Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Haute Cuisine

Our little lake place has gotten most of our attention lately (I'm sorry, Real House, for ignoring you!) while we a) spend as much time as humanly possible there before stupid school starts, and b) try to get it into a shape that better suits our needs without spending much more than a dime.  Last weekend's project was to create a kitchen where there wasn't one.  The previous owners used what is now my sister's bedroom as their kitchen.  There was a nice counter, cabinets, a deep sink, and a picnic table.  Well, after moving the picnic table outside and creating a 3/4 wall to give her some privacy, we were stuck as far as food preparation goes.

My brother works at a nearby ski resort, which is constantly redecorating the rental units.  He alerted us to a deal on some cabinets that were being replaced--if we'd come haul all of the fixtures from one unit away, they were FREE.  Woo-hoo!  We got more cabinets than we could possibly use in our tiny little place, and James and Dad worked most of Friday getting them installed. 

The "room" we turned into a kitchen used to be a screened-in porch--you can see the railing behind the toaster.  Of course, once the cabinets were installed, I wanted to fix dinner at our place.  (We usually cook and eat at Dad's place down the hill.)  I was only slightly unprepared, though.  We had all the food, but we were short on utensils.  James ran down the hill to borrow a knife from Dad, and THIS monstrosity is what he sent.  It would be great murder weapon, but I didn't dig it much after I gouged myself with the little pokey things on the end of the blade.


I also didn't have a cutting board.  Not wanting to risk damage to my fancy new countertop, I used a piece of the box the new plates came in.  The box did not hold up well under the juice of the watermelon.

Zucchini, wedged, drizzled, and spiced...all ready for the grill.
Alas, there was nine tons of chicken to be put on the grill, so there was no room left for the zukes...
...so I resorted to the hot plate the previous owners left behind.  It's our only "stove," which is okay, because it worked great!
Oops!  Those weren't for dinner! 
But this WAS!
The finished product, and an almost carbless meal:  Open Pit-coated legs & thighs (the chicken, not mine), watermelon (I have thoughts on watermelon...bear with me), fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from my mother's garden, celery sticks, and zucchini & onions. 
Overall, I was extremely pleased with our first meal.  Utensils we were lacking have been identified and procured for this weekend, and I'm sure the next meal will be quite a bit smoother to prepare.

As for the watermelon--EVERY watermelon I have had this summer has been seedless.  I have not even SEEN a regular watermelon.  While I "appreciate" wanting the seeds gone, how the heck are ya gonna have a seed spittin' contest if there aren't any seeds?  And I know it's a big produce-growers conspiracy--they grow seedless mutations to keep people like me from planting the seeds we spit out of our food.  It just ain't right.

3 comments:

Debbie said...

Now I am hungry. I love zucchini on the grill. We need more pictures of the "vacation house".

Tobye said...

Extremely creative cooking. How awesome!

Tam said...

Looks like a mighty fine meal! It also looked like lots of fun going on there!

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