Varmint

No red meat, unfortunately. Believe me, it's very difficult to keep pork products out of these dishes!

These are great. Sam, I hadn't thought of using the onion half trick, as that's a great solution when someone prefers not to eat onions. The tuna and smoked salmon ideas are great, too! I appreciate this. Keep 'em coming, particularly the non-traditional ideas.

Come Monday, my kitchen will be undergoing a much-needed renovation. During this process, we will be eating out of a small kitchen with a cook top having 2 burners and a grill. We will have a very small refrigerator, no freezer, and no oven. Our sink is tiny, and, of course, we'll have no dishwasher. Pasta has always been something easy to throw together, and it can be done using only two pieces of cookware and a colander. With that in mind, please help me with ideas for pasta. Here are the ground rules: no frozen foods. Our pantry of fresh foods will be limited, as we won't have much of a refrigerator to store them. Thus, in many instances, I'll have to resort to canned foods. I will stop at the market on the way home from work some days, but not always. Dairy products are OK, as we'll always have some cream, butter, and reggiano lying around. Oh, and Mrs. Varmint doesn't eat red meat, which really sucks. Thanks in advance for your ideas. It'll be a challenge to avoid much repetition. Dean

Well, after saying I didn't include Crook's on my list, we're going there anyhow this Saturday. In many ways, this is appropriate, as Crook's Corner is THE restaurant where I truly learned to appreciate food, and Bill Neal's teachings still inspire me. So, the first report you'll hear will be about Crook's. We were going to go to Fins, but they're having to deal with the Valentine's Day crush, which was very nice of them to tell me that. They're running a limited menu, and that's something that I didn't want to deal with! Thanks, Lisa!!!

I got the granite for $9 a foot. The floor tile was only about $2 a foot.

One of the few remaining meals to come from this horrible kitchen: Seared sea scallops on roasted cremini mushroom caps with roasted tomato, ultra-young EVOO and Meyer lemon juice. Steak au poivre, horseradish & roquefort mashed potatoes, sauteed shredded brussel sprouts. I forgot to take a picture of dessert: Baked apples stuffed with dates and dried cherries, basted with Blenheim's Ginger Ale.

Seven days until demo!! I received my counter and floor tiles today. The counter is blue pearl granite tile: Here's 4 of the tiles together: The floor tile is a very light gray ceramic: Here's a shot with both tiles together. Remember that my cabinets will be lightly stained maple. I'm just waiting around in the meantime. The anticipation is killing me.

Marlene, Don may not eat "regular" leftovers, but when it comes to braised meat, if refrigerated in the braising liquid, this stuff is truly better after a day or two. I think much of the richness of the pot roast would be lost in a soup. Using it in soft tacos is a good use, and sandwiches are to die for. Even a pot pie would work great. Welcome to the land of the braisers!

We eat at our eating bar for most meals. When we have guests, then it's the dining room table, but that's pretty much opened to the kitchen (and will be even more so once the renovation is done). When we have a large crowd, we rearrange the furniture, turn the dining room table around, and add an extension table. We can seat 24 that way. Here's a view of our dining room table and the eating bar. The closet and other walls to the left of the eating bar will be gone in 11 days, further opening up the kitchen to the living room/dining room area. The new eating bar will have room for 7 or 8 folks, but I actually think we'll end up eating at the table more after the renovations are done. As for Mrs. V and me, we usually eat on the sofa, watching the tube, with all the L'il Varmints comfortably tucked in for the night.

Demolition is to begin on February 14 -- Valentine's Day!!! Seeing Mrs. Varmint and I don't do anything for V-Day, I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate! I received one of my two faucets. I ordered my cabinetry pulls yesterday. Very simple arch pulls by Baldwin, 3-3/4 inch for the drawers and 5 inch for the doors: http://www.homeannex.com/scripts/prodView....idproduct=13040 I actually budgeted $600 for the hardware, and these are costing me $189, delivered. More savings!!! With the exception of some molding that we're going to use for the edges of the countertops, I think I've ordered everything I'm capable of ordering. I'm sure there are a couple of items I've forgotten, but nothing big. It's just a matter of waiting, now. Damn, I hate waiting.

Mrs. Varmint would order that in a heartbeat. Seriously.

More exciting news (har!). The lighting and hardware for the pantry's swinging door arrived yesterday. I believe my faucets are expected to arrive today. Tile should be here late this week or early next week.

The maze was designed around two pieces of Italian marble that my in-laws brought back with them after living in Livorno for a couple of years. Plus, my mother-in-law is a small woman and my f-i-l hasn't cooked a thing in his life, so this made for this crazy design. It's awful, truly, completely awful. We're trying to time the demo based on the estimated time of cabinet arrival. Right now, the cabinets should be here in about 5 weeks. The last thing we want is to have a torn up kitchen, workers standing around, waiting for the cabinets. That would not be good. As far as why my living room is closer to the kitchen than the dining room? Beats me. But it's all the same room, so no big deal. This house is compact. Not counting our 3 lofts we have about 2,800 square feet, and this is a 5 bedroom, 3 bath house. But the location can't be beat and we have a lovely "cement lawn" (aka a tennis court) where we can have a pig pickin every other year! I received my replacement sink for the eating bar yesterday. This was the correct one, thank goodness.

I said I'd take some "before" pictures, so here it goes. First, because of the horrible nature of the kitchen, it's nearly impossible to get a good photograph that captures the kitchen in its entirety. Take it from me: it's a mess, a maze of a mess. Because the lot next to our house has been completely cleared (with the exception of 7 trees) to make room for a 7,800 square foot monstrosity, I have the opportunity to take a picture of the side of the house which I've been unable to do previously. As you can see, this is an architect's house, and a bizarrely designed one at that. The "box" on the right is the laundry room, but immediately to the left in the recessed area is the hallway where the SubZeros are currently located. We'll put an additional window in that region. To the left of that is the big window where the baking area will go. The area to the left of the windows is the pantry, and yes, that entire length will contain pantry!!! The entry to the house is at the right end of the above picture. This is the family entrance, so it leads straight into our very messy laundry room. From the laundry room, you walk into the kitchen. Once in the kitchen "hallway", looking to your left are our oh-so-lovely SubZeros. We'll be covering those with stainless panels. Looking to the right is the bar sink area, which is where the SubZeros will be going. Moving straight ahead now, you'll walk into the first obstruction in this little rat-maze: my current baking area with a lovely piece of Italian marble: Here's a more in-focus shot of this region: Note that everything you're looking at will be gone. Kaput. Removed. Destroyed. The wall ovens and the wall will be non-existent in a week or two. As will the cabinets holding up the marble. Begin to be amazed by the maze. This is still at the baking area, looking to the left. Near the windows is where the new baking area will be. Looking straight ahead from the current baking area: This is the view from where the new baking area will go, looking into my pantry. The new pantry will come out to where the red tile currently ends. Don't worry, as there won't be anything on the right, so there will be enough room. This shows another angle of where the pantry will end. The new cabinets will come out flush to the pantry wall. Note that the blank wall here is where the door used to be, a year ago. These two shots show the kitchen maze from the window (new baking area). It's a friggin mess, as I took the pictures right after lunch, before cleaning up. On the other side of the current eating bar is the living room. This shows the eating bar from the living room. The cabinets above the eating bar house the I-beam that ties into the very first wall, so we'll be tying the I-beam into a support post there. This is the end of the eating bar, looking back towards the kitchen. Our living room and dining areas are all in the same room. Here's the view of the eating bar from the dining area. Finally, here's the house from the other side. Our second kitchen is in the box to the right, way up high, behind the deck and picture window. It's a loft above the master bedroom. Sorry the picture quality is so bad, but I didn't have much time to get the shots in.

I love what Bill Smith does at Crooks, and I am confident I'll be over there in the next several months, but I just don't think it's quite on par with the other places. And I don't think Bill's trying to make Crooks into that type of restaurant, either. One of the great things a restaurant can do is to understand and embrace what it wants to be. Crooks fits in perfectly with that philosophy.

Frosted Mini-Wheats -- spoon sized. Apple Jacks Honey Nut Cheerios Rice Krispies (but ONLY with sliced bananas) Cap'n Crunch

I made palmieres for the kids. Yum.

Fins closed last night due to the expected nasty weather, which never arrived. However, that was the right decision to make. The restaurant dug out my home number and called me, informing me early in the afternoon of their decision. We'll try to go in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the report, Scottie. Sounds like the place has hardly changed at all, and I'm glad to hear that. What in particular was "sucky" about your table? Also, if you're willing to share, I'd like to know about the cost of the meal.

We briefly discussed Raleigh tapas joints here, including a brief mention of Z&R.

It's not that it wouldn't be fun to do the demo, but we don't have the time with all the kids. Plus, we don't have a truck to haul the stuff out of here. It would take us weeks to do the demo. It'll take my guys 3 days.

No, the carpenters will be doing the demo. The family will be out of the house, living with my in-laws that week.

Lighting for above the eating bar ordered today. I went with the low voltage Free Jack system from Tech Lighting, as described above. Cost, delivered, is $720. If I follow strict budget guidelines, I only have $280 for the 8 recessed cans I'll need. Don't think that's going to happen. Plus, I'll need to purchase the dimmers. No worries, though, as I won't be far away from my $1,000 budget. On the first page of this thread I had a "budget" for my hard costs of $25,479. As of today, I've spent $26,939 for all of these items except for some inexpensive lighting. I went over budget on the cabinets, but I couldn't be more pleased with what I'm getting and at the price I'm being charged. I purchased a hood and dishwasher that is superior to what I initially chose. My over the counter lighting will be top-notch. Of course, once the actual demolition begins, the true variable costs will kick in! Let's see how close to budget I am then! I'm already starting to think of what I'll cook in this kitchen and who I'll invite. Do you think I might be a bit excited????

Building permits obtained today. Fee was $260. Homeclick sent the wrong prep sink, da bums. Fortunately, it won't be needed for awhile. Cabinets were officially ordered on Monday. It'll be 6 weeks for them to be built and delivered, so we may need to delay the start of the project by a week, as we don't want all construction to stop, waiting on the cabinets. (So, have I bored y'all to death with the details? I'll start posting "before" pictures in the next few days.)

I purchased the porcelain floor tiles and granite counter tiles today. The floor tiles were $414.30, and the granite was $1,155.60, both delivered and including tax. I budgeted $2,650 for these items, so I'm $1,080 under budget for this. Yeah!