Build Day 5 – Will it ever stop?

The morning started out to be quite sunny. But clouds did manage to float in and we had a few minor showers, which didn’t stop us from working.

We got most of the uprights put up, ready for the lattice and we got the bottom box made for the steps from the sliding doors off the living room. The we broke for lunch.

Build Day 5 - the rain continues

During lunch, the skies opened up again and poured like there was no tomorrow. We decided to make our 5th trip to The Depot to pick up a few things. My bet was 4 JTs 5.

By the time we got home it was after 2pm and still raining, so we had to call it a day because tonight we are picking up our new Diesel Jetta and trading in the poor old buglette. Unfortunately, it is directly in cocktail hour. Cheers, anyway!

The New Diesel Jetta

The New Diesel Jetta

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Build Day 4 – Rain, rain go away…

Paul and T are on vacation and they are in Hawaii. What the heck was I thinking that on MY vacation I would build a deck? There is not one muscle in my whole entire being that is not screeming and writhing with pain. Hawaii? Pain? Hawaii? Pain? Oh ma goh!

Today we got off to another good start: Trip #4 to The Depot. We ran out of screws (we have already used 300 and need another 300, or so!) and step stringers. Thank goodness for the drill with a screwdriver bit, otherwise I think I would have thrown myself onto a large sword by now!

We got on a roll and finished the decking by 1pm, at which time, we broke for lunch. During lunch loud, cracking thunder. I look up and the skies are black. We ran to get everthing in the garage, but just before I was able to grab the tray of food, the skies opened up and buckets of water poured down. Rain like no other. Then hail. It lasted about 10 minutes and then petered out to a light rain.

Sunny One Minute to Teaming Rain the Next

It rained pretty much the entire afternoon, but we managed to skirt the deck and get the stringers strung. Lowes sent the wrong deck boards for the steps so, guess what? Yep, another trip to The Depot!

Day 4 Deck Skirt

We’re also trying to figure out the steps from the sliding doors; they will be very tricky because the gas line for the BBQ comes our directly where the first step up is. We’ll figure it out. Here is a rendering.

Concept for Steps from Sliding Doors

And it’s that time of the afternoon again, yes, it is cocktail hour. Cheers!

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Build Day 3 – Mother Nature Hates Us

Build Day 2 Weather

We started off OK at 9ish, but very overcast. We made a rookie error which cost about an hour and $20 but really 5.5 hours because it started teaming rain! And, of course, Trip #3 to Home Depot.

Mother Nature Hates Us

Rain, rain and more rain. At around 2:30 the rain stopped and we immediately got back into it.

We did well, but time, energy and screws ran out (the wood kind, get your mind out of the gutter). Here is our progress today:

6:30pm Progress

Weather permitting, we should be able to have cocktails on the new deck tomorrow! Cheers!

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Build Day 2 – The House Fights Back

I am just getting too old for this type of sillyness! OHHHH my aching back.

To say Build Day 2 got off to a slow start is an understatement. Not for a lack to trying. One challenge after another. I won’t bore you with them, but suffice to say that we made our 2nd run to The Depot by 10am. JT bets 5 by the end of the build, I’m hoping for far less, but we already have the list for the next one (dare I guess 4???)

Here we are at 1pm…see what I mean about slow start?

Build Day 2 at 1pm

We got the old fence post cut (by hand), some more demo, I moved 9 cement blocks into position, blah blah blah blah blah!

But eventually and fortunately, we got on a bit of a roll, and by 5pm we had the base box accomplished (plus dug an extra post for support).

Build Day 2 at 5pm

Hopefully Build Day 3 will be smoother. For some god forsaken reason, both JT and I have this inhumane urge to finish quickly, even though I have the entire week off. Cocktails anyone?

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Build Day 1 – Let the Festivities Begin!

We decided to get as much pre deck work done during the week as possible to allow for concentrated deck building during my time off.

Tuesday June 23 – Demo Day 1 (actually it was evening): Remove overgrown shrubs. Now THAT is manual labour. The root ball of one overgrown evergreen shrub was intensely embedded into the earth. On the plus side, we are quite fortunate that our soil is actually sand so digging isn’t that difficult!

Demo Day 1 - Remove Overgrown Shrubs

Demo Day 1 - Shrub Removal

JT did all of the demo himself during the day. It was horrible mainly because the deck was solidly built, but the temperature was absurd +30°C with high humidity. UGH!

Demo Day 2

Wednesday June 24 – Demo Day 2: I couldn’t believe what difference removing the pickets could make from looking out the living room doors — we could actually see our beautiful garden!

Demo'd

Jt brought the deck down in record time!

Demo Day 3

The space we gained was incredible!

Friday June 26 – Demo Day 4: JT spent removing debree so we would have space to work. That entire pile made its way to the driveway. All the new lumber which was delivered to our side yard on Thursday morning was moved into the garage to keep it safe and dry! Thanks JT, that was not the fun part!

The New Post

Friday June 26 Evening – Build Day 1: Building a deck onto an old house does not come without its challenges. We designed the deck with a large ‘arbour’ covering our neighbour’s brick wall (see photo above). For this we planned to sink four 6″ x 6″ posts (trying to keep consistent with the existing arbour) — no-can-do! It would seem that 3 out of the four existing fence posts are directly, exactly, couldn’t be more exact space where we wanted our new posts. In cement. Did I happen to mention that the existing posts were cemented into the same exact location where we wanted our new posts! UGH! (I may be saying that and perhaps a few choice words over the next week!).

Back to the drawing board, literally! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I had planned to use my brawn over the week, wanted to turn brain off….

We came up with a plan. We will retrofit the existing posts to make them ‘look’ like 6″ x 6″‘s – Obstacle 1 averted.

Unfortunately, post #2 was in the wrong place and fortunately, there was enough space to the right of it to dig a proper hole to sink another 4″ x 4″ so that we can have equal space for our lattice ‘arbour”.

And that is what we did Friday night. Of course, cockails thereafter!

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The New Cocktail Deck June 2009

When we decided to add onto our kitchen, we knew we had to give up our lovely cocktail deck JT and I built about a year or two after we moved into our home. But we had bigger plans! A new, bigger, better cocktail lounge to replace a semi useless, puney little deck off the living room! The mother of all mother cocktail lounges!

We had planned to put on this new and improved deck during the reno, but because of timing and such, we were were not able to then. We decided it was time, so I am taking a week off to help my husband build a deck. Believe it or not, I love this type of manual labour, blue job or not! A few photos for a general time line:

Pre Cocktail Area 2001 at the time we purchased the home

Cocktail Area Before Reno around 2002-3

Cocktail Area During Reno 2007

Cocktail Area after the Reno 2008

Site of the Upcoming Mother of all Cocktail Lounges

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JTs Birthday Dinner

Last Thursday was JTs birthday, we won’t say how old he is, but suffice it to say that I am significantly younger! We decided to stay in for dinner and have our dinner out on Saturday at Le Select Bistro, when things are not so hectic as a weekday. JT decided he wanted his no knead pizza (actually, it’s Jim Lahey’s), so he made his own birthday dinner. But I was able to make him a little birthday cake while he was away earlier in the week.

The pizza had incredible taste, but one thing I would do differently is to add the cheese nearer to the end (I have amended my recipe here), with only about one minute remaining for baking, that way, the cheese doesn’t break down entirely. It still had great taste.

Onion Confit, Poached Pear, Gorgonzola, Spinach and Arugula Salad

Makes one 16 inch pizza

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface (need about 1/2 cup more!)
• Coarse salt
• 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 3-4 oz Gorgonzola broken into small bits
• 2 pears, pealed and seeded
• 2 cups red wine
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup onion confit (see recipe here)
• Handful of spinach and arugula, washed

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/8 teaspoon salt, yeast, and 1/2 cup water. Stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and rough. Let dough rest in a warm place (about 72 degrees) until doubled in volume, about 3 hours.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel. Let stand until doubled in size, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Peel and seed pears, cut in half. Place into a small saucepan and cover with red wine and the balsamic vinegar and poach until soft. Cool completely and thinly slice. Reserve.
   
4. Place a pizza stone (we use our trusty Chicago-land cast iron pizza pan) on the lowest rack of oven and preheat to 550 degrees for 25 minutes.
5. Flatten dough into a disk that is thicker in the center than at the edges. Using your fingers, gently pull on the edges of the dough to form a 6- to 8-inch circle; dough should still be thicker in the center. Drape dough over both hands, and using your knuckles, work dough out from the center into a 16-inch circle. Or you can roll it out with a rolling pin.
   
6. Roll dough onto the rolling pin and carefully unroll the dough to hot pizza stone.
   
7. Working quickly, spread the onion confit on first, add thinly sliced poached pears and bake for 9 minutes. Add the cheese and bake an additional minute so the cheese does not completely melt.
8. Remove from oven and add a handful of spinach and arugula.
9. Enjoy!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

The cake above is half of Nigella’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe in small 5″ spring form cake pan (it made two mini cakes, the other is in the freezer). The recipe below is cut in half already.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 3/4 sticks soft unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• Special equipment: 2 (each 5-inch diameter) spring form pans buttered

Directions

1. Allow all ingredients to warm up to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Put all the cake ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter. Scraping down the sides so that everything is mixed smoothly.
4. Divide this batter, using a rubber spatula to help you scrape and spread, into the prepared tins.
5. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, which should be about 35 minutes, but it is wise to start checking at 25 minutes. Also, it might make sense to switch the 2 cakes around in the oven halfway through cooking time.
6. Allow the cakes to cool completely. Don’t worry about any cracks as they will easily be covered by the frosting later.

Frosting Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1-2 cups of icing sugar
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup Grandmarnier liquor (orange liquor)

Directions

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add sifted icing sugar and cocoa and vanilla extract and beat until everything is combined and the frosting is light and fluffy (I have an attachment to my Cuisinart immersion blender that is more whisk-like and mixer and this makes the fluffiest frosting ever!).
3. Cut a piece of parchment paper a little larger than the cake, place on centre of your working dish.
4. Cut cake in half and place on centre of parchment on the working dish.
5. Drizzle the orange liquor on this half.
6. Frost the other half with about 1/2″ frosting and place on top of the orange liquor half, like a sandwich.
7. Continue to frost the entire cake with the remaining frosting until it is all used up (or there is enough for the chef for a taste!)
8. Refrigerate covered tightly. I used an inverted Anchor glass dish with a rubber top.
9. When you are ready to serve, cut a new piece of parchment and place on top of your serving dish. Carefully slide cake to serving dish. Cake is excellent at room temperature, or just out of the fridge at midnight!
10. Enjoy!

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Iced Brie

From the LCBO Summer 2008 Magazine, Lucy Waverman

Iced Brie on Water Crackers

• 8 oz (250 g) brie, rind removed, cut into pieces
• ¼ cup (50 mL) white wine
• ¼ cup (50 mL) grated Parmesan
• 2 tbsp (25 mL) unsalted butter
• 1 tsp (5 mL) dry mustard
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• Pinch paprika

1. Combine brie, white wine, Parmesan, butter, dry mustard, cayenne pepper and paprika in a food processor and process until smooth.
2. Spoon mixture into a decorative bowl and freeze for 30 minutes or until firm but not frozen.
3. Serve immediately on water crackers.

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Fred’s Not Here Jalopeño Corn Bread

This recipe cuts in half very nicely.

Makes about 20 Corn shaped corn breads.

Jalopeño Cornbread

• 1  1/4 cup medium ground corn meal
• 1  1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used Splenda as I was making these for my diabetic father-in-law)
• 1  1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1  1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2  cup diced jalopenos (if you like things spicy, add cayenne to your taste).
• 1/2 cup finely  chopped green onions
• 1  1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1. Pre heat oven to 400° F.
2. Sift cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Blend eggs, milk and oil in another bowl.
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry.
5. Fold in the shredded cheese, jalopeño and onion.
6. Pre-heat oiled cast iron corn-shaped baking pan until smoking.
7. Spoon batter into smoking hot molds and bake for 25 minutes or until firm and golden.
8. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Cold Avocado Soup with Cilantro Oil

Although this soup is very rich, I have modified it to a slightly healthier version and suggest about 1/2 cup servings otherwise you won’t have room for dinner!
Modified from Epicurious.

Cold Avocado Soup with Cilantro Oil

For soup

• 1 fresh ear of corn, shucked (or 1 cup frozen corn)
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons water
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cups chopped white onion
• 1 fresh serrano chile, stemmed and coarsely chopped (including seeds)
• 1 firm-ripe California avocados
• 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup low fat yogurt
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika (if using frozen corn)

For cilantro oil

• 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

To make soup:

1. Roast corn on rack of gas burner over high heat, turning occasionally with tongs, until kernels are charred in spots, 4 to 5 minutes. (Alternatively, heat a dry well-seasoned cast-iron skillet and roast corn over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, about 10 minutes.) Transfer corn to a cutting board and, when cool enough to handle, cut kernels from cob with a sharp knife, then cut cob into thirds.
2. Bring kernels, smoked paprika if using frozen corn, (or cob pieces), 2 cups water, garlic, salt, chili and 1/2 cup onion to a boil in a saucepan and boil until liquid is reduced to about 2 cups, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool, uncovered. Discard cob pieces.
3. Purée corn mixture remaining 1/4 cup onion in a blender, then pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on and then discarding solids. Return broth to cleaned blender.
4. Quarter, pit, and peel the avocado, then add to blender with the lime juice and purée until smooth. Add yogurt and purée again. Transfer soup to a bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap and chill soup at least 1 hour.

Prepare cilantro oil while soup chills:

1. Purée cilantro, oil, and salt in cleaned blender, scraping down sides of blender several times.
2. Transfer to a pointed tip decorator bottle.

Assemble soup:

1. Season soup with salt and ladle into 4 small soup bowls. Drizzle cilantro oil.

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Panettone French Toast

Paettone French Toast

• 1/2 slice of chocolate panettone about 1″ thick
• 1 egg, plus 1/4 cup egg whites, beaten gently
• 1/4 cup no fat yogurt
• 2 tbsp chocolate chips
• pinch of Cinnamon
• pinch of Cayanne
• Fresh Berries

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Spray low fat cooking spray in each of two 3.5″ ramekins.
3. In a small bowl, gently beat egg whites with whole egg, adding the Cinnamon and Cayanne.
4. Cut the Panettone into 1″ cubes and place into the ramekins evenly.
5. Add 1 tbsp chocolate chips to each ramekin and distribute evenly among the bread cubes.
6. Pour the egg mixture evenly over each of the ramekins, dividing roughly in half. Squeeze the bread cubes down so that they are saturated.
7. Bake uncovered for about 1/2 hour to 40 minutes. They will puff up like a souffle.
8. Allow to set for 2-4 minutes and then remove french toast from ramekin.
9. Serve with Fresh Berries, sausage and warm maple syrup.

Enjoy!

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California Rolls

California Rolls are one of JT’s favourite sushi, so when we invited Brian (our nephew) for dinner this Sunday, I made a bunch. Unfortunately, he canceled due to a cold, so we had sushi for appi’s, and lunch the next day!

California Rolls

• 4 sheets of Nori  (dried seaweed paper)
• 1 cup uncooked sushi rice
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 6 sea legs
• 4 slices of cucumber
• enough Avocado for 4 sushi rolls
• 1/4 cup of white and black sesame seeds, toasted
• 2 tsp Wasabi (green mustard)

1. Cook rice as per directions and allow to cool. Add the rice vinegar and stir well.
2. Cut cucumber into 1/2″ thick slices the length of the sushi paper.
3. Cut sea legs in half lengthwise.
4. Peel avocado and slice into 1/2″ thick slices, dip into lime juice so it won’t brown.
5. Using a generous strip of plastic wrap, place one sushi paper on the wrap.
6. Rub a small amount of Wasabi along one edge of the Nori.
7. See making sushi video
8. Roll in Sesame Seeds, cut into 8 pieces.
9. Serve with Soy Sauce (low sodium).

Enjoy!

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Home Made Whole Wheat Tortilla’s and Braised Beef Appi’s

The diet went extremely well last week – 4lbs in total, and am hoping for an additional 4 this week. I broke down and had cocktails and wine, but the weeknights will remain dry.

I remembered I bought a tortilla press a few years ago and thought I would dust it off and make some mini hors d’oeuvres sized ones. They turned out OK, not sure if I will make them again. The braised beef filling was extremely tasty!

Whole Wheat Tortillas and Braised Beef

Homemade Whole Wheat Flour Tortilla Recipe

• 2 cups less 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds and wheat germ
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup warm water

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.
2. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, drizzling until it combines to form a dough. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough. The dough will be sticky.

Cooking The Tortillas

1. Once you have rolled out the tortilla very very thinly, place it on a preheated cast iron skillet. You don’t need to add any oil or butter. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds to one minute. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds to one minute.
2. Don’t over cook it as you want the tortilla to be nice and soft.
3. Keep your tortillas warm by covering them in a towel on a plate or in a tortilla warmer.

Braised Beef Filling

• 1/2 cup of braised beef (I saved this from an oxtail gravy I made quite some time ago)
• 1 green onion
• 3 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic fine minced
• 3 tbsp finely diced red pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• Cayanne pepper to taste
• Onion sprouts to garnish

1. Mix all ingredients together, serve with warm tortillas as an hors d’oeuvres.
2. Enjoy

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