I love veal scallopini served with almost any pan sauce, but my favorite is piccata. Whenever the wife and I eat at high-end restaurants, I usually order the veal picatta as a way to gauge the quality of the kitchen. But more times than not, I prefer my own version to the restaurant’s.
Consumers are lectured, attacked and demagogued at every turn these days. We’re supposed to choose paper over plastic bags so we can cut down on waste to landfills. Never mind the trees that were cut down to make the paper. We’re supposed to buy organic food because it’s better for our land and our bodies. Never mind the fact that “sustainable” farming methods generate more erosion/run-off and have no measurable health benefits. We’re supposed to run out and buy the new plug-in electric cars because they have no emissions. Never mind the coal-burning power plants that likely provide the electricity to charge them. And now, as if to push the limits of consumer credulity, we’re being told that we need to opt for real corks in our wine bottles over artificial ones, because not cutting down five million acres of cork trees kills endangered species or something like that. Confused? Me too.
After finally installing a proper toilet, I set about hanging the beadboard on the walls. I had been dreading this step because of all the intricate cuts that were involved. It would’ve been easy if it was just a matter of measuring and drawing lines; but as I’ve said before, nothing is plumb in my house. Beadboard is like graph paper; it’s easy to see angles on it. I was worried that even if I cut everything perfectly, it would still look bad as I lifted corners to make the seams fit snugly. I decided to start by lining up the two light switches. I’m a nut for symmetry. I took it as a good omen that the first piece of paneling only need to be trimmed once to fit.
Last week, I put on my general contractor hat and oversaw the tile and plumbing jobs. This is what the floor looks like:
On Monday afternoon, the wife put a couple of coats of stain blocking primer on the ceiling and walls. I realize I still have some bumps to smooth out on the ceiling patch, but it looks okay.
We finally got into the thick of the bathroom remodel over the weekend. And by “we” I really mean “I.” The wife helped demo the baseboards and wainscoting, but there’s just not enough room in our tiny bathroom for two people to work. She primed and painted the bead board outside while I worked in the bathroom. In what I hope wasn’t an omen, I had to call a plumber early Saturday morning. One of the faucet shut-offs was so brittle and corroded that it had to be replaced. After that, I disassembled the sink and got the vanity out of the room.
Although I just posted the Bathroom Remodel Plan, I actually started working on the room a couple of weeks ago when the wife was out of town. I figured that since I was going to fill the house with dust from the Hardwood Floor Patch Job, I might as well start skim-coating the bathroom walls with mud. To begin, I had to take everything out and scrape down the walls and ceiling.
We’ve never been too pleased with the bathroom in our tiny house. The previous owners remodeled it immediately before selling. As a matter of fact, we first viewed the house when the room was under construction. In retrospect, I should have asked them to give us an allowance in lieu of finishing the room. They did some good structural work beneath the floor, but everything else was done on the cheap. Here’s what the room looked like when we bought the house. We tried to dress it up a bit with fixtures, but it was like putting lipstick on a pig.
The hardwood patch is pretty much complete. In retrospect, I don’t know what was worse — the sweat sessions that characterized the wood preparation and replacement stages or the non-stop cleaning sprees the wife and I have undertaken throughout the past week.
I’ve never been a big fan of grilled chicken, especially at restaurants. You end up paying too much money for an extra thick, chewy chicken breast that tastes like water with a thin coating of whatever sauce you thought would make this version of charred bird would taste better than the last. To break that sordid cycle, I always do one of three things to chicken breasts; I stuff them, halve them, or pound them flat. The flavor of grilled chicken is on the outside, so I either add flavor to the middle, decrease the thickness and/or increase the surface area. This time, I used small, tender chicken breasts and flattened them before grilling.
