I don’t know what it says about my life that I’ll be able to do 90% of my Christmas shopping at Brownell’s…
— Tamara
wrm
Tomato and Beef Kofta, Pita bread, and a bit of bathroom progress
I’ve been browsing through Lex Culinaria, which is not something to do while hungry. The Tomato and Beef Kofta recipe looked good. So I made that (first time I’ve made meatballs, would you believe it?). Also tried my hand at Farmgirl’s pita bread, but slipped up, used too much water, had to add flour, and basically ended up with something closer to naan. No worries, it was great.
It’s easy to lose track of the fact that the house is far from finished when you’re having fun in the kitchen. I suppose I have to start from one side, and since the kids’ rooms are almost there (Jessica has a mirror that still has to go up, and the notwork and computer power points still have to go in) the bathroom’s high on the list.
I don’t know how one is supposed to keep the bath apron in place (note strategic use of batten and screwdriver) but I’m hoping that copious amounts of silicone will do. (I had to cut the tile on the far wall in a curved shape to fit, which is why this took so long. That, and the bath was leaking.)
Chocolate cake
Jessica (the 13 year old) had a friend over, and they wanted to bake. Chocolate cake. So I found a recipe and let them loose in the kitchen.
I had to intervene to explain that 350 degrees was Fahrenheit and our oven works in Celsius/Centigrade, and I had to explain that “baking soda” is probably what we call “bicarb”, but for the rest all went well and nobody got poisoned.
If you found something this colour in the Amazon rain forest, you would do well to avoid it…
Appliance garage
I’ve been dreading the assembly of the appliance garage for a while, since it involves precision routing, both straight and curved. Had to bite the bullet, it was time.
The straight bits were easy, I clamped a guide to the panel and routed against that. The rounded bits were done very carefully, by hand. I slipped a few times, but the lip on the channeling is wide enough to hide small mistakes.
The completed right hand side. The way this unit is designed is that it gets a wrapped panel on either side, just like my other cupboards. And this raised a dilemma. If I hang the cupboard doors on the top “third” of this unit, they would hang in front of the side panel (If this doesn’t make sense, never mind, trust me). Point is, it won’t look good.
So I routed the thickness of a door off the front edge of the top “third”.
See?
If this plugpoint ever breaks, the poor bugger won’t be able to get it out (the nuts will just spin). Not Right, but expedient (this plugpoint at the top left hand corner of the middle “third”.
It Woks
My father in law has a very nice cast-iron wok. I’ve been looking for something similar for a while, but then Tanya went crazy and bought a Le Creuset for me as a combined house warming / Christmas / birthday-for-the-next-10-years present.
I cheated and bought a package of vegetable stir-fry from the Spar. ’twas good.
Split pea soup
We had a black south easter blowing — lots of rain, from the south, which showed up at least three leaks that were not there with the prevailing rain from the north we’ve been having all winter. Soup weather.
Normally I would make snert, but I needed a quick recipe, and it also needed to be vegetarian.
Google turned up http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/vegetarian-split-pea-soup-recipe.html
I added a turnip, and (vegetarian) bacon bits. And of course Worcester sauce.
The “add salt” hint works well. I put in at least four times the salt I normally would. Wow.
Crazy season is upon us
And lemme tell ya, your forties are not better… we were invited to three parties, and the only one that didn’t end late was Sunday lunch. Sleep when you’re dead.
On the house side, I chipped out the grouting in Tamsyn’s bathroom, between the lower row of tiles and the bath, so that I can replace it with sealant. Then realised I was out of sealant, had to go buy some. Did so on the way to Bellville for braai #3.
I also (with Tanya’s help) put our bath into position and plumbed in the telephone shower and the inlet. I need to go buy a fitting to make the drain work.
And if your wife said “that’s OK, I only want to bath in that bath once the light is up” — take the hint and install the light!
And we officially started taking stuff out of the container. (This is the container where I stuffed my life into, eight years ago. It contains, among other things, three and a half pinball machines, half the bits to resurrect a Puma, a load of Land-Rover bits, a number of interesting old computers, a few amateur radios, and a shedload of books (SF and fantasy) and magazines (Byte, kilobaud, Elektor, ETI…)).
Found the leak
I’ve been sukkeling with the leaking bath all week.
The first time it really was a leak. I originally approached the plumbing gat-om-kop [1], and cemented the drain pipe into the wall before attaching it to the trap. Which means I had to heat and bend the pipe to get it to the trap, and in the process I got it out-of-round, so the seal didn’t.
I got Frank to break the pipe out of the wall again, and fitted a new (round) pipe. But things still leaked. So I went for option 3, get rid of the trap. Still leaked.
Last night I suspected that the overflow was the culprit, since that’s not tied into anything at the moment. Put a little bowl under it this morning when i showered, and it did catch a bit of water, but there’s still a lot of water under the bath.
Then it dawned — the grouting between the lowest row of tiles and the bath is not sealing, because… it’s grouting. It’s not supposed to seal. I need to remove the grouting at a 45 degree angle and fill the resulting gap with silicone sealer. On the to-do list for this weekend.
Then I’ll fit the front cover and take the pictures people have been asking about for weeks. Patience, my little grasshoppers, patience.
[1] Arse about face. But gat-om-kop sounds so much better. Afrikaans is a wonderful language to swear in, because even when you’re not swearing, it sounds as if you are.
First cookies in the De Waal kitchen
No, I’m not in competition with the Whimfields. Really.
I bought the Jungle Oats on Tuesday already, figuring I want to make either oatmeal cookies or bannocks. And then I read the posting by Laura-Jane, about how she can’t bake, yet, because of not having a kitchen. I feel for her, and I realise how much we’ve actually accomplished in the past seven months.
So I made oatmeal cookies. Simple, nothing like what Laura-Jane is capable of, to judge by her pictures, but a first for me, and we ate them all. The thermofan oven works well.
I then went on to make a lentil chili, without the chili (OK, I put in about a teaspoon of Tobasco sauce). I also added a bit of vegetable stock.
Comments from the omnivores :
Tamsyn : huh-uh, gimme some Marsala-less Marsala Chicken. (Tamsyn avoids vegetarian food on principle).
Tanya : It’s OK. Maybe a bit too tomato-ey.
Me : Yea, not bad.
Comments from the resident vegetarian :
Jessica : Oooh! Nice! Is there more? Nom nom nom.
So I guess I’ll hafta make it again.
Marsala-less Chicken Marsala
I picked Alex’s Chicken Marsala as a candidate for supper last night.
Followed the recipe until I started looking for my bottle of Marsala — the one I’m sure I had, but couldn’t find. Either Tanya drank it while I wasn’t looking (or I helped her drink it and can’t remember, which is entirely likely) or I misremember (also entirely likely).
Substituted dry sherry and a bit of port.
With mash (three potatoes, one turnip), brussels and broccoli, it was great.
Some day I’ll make it again, with marsala.