Friday, July 30, 2010

No quilting done

As you can imagine, I haven't been in my quilting studio for quite some time. I had so many projects to complete and a new web site to design.
This weekend I have scheduled for the studio. And, the new web site. I am anxious to sew. Designing, not so much. I did a survey and only 6 people want the web site changed. That's hardly motivation. No really great ideas shared, either. Rats.

Canning time

I pulled down off the wall my copper jam pot. It was time it went to work. I'm developing a BBQ sauce using apricots. We bought 26 lbs of them to make jam, eat, sauce and pies-little ones.
The apricots weren't quite ripe but I made jam with them anyway. I like the flavor the jam has.
Now I'm experimenting with a BBQ sauce. I'll post the recipe that I'll settle on. It should be fantastic on a pork shoulder roast done in the crockpot. Who wants to cook on these great summer days?
I'm also putting to use one of my large Italian glass canning jars to make refrigerator pickles. An on-going pickle jar sounds good to me. Enjoy these little pickling cukes while they last.
The two Bertazzonis are doing a superb job no matter what I'm cooking. I think I'm so overly impressed because I had such bad appliances before. The repair guy finally came to fix the door handle on the new refrigerator and spotted the red Berta. He just said, "WOW" and wanted to know how I found out about the cooking machine. Research, research, research. That's what I do! If anyone wants any info, just ask me. Back to the cooking machine.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Amazing Bertazzoni

I have been a crazy cooking fool the last couple of days. I baked a pie, casserole, and brownies. Tried both Bertazzoni ovens. Did french fries in the baby Berta using convection. The fries were like they were deep fried, very crisp. I'm not use to ovens working well. My old GE is on its way to the dump. It's not worth selling it to anyone. I don't wish it on anyone. I don't care how desperate someone is, it is not worth owning. Today, I do bread for the first time using the 5 minute a day method with baking stone and broiler pan with water. Everything is organized so well in this kitchen that I'm so enjoying doing anything in it. I'll post pictures when the walls are completely done. The dining area is what is not finished. Everything is done in the kitchen. I've been using the stainless steel covered island so much. Being in the middle of the kitchen, it's useful from any angle. I had to have the trim below the cabinet taken off so that the KitchenAid can move in and out of its parking space. It looks perfectly normal as it it the microwave home.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

First Day

Today I am saying is the first day in the new kitchen. The Elkay sink arrived double-boxed from eFaucets and steadily hubby and son figured out all the nuances of the sink, new faucet and dishwasher hookup and by nightfall, water was flowing and no leaks! All is well. Every element of a kitchen is now up and running.
We have two remaining issues of repair. The Samsung refridgerator 's door is loose. It is missing a part. We are day three waiting for the repair company to call. They are not ringing my bells and, trust me, I've called them. The door keeps falling off. Annoying to say the least. And, the shaft that covers the pipe in the range hood was too long for our ceiling. It went to US Sheet Metal to be cut, then it'll be back to be installed. The shaft is a decor issue not functional. The Samsung door is just darn right annoying.
I am so amazed at how the kitchen turned out that I'm overwhelmed by how everything worked. To go from a graph paper design to actuality and to have it all work out--whew! A minor adjustment was made yesterday under the microwave cabinet. The under cabinet trim was removed. The only real glitch was the KitchenAid not fitting under this trim. It measure 2.25 inches. Out of the 18" between the countertop and the cabinets, 16.5" is taken up by the KA. But with this large a trim, no can do. I decided to take the trim off that cabinet because it sticks out anyway. So the area underneath it became the KA's home.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Gorgeous choices

Now that I vented about the bad stuff, the new stove is in and we baked biscuits first thing. Tried convection for the first time. I'm about to launch all my bread recipes in the new undercounter oven. Got the bread stones and pans all set. I love the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day approach. Really the best bread method. The Bertazzoni ovens are worth their weight in gold.
The countertop is Formica's 180FX Espirito Santo. How much more Italian can this kitchen get? It means the Holy Ghost. All I need now is a Ferrari-red, of course.
It's 90ยบ out and I haven't wanted to do bread yet. I'm tempted to do pizza dough though. Can grill it.

Long time coming

Weeks have gone by with the cabinet contractor, then the counter top people, then the appliance installers, more counter top people. Now we're just waiting for a sink. How hard is that? A sink. I couldn't go down to the HD or L people to buy a sink. I wanted a one bowl, stainless steel, one hole sink, decent gauge, not 22. Can't buy that around here. I had to order it. I did, in May. It arrived in early June damaged. I just had it picked up to go back. It's been a waste of time dealing with the company I ordered it from. They now just informed me that I either agree to a replacement or a credit for the amount. No refunds. ARGH! I already ordered another sink to replace this one from another company. I want a refund. They were extremely lax in telling me their return policy and now I'm informed about the refund policy. So learn from my sorry lesson, ask about policies. I didn't expect what horrible customer service from them. I was ignored for over two weeks. So, of course, I went elsewhere to purchase a sink. Think about trying to use a kitchen without a sink.
You keep using paper plates, plastic spoons, forks and knives.