An Interlude

No photos tonight. In fact, no news about the project tonight. It's a day off for us all :)

Instead, I want to share how nice it was to have time to cook an entire meal from scratch, without the use of microwaves, prepared food or leftovers. If you read the blog a few days ago you'll remember how much we enjoy cooking at our house. So it was really nice today to have the time to plan and prepare something yummy. I usually take a back seat to Darryl when it comes to menu planning, but today I was inspired to cook because there was no one in my house, no dirt to clean up, and no other decisions to make. It's amazing how my brain has shifted, so that 90% of it is now occupied by remodel information, and the other 10% is left to handle the rest. I keep forgetting to make the girls' dentist appointments, yet I remember the exact model name and number of the faucet set we want to buy (Newport Brass Astor #920). Of course, I don't think the girls are too sad about this.

Menu: Marinated chicken breast, pasta with a light sauce, spinach salad.

I marinated boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a combination of olive oil, balsamic, lemon juice, dijon, garlic and herbs from the garden. That sat in the fridge for about 6 hours. This morning I skinned and then pulverized the last of our tomatoes. Tonight we mixed that with some olives (pitting job went to Julia), garlic and basil, then poured it over the incredible home-made pasta that our friend Antonio gave us this afternoon. Talk about fresh! Finally, I made a spinach, mushroom, red onion, kalamata, blue cheese and walnut salad.

I can't wait to invite you all over to see the house when the project is complete and cook something for you. Stay tuned . . .