggies and Yorkshire Pudding was served. Speeches were made by the bride's father (me), the Best Man, the Maid of Honor and the Bride and Groom. I had agonized for months over this speech, what to say, not to say, etc. It was so important to me that it said what I wanted said, needed to say at that moment and that it would be said well. Apparently, based on the comments I received anyway, the speech was a hit. The Best Man roasted Nick with hilarious stories, the Maid of Honor said sweet things about the bride and the bride and groom expressed thanks to those who helped make the wedding happen and to their parents who made them happen!

More jazz, this time a Gypsy Jazz band and then back into the Music Room where the day had started for dancing to DJ Pat.

The bride and groom flew off to Sicily for a 10 day honeymoon and everyone else headed back to their lives of mundane normalcy. We too were pulled out of the storybook and back to our lives at school and pulling our pants on one leg at a time. For our bride and groom, the fairytale continues and the princess and her prince ride off into the sunset living happily ever after.

Kate and Nick's Ashton Court Wedding--2009

Green Beans and Bacon

My recent review of The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan set me to thinking about the Okie influences in my upbringing. Of course, whenever I get to thinking about that I inevitably find my way to the topic of food. The table, or "the board"as Gramma Willie referred to it, was the focal point of the home. It was where the family always gathered twice a day weekdays and three times on the weekends.

My Okie Gramma Willie served up simple great food and plenty of it whenever we would visit her ramshackle home in Bakersfield, California in the 50's and 60's. Fried chicken, black-eyed peas, home-made biscuits and gravy. The traditions of her table also influenced the food that went on my mother's table.

As I was preparing a Christmas dinner menu for Christmas 2008, I thought of my Gramma Willie's grean beans with bacon. So simple and about as far away from anything gourmet as you can get, yet they are so incredibly rich with a smoky flavor of bacon.

The recipe:

Gramma Willie's Green Beans with Bacon

6 cans of Blue Lake green beans

6 slices of bacon

salt and pepper to taste

Open all the cans of green beans and dump the entire contents (yes, even the water) into a crock pot. Slice the bacon into chunks about 1-inch wide. Add into crock pot with beans. A few grinds of cracked black pepper and salt the beans to taste. Adjust seasoning after cooking. Turn crock pot on to low and let simmer for 10-14 hours. The longer the better! Beans will darken in color, mush down and bacon will cook through. Stir beans occasionally. Serves 8-10 as a side dish.

Yeah, I know it seems too simple, but remember that a lot of the best things in life are. Try it if you haven't. I think you'll love it.

Note: You can use fresh green beans, it just takes longer to cook them down. I have tried it and I still like the canned variety better for this recipe. Probably just my Okie genes! You can also add some sauted shallots or onions and you can also fry up the bacon before adding to the green beans. Options!

Bon apetit!

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Great Books for Great Readers #1

I steer to one side of my series of book reviews centered around cooking and highlight a book that gives life to an era in American history that has a special place in my heart. The book--The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan has won a National Book Award for a beautiful, yet heartbreaking story.

I grew up in a family whose roots were literally in the Dust Bowl of the 1930's. My mother's parents were what were called Okies, a derisive term that labeled a group of folks trying to escape a life of misery and hoping to restart their lives by moving to other areas of America. Many went to California as did my grandparents. Californians rejected them, forcing many to turn back at the borders; others who made it in were not allowed to settle in towns so they built ramshackle Hoovervilles on the edge of towns. Vigilante citizens often with the tacit approval of the law bulldozed or burned many Hoovervilles forcing the residents to keep moving. Those that found work often only found more misery.

Parts of Texas, Colorado, Arkansas, Oklahoma and other midwestern states were opened to the land rushes and homesteading that allowed Americans and foreighers to have a last chance at getting a piece of America just by settling and farming or ranching the land. For these farmers this was a dream come true. The virgin land was ready to be tilled and planted and they tore up millions of acres. They planted wheat and some even got wealthy as long as the wheat prices stayed high during and right after World War I. But the price began to fall over the years until the price paid for wheat went below what it cost to produce. Farmers who had ben given extensions of credit bought tractors and cars and built homes. But when they could no longer pay their bills, they found themselves in big trouble. As if that weren't enough, the Great Depression struck in 1929 and banks began to fail across America. Many of these farmers lost all they had saved putting them deeper into debt. Then the 1930's saw a horrendous seven year drought. Suddenly nothing would grow. Poor agricultural practices soon had the parched land beginning to literally blow away. Dust storms of epic proportions, wind blowing across the prarie tore lose the top soil and blew it across America. Combined with blistering summer heat and frigid cold winters, misery made up their daily lives. These courageous people tried to stay and thousands died trying--trying to hang onto a dying dream.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected president and slowly began creating programs to help, but for many people it was too late. Whole towns simply disappeared in the roiling sand storms or were abandoned by those trying to escape. Areas once inhabited by thousands today count only hundreds of citizens if any at all.

This story is simultaneously heart breaking and awe inspriring. The greatest generation is often decribed as those brave souls who fought World War II, but the Okies of the Dust Bowl era were every bit as brave and courageous at a time when their own country all but forgot about them, even rejected them.

I long ago found great respect for my grandparents and their story as migrant farm workers during that historic period. Having read this story gives me even greater reason to honor their memory for the sacrifices they made that gave me so many opportunities they were denied.

For American history buffs this is a must read!