Kitchen Remodel, Week Seven: Cupboards and Kitchen Revitalization

The cupboards are here. They are not installed yet, just crammed into the kitchen space all higgledy-piggledy. But they are here so we can see them for the first time.

We went with natural-stained fir, a less-expensive option than oak, which had been my first choice.  Fir is also an appropriate choice for a 100-year-old Oregon house because they most likely used fir in the original kitchen. 

My favorite bit is how our builder matched the inside moulding of the doors and drawers with the moulding in our dining room paneling. Kind of hard to see here, but cool in real life.

I am still reading Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee and am just at the part where Chez Panisse burned almost to the ground in 1983.  Alice Waters used the tragedy as an opportunity to rebuild with a better and more beautiful design more suitable to her evolved vision for the restaurant. 



Although our kitchen remodel was, thankfully, not necessitated by tragedy, I am trying to channel Water's optimism about a better, more harmonious, future kitchen.

Sadly, Chez Panisse suffered another fire last month and is closed for renovation until mid-June.  Hopefully this recent misfortune will also result in improvements for this California icon.

 

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Sea of Regret

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

When it was over, Kate Dalton vowed to abolish the phrase "if only" from her vocabulary and make peace with what they did to survive.

-- Sea of Regret by Carolyn J. Rose.  That opening sentence gives me chills!

This is the second of the Carolyn J. Rose books I got a couple of weeks back.  This one is the sequel to An Uncertain Refuge, set on the Oregon coast and starring Kate Dalton.

The other book I got was Through a Yellow Wood, set in the Catskill Mountains and the sequel to Hemlock Lake, a series featuring Dan Stone.

Rose and her husband, Mike Nettleton, are both authors and even have written a couple of books together.  Rose has written several mysteries, set on the Oregon coast or in the Catskill Mountains where Carolyn grew up.  She and Nettleson also blog together at Deadly Duo Duh.

Rose is leading a workshop on the elements of mystery at the Wordcatcher conference in Kalama, Washington on Saturday, April 20. Click the link for details or to sign up for the conference. 

Teaser Tuesday: Through a Yellow Wood

 

I noticed she made no mention of where Luke, the handyman she hired in early March, slept.… If Priscilla found comfort with the bowlegged, balding, taciturn man stranded in Hemlock Lake when his rusted pickup gave up the ghost in a cloud of radiator steam and scorching oil, then more power to her.

-- Through a Yellow Wood by Carolyn J. Rose. What a description!

This mystery is the sequel to Hemlock Lake, both set in the Catskill Mountains and both featuring Dan Stone. I want to read the first one too, although this one does just fine as a stand-alone.

Rose is half of a prolific Pacific Northwest writing duo, along with her husband, Mike Nettleton.  She has written several mysteries, many set on the Oregon coast, some in the Catskill Mountains where Carolyn grew up.  She and Nettleson also blog together at Deadly Duo Duh.

Rose is leading a workshop on the elements of mystery at the Wordcatcher conference in Kalama, Washington on Saturday, April 20. Click the link for details or to sign up for the conference.



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

MariReads is hosting in April. Please stop by her blog for some great reviews and other fun bookish posts.

I only got one book last week, a hand-me-down from my mother. But she liked it and it looks .like it could be pretty good.



Too Easy by Phillip DePoy.  It is the second book in a series of five mysteries set in Georgia and featuring a "Zen private eye" named Flap Tucker.

DePoy moved on to another series that also sounds promising.  Also set in Georgia, but in the Appalachian Mountains instead of the gulf coast, the Fever Devilin series is up to seven volumes.  The named hero is a folklorist and former professor.

I am definitely going to look for more of DePoy's books.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Six: Green is the Color of Spring

In anticipation of the arrival of cupboards later this week, we got some color in the kitchen.  The walls were painted the same green as our old kitchen because I love that murky, yellowy green shade. The ceiling is the same pale khaki color as the ceilings in the rest of the house.

We also have a door to the new powder room. Tiny! Here's James Builder demonstrating its diminutive proportions. 

I've been reading food and cooking books during the kitchen remodel to buoy my spirits while cooking in a toaster oven.  But my current book is grim when it comes to food.  It sure makes me count my blessings!

Independent People secured Halldór Laxness his Nobel Prize, but his characters do not eat well.  Bjartur of Summerhouses and his family are early 20th Century "crofters" -- subsistence sheep farmers who live in a sod house in Iceland, with the sheep on the ground floor and the family huddled in the upper level.

With the cadences and vocabulary of Icelandic epic poetry, Independent People reads like a cross between J. R. R. Tolkien and Thomas Hardy.  The semi-literate characters starve through the winter and spring until they can grow a few meager vegetables in the home field and sell their scrawny sheep in the fall.


Other than a few batches of doughnuts or pancakes for celebrations, the only cooking described in the book was when the first wife -- about ready to give birth alone in the hut while her husband was lost in a blizzard -- killed and butchered a ewe, salted down the meat, and then gorged herself on a pot of offal stew.  The cognate, while false, is apt.




Independent People counts as one of my choices for the 2013 European Reading Challenge.  At just under 490 pages, it also counts as one of my Chunkster Challenge books.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Through a Yellow Wood

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Another April.

A year since I returned to Hemlock Lake in a vain attempt to disrupt the agenda of destruction and death set by a man once my friend.

-- Through a Yellow Wood by Carolyn J. Rose.  This mystery is the sequel to Hemlock Lake, both set in the Catskill Mountains and both featuring Dan Stone. The opening sentence makes me want to read the first one too, although this one does just fine as a stand-alone.

Rose is half of a prolific writing duo based in the Pacific Northwest.  Rose and Mike Nettleton have written a number of mysteries together, many set on the Oregon coast, some in the Catskill Mountains where Carolyn grew up.  They also blog together at Deadly Duo Duh.

Among her other writing adventures, Rose will be presenting a workshop on the elements of mystery at the Wordcatcher conference in Kalama, Washington on Saturday, April 20. Click the link for details or to sign up for the conference.

Teaser Tuesday: Independent People

It was an incredible blizzard. It was one of those peculiar gales when the mountain sang above the croft as if the trolls that inhabited it had gone demented and taken out their drums; the dog hung whining about the trapdoor, shivering in every limb.

-- Independent People by Halldór Laxness, first published in 1946, is the story of subsistence sheep farmer Bjartur of Summerhouses.  It is like a cross between J. R. R. Tolkien and Thomas Hardy.

Independent People counts as one of my choices for the 2013 European Reading Challenge.  At just under 470 pages, it also counts as one of my Chunkster Challenge books.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

MariReads is hosting in April. Please stop by her blog for some great reviews and other fun bookish posts.

I got two books last week from a prolific writing duo based in the Pacific Northwest.  Carolyn J. Rose and Mike Nettleton have written a number of mysteries together, many set on the Oregon coast, some in the Catskill Mountains where Carolyn grew up.  They also blog together at Deadly Duo Duh.



Through a Yellow Wood. This one is the sequel to Hemlock Lake, both set in the Catskill Mountains and both featuring Dan Stone.



Sea of Regret. This one is the sequel to An Uncertain Refuge, set on the Oregon coast and starring Kate Dalton.

Both books look great, as do the rest of the titles these two have written. Please visit their Deadly Duo Mystery website for more information about their fun collaboration and mystery novels.

Happy Easter!

Kitchen Remodel, Week Five: The Joy of Floors for Easter

The new kitchen has a floor now. Windows, walls, floors -- it's starting to look like a room. We opted for hardwood as being more forgiving for tender feet and less likely to smash dropped dishes to smithereens.

We are  still a long way from a working kitchen, which got us out of Easter duty. Mom is hosting Easter dinner this year. Hubby is still responsible for making the scalloped potatoes -- something we never ate until he joined the family.


He follows the tried-and-true Joy of Cooking recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups pared, thinly sliced potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour
3 to 6 tablespoons butter
3 pieces of cooked bacon crumbled
1 1/4 cups milk or cream
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional as in not in the actual recipe but still very tasty to add!)

Preparation:

Parboil the sliced potatoes with the salt for 8 minutes. Drain well.Grease or line a 10 inch baking dishLayer in the potatoes by sprinkling the flour and butter over them evenly. (Use the 2 tablespoons of flour and between 3-6 tablespoons of butter)Sprinkle the crumbled cooked bacon over the potatoes. In a saucepan, heat the milk, 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt, and the paprika.Pour this mixture over the potatoes.Topping with cheese is optional. The potatoes are good without too. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until potatoes seem tender.

NOTES

For more, see my ode to The Joy of Cooking.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Independent People

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+ or other social media sites, please spread the word. You can use the hash tag #BookBeginnings.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

In early times, say the Icelandic chronicles, men from the Western Islands came to live in this country, and when they departed, left behind them crosses, bills, and other objects used in the practice of sorcery.

-- Independent People by Halldór Laxness, first published in 1946. Laxness was Iceland's most famous author and only Nobel Laureate.

This story of subsistence sheep farmer Bjartur of Summerhouses is set in the 20th century, but feels like an ancient epic.  So far, it reads like a cross between J. R. R. Tolkien and Thomas Hardy.

Independent People counts as one of my choices for the 2013 European Reading Challenge.  It also brings me one step closer to my goal of reading at least one book by every Nobel Laureate.

Teaser Tuesday: Alice Waters and Chez Panisse

The menus for the week were posted every Monday. Lots of people, the clientele still being largely local, just strolled by, took a look at the hand-printed bill of fare in the picture frame on the front of the building, perhaps came in and discussed it with Alice or a cook, and made their plans accordingly..

-- Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee.
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

One of my favorite bloggers, Caitlin from Chaotic Compendiums, is hosting in March. Stop by her terrific blog! You'll be glad you did and, as promised, you may just find your next book.

I got one book last week:






Staying On by Paul Scott. This novel, described as a coda to his better-known Raj Quartet, is the story of two British colonials who stay on in India after the country's independence.  Scott won the 1977 Booker Prize for this tangentially related but stand-alone book.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Four: Canopy & Cocktails

Drywall is boring. Glad as I am to see walls in the new kitchen, there is nothing exciting about drywall. And drywall was the only thing that happened in our new kitchen this week.

Outside, we saw the beginning of a long-awaited canopy over the back door. It still needs its trim and the little copper roof like on the roof of the adjacent bump out. 

But already I can imagine finally having a stoop to set down the groceries with the canopy to keep off the rain -- instead of the meager concrete steps exposed to Portland's unfriendly weather that we've lived with for five years.

The stoop will connect with a concrete terrace on top of the garage, so I've also been daydreaming about warm summer evenings with the grill going and neighbors over.  The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto by Bernard DeVoto has me ready to start those evenings observing the sacred cocktail hour, the "pause in the day's occupation" that "marks the lifeward turn."




DeVoto wrote history books, novels, a magazine column for Harper's and this delightful homage to the cocktail hour.  First published in 1948, my edition is a reprint from Tin House with an introduction by Daniel Handler.

Written in a style Handler describes as "deadpan fascism," The Hour extols the virtues of the only two drinks DeVoto accepts as cocktails -- a "slug of whiskey" and a dry gin martini.  DeVoto advocates two of either at 6:00 o'clock with a few friends in a quiet setting as a necessary segue between the labors of the day and dinner.

He makes a good case.  And his pillorying of anything that falls outside his defined cocktail rituals is still very funny, even with his Dorris Day-era views on women.  His diatribe against rum, grenadine, mixers, anything sweet, olives, and novelty bar ware is a masterpiece of curmudgeonly eloquence.

NOTES

I read The Hour as one of my choices for the Foodies Read Challenge and as one of my non-fiction books for the TBR challenges I am doing this year.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: The Hour

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Oops! My beginning went missing there. Here it is:

We are a pious people but a proud one too, aware of a noble lineage and a great inheritance.

-- The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto by Bernard DeVoto.

DeVoto wrote history books, novels, a magazine column for Harper's and this delightful homage to the cocktail hour.  First published in 1948, my edition is a reprint from Tin House with an introduction by Daniel Handler.

Blogiversary!

Rose City Reader is FIVE years old today. Wow! That's an eternity in blog years. 

Teaser Tuesday: Word Up!

 

Next time you wonder whether to use one comma or two to set off a word or phrase in the middle of a sentence, imagine reaching in and lifting that word or phrase out with both hands. Does the sentence still make sense?

-- Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) by Marcia Riefer Johnston.

I love all kinds of "how to write well" books, from The Elements of Style to The Harvard Blue Book (that one dates me!) to Eats, Shoots and Leaves. This one is particularly good -- livelier than most and never pedantic, but with plenty of substance.

Word Up! debuts April 27, 2013 -- National Tell a Story Day. Print and e-book versions will be available from Powell’s, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.  Better yet, ask your local bookstore to carry it!


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday and GIVEAWAY Winners

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

One of my favorite bloggers, Caitlin from Chaotic Compendiums, is hosting in March. Stop by her terrific blog! You'll be glad you did and, as promised, you may just find your next book.

I got one book last week:



The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison.   Harrison has long been a favorite of mine. He is one of a scant handful of authors whose works I buy new in hardback.

In the tradition of Legends of the Fall (yes, the one with Brad Pitt) and several other Harrison books, The River Swimmers is one volume containing two novellas.  I lean towards Harrison's longer novels, but some of the shorter pieces are exquisite.

GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Thanks to the dogged book publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek, I gave away two copies Dry Rot: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery to lucky readers of Rose City Reader.  This was a "leap frog" giveaway, so both winners will get to host another giveaway for an additional copy.

Chosen by random.org, the winners are Pamela at Lavish Bookshelf and Squirrel Queen at The Road to Here. Happy reading!

Dry Rot: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery by S.L. Stoner

Set in 1902 Portland, Oregon, Dry Rot is the third mystery in Stoner's Sage Adair series, but is enough of a story to stand alone.

Sage's adventure involves a  losing labor strike, a union leader framed for murder, a ragpicker poet, and collapsing city bridges.  The historic details show a wild and wooly Portland of an earlier age -- an age of hobo jungles, lumber camps, brothels, saloons, and corruption.

Dry Rot is coming out on June 1.  Ask your local bookstore to order it for you or you can pre-order it on Amazon.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Three: Black & White and a Poetic Fritatta

The kitchen looks like it did last week, but with wall insulation and little metal boxes where light switches and outlets will go.

Meanwhile, we made ourselves crazy trying to choose black counter tops and white subway tiles. This is a white tile:

They all look alike. Until you hold them up to the Italian tile backsplash I've had stashed away in a kitchen-remodel hope chest for all these years.  Then I see that there are at least 37 shades of "white" tile -- none of which match the Italian backsplash.

Black counter tops are equally frustrating.  There are only so many slabs of soapstone in warehouses in Portland at a given point in time. I've looked at them all.  The good ones are on hold for other people.  The available ones have what looks like a map of the Columbia River watershed across the middle. Many aren't black, they are green.  Too little veining, too much veining, weird blotches.  None match the picture in my brain.

As with kitchen remodels, as with life.  You learn not to sacrifice the good in quest for the perfect.  No one but me will see that the tiles are off slightly and we'll hide the weird blotch in the soapstone under the toaster. Call it good.

In the midst of these petty frustrations, my dear friend Kirsten Rian was a saving angel.  She appeared on our porch with a care basket overflowing with goodness -- a pre-made salad, fresh bread, wine, homemade butternut squash soup, and an over-sized, over-stuffed frittata with roasted peppers, kale, smoked salmon, and goat cheese on a layer of thin-sliced potatoes.

Blessings on her head! Kirsten is an incredible poet, artist, musician, professor, and curator, and on top of it all she can mix up the best frittata I've ever eaten. I love this woman!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Alice Waters and Chez Panisse

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Late-summer sun streamed into the dining room, turning every westward surface gold – French gilt mirrors on ivory plaster walls, red wood trim, oak floors and flea-market oak chairs, mismatched flea-market china and flatware on red-and-white-checkered tablecloths, one great base of flowers with a white-linened table all to itself.

-- Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee. That first sentence describes the opening night of Waters' famed Berkeley restaurant,Chez Panisse, in 1972.

Teaser Tuesdays & GIVEAWAY Reminder: Dry Rot, a Sage Adair Historical Mystery

Sage lay with his cheek against the rough planks, his mind rebelling against the grim reality of his situation. The fading ribbons of light between the wall planks signaled the end of daylight.

-- Dry Rot: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery by S.L. Stoner.  Click on the GIVEAWAY post to enter to win one of two copies and an opportunity to host your own giveaway.

Set in 1902 Portland, Oregon, Dry Rot is the third mystery in Stoner's Sage Adair series, but is enough of a story to stand alone.

Sage's adventure involves a  losing labor strike, a union leader framed for murder, a ragpicker poet, and collapsing city bridges.  The historic details show a wild and wooly Portland of an earlier age -- an age of hobo jungles, lumber camps, brothels, saloons, and corruption.

Dry Rot is coming out on June 1.  Ask your local bookstore to order it for you or you can pre-order it on Amazon.  You can also sign up here to try to win one of two giveaway copies.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.