Fountain Update

Well - the water mitigation people just left. Four spent their Monday morning with me at two-fifteen. The picture above is the kitchen. A lot of floor ripped out. It didn't have a vapor barrier under it - it had sheets similar to the backing of cheap shelf kits one buys from Wal-Mart. It sucked up water faster than a ....

Water traveled from the kitchen sink to the hall closet and down the wall into the laundry closet.

The drywall and insulation behind the machines had to be removed. The pad under the carpet had to be removed and the carpet was still wet. I know - since idiot here decided to start a load of laundry with only socks on.

They removed the laminate in front of the garage door and under the wash machines. Finally, they removed the baseboards in the family room, kitchen, and basement and drilled holes into the walls so air would be able to circulate behind them.

This is good news. Everything will be operating during Thanksgiving. The basement will be available as a bedroom and a bathroom. Now - Abby and I have to get some cleaning done!

I wish all of you a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I believe it will be a joyous one here at two-fifteen!

Indoor Fountain!

Abby and I came home from an awesome UCM volleyball match. We stepped on our family room floor and splashed each other. What the heck? We found standing water on our kitchen and basement floors and steady streams falling from our basement ceiling. It was quickly diagnosed as the hot water pipe to the kitchen sink failed. Water was quickly turned off, towels procured, and we went crazy just trying to get the water off the kitchen floor. (No pics of that since that was the first thing we did.)

I then - foolishly - asked Abby to go to Wal-Mart and buy a wet/dry vacuum. She looked at me blankly and asked if it would be a better idea to call the insurance company. Duh.

Now - I don't want this to happen to anyone. It really sucks. But USAA was awesome on the phone. Less than two hours after calling we have a water mitigation/restoration crew from Kansas City that came to Warrensburg.

As I sit here typing this at 12:30 a.m. they are in the basement and family room cleaning and drying things off. Abby is asleep in bed and I am listening to the HUGE vacuum motor that is attached to their truck.

So what's the final damage? Not sure yet. We'll find out late tomorrow. But it sounds like the kitchen floor will have to be replaced, the exterior walls have to be opened to get to the wet insulation, and the basement's gonna be out of commission for a while. It sucks - especially less than 5 days until Thanksgiving and we're hosting family. But we're safe, the dogs are safe, and the house is in - generally - good shape.

We'll keep you posted....

Dinner with Awesome Friends

Abby and I headed into KC to visit with Paula, John, and their new son: Tripp. What a cute addition!
We met at Garozzos in Overland Park for some great food, a lot of fun, and some awesome company! Paula and John - we've missed you and meeting Tripp was so awesome!

Safe travels back to Texas! We look forward to seeing the three of you again soon!

Speaking of Frost...

It has Frosted more than once here.  During the day it's getting 60-70, and it's not frosting every night.  Apparently no one told our garden that frosting is the end.  Matt picked all of these today.  Hurray tomatoes!

Gnocchi? Gno problem!

We had potatoes from Aldi which were not looking that awesome yesterday, so when I had extra time before work, I peeled all of the potatoes leaf in the bag.  I covered them with water and put them in the fridge.
When I got home from work I cut them up and boiled them and mashed them.  Then I added flour and kneaded the very hot result into a dough.  It made more than I thought it would, so I'm not really sure if I got the potato to flour ratio quite right, but it all seems to have worked out. 

After rolling the dough into finger sized rolls, one cuts them and then presses the pieces with a fork.  Flour is key during this whole process.

I wouldn't tell Matt what I was making, here he is eagerly awaiting dinner.  He doesn't look that eager, but the devil eyes are hiding it.

The next step is boiling water to cook the gnocchi in.  This part is really technically tricky- put the pot on the burner and the water in the pot.  With salt.

It'll look about like this when you have it right.

Then the gnocchi goes in the boiling water about twenty at a time.  When it floats, it's ready.

My next plan was to brown the boiled gnocchi in some sage butter.  I underestimated the amount of gnocchi I wound up with.  Next time I will not put it all in the second pot at the same time.  Although, it was all kind of sticking together so I'm not sure I could have only put part of it anyway.  Maybe the key to make more gnocchi before you start to boil them to make the whole process smoother?  I dunno. 

 Here is Matt, eagerly serving himself.  He was excited when I finally told him what I made for dinner.  Gnocchi, sage butter and peas!

Matt says the texture was good, but they seemed a little squishy in the pan.  Again, I think this might be something avoided by less gnocchi in the pan for browning.  I hear an overcrowded pan is the enemy of browning. 

Fulton MO visitors

Ben, Emily, and Stella stopped in on Friday to take Abby and I out to dinner. We went to a local hangout and enjoyed nachos and burgers! Then we all sat down to Toy Story 3 in our family room.
Saturday morning Abby made some so-delicious biscuits and turkey sausage gravy. We all sat down and enjoyed breakfast together. The food was SO GOOD that no-one was talking. Good food, good coffee, and great people make for the bestest Saturday mornings!
After cleaning up we let Stella try out her new bike - see below - and visited a local hot-spot, the largest thrift shop in Missouri. Then Ben, Emily & Stella were off to Fulton to get ready for the Mizzou/Baylor game! It take A LOT of prep for them to get ready for a fun game at home. (I know this first-hand just between the nachos, wings, and more!)
It was AWESOME seeing you!

Happy Halloween!

Matt and I continued a tradition we started last year again this year.  (I suppose it counts as a tradition on the 2^nd anniversary.)  We got a fire pit and invited people over to sit around the fire and hand out candy in the front yard.  Unfortunately, we did not have many trick-or-treaters; Matt was especially disappointed-he got excited every time the doorbell rang.  The final number was around twelve- I think next year we’ll buy a smaller bag of candy.

In addition to fire we also had apple cider, brats and German potato salad, all of which was declared delicious by attendees (all three of them).  I found a recipe for spiked apple cider in Glamour, of all places, and I was surprised at how delicious it was.

Halloween Apple Cider of Amazing and Surprising Deliciousness (this is not Glamour’s name, but it should have been):

½ gallon apple cider

4-5 sticks of cinnamon (I found cinnamon sticks at the store, but I did not want to pay $6 for them, so I used ground cinnamon)

4-5 cloves (again, I used ground)

¼ t nutmeg

1 vanilla bean split lengthwise or 1 T vanilla extract (surprise, surprise I used the extract)

3-4 T honey

Measure everything very carefully just like I did (ha!) and bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to low and add 3/4^th bottle Gewürztraminer or other white wine that’s not too dry.  I found a Gewürztraminer pretty easily for about $6.  Don’t bring it to a boil again or the alcohol will evaporate and ruin the whole point of spiked cider.  Add 1 cup or so of fresh cranberries or diced apples and simmer for a few minutes.  It says the extra simmering is to “enhance color”, I suspect that’s when one is using cranberries, which I didn’t, so this step could probably be skipped.  It doesn’t taste or feel alcohol-y.

I had to make a second batch of it for the 5 of us (although we did not make much of a dent in the second batch).  I probably should have taken a picture.

I hope everyone else had a good Halloween!  I also hope that you make this cider, because you won’t be sorry.