Dinner Tonight

I have yet to post on cooking, which is unusual, because I love to cook! Today I felt the desire to post on what I'm inspired to cook for dinner tonight - probably because I haven't been too terribly inspired to cook with all of the morning sickness blahs. Today, the nausea seems to be at bay, and the idea of cooking and eating doesn't turn me completely off. So, tonight...



Michael picked up some ready-made, from the freezer spaetzle the other night, and we have yet to eat it. I think we both have been craving it since he picked it up, so without further ado, tonight will be a German-inspired meal!

Now, I'm not as crazy about German fare as he is. It's all just a little heavy for my liking. But, I found some recipes for a sauce online that inspired me, and I'm just going to alter one of them a bit to lighten it up. Of course, in a German restaurant they would serve spaetzle with a heavy, beef-based gravy, but since I don't eat beef, I'm going to use chicken (I know, blasphemous. Whatever.)

For the sauce, I'm going to saute some onion in butter, and add some fresh mushrooms; meanwhile mix up some flour and chicken broth, and then add the broth mixture to the pan and simmer. I'm not sure what, if any, herb or spice I should use. One recipe calls for Hungarian paprika..never heard of it, but it sounds splendid!

I think I'll also pick up some apple chicken sausage from The Wedge while I'm there getting some mushrooms. I'll simply just fry it up in a pan. Should be good.

Lastly, I want to do something with squash. We don't have a lot of squash left in our stash, but it's been a number of weeks since we've eaten any, and I'm craving it. Not sure if squash is necessarily "German", but I figure if The Wedge has any local beets, I'll pick some up. I could roast both the butternut squash and the beets in cubes, and combine them to create a yummy side dish with walnuts and goat cheese.

Of course, as with all of our meals, I try to keep as much of the ingredients as local and seasonal as possible. Now, with my aversion to cooking chicken these last few weeks, Michael and I haven't been picking up chicken at the farmers market (as per our usual Saturday morning routine), so I don't have a stock to make the broth. :( With the exception of the broth, I think we're in business. The squash in the pantry is, of course, local. I won't be picking up beets if they're not from the tri-state area (that's the goal, especially in the Winter), but I'm sure I'll find some at least from Wisconsin. I can get Minnesota mushrooms, and I believe the sausage we had tried before is from a MN farm. Of course, it's relatively easy to find cheese from MN or WI. Hey! Even the spaetzle is local! I just looked at the package and I see that it was actually made right here - about 8 blocks away - at The Blackforest Inn, one of the best German restaurants in MN. Score!

Another job to be proud of!

I just received an email from another wonderful couple with whom I worked on designing their kitchen remodel. This is a couple that had put off doing the remodel due to some financial crunching (back at the beginning of all this economic madness), but eventually decided to go for it. I love that they were doing most of the work themselves and using friends and family to aid as much as possible. Another way to save money, they were sourcing a lot of their "new" stuff (appliances, sink, etc.) from craigslist. These are my kind of people!

They live in an old home over in Como, and wanted to keep the character of the house in tact while opening up the space to make it more functional. We worked for a long time on several different plans, changing one only to go back to another, combining lots of things from different plans to make one, and eventually we hit one almost on the mark. To say the least, I was ready for them to just take over by the end! But, it looks as though the end result is close to my final drawings, and it is quite a stunning kitchen. First, pictures of the new kitchen, followed by some smaller pic's of the original.

The blue walls in the dining room really add a fun element to this house, and I'm hoping they'll carry it into the kitchen.I don't see any way of pulling in another color without it looking choppy. If they wanted to go with a new color altogether, I would love to see a warm and cheery yellow in here! (or a warm, rusty orange. or a deep, chocolaty brown. okay, the options are endless)

Not sure what's going on with the hood, specifically the panel above it. I think it's an angle thing, but... Regardless, this is a wonderful little cooking alcove now, and a huge upgrade from what they had before!
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The old kitchen. Pretty drab, and not very functional. All of the appliances and fixtures were miles from one another, and there was very little usable counter space. Not to mention, the floor was hideous. I think it was some makeshift, quickie fix to cover the sub floor. Thank goodness they included new maple, to tie in with the rest of the house, in their remodel plan!

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I've been invited to their home to share in the glory of their new kitchen, and to discuss how the remodel went. I'm so excited to learn about their process, what they've learned about remodeling (and about themselves!), and how their new kitchen is working for them. It's an honor to be asked to come back, so I have a feeling they're pretty excited about it!!