Porthos

Our new countertops have been installed. I'll post pictures after the back splash tiling is done. My Sweetie and I happy with the new countertops. I am not happy with the installers. I went into the kitchen after they left and found the floor dirty with the extra bits of installation stuff and lots of dust and sawdust. While not pleased, I grabbed my pan and broom and cleaned up the mess. I later discovered that the window sill above the sink was covered with dust and granite dust. The cabinet faces were also covered with granite dust. Sigh. Then I went outside. I found screws and other trash in the path of my car tires. I have moved most of it out before I realized I needed photos. Then I saw the street in front of my driveway: Since then I have used my feet to find screws in the carpet in the path they had to take: I'll be sending this information to my contact in the sub-contracting company. I'll let him know that I'm not asking for anything, but think he should know the condition his installers left my home in. ETA The flooring has been purchased, and now is the waiting game for delivery and installation.

Here in Southern California the lines at In n Out are always long. I think they have the best burgers by far, but I only buy them occasionally. Most of the time I don't want to have to wait. We eat drive-thru food quite a bit, especially with the kitchen still not finished.

Our best friends were visiting a few years ago. Mike is an incredible cook, and married into an Italian family who know how how to cook. I made risotto in my 3 qt Vollrath saucier. He decided he needed to add a saucier to his batterie. So far he's still trying to decide which one he wants. He does a LOT of research. And I don't make recommendations.

I just bought The Great British Baking Show - Love to Bake well, um, because I'm an unabashed fan of the show.

WinCo quickly replaced Ralph's (Kroger) as our go-to supermarket when they opened near us several years ago. My brother in the greater Fresno area had started shopping at WinCo long before we got ours.

The new paint is on the walls. The new cabinets and the cabinet refacing are finished. We've installed the new range hood. We picked a builder-grade Broan to replace our original builder grade Broan, choosing a model that was the same fit as the original. I made some temporary countertops while we wait for our new countertops. They and the backsplash tiling should be done within 3 weeks, hopefully less. We have an appointment on Friday for measurements for the new flooring. We're going with Pergo Outlast Bayshore Grey Hickory, a good neutral color.

The 2-jar-wide version could be a possibility for our still in the future new home.

@heidih None of those.

Dodged a bullet today. We went down to Orange County to pick out granite slabs for our new counters from our original choice. It turns out that the sample we saw in our home didn't really match the overall slabs. They had all sorts of quartz occlusions. No thank you. My Sweetie described what we were looking for and we were shown slabs that are what we want. All the paperwork is done, and we'll have granite counters that match our vision. I am so grateful my Sweetie wanted to approve the slabs. I'm far too trusting.

Beside the fact that I prefer cooking with gas, the pragmatic side of me likes the idea that during power failures* the burners can still be used with the aid of matches or long-neck butane lighters like you find in the camping section. My Sweetie and I MUST have a kitchen that 2 or 3 people can cook in, which may not be necessary for you. We chose our current house, purchased 36 years ago, based on the kitchen. The house we plan to retire to has a great kitchen with a large walk-in pantry. If for you the kitchen is the most important room of the house, then by all means make that your top priority. More than enough counter space for your needs and wants seems like a good thing to look for. * my disaster planning is never far from my mind.

I don't mind you asking but I'm kind of a paranoid person and have always been purposely vague about where I live. Where my Sweetie and I end up will likewise only been vaguely stated; I don't know the area well enough to be vague enough for my comfort level. 😀

We finally have the dates when the cabinet resurfacing will happen, along with them making the granite countertop templates. Work will be done the week of February 22. The real irony here is that we have found the new-construction house we want to buy in Arizona (waiting for the model we want to be released for sale, then built) and I'd much rather start thinking about what we want for that house.

When we have brats at home we never use buns.

My Sweetie and I drove past the freeway exit to get to where you're camping. I thought of you and your darling. Maybe next year will be safe for seeing each other face to face again.

@blue_dolphin The cookie book caught my eye, until I remembered that our yearly mass Christmas cookie baking has come to an end.

I'm incredibly lazy about washing greens. You'd need to use a perpetual calendar to measure time between my greens washing, and my Sweetie and I are still alive into our retirement age.

Decades ago I made a field service call to a small town about 1/2 way between Calgary and Edmonton in March. I had to be out-of-doors part of the day. I remember the wind, and when snow was falling it was being blown parallel to the ground. Not the sort of weather a Southern California guy is used to. ETA: The people who worked at the plant admitted that it was cold that day.

I've never cared for Spam. However, I discovered that I like to use it for hash. Hash has always been dinner food here. Bacon fat, onions, shredded potatoes and Spam make an easy dinner we both enjoy.

We've had way more really windy days this aeason. I can track this easily. Our north-facing home gathers all of the trash from the north-south street near us. Tracking is how many times I've had to pick up the trash that arrives via the wind. Your green beans look to die for. With the off-and-on usability of our kitchen (renovation-related, not usable right now) I've stopped buying fresh veggies. I just can't use them, and it kills me to toss spoiled food.

At ren faire we call stuffed jalapenos Dragon's Eggs and that's all I ever think to call them. At Arby's they serve them with "Broncoberry" sauce, essentially raspberry sauce, and I like them that way.

The inland empire fairs much better these days. In the late 70s I was working in Monrovia just a couple of miles from where the mountains really start to rise. I remember days where you couldn't see the mountains at all mid-afternoon because of just how dense the smog was.

Just dropping to post that the protein for Christmas dinner was roast leg of lamb. After the meal my son-in-law commented that he doesn't actually care for lamb. He thought the lamb was ok. The big shock was that we've served him lamb a few times over the last several years and he's never told us he doesn't care for it. In our family we like knowing food preferences (which he knows) so his never having mentioned it before was a surprise. My Sweetie made chunky apple sauce using a recipe where you bake the apples. It was very good. Everything else was dishes that we all like, including a sesame green bean dish we've done for ren faire for several years but never fixed at home before.

Yes to these, also.

There have been delays (imagine that) with our renovation so we will have a mostly functioning kitchen so a lamb Christmas dinner will happen. Last week my Sweetie was rightly able to say, "I told you so" regarding our lying salesman.