No more McDonald’s

Sarah is away in Jamacia this week and I have been home working on the basement until I join her next week. Normally both of us (and our roommates) cook 4 nights a week and spend long evenings enjoying food and conversation.

Within 48 hours of her being gone, I was eating fast food for every meal. My excuse was that I was at work all day and doing a basement remodel all night and it was the best use of time to stay focused on the work (and eat junk because it is immediate).

Tonight I rebel against fast food and even have a little recipe to share that came from the leftovers of the winter harvest and a piece of frozen fish I had in the house. I wanted to do something in the oven because I want to keep working in the basement, but wanted something nice nonetheless. So here goes:

Herb rubbed, grilled Salmon steak with balsamic rosemary roasted beets, carrots and garlic fennel new potatoes.

1 salmon steak3-4 small carrots 4-5 medium sized beets 8 new potatoes Good quality sea salt, rosemary, fennel powder, olive oil lemon pepper, oregano, marjoram, fresh garlic

Preheat oven to 400 deg and cut beets into half. Roughly cut 3 or so carrots into 2″ pieces. On a baking sheet make a small packet out of aluminum foil and fill with 1Tbsp of olive oil and the roots. Add a generous pinch of fresh rosemary or dried if that is all you have. Fold the foil over and seal the edges, then throw it in the oven. (Notice I didn’t bother to skin the beets. This is a fast meal and the skins taste great after they have cooked anyway)

While that is cooking, slice up some scrubbed new potatoes (or red or yukon gold if you must) into 1/2″ – 3/4″ pieces with the skin on (same story as the beets). Throw them in another baking pan with about two glugs of olive oil and 4-5 skin-on garlic cloves. The garlic will roast to a sweet and smooth delight if you leave the skin on and it will come off really easy when done roasting. After the beets have been in for about 15 minutes, throw in the potatoes and garlic.

Flip the potatoes after 20 minutes or so.

After both veggies have cooked for about 45 minutes and the potatoes are getting a browned skin and are nice and soft, get out your fish steak and pat dry with a paper towel.

Mix up some minced garlic, some salt, some oregano and freshly ground pepper (Get a cheap grinder asap if you don’t have one) in a small bowl. Coat the fish with oil then press the herbs on the meat. Get on as much as you can!

I used a cast iron griddle over the stove because it is like 10deg outside right now, but a grill would be best. Get it nice and hot then throw the fish on. Let it cook for about 10 minutes then flip once and cook for another 5-7 minutes. The fish should be opaque when it is done. I usually lean on the side of rare than have to deal with a dried out fish biscuit.

Ok, now finish up by adding a bunch of fennel, majoram, salt and lemon pepper to the potatoes and some balsamic to the beets and carrots. Throw it on a plate and enjoy a slow food meal that was made while getting other things done.

A few days in Boston

The last few days Sarah and I have been exploring Boston and visiting her brother Christian. It is now raining so we are taking a day indoors watching band of brothers episodes and playing on the internet. Our feet are so exhausted from the last 3 days of non-stop walking so really the rain is right on time!

Our first day we spent learning the “T” system (Boston’s subway) and the walking the “Freedom trail” which is a 3 mile walk from central to north-east Boston highlighting the state buildings, churches and other historic sites that server a purpose during the revolution of the nation.

The paintings at the state house especially moved me. After learning early American history through the economic lens of common college history classes, I was surprised by the art in these historic locations. A number of paintings in the State house make it quite clear that the early revolutionaries viewed themselves as a people who knew “The God of Israel” and were acting out in His providence. I was inspired to imagine how the people that were drafting documents of independence from England had even a minute understanding of how they were authoring such an amazing nation.

Our second day involved a day of successful shoe shopping for Sarah, visiting the MIT campus and technology museum, then heading out for fresh oysters and a wonderful meal.

This morning we headed out the museum of fine arts mainly for a textile exhibit, which we later found out was under construction. We had fun nonetheless, seeing modern work such as Picasso, early American arts and crafts furniture, and ancient Egyptian sculpture.

Back Porch – Round Two

So after about a week Mike and I set aside a few days to really make some progress. We had the most difficult task ahead of us: Within the least amount of time, knock out the old foundation and replace it.

So thats what we did. Jake, a neighbor of ours dropped off a couple of extra house jacks and we completed jacking the room up on a set of 4×4″ posts that were connected to the walls. Since we had to replace the bottom board of the walls themselves we had to jack them up separate from the floor. The floor was supported by crawling underneath and supporting with cinder blocks and shims.

Once we trusted the supports we knocked out the wood and old brick. We were amazed with how easily it came down. Check out these videos!

Dave removing wood and turning it to Dust

Mike removing brick and walk around of floating room

To replace the foundation we removed the old brick and set cinder blocks on a layer of mortar on top of the existing footer that was poured from when the room was built. Basically the blocks were just stacked using a cement glue to hold them together. The weight was really on the corners because the back side of the room is connected to the rest of the house, but we added extra support on the back as well. On top of the blocks is a green treated barrier on which the new 2x12s set. Basically, we put the whole thing on stilts!

More Photos: http://photos.ywammadison.org/thumbnails-68.html 

Back porch – Round One

Sarah and I have chosen to get working on the basement and kitchen so we can have a couple more rooms to rent by august. To have more rooms we need a biger kitchen, and to get a bigger kitchen we are going to expand onto the back porch. Here in lies the rub.

The back porch had some soft spots in the floor which I learned was caused by an insect that has slowly been eating away at the wood over the last 50 years. Becasue the wood wasn’t dried and the porch foundation was sealed shut, we have a very humid condition which allowed the bug to survive all there generations. On top of it, the brick that this sits on is in REALLY bad shape as well.
This weekend I began what I thought would be a one or two day ordeal. The idea: jack up the structure and replace the bad brick with good cinderblocks.

I stated tearing off the siding and the layer of thin wood underneath when I heard a loud bang sound. I froze as I figured that the wood was so bad that it was giving out and the porch was going to rip off of my house. I just stood there, waiting for the next sound. Luckily it didn’t come. I went inside and told sarah I was in over my head and she got me to start calling buddies. Thank God for community.

Greg came by and definatly gave some confidence to the situation. Then I set up a work day for the next day.
Mike Butak and Paul Allen came by to help out, and Casey made it over to consult and drop off a jack. After all is said and done for the day, my porch is preatty much floating on some jacks and I now know how bad the situation is.

Next weekend Mike (as well as anyone else I can find) and I are going to knock out the bad wood and brick and replace it.

Click here to check out more photos from this project

Long Hair

Looking a bit shaggy but surviving the cold madison air.