We are really domesticated now

Living room - front door - bathroom is at the end on the left

Living room

Bathroom

Wood stove -kitchen - taken from front door

Wood stove - hall closet

Kitchen

Hall closet - Bedrooms on left - door to patio on right

Bedroom on the left - sewing room door on the right

Bedroom

Sewing room (now painted yellow) - door to "Big room" on left

"Big room"

"Big room" - door to backyard on right

Looking back at sewing room

Patio

Patio

Side garden - soon to be herb garden

Shed in the back corner of yard

Back of "big room' on left - shed on right

Taken from shed

Side yard

Garage

Work bench

First project

The joys of home ownership

Miso gravy

After hearing that my favorite breakfast/brunch spot in Olympia was no longer going to be serving brunch I quickly went through the 5 stages of grief and ended up determined to recreate some of my favorite dishes that they serve.

One of my favorite things they do is a roasted seasonal vegetable hash that is topped with a poached egg and miso cashew gravy.  I decided to start simple and just make a miso gravy and skip the cashews, though I'm still on the lookout for a recipe for that.  I used this for recipe for the gravy.

Finding miso was a little more complicated than I expected, mostly because I had no idea what miso was when I wrote it on my grocery list.  We wandered around Winco for quite some time but had no idea where it would even be if they had it. We decided to try our favorite Asian market which is just up the street from Winco.  Once there I made two laps through the store and realized I still had no idea what I was looking for so I asked the older gentleman at the cash register where I could find "miso powder."  He looked at me kind of strange and then took me to an aisle and pointed at pretty much everything in the aisle and said, "This is all for instant miso."  He was pointing at different packets of what looked like instant soup mix (but I had no idea since I couldn't read the labeling on the package).  He then took me to a refrigerated aisle and pointed at a bunch of tubs of miso paste and said, "This is real miso."  I think he could tell I was overwhelmed so he walked away and let me ponder my choices.

The tubs were bigger then I expected but I figured I could try making miso soup and look up other things to use it in so I went with the tub and grabbed a block of tofu on the way out just to make it look like I knew what I was doing.

The process for making the gravy was pretty similar to sausage gravy which I have plenty of practice with so it was no trouble.  I roasted the potatoes in the oven for about 40 minutes and topped them with a runny fried egg.  Though it wasn't as good as the Quality Burrito version it was definitely good and something I'll continue to work on perfecting.

Potato Cauliflower Curry

Yes we haven't posted a new blog post in nearly four months.  That is mostly because we haven't done much that has been noteworthy.  Considering we already have a couple hundred posts mostly about food we've made there hasn't been a lot of new ground to cover recently. Luckily though for the loyal blog reader I received quite an exciting new book that has 660 new recipes we are slowly working our way through.

We've already made a few of the recipes a couple times and everything we've tried so far has been delicious and relatively easy to make.  You do have to track down a few spices, but that shouldn't be any trouble.

I started by finely chopping 4-6 cloves of garlic and a big finger worth of ginger.  I cooked those together for about a minute.

I then added about a pound of potatoes with 2 teaspoons garam masala, 2 teaspoons salt, and a quarter teaspoon of tumaric.  That cooked with the garlic and ginger for a couple minutes.

I then added a pound of cauliflower and a can of diced tomatoes with the juices. I happened to buy purple cauliflower but any kind will work (the book even suggests using frozen).  I covered the pan and let it simmer for about half an hour, until the potatoes were soft, stirring occasionally.

I added some fresh cilantro at the end and we ate it with naan.  The recipe is a keeper and makes for excellent leftovers.

Quality Source: Ezra Cox Distillery

Late this summer, HH and I took a short trip south on I-5 to hit up a nice fabric store a few towns down.  While we were heading back home, we decided to stop at the Ezra Cox Distillery for a quick tasting. 

While tasting the samples, we found out that they would be changing their name, which was a bummer for me because I happen to really like the name.  To me, it sounds very old-timey and perfect for a small distillery.  I was just about to ask where the name came from when another, very loud/chatty patron brought up the subject.  Apparently, Ezra Cox is/was a partner in the business who was no longer interested in being involved, or something along those lines, so the remaining partners would need to come up with a new name.  That may not be entirely accurate, as the alcohol was likely working its magic on my brain at that point, but you get the gist.  Anyway, they are now Blind Pig Spirits which is not quite as catchy to me, but I'm sure the booze still tastes good. 

My favorite item was the peach pie shine, and HH liked the apple pie shine.  We thought they would make excellent additions to either summer or winter adult beverage concoctions.  I don't think either of them are for sale yet, but we are keeping our eyes/ears open so we can buy some when they are available. 

Before leaving, we decided to buy some vodka, and we got a free shot glass thrown in. 

That night, I whipped up some nectarine/vodka beverages which were good, but would have been better with the peach pie shine.  

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

This salad made frequent appearances on our dinner plates this summer.  I think the inspiration may have come from here on Simply Recipes, as many of our meals are taken from or inspired by what we see on that website.  

The greens and beets came from our CSA, and the goat cheese came from one of the creameries at the Olympia Farmer's Market.  

Fresh beets.

Aren't they pretty on the inside?

After boiling, the skins peel right off.

I see lettuce, kale, and chard, though there might be more things in there as well.

Goat cheese covered in herbs.

We dressed the salad with a lemon garlic vinaigrette, and topped it with the beets, goat cheese, toasted almonds, and chives.  Yum!

Gilligan’s Island Cookies

HH and I are aware that we are probably the winners of the Bad Bloggers Award, since we hardly ever post any more.  (Well, maybe we are runners-up to JP and Dr. JP, who haven't posted in almost a year!)  We do have some blog-worthy meals and sewing items that we made a long time ago but never posted, but the longer we go without posting them the harder it is to go back and do.  Apparently this goes for guest posts, too.  My sister sent me this post back in August (a full 3 months ago!), and I just now decided it was time to throw it at the interwebs.  I guess late is better than never, right?

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Here is a recipe for what are traditionally called chocolate chip cookies. Grandma Jean gave us this recipe.
 

She notes that in her family they called them Gilligan’s Island Cookies because they look like deserted islands jutting out of the ocean. The real recipe uses chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and heath chips, but we didn’t have all of that. But they are still great with only chocolate chips! 

 First you mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt.

Next you mix the wet ingredients: eggs, butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.

Then you mix the wet ingredients together.

Then you combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

Next, mix in the chocolate chips!

Hey, I recognize those aprons!

 Put the dough on the cookie sheet and put them in the oven for 9 to 12 minutes.

We cooked the first batch at 375 degrees but it was too hot. So we reduced the oven temperature to 275 degrees for the next batch. But that was too cool, so we raised the temperature to 325 and it was PERFECT!

Signing off,

From the kitchen, Sarah and Ronan.

Like a pro—Ruairi.