T-minus 6 days to demo

As is the trend this winter/spring, we are embarking on a kitchen remodel.  The cabinets and appliances are in our garage.  Monday is the predicted start day, when demo will begin.  We learned this yesterday afternoon.  So 6 days to pack everything up, not only in the kitchen but the adjacent family room, and relocate to the living/dining room.  Should be smooth.

The project is expected to take 8 weeks, hopefully less but I'm not holding my breath. We've done the kitchen remodel on the PDX house, so we kind of know the drill.  Last time we had a microwave, hot plate, BBQ, with a dishwasher rigged up in the basement.  Erin was about 9 months old at the time, so we were pretty much only cooking for two.

This time we're considering paper/compostable plates, microwave, BBQ, and our camping cookstove.  We are thinking of having a very basic menu of 7 easy meals - either all made in the microwave or in one pot - and using the same menu for the span of the project.

Any meal ideas, dear readers? I mean, other than Budget Gourmet one night and Asia Palace the next.

Almond Citrus Salad

Time for a crazy "let's-see-what's-in-the-fridge-and-try-to-make-something-paletable" experiment.

Salad:

Romaine lettuce

segmented grapefruit

toasted slivered almonds

pickled ginger - this is not the sushi kind, I think it's more of a Korean style and was a random buy at the local Asian grocery store

Dressing:

Olive oil

rice vinegar

little bit of apricot jam

dash of sesame oil

dash of soy sauce

I liked it.  It was really bitter and sour.  Brian took one bite and passed his bowl to me.  Well, 50% is not bad for a random recipe. 

Seattle Domination!!!!

This weekend, McMiller Inc. is in Seattle, visiting Stunt Dad and family. * Our long weekend has been composed of overnight yeasted waffles, a trip to Costco, visiting an awesome park with lots of ride-on toys, an outing to a play gym at the Y, a swimming trip, a rainy visit to a beach, much cousin craziness, extended bedtimes, and enjoyable glasses of wine and TV after the kids are asleep. Our girls loved seeing the newest McFeely boy cousins** and getting more time to play with Liam.  Thanks for the great visit!!




* I have zero pictures because I didn't bring a camera, but hopefully some of Brian's iPhone pictures and movies will make their way here.
** Holy moly, twins are a lot of work.  I bow in honor to all mothers and all families with these special two-fer blessings.  

Extreme Piggyback

It really should be an olympic sport.

Fashion Friday: Hair Clips

Frequently, in lieu of combing Erin's hair she has the option of pony tails.  Today she decided hair clips would be better. Two of each color.  Worked for me. 

Stalagmite experiment: FAIL

We found a kid experiment to try from my latest obsession - growing stalagmites and stalactites in your own kitchen.  Looked easy enough and we set it up.  The hope was for a beautiful column of crystals dipping down and upwards to touch.

We ended up with this:

The crystals were pretty, though:

It was a good lesson that experiments rarely work perfectly the first time. 

Wordless Wednesday: Purple