Monday, January 18, 2010

Kitchen Counter

The kitchen counter came in this week and I think it looks great! I have more counter space then I thought. So exciting!



We also painted the dinning room walls. I took a ton of pictures hoping to capture the exact green. This was the closest, but it doesn't really do it justice. It's the best green! No wonder it's my favorite color!


Sunday, January 10, 2010

First Meal in the Kitchen!

Well, we spent the day prepping the trim, putting bins on the knots and priming. Its hard work with all that trim in such tight quarters. At least we got to smell something wonderful all day. We broke in my kitchen for the first time. First I had to burn off the stove for about an hour (smelled terrible) then we put a New England Pot Roast in to cook while we were working. Tasted great. Recipe to follow if you want to try.
New England Pot Roast

Ingredients:
1 boneless beef chuck arm, shoulder or blade pot roast (4 lbs)
1-2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 jar (8 oz) prepared horseradish
1 cup water (approximate)
1 cup chicken stalk (approximate)
5 small potatoes, cut into quarters
2 small carrots, cut into large chunks
2 small onions, cut into eighths
2 celery stalks, cut into large chunks
1 cup small button mushrooms
Optional herbs:
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dried thyme or 6 fresh sprigs

Season the beef with salt and pepper. Coat in flour. Sear the meat in all sides in a 4-quart Dutch oven. Coat the beef with the horseradish. Pour in the water and chicken stalk until 3/4 covered. Place in a preheated 325 degree oven. At hour one, flip the beef over. At hour 2, add the vegetables and herbs according to your preference. Let cook a total of 3 - 3 1/2 hours, until meat falls apart beautifully. Goes great with steamed cabbage, home-baked artisan dinner french rolls and Blackstone Zinfandel, or any red wine...and lots of it!

Oh yeah, here is a taste of the trim, very much still in progress. We are still waiting on a few more doors before we can aggressively attack this trim job.