The Adventures of Patrick and Lisa

Basic Potato Soup

2011-12-19T09:25:00.001-07:00

My sister, Marisa and her roommate, Laura came to our house for Thanksgiving. To make things easy on me I decided we would have soup and salad on Wednesday night. The soup could get happy all day in the crockpot and my sister would make layered salad.

The soup turned out so good Laura has been asking for the recipe, so here is what I did...

Peel and cut potatoes into large chunks (about 1/4's of a regular potato) to fill the crockpot about 1/2 to 2/3.
Chop an onion and add to crockpot.
Chop about 3 stalks of celery - you want about 1 c of chopped celery.
Pour in a box of Chicken stock/broth. This should cover the potatoes, if not add more.
Add salt/pepper. Potatoes need lots of salt, but you don't want to add too much at this point. Same with the pepper. Probably about 1/2 tsp of pepper and 1 tsp of salt.
Let cook about 1/2 a day on low.

After cooking that long the potatoes should just want to fall apart.
At this point I puree the lot. I have a stick blender which I just stick in the crockpot and blend until it looks good. You can also scoop out portions and puree in the blender/food processor. If you use the blender/food processor method, be CAREFUL the hot liquid will be steamy and want to push open the lid to the blender!

Just before serving add 1/2-3/4 c. heavy cream and gently stir into the soup.
Add more salt and pepper to taste.

That is basic potato soup. To this base you can add different items to change things up. Some possibilities...
1-2 cup grated cheese after the puree
Bacon after the puree
Chopped carrots at the beginning with the celery
Use pork broth/stock instead of chicken
1 c chopped leeks
a couple of crushed garlic cloves at the beginning (they will be pureed later)

It is possible to cook this on the stove and not the crockpot, however, you will need to watch it more carefully. The low constant temperature of the crockpot cooking for several hours is part of what makes this simple soup so delicious!

Baking, Baking and some more Baking...

2011-05-07T18:20:00.002-06:00

Within the past couple of months baking has been happening a bit more often. The first endeavor was by Patrick. He loves sourdough, so he set about to make a sourdough starter. He carefully measured and nurtured the starter for a week and then made some biscuits. He made three batches before letting the starter go.

Here is a picture of the man at work.

On my baking front I decided to attempt to make my own bread. The first week I tried this recipe. It looked easy. Now I know that this may not seem so terribly exciting to others, but you see I have not done that much baking with yeast. I worry about the whole kneading thing and then there is the bake time and worrying about too crispy of a crust. Just plain too much worrying.

The bread was good! I couldn't believe it I actually made bread!

The following week I turned to my new favorite cookbook Joy of Cooking. Wonderful birthday present from Herm and Frederica! The very first recipe was white bread. It stated that this recipe was in the very first Joy of Cooking in 1931. I figured, it must be good if they've kept it around for the 75th anniversary cookbook. (That's the one I have.) It also said it "stales slowly and cuts well for sandwiches." I also learned that if you cover the cooling bread with a damp cloth it makes a nice soft crust.

So for the third week in a row I have two homemade loaves of bread cooling in the kitchen. One will get wrapped up and put in the freezer and the other will make some wonderful toast in the morning.

As I was brushing butter on the warm bread (that's the other thing you do to make the crust soft). I started to think about my great grandmothers. I thought about them brushing their bread on their bread making day. (Yes it does take about 1/2 a day.) I knew most of my great grandmothers and I wondered which one would be the most proud of me. I then I remembered that my Great Grandpa Gray was a baker.

Of all my great grand parents he is one that I knew the best. He said that if he could do it again, he wouldn't be a baker because they have to get up way too early. I thought of him mixing dough and getting the ovens ready for the bread. I think he would be proud that I've tried my hand at baking bread. I wonder how different his bread recipe was the one I've been using. I don't recall any of his bread - but I DO remember his shortbread cookies. I wish I had his recipe.

In the meantime I will try to continue to bake bread on Saturday. We'll see how that works out during the summer. If it gets too hot, I will definitely pick it up in the Fall again. Hmmmm homemade bread and soup. I think that is a good combination.

Philly Cooking Creme Party!

2011-03-15T21:48:00.002-06:00

On March 12th - I hosted a Philly Cooking Creme Party! (Yeah, houseparty.com!)

On the menu was...

Homemade Pizza Rolls
Homemade Pizza Dough
Red Pepper
Sausage
Pepperoni
Mushrooms
Handful of Mozerella
Italian Cooking Creme

I chopped up all the pizza toppings into tiny dices. Then mixed in the cheese and the cooking creme. Rolled out portions of the dough, cut into rectangles. Taking each rectangle I scooped some of the mix in the middle and pinched all the sides closed. - cooked according to the dough recipe, served with some pizza sauce for dipping.

Chicken Veloute Supreme Soup
This was, by far the favorite recipe of the night. I wasn't sure about this so I made some the week before and loved it. Due to the fact that I couldn't find any of the Garlic Cooking Creme, I had to make some changes.

Changes:

First - the whole trying to make a rue with mushrooms still in the pan, just didn't work for me. May work for you, but I didn't do so well. I sautéed the mushrooms and then pulled them out of the pan, made a rue with equal amounts of flour and butter and then returned everything back to the pan.

Second - I used only half a tub of regular cooking creme (Cheryl used a whole thing of regular cream cheese whipped with some milk). I then added about a teaspoon or so of garlic.

Third - I added green onions.

This soup REALLY needs to be served with good bread. Dipping bread into the soup is just too wonderful for words.

Santa Fe Casserole
I had no doubts that this would be good. Notes for next time...Add in chopped olives and perhaps a small can of green chiles!

Creamy Bacon Pasta
Again I couldn't find anything but the regular cooking creme the day of the party, so instead of the italian creme listed in the recipe, I used regular. I forgot to add some garlic when I sautéed the onions - that would have been good. The next day I reheated this with some extra cheese - that made it much better. (Isn't everything better with a little cheese?)

Cream Cheese mini tarts
Cream Cheese tart shells
Filled with nutella, peach-raspberry jam and pear butter
I have to say that these little things are ADDICTIVE. I have now made three batches - well the third batch is in the oven as I write. I don't know if I would make these any bigger than the mini-muffin size. Although the suggestion of pushing the dough out flat and baking it as one big dessert sounded good. I am justed excited to have a mini-muffin pan - plus I love little things. I have also added vanilla and almond to the batter.

If you would like to comment on Philly Cooking Creme see this link.

Brown Butter, Pumpkin, Spice Muffin Goodness

2011-02-23T22:03:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago I ran across this recipe for Brown Butter Spice Cake. I still had some pumpkin in the freezer and thought this sounded good, so I took the pumpkin out to thaw.

I have now made this recipe three times! Well, each time it got a new variation...

Round 1
The first time was a double batch, I did follow the recipe on the website with the following exceptions:

I didn't have any toasted hazelnut oil so I substituted butter as suggested by Heidi (the author of the blog post).
I didn't have whole pastry flour, sea salt or natural cane sugar. I used regular flour and salt and 1/2 brown sugar, 1/2 regular sugar.
I used my food processor to puree and then "whisk" in the eggs, sugar, butter and milk.
I made muffins instead of bread. I have to plan too much to have something in the oven for a whole hour. The muffins take about 16-18 minutes!
I also put toasted almond slivers in only half the batter.

Results: Ended up with 18 muffins, plus some extra in my little corning ware dish. We loved these! I liked the ones with the nuts on top. Patrick preferred them without nuts. And we both felt the spices could be increased.

Round 2

The second time was a single batch, I changed the following (on purpose)

I used bananas instead of the pumpkin - as they were taking up way too much room in the freezer.
I again skipped the toasted hazelnut oil.
Instead of nuts I added milk chocolate chips to half the batter. (I was actually craving Mary's Chocolate Cake - but I didn't have all the ingredients for that, nor did I need a whole chocolate cake sitting around.)
I added more of the garam marsala (1 1/2 tsp.) and cinnamon (1 tsp.)
I did not sprinkle extra sugar on these ones.

Results: Made about 16 muffins. These were just ok. Perhaps, it was because I was really wanting chocolate cake, but they did not rise as well as the first batch making them kind of sadly flat. They were good, but not overly so.

Round 3

The third time - this was a double batch again, I changed the following (some on purpose, one not so purposefully)

Again, no toasted hazelnut oil (I just don't have any on hand.)
I used pumpkin - about 1 1/3 cup before pureeing because that is what I had.
I added the following spices: garam marsala (3-4 tsp.), cinnamon (1 1/2 tsp.) and ground ginger (1/2 tsp.)
I also added a rounded teaspoon of baking soda (from the last rather sadly flat experience.)
I also added an additional 1/3 c. flour. I knew I would have more pumpkin than I needed so I thought this would offset some of the extra moistness.
My not so purposeful change was in the butter. I put a stick of butter in the pan to brown and then made the recipe. I was actually stirring in the "liquid" into the flour and noticed that the batter was rather dry. Woops! I turned around, pulled the beautifully browned butter from its cooling spot and poured it into the batter, stirring well to get all the stuff incorporated. Did you catch my mistake here? I doubled the recipe, but not the butter.

Results: Made 18 muffins, plus my little corning ware pan. They were wonderful. I loved the smell of them as they reached the end of their cooking. The house filled with wonderfully fragrant smells. I had to eat two of these while they were still warm. I had part of my "extra" pan for breakfast the next day with hot chocolate. yuuummm!

It was as I was getting ready the next morning that I realized, "Hey! I think I forgot to double the butter." After checking the recipe and realizing my mistake, I still had a good breakfast. While the lower fat content made the muffins more bread-like, the extra pumpkin made up the difference. And, slightly warm, you wouldn't notice a difference.

Much Ado About Nothing

2011-01-27T18:40:00.001-07:00

Or perhaps I should title should say "about the same as always". My goal is to take more pictures this year. (We'll see if that really happens.) January is just about over and we are definitely ready for spring. There is lots to do - a war to rage on the invading morning glory, grass to plant in the front yard, always work on the basement. I have been knitting a lot. Many babies being born around me. I need to do better about getting more blankets done - and taking pictures of them. I do have a knitting journal I started way back, but have not been faithfully entering the information. A fair chunk of my Christmas money went to buy yarn. I was soooo excited!

On the organizing front we finally made our hallway closet a bit more useful. It is an odd shape - deep and skinny. It had been stacked with boxes, but anytime I needed to get to something I had to pull out the boxes and then they would sit in the living room until I was done. My goal over break was to organize the little closet. We decided to utilize the rolling cart in the kitchen. So we bought some replacement shelves for the kitchen, wiped down the kitchen cart and then my break was over :-( I spent too many nights up late watching movies and knitting.

So, the long weekend in January (Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday), I said I was not going to sleep on Monday until the organizing was done. We bought a bunch of project-sized boxes, I finally found my labeler and I went to work. Stuff was moved. Stuff was thrown out. I found old projects and put them in their boxes with labels. Now looking in the closet, it is still very crowded, but at least now I can roll out the boxes in the front to get to the stuff in back!

It was a long day - but very worth it! Now if only my desk could get itself organized.

House Repairs

2010-08-28T16:13:00.001-06:00

We talked all winter about the things that needed to be done when the weather got warmer. More work on the foundation, flower beds need edging and mulch, clean out in between the windows, seal the windows better, clean and re-coat the front porch and the list goes on...However, spring and summer have come and are almost gone and most of the list still remains. The garden got planted, but the two tomatoes never got moved to the front porch. We've enjoyed our fresh vegetables, even if I haven't been the best at weeding. And then came the leak, it was just a tiny one. A tiny little spout off the main valve. The plumber came to fix it and heard some additional hissing - more leaks in the concrete - just out of finger reach. With a main water line dating from the 1930's we knew we'd have to replace it...it just wasn't on the list for this year. So for the past week we've had some unplanned (for this summer) renovations on the house. I'm sure if my nieces and nephews were around they would have enjoyed watching the tractors. As of today, it is still not done, but at least they haven't turned off the water yet.

Mulligatawny Soup 2/27/2010

2010-03-13T11:37:00.002-07:00

I can't remember what caught my eye about this, but it looked good. There are several recipes on All Recipes with this name and I ended up using a little from several of them (not surprising).

1 med.onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
4 carrots, diced
1 cup red pepper, diced
6 Tbl butter
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2-1 tsp ground ginger
pinch of saffron
1 bay leaf
4 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 apple, cored and chopped
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast half - cut into cubes
6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white rice
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch dried thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Melt butter on low heat until slightly brown in large soup pot. Saute onions, celery, carrot. Add curry, ginger, saffron, bay leaf, garlic, and apple and cook 5 more minutes. Add chicken stock, and chicken breasts. Mix well, and bring to a boil. Simmer about 1/2 hour. Add rice, salt, pepper, and thyme. Simmer 15-20 minutes, or until rice is done. Just before serving, stir in cream, simmer until heated through.

This soup was FANTASTIC! A definite keeper and a meal in itself.

Just a little update 2/3/2010

2010-02-03T19:43:00.001-07:00

I have not been doing as well as I wanted to with the recipes. I did discover a possible way to keep my online recipes organized. It is called Springpad. I just started playing with it, but I think I like it. Now I just need a way to not have to print out recipes. I'd just bring my laptop in the kitchen, but I don't trust myself to not get it wet or sticky.

The peach trees and roses got pruned this week. Hopefully we will get some nice big peaches again.

Here are some of Patrick's recent projects from his sculpture class last semester. (A steel 3-sword stand and a pair of cast bronze axes with really long spikes)

The best addition to the house was my Christmas present.

Potato Cheese Soup 11/14/09

2009-12-17T15:15:00.002-07:00

Last winter my fall back for our Saturday soup was potato soup. There were several variations, but the best one by far was a simple version made with the stock I made from the Christmas ham. The simple substitution of the ham stock instead of my usual chicken stock.

With all the plans we had for today, I wasn't sure if we would have soup tonight, but the snow storm this morning changes our plans and you get another soup recipe.

I don't have any ham stock in my freezer, but I did have a ham hock so I tried a quick one.

Ham Stock
1 ham hock
handful of baby carrots (worked out to be about 5)
about 6 small stocks of celery (I needed about 5 for tomorrow's dinner so I just pulled out the little ones on the inside)
3 bay leaves

Fill a soup pot with water, add all the ingredients - no need to chop the carrots and celery as you will just pull them out later. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Drop the temperature to a low/med and let simmer for several hours. Pull out the hamhock and bay leaves. Pull the meat off the hamhock and return to pot.

.....
I waited too long to finish this so now I don't remember what I did. I probably cut up some potatoes, let them simmer in the ham stock. Blended the mix and then added cheese. I used velveeta in this one, it melts very nicely. Add salt, pepper to taste and finish with a bit a cream or half/half.

The real point of this potato soup recipe was to try the quick ham stock option - well not so quick, but still good.

Peanut Curry Bisque 11/7/09

2009-11-07T20:38:00.001-07:00

I found this recipe on epicurious.com under the name "Lightly Curried Peanut Bisque". According to Wikipedia a Bisque is a seafood soup or smooth soup. I did look into possibly adding shrimp, but I can only afford shrimp when it is a really good deal. And good deals on shrimp doesn't happen very often in my land locked state. I changed the name, because I always tend to change the recipe. And while it might look like a lot of ingredients you could very easily just use 2 1/2 tsp of curry powder in the soup, plus salt and pepper.

My changes come from laziness in measuring (Rachel Ray doesn't measure!), needing to use something up or after a taste or a good smell I think, "hmmm this would be good with this and I have some." The nice thing about soup is that it is very flexible :-).

A note about curry: Curry is a blend of spices. Each company has their own version. If you don't like one, try a different brand. We discovered a spice store when we lived in Torrance, Penzeys. They had bottles of each of the spices that you could smell. I loved going there, but my sniffer would stop working about half way around the store. We happen to have 3 of their 9 curry blends, and I used a little of each one - Sweet curry and Hot curry on the chicken; and Sweet curry and Maharajah in the soup.

This one turned out incredible!!!!! It doesn't look like it would be a full meal, but it was very filling.

2-3 Chicken breasts
Curry powder
2-3 Tbl butter
1 large onion, chopped
3 carrots (I did a handful of the baby carrots), chopped
3-4 stalks of celery (my celery was on the small side), chopped
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp coriander
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 box chicken broth
1 sweet potato, chopped
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 salt

Cover chicken breasts liberally with curry powder. Bake chicken (350° for about 1 hour), chop into bite size pieces.

Saute onion, celery and carrots in the butter. Add the curry spices let cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the peanut butter until fairly blended. Add the chicken broth, stirring to blend. Let simmer for about 30 minutes.

Add the sweet potato and cook until the potatoes are tender.

Blend the soup (hand mixer or food processor). Stir in the cream, salt and the chicken, heat the soup gently on simmer.

Next time I think I will use coconut milk with the cream, maybe 3/4 c. coconut milk and 1/4 c. cream.

Pumpkin Ginger Soup 10/31/2009

2009-10-31T20:24:00.001-06:00

Another week, another Saturday soup. And what else to make on Halloween but Pumpkin Soup. I have a recipe for a Curry Pumpkin Soup, but I wanted to try something a bit different and I wanted to use a real pumpkin instead of the canned puree. So here goes with this week's recipe.

2 Tbls butter
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thin
1 medium pumpkin or 6 c. pumpkin puree
1 box of chicken broth
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cloves and add more nutmeg)
Fresh nutmeg, several passes on the grater
salt
pepper
1 c. cream or half and half

Cut pumpkin in half, remove the stem and seeds. Place skin side down in a roasting pan, put in 1-2 inches of water, cover with foil bake at 300 until tender.

Saute onion, red pepper in butter. Add garlic and ginger after the onions and red pepper have softened. Let the whole mixture saute to bring out the flavors. Add salt and pepper, just under 1/2 tsp each.

Add pumpkin and chicken broth. Let simmer about 30 minutes. (I tend to let the soup simmer while I finish other things on my list, sometimes it is 30 minutes, other times it is up to 1 hour).

Puree the soup with a hand blender or in batches with a food processor or blender.

Add the pumpkin pie spice, freshly grated nutmeg and more salt and pepper to taste.

Stir in the cream, heat until the cream gets warmed up.

We served the soup with some sun dried tomato and chicken sausage, just a little spicy, but good.

This one turned out well. Patrick suggests serving next time with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Cream of Chile Soup - 10/24/2009

2009-10-24T18:00:00.005-06:00

Last year we started a tradition of having soup every Saturday during winter. We tried a variety of soups last year and have been collecting recipes in anticipation of the cold weather for our new winter of soups to begin.

Today it is Cream of Chile Soup. Mostly because we bought too many pasillo peppers last week. I usually start with a recipe and then adjust as I go. I tend to do things like chop up the whole onion rather than stopping at exactly 2 cups. I use the last nub of butter instead of cutting off exactly 2 tbls. Since it is soup, it doesn't matter as much.

So here is the recipe - my way.

2-3 Chicken breasts
2 tbls butter

1 large onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped (frozen from our garden)

7-9 pasilla or poblano peppers, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic - minced

1 tsp oregano

2 bay leaves

3-5 potatoes

1 box chicken broth

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 can of corn
Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
Tortilla chips
Cilantro - optional

Bake the chicken with some oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.

Saute butter, red pepper, onion, pasilla peppers, jalapeño, garlic, oregano, bay leaves. (I turn the pan on med-high, put the butter in and start chopping, adding the ingredients as I finish chopping each one and adding the spices at the end).

While still sauteing, peel and chop 3-5 potatoes.

Move the saute mixture to a large pot, add the potatoes, chicken broth, cumin, salt and pepper. Let simmer until the potatoes fall apart. (Yes you could just put all the saute mixture into the large pot from the beginning, but I find I get a better flavor when I use my saute pan.)

When the potatoes are easily smashed with a spoon, remove the bay leaves. Puree about 1/3 of the soup in food processor with the cream. (If I had a hand blender I would just use it in the pot, still leaving some of the bits whole and chunky.) Add the puree mixture and the can of corn back to the pot.

Shred the chicken, add to the pot. Heat until warmed all the way through.

Serve with shredded cheese, tortilla chips and cilantro (if using).

Turned out well - this one is a keeper!

Is it Spring yet?

2009-04-02T19:42:00.004-06:00

I was hoping this morning that the precipitation today would lean more to the rain than the snow, but no. This is southeast Idaho and for some reason the clouds send us snow. Our little seedlings that we planted inside are doing well. Of course, we did buy the heating pad that goes under the seedling starter box to keep the roots warm. It seems to be working. Although we have not seen any sign of the rosemary. We have at least one plant of everything else we started. We will see how they do when we transplant them.

This picture is a week ago, but we have the beginnings or tomatoes, basil, cilantro, chives, sweet peppers, poblano peppers, brussel sprouts, lavender and hopefully some rosemary. They should be ready to be outside in May.

Another recent change is my hair. Here is the before picture. One of the few times you'll hear me say "please take a picture of my derriere".

The hairdresser braided my hair very nicely and then asked how much to cut. The minimum donation that Locks of Love wants is 10 inches. I had her cut 12 inches and then she still cut more off to give me my nice new haircut.

Here it is with the ruler, just to prove...12 inches. I hope that some child will benefit from my hair.

I still have the oddball picture for people to guess what it is. It will be coming soon. I hope Spring has happened in your neck of the woods. I'll keep watching and hoping for our little corner of Idaho.

Cue the music.....

2009-01-31T19:19:00.009-07:00

The adventures continue as we search each corner and uncover each of the oddities of.....the house. While many of the previous episodes reveal the mix of old and new, professional and not so professional, this episode reveals a part - mostly unknown until now......

The coal room. Stuck in the corner of the basement, under the portion of the kitchen that is at a slight downward slant. One of the portions of the house we believe was an add on. Between the mold, the cover up paneling, the peg board and the variety of not so professional shelves, the interior of the coal room remained mostly a mystery.

With the light bulbs replaced in various odd light fixtures in the basement and the halogen work lights in from the shed, Patrick armed himself to enter...the coal room.

Behind the door, at first glance it just appears to be left overs from the previous owners. And yet behind each corner more of our house revealed its uniqueness.

A view to the left shows us that the base of the foundation was laid with huge rocks - similar in size to the ones Patrick likes to bring home from rockhounding trips. What's that green barrel you ask - an old water storage container. These vestiges are not from the previous owner, she was only in the house for 4 years. These must be left overs from an even older owner.

To the right of the door is a shelf of miscellany. Can you find...the candle, the molding, the coat rack, the cannon ball, the iron hook-thing, the electrical cable, the buffer wheel, the insulation?

Further to the left is a box labeled electrical. Without further investigation we are uncertain as to which decade these components belong. The halogens could not reach this far in. These curiosities will need closer investigation under the lights and away from possible spiders.

A few of the things that were excavated from the debris...the cannon ball. Not sure if this is true ordinance, but what else would you call a solid ball of iron-like metal?

A slow motion (only two pictures) shot of Patrick experimenting with the iron hook-thing. With a fairly easy turn of the back handle opens the two pronged hooks.

Opened...closed...abierto...cerrado...ouvert...fermé...geopend...gesloten...opened...closed...geschlossenes ...geöffnet...ανοιγμένος...κλειστός...閉鎖した開けられる...chiuso...aperto... I was lucky to get a picture of both and he tested the weapon possibilities.

Here is the coat rack - or at least part of it emerging from the coal room. Not one of those modern things - this one, while appears to be pieces that screw together, is still pretty solid wood.

Here is the collection of long pokey things that emerged from the room. Guesses anyone on the metal tools? Patrick's guess on just about anything of this nature almost always turns to...instruments of destruction.

And so ends today's adventure with Patrick off on another adventure...off to do some home teaching.

Stay tuned for the next episode of the House Adventures - when we display some of the curiosities discovered in the house. There will be a prize for the person who knows what the last item is. So come back and perhaps you'll win!

Just another day in Idaho

2009-01-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

I thought I should update. This week we got word back that the mold is gone. They came and demolished and cleaned last week, but it took a week to get the results of the clearance test. The ducts, furnace and AC units have all been cleaned - man were they dirty. We didn't like running the systems because we knew it was dirty and didn't want to distribute the mold spores all over.

The house seemed to sigh with us as all these things have finally been taken care of. We still lots to do. The most important at the moment is fixing the foundation. Nothing major - but lots of cement repairwork to be done. Things are slowly being moved out of the front room, now that we can put some stuff downstairs. Another big sigh to more room and less feeling like we just moved in.

We've had a visitor with us the past month. Madi's class is doing Flat Stanley - a creative way to encourage kids to read and write. It is based on a book about a kid who gets flattened and realizes he can travel to his friends through the mail. We have "Flat Lisa" staying with us. So far she hasn't been to anything too exciting. I'll get some pictures up to share. My computer seems to not want to go look for pictures.

A Belated Christmas Present :-)

2009-01-12T20:42:00.005-07:00

Due to a variety of things, my Christmas/Anniversary present arrived with the Kings - a few days later.

My once empty cupboard is now very full.

Here is my present all tucked away nicely.

The cupboard is a bit small, I do have to lift it up to get it out on the shelf - but it is very easy. And it has a place to hide away and not take up space on the counter!

THANK YOU!!! to my dear husband. Now on to baking and whipping!

Merry, Merry Christmas Everyone!

2008-12-21T13:45:00.005-07:00

I hope this finds everyone well this Christmas season. As I put the ornaments on our little Christmas trees today, I thought about each ornament as I found a place for it. My first Christmas ornaments were from a Young Women's lesson when I was a Senior in High School. Since then, every year I have acquired at least one new ornament. I have two from my mission - I was serving in France at the time. Many from friends who have traveled - I have two from Isreal. But the most important part of Christmas is remembering our Savior.

While it has taken me a while to get ornaments on our little trees, it did not take me long to put up the nativity sets.

I love thinking about each person who was present that night when Christ was born. Perhaps one day I will start collecting Santons. They are figurines made in France to depict the "Creche". The biggest difference is that not only do you have the Shepards and the Wise Men - but the butcher, baker, tailor - the whole town comes to see the Christ child.

This little tree is the one I went to JoAnn's for in 2006 - Mine and Patrick's first Christmas. All the Christmas decorations were in storage in San Diego. I thought I could do without since we would be going over to family's - but by the time the 22nd rolled around I had to bring Christmas into my home. This is similar to another tradition from France - the manger scene is under the tree.

I know things have been tight for many this year - us included. Remember that despite the economy and obstacles that fall onto our path, the Savior has given us the precious gift of the atonement. He loves all and invites all to come unto Him. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Did you notice I'm singing one of the songs? Didn't know I was a country singer in my previous life, did you? :-)

Here is another wonderful song - just follow the link http://www.joytoeveryone.com

Winter in Pocatello

2008-12-15T21:25:00.003-07:00

Well after several days and weeks of temperatures threatening to drop only to reach up to create some beautiful autumn days, winter is definitely here. We have found a second company to take care of our mold so hopefully we'll be able to focus on other parts of the house. This is the last week of school for Patrick. I have to work until Christmas Eve, but then I have the next week off. We still have boxes all over, but several of them are now serving as "tables".

These are some pictures of a sunset one evening. I must admit, besides the wind, the beautiful sunsets have surprised me.

With the time change I've even seen some beautiful sunrises.

And this would be why winter is definitely here, as well as why Patrick hasn't cut his hair! brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T10:47:00.005-07:00

I know I haven't posted for a while, things have been hectic. The house is slowly get put into place. We had another company come in to give us a second quote on solving our mold problem in the basement. We are just waiting for the final dollar amount now. In the meantime Patrick has been working hard at clearing out all the random shelves, cupboards and paneling. I spent Monday getting all the "extra" boxes in the kitchen have been moved out, so we had a real, clean kitchen to cook Thanksgiving dinner in.

An exciting thing happened this past week. After moving all our stuff in, we realized that the laundry area was set up for a gas dryer rather than an electric one -like ours. :-( So we have been hauling laundry to the laundry mat each week. The exciting thing was that on freecycle - this group where people offer stuff they want to get rid of for free, had a gas dryer listed on it. I called and the guy still had the dryer in the back of his truck and said he'd just drop it by. So not only did we get a free gas dryer - but we got free delivery too! I couldn't believe how easy that one fell into our laps. Now I just have to brave the spiders in the basement to do laundry.

Earlier this month we went to Boise for Popsie's 80th birthday party. Here we are with the birthday boy. I know it is blurry - you can blame Karen.

At the party they put together a bunch of balloons. The two red balloons represent Popsie and Momsie, the yellow balloons all their kids, the green ones are grandkids and the blue ones great-grandkids. I'm not sure exactly how many there are, but I do know its over 100.

Here is mom and dad. They came for the party too. Aren't they cute! It was good to see them and spend some time with them.

Some House Updates

2008-11-06T21:08:00.004-07:00

Just thought I'd put some updated pictrues of the house. Since the basement still has the mold problems we can't put anything down there yet. I'm also reluctant to hang anything up on the walls just yet. After all the repairing and painting, the curtains and the lights are about all I can do just yet.

This is the living room. I decided when I first started taking pictures I should take shots along the process from the same point of view.

These are the curtains we got up. I found these cool double rods that made it so I only had hang up one set of rods.

These are the wall scones we hung up. The one in the back by the blue wall is the one that we can't find a switch for! It works wonderfully, it just will stay on all the time. We took the light bulb out to save on electricity.

We put the same wall sconce in Patrick's office.

I didn't have a picture of the kitchen so I thought I'd put one in this time around. On the counter is the pepper plant that we grew from seeds. We didn't start the seeds soon enough so we had to bring him inside when the temperature dropped. I'm glad we did, the peppers ripened and we've eaten 3 of them. There are two more waiting to be cooked into something.

Halloween

2008-11-05T20:55:00.004-07:00

Here are some of our Halloween pictures. No Costumes this year, but we did get some more Trick or Treaters than last year.

Spooky Jack-o-lantern.

Patrick and Jack.

Lisa and Jack.

Dawn on Halloween.
I suppose there are some nice things about Daylight Savings being extended so late in the year.

Still Moving in...

2008-10-19T21:30:00.003-06:00

Little by little everything is finding a place. I've included some pictures that show the floors. We found some curtains that are slowing getting put in place. We got the light fixture up in Patrick's office. As the rooms get put together we'll get some more pictures up.

This is the front room.

This is the bedroom.

This was moving day. There is space to move around now - but there is still much that needs to find a home.

This was our first snow from last week.

This is one of the rose bushes on the first day of snow.

Next step done!

2008-09-13T21:34:00.003-06:00

We got the rest of the paint up!!!! All the rooms, well the 2 bedrooms and the living room all have color up on the walls. No more wallpaper. The trim and such still needs work, but that part will have to wait.

It has been a long week with Patrick starting school and getting his school and work schedules set. School has also brought homework to his plate. At Lisa's work a co-worker came back from maternity leave and the office was rearranged to make room to include a new employee. Jobs are changing and it is as confusing as having two houses partly packed and a mess.

This is Patrick's office in yellow.

This is the back bedroom in a light blue.

This is the view from the front door. The living room in blue and green.

This is the view from the door to the kitchen.

This was a surprise. Some of you may know the sadness of the old rose bush. The sellers razed the old bush during a miscommunication about fixing the concrete at the base of the house. At the time the saddest part was that they reduced this old rose bush to 4 inch stumps. It was almost as tall as Lisa! Today as we checked out the side of the house - turns out the outside water bib leaks (see Lows and Highs). Anyway, we discovered this new growth on the little stump. We'll see how it grows back.

Paint! Paint! and more Paint!

2008-09-10T21:43:00.004-06:00

Just some pictures of the primer up on most of the walls. It will be finished tomorrow - well the primer will be.

This is the back bedroom. With the white walls the trim and doors look really yellow. The final color of these walls is a light blue.

More of the back bedroom. This door doesn't like to stay shut.

This is the living room from near the front door. We didn't quite finish the front room. My friend Joan came and helped so we definitely got further along with her help. Thanks Joan!

We've got mail!

2008-09-07T18:47:00.005-06:00

Everyday seems that we go back to the old place a little sooner than we'd like. There is always a little more that needs to be done. We've got a schedule down - go to work/school, hurry home, race through dinner, go work on the new house and stop at Maverick on the way back to the old place for Icees. I think the guy at Maverick is beginning to recognize us.

We finally got to some painting on Saturday. We needed to get to the next point so we felt good about making some significant progress.

The biggest change however is the cool new mailbox. Patrick did a great job fixing that hole in our wall.

This is the new mailbox - ready for mail - lots of mail!

From here you can see the big hole covered up on the inside of the house. After some foam insulation and a big square of drywall and lots of drywall compound - no more hole in the wall to let in the cold winter of Idaho.

I did not endorse this picture! However, it is me putting the finishing touches on another drywall patch. You can see all the other patches on the wall.
Afterward we set up fans to help it all dry so we could sand and then prep for paint.

Finally - this is the front office ready to be painted.
You can see the blue tape around the window.

Here is the same spot with primer. The final color will be a pale yellow.
Hopefully, you'll see a yellow wall come sometime this week.

Anyone up for painting? We will be at the new house every night, we even has some extra brushes :-) The frig is stocked with soda, gatorade and popsicles.

After the painting we'll be staining the floors, waiting a few days and then moving stuff in. I am sooooooooooooo looking forward to having all our stuff in the new house.

And the work goes on...

2008-08-31T17:55:00.004-06:00

The work this week has gone on. Slowly but surely things are looking better and better. Not many pictures this week. Most of visible work happened in the last two days. Here are some pictures...

We rented the big floor sander and Patrick went to work. You can see the first section done for the first sanding behind him.

Lisa took on hand sanding the edges. Thank goodness for power tools.

Bye, Bye big machine. Notice it is still light outside! It only took us two days of sanding. Not too bad for sanding 1520 sq. ft.! Next on to fixing the walls - lot of old holes and a few places where the plaster has come off the laths. And the hole in the wall for a mailbox. Our first day working the mailman introduced himself to Patrick and told him that our mailbox sucked. We agreed - a giant hole in the wall during winter didn't appeal to us either.
Speaking of introductions...we've met more of our new neighbors in the past two weeks than we have met in the place we are at now.

Lows and Highs

2008-08-24T20:05:00.003-06:00

Well we made it through the first week. Tired, tired and more tired. Still more ahead of us, but at least we have a few things looking up for us.

Low----This a picture of one of the lows...the water seepage/leaking into the basement. This is the leak on the basement floor. The outside wall was still damp on Saturday - two days later. We have a guy coming to look at the mold in the basement room on Tuesday and a co-worker of Lisa's has a husband who worked mostly in concrete. We are going to see if he can recommend someone to look at the leak and give us some suggested next steps.

Middle---This is part of our documenting the wallpaper. This green floral is the base in the bedrooms as well as part of the hallway closet. I believe I'm up to seeing evidence of 8 different wallpapers. Luckily not all on top of each other, but the 4 layers in the back bedroom are proving difficult.

Again more of the wall paper documenting. Oh, and Lisa in a blue hat. Normally this is my rock hounding hat - keeps the sun off the top of my head and ears and is easy for Patrick to find me when he wanders off on his own rock hunt. I has proven helpful in keeping things from falling in between my eyes and my glasses, as well as keeping sweat and stray hairs out of my face.

High---This is the linoleum in the back bedroom. As Patrick was pulling up the carpet staples it just came up in one giant piece. As Patrick says, "The house rejected it." And nice surprise - hardwood underneath!

This is the hardwood in the back bedroom. After everything else this week, this was a very nice surprise. I have to end on the good things.

Almost 1 week with the new house

2008-08-23T09:48:00.001-06:00

Here are some of the interesting pictures of the week. We have also been keeping track of the different layers of wallpaper. So far we have the gold/cream stripe that is throughout the house, a green with roses, a gray/red/cream plaid sort of mixed stripe, a gray mix of paisley and square pattern and finally a red. Interestingly the red is on a wall that I had been thinking about painting red. We've also run into a few paper clippings - if we could find when the first mass in the new Catholic church in Aberdeen happened we could date the one piece. We've had a piece of base board with a signature and a piece of wallpaper with a name and a phone number.

Here are some pictures of the house in progress....

The back bedroom reveal some interesting linoleum underneath the carpet.

Although this might look like some nice hardwood floor in the hallway, it is actually "wood" linoleum! Luckily this started peeling up as we pulled the tack strips off.

Tack strip destruction! Good safety with the eye wear - as well as fitting with the music in the background..."I wear my sun glasses at night...." You can also see where the original house ended and they enclosed the porch - nice line across the floor!

These are the disappointments this week. We had been watering the lawn - we weren't expecting the basement to be watered as well! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The moisture proved to infiltrate the one "finished" room in the basement as well. Now to deal with mildew and refinishing the room right. Lisa might not have a work space for a while.

New House!

2008-08-18T21:15:00.001-06:00

Well, we got the keys to the new house today. Everything went smoothly. We spent the afternoon pulling up the carpet and discovering what was underneath. Oh, and we watered the peach trees.

Here are some before and "after" - not really done yet, but at the end of today.

This is a shot of the front of the house with the carpet and all the wallpaper.

Here is Lisa pulling up carpet.

Here is Patrick at the end of the day with a pile of carpet in the background and the beautiful wood floor underneath.