Day 15-20: No Rest For The Wicked

For the last week, I have been immersed in the reconstruction efforts after the Curbside Couch Debacle. This included, but is not limited to: making slipcovers for furniture that found new homes, hanging chandeliers (well, that was Fulghi,) installing hooks in the girls room (again Fulghi,) going through closets, and closets, and closets, and general reorganization. In the words of Fulghi: "you've done a number on this house." I told him that with all this "Free-styling" I've saved him over 80K in home addition costs! I was going to eventually make him add on to the house so that we could have a proper dining room. Poof! Now I have made a dining room where there once was none! He should be very grateful...

New Dining Room - Formerly Family Room

The new chandelier is compliments of My Mother and Father.

(Early birthday gift!)

Slipcovers

More Slipcovers

My first attempt - please be kind.

New TV Room

Minus old couch.

Re-arranged Living Room

with added "puzzle table."

My theory is, when you live in a 1929 Spanish house, you and the house gotta work together. You have to come to a mutual understanding. You need to let the house know, even though she's a little old, she's still got a lot to give. The times they are a-changin', and sometimes the way we started out in life is not always the way we will end up. So we have re-purposed rooms and thought outside the box. So far we are really enjoying the changes. We have more room for homework and dining, and homework time seems to be more efficient. Next-up is the breakfast-room-into-kitchen transformation, and mud room metamorphosis! There is no rest for the wicked, and well, you all know me...

Now, in case you, gentle reader, have worried that my family has gone hungry this week, fear not. While I have been utilizing left-overs whenever possible, I have ventured on in my quest to dominate the Ina Experiment.

Ideas for leftover chicken and potatoes!

Night One: I sauteed an onion until caramelized, added diced chicken and potatoes, and along with a generous splash of salsa, heated through. Popped into tortillas, they made pretty good burritos.

Night Two: Took another onion and sauteed with some bell peppers, added leftover chicken mixture, placed inside two sides of a melted-cheese-tortilla-sandwich (also known as a quesadilla.) Sour cream, avocado, done.

So now we come to the next recipe in the experiment. Gazpacho! (pg. 79) If you try this, prepare for lots, and lots, and lots of chopping. It makes a bit (that's butt-load for you in the know,) and fyi: wasn't a hit with the kids. It was a hit with me, though. It reminded me of childhood trips to The Good Earth restaurant with my mother. I would always order the gazpacho and the herbal tea, and I always LOVED both. So go figure. My kids love Indian food, but put the kibosh on the gazpacho. Since we are now on night three, yes folks that's count 'em THREE NIGHTS of the gazpacho (with still enough soup leftover to feed a small village,) I'm sure I'm in for a fight...

A butt-load of Gazpacho

More of a hit were the Turkey Tea Sandwiches (pg. 58) that I served along-with. The have a nice sweet/savory vibe with the cinnamon-raisin bread, basil, smoked turkey and spring onion cream cheese. And in the words of my beloved Ina: "a nice depth of flavor." I found them to be the perfect accompaniment to the gazpacho, and two grouchy kids.

Plated and ready to go!