Stove, Grill, First Cooking & Tuna Salad

This is a mish mash post consisting of an update on our stove and grill, the first couple of meals and my tuna salad. Readers are interested as to how we are settling in, our kitchen renovations and many are looking for tried and true recipes. I will be adding labels to the earlier posts to help with the searching for those interested. Recipes and pictures along with chit chat as we renovate the kitchen will be appearing on a fairly regular basis now things are semi-back-to-normal.

I actually cooked on the ancient stovetop here. Two burners were working so I made pasta with homemade meat sauce from the freezer then topped with sauteed mushrooms. It was a simple meal that wasn't too taxing on the electrical problem. Recall that when we moved here there were electrical problems causing the microwave not to work properly, ancient built-ins and the gas grill connection unsafe to use. The crockpots and campstove were buried under so much stuff that I still haven't found the campstove!

It took a good couple of days to rewire and get the cabinet ready for our stove. The stove finally went in yesterday so I was pretty pleased. The downdraft is not connected yet but everything else works. Near the top of the backsplash there is a black dot that is the wiring from the old fume hook. The backsplash and countertop will look rather funny for the next week as we move the sink (almost touching the stove) to where we want it.

Oktoberfest Sausage

There was a natural gas hook-up for the grill however it was not secured properly and ended at the elbow (bend at the top painted black). This meant we had to secure the natural gas line itself then provide the connections from the elbow to the grill. Thanks to a family member the grill was up and running a week after we moved. If you want to see how we made the corrections please vist my homemaking blog where information will be posted.

You would think our first grilled meal here would have been steaks along with the ice wine bought special to celebrate our new home. No, it ended up being ocktoberfest sausages. The weather was warming significantly with rising humidity levels so octoberfest sausages made for our first bulk cooking session here. We grilled up a large batch for dinner served with sauteed mushrooms, onions and honey mustard on grilled buns then froze the rest for later quick meals. We sat by the water eating our simple meal on the water felt wonderful. It was homecooked!

The temperatures have soared here yesterday with it hitting 95ºF with extremely high humidity levels and smog warnings. It was not a day for cooking or grilling so I used a package of the pre-cooked seasoned ground beef I've talked about in previous posts to make a taco salad. This is an easy, quick to make, ideal summertime recipe. The winds shifted in the evening blowing in cooler air so I put a pot of pasta on for tuna salad for the tonight's dinner.

Tuna Salad

I make a lot of pasta salads during the summer. Most invole a pasta, vegetables and homemade viniagrette. Tuna salad is different as this is an old family favourite from our newlywed days. It is a wonderfully quick to make and cool to eat salad for those hot summer days. It can be made ahead for those busy hot days. It travels well for lunches too.

Tuna Salad

shell maccaroni
light olive oil
salt
--
1 tin tuna fish packed in water
radishes, quartered then sliced
cucumber, peeled and quarters
green onions, chopped
Miracle Whip
salt to taste

This is more of a method. Bring water to a boil in a large sauce pan. Add a dash of oil and good pinch of salt. Stir in the pasta. Cook until el dente. Remove from heat, strain and cool. Place into large mixing bowl.

Prepare the vegetables. Open the tuna and drain then flake. Mix the tuna and vegetables into the pasta. Spoon Miracle Whip a couple of tablespoon at a time, mix. Continue until you get a creamy salad consistency. Sprinkle with salt then mix well. Spoon into a serving dish. Chill at least one hour before serving. Garnish with a sprig of fresh parsley.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I Present My New Kitchen

New Kitchen
Before Renovations

Ladies and gentlemen, here is our new kitchen. As you can see it was renovated at sometime with fairly nice cabinets, higher end built-ins in their time, ceramic flooring and a breakfast bar. The kitchen is on the lower level with patio doors opening onto the gardens on the waterfront so the view is absolutely gorgeous! Looking at the photo you will notice one arrow and several numbers. The arrow indicates the ground grade. The kitchen is below grade and has one foot deep walls making it very energy efficient in terms of heating and cooling. Although I saw this as a selling feature because I do a lot of cooking and canning, other potential buyers did not like the kitchen placement which worked out rather nicely for us. So when I look out the kitchen window, the bottom sill is at ground level that then slopes to a lower level where the patio doors are. For pictures of the gardens and surrounding area, check out my gardening blog from time to time as those help to explain why this property is worth the effort.

The numbers represent problems and things we have to do in the kitchen.

1. freezer door of the fridge - This door hits the countertop of the breakfast bar preventing a reasonable opening spance. We are debating how to deal with this.
   
2. built-in stovetop - This is being removed tonight and will be replaced with our JennAir slide-in. The downdraft system is presenting a bit of a problem but we think we can go through the above grade wall that isn't so thick. We'll see.
3. range hood - There was a a range hood here but my husband removed it last night. It was nasty! A range hood won't be necessary with the downdraft.
4. corner sink - The sink is in the corner and if you look carefully the one corner is about 3" from the stovetop. The sink will be moved under the window.
5. dishwasher - The dishwasher does need replacing, period. At one time it was top of the line but due to neglect no longer works and is not worth fixing. A new Bosch (?) will take it's place but moved closer to where the oven (6) now is.
6. built-in oven - Again at one time this was an expensive built-in but because of neglect I would not put food in it. The inside looks like it has never been cleaned! It does partially work. Removing the oven will free up about 3 feet for more counter space. We are working on re-designing the microwave compartment to maximize this area.
7. electric plugs - This plug testes as hot/neutral reversed creating brown-out conditions. We are checking, correcting and replacing all plugs and switches throughout the house. So far the two problems we've found are hot/neutral reversed and open ground. If you need to do this check out my homemaking blog where pictures and what we did to correct the problem will be posted shortly. This is a new plug, corrected and working properly. All the plugs and switches in the kitchen have been corrected and replaced. A CFL light replaced the incandescent pot light.
8. backdrop - This is just history! It will be replaced once we move the cabinets and get the appliances in place when we replace the countertop.
9. countertop - It's history!
   
10. cabinets - Unfortunately they too have been neglected. I'm going to clean them good and refinish in wood tones.

Moving Update

I haven't been doing much in the way of cooking since just befor the move last Thursday. The kitchen here despite being nicely renovated has a fair amount of work to do to fit our appliances. What is really slowing our progress of even unpacking is the state of cleanliness. Even though the kitchen and even other areas of the house look clean they are thilthy! I have yet to open a cabinet to not find roden droppings either. The built-ins (dishwasher, oven, stovetop) are a disaster! They looked fine so I made the assumption they worked fine. We found out the dishwasher did not but the stovetop and oven reported worked. Well they both do work except the oven is likely a fire hazard given I doubt it was ever cleaned! The stovetop is in better condition but not by much. So that leaves me the microwave and crockpots except we noticed a significant brown-out problem with the electricity. The gas connection for the grill was so wobbly my husband didn't want to hook up the gas for fear of a problem. A family member is hooking up the gas dryer and grill tomorrow night and helping install my stove so I will be back into cooking mode. The freezer component of the side-by-side cannot be opened wide enough to get the ice bucket out because it hits the counter of the breakfast island. We are still figuring out a solution to this problem and since we only have 6 spare ceramic tiles to match the floor we have to be very frugal as to how we do this.

The previous owner left a chest freezer behind that we deemed a problem as it doesn't have grounded plug and creates a huge power draw when the compressor turns on. So a new, energy efficient freezer arrives tomorrow (more details to follow). We still have to buy the dishwasher. We decided on a Bosch providing it will fit where we need it to go. The sink is currently installed in the corner so that will be moved as well. I'll be going into greater detail of how we fix the kitchen problems on my homemaking blog complete with before and after pictures.

The brown-outs are being caused by electrical plugs with hot and neutral wires reversed. Today I tested all of the plugs marking each one that had a problem. We are replacing every plug and switch in the house so are working from room to room. Today my husband all the kitchen plugs and switches as well as two other problem switches. That little bit has already reduced the number of brown-outs perhaps enough to use the crockpots.

Our first meal cooked here was chicken wraps because I knew the chicken could be done on the stovetop. When moving it is best for whomever organizes the freezer to repack it at the new location. It's frustrating when you know you have something in the freezer and can't find it because of the move. The chicken was in the small chest freezer that was moved filled. I also warmed up some homemade stew from the freezer that really tasted good after eating out so much. That gave my husband just the incentive he needed to get my kitchen upto speed!I've finally went to the farmer's market yesterday so we have a lot of produce for fresh salads and sandwiches. I promise the cooking and recipes will be coming shortly. Raspberries are in season now so watch for some of those recipes shortly.

So on the cooking front there is little to report but we are making headway on the kitchen.

Thanks to all who sent best wishes for our move,

Happy Canada Day 2007

Happy Canada Day