bachelor furniture makes a comeback

One of the things I liked best about living apart from Mr. Reluctant for three years due to our school/work -- actually, maybe THE thing I liked best -- was the removal and banishment of bachelor furniture from my premises. We joked about it, as many couples do, but I loved having a cozy little apartment with cool shabby-chic vintage furniture, studded with an antique or two.

It's not that I insist on new, beautiful things. Much of my furniture is inherited or culled from the dump and garage sales. In fact, the only new furniture I've had is my bed (long since reinforced with bolts and 2x4s -- see below), some Ikea bookshelves, and my couch. My husband is one of those keep-it-till-it-falls apart types, plus he has the maddening habit of buying ugly stuff built like a brick shithouse and then reinforcing it so it will never, ever, ever fall apart. He loves decor that is solid, thick, squat, square -- veritably Romanesque. If it were up to him, we'd be living in a crypt. He sees no need in replacing items that are still "working," even if they are an assault to the eyes. Furthermore, he insists that we keep the "temporary" furniture I bought when I graduated from college and had my first apartment. There is enough of the crap that it completely furnished his entire apartment in Utah. And my plan backfired: he became intimately reacquainted with his beloved pieces, and realized how much he missed his old friends.

So when the three-year chic furniture holiday ended, there they were, the bachelors, knocking on my door.

I've been working on him gently, trying to get him to move the worst pieces -- NOT THROW THEM AWAY, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!! -- into the storage room in the back of the house. The 100-lb. tar-paper and spitwood "TV stand," for example, is now storing tarps and a toolbox. One of the blonde Scan-ish dinette tables makes a fine place to organize caulk and paintbrushes.

But the thing I hate more than anything -- and something I was party to buying, unfortunately -- is his giagantic, industrial, metal, circa 1980 desk. It weighs about 3,000 lbs., has a fake woodgrain top, two tiny drawers that can only fit pens, is painted black around the sides and has shiny stainless steel legs. I don't know what I was thinking when we were looking at desks in Connecticut at a used office furniture place and agreed to the purchase.

Oh yes, wait, I do. I remember saying, "that will make a great workshop table when we move into a real house!"

I tried, last night, to make my move. His other desk, an old oak teacher's desk salvaged from the University of California furniture graveyard, is not that bad. My first furniture refinish job was a similar desk, and I've been yearning to redo the top, but it's ok since it has a modicum of style. It's been sitting in our living room since we moved in, because the movers didn't want to struggle with it to put it back in the bedroom wing.

I thought: it's time. He'll have a nice desk, our guests who stay in his study/guest room won't have their eyes burned out in ugliness, and we'll have a nice workshop table in the back room.

Mr. R. thought it was a fantastic idea. We took off the top of the oak desk and wriggled it into his study.

"OK," sez I, "how do you want to move the metal desk?"

"Move?" sez he. "Are you kidding me? Now I can finally have TWO desks in a row for even more workspace! This is great!"

Outmaneuvered once again. The horror.

let there be light (and storms, almost)

Isn't this the prettiest thing in the whole world? Well, it is in mine. Installation was more complicated than we thought, so we had the neighbor help us install our new porch light. I love the fact that it was so easy for him that he chatted throughout the process. If only we had skillz; if only we had toolz.

Not so pretty, but coming along nicely is the storm window renovation. Although we have been scoffed at by the home renovation center salesmen and poopooed by the internet wizards, we are proceeding with replacing screens and glass, and fixing up the plastic. No, we are not going to get vinyl windows. We'll suffer the loss of heat (we did the ol' plastic sheeting with a blow dryer last winter, and it worked fine). We like the old-school look of the aluminum storm windows, and our nice old wood windows, and we simply can't afford to replace them with something that is either (a) totally prohibitively expensive (wood); or (b) ugly and cheap-looking that will only last 10 years, if that (vinyl). Perhaps we'll revisit this idea next spring, but we are amazed by how well the windows held up even with the broken and messed-up storms, so we are pretty sure that with fixing them and properly installing them, they'll be ok.

fortification fridays - the best chicken kebabs ever

This one is so easy it's almost unfair how delicious it is. I adapted this recipe from one in a Persian cookbook, and it's been a staple in our house ever since. Even onion-haters like this chicken, since there are no tell-tale onion bits, and the flavor of the onion cooks away into something subtle and aromatic. Another strange and wonderful transformation is the color -- the chicken stays snowy white and picks up some nice charred bits from the grill.

The Best Chicken Kebabs Ever

Serves: 2, because we can't stop eating them
Kitchen Needs: Grill outside!

4 large chicken breasts (that's two double-sided ones detached), cubed into 2-inch cubes for kebabs
one medium onion, ground in a food processor (NOT chopped; you need it pulverized)
one lemon, juiced
salt and pepper to taste

In a gallon-sized ziploc bag, add all ingredients. Marinate for at least a couple of hours. Before grilling, put chicken cubes on kebab skewers (I use the simple flat metal ones, but you could use soaked bamboo ones). Mound marinade on top. Be careful not to overcook, since you are still dealing with chicken breast, even though the marinade tenderizes the meat.

Serve with rice pilaf and a moist salad, such as the Jerusalem salad here, or a simple tomato salad. You can add a little Middle Eastern sumac powder or za'atar before serving, but I rarely bother.

stormy weather

We got the bid on the roof -- more than we thought, not that we're surprised. It's apparently the best roofing contractor in town. The thing that kills me is that it's just a bit more to get nicer shingles (we have the standard craptastic 3-tab in a yucky color) but since we're only doing a small part of the roof, we have to match the old kind. We talked to the contractor about having a mismatched roof, and he said it would be hard to tell from the street, the way our house is positioned. Good point, but my real estate guru (hi mom) said by no means should we turn our roof into a crazy quilt.

I've been deeply engaged in cleaning projects, and Mr. Reluctant has been doing exterior projects. He has been dismantling our storm windows to repair and replace what he can. Turns out most are damaged in some minor way, and two are missing screens and two more the sliding glass panel that covers the screens.

fortification fridays - panzanella variations

Summer is magic. Supper can be thrown together with what you find in the garden (or farmer's market), olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Sometimes even less. If you are like me, your wonderful husband is caught up in the thrill of the grill, and he makes the entree every night. I'd be happy with grilled vegetables every day, but he makes scallops, fish, shrimp kebabs, bulgogi, pork ribs, chicken wings, yogurt chicken breasts...you get the picture.

I am in charge of the side dishes. This one is famous -- surely you've made it -- an Italian classic, panzanella. It's a Tuscan salad made of day-old bread, tomatoes, thinly sliced onion, and olive oil, plus a few herbs if you have them. To me, it's the essence of summer, since I can always leave a half-loaf of bread on the counter overnight, and the garden bears tomatoes and basil, plus any number of veggies I throw in to make variations. It takes very little time to make and is hearty enough for a main course. It's fine left over for the next day's lunch, too. In short, it's perfect for the hot, tired remodeler. Some people get very fussy about the "authentic" panzanella, but my thought is that if it tastes good with bread and tomato, it will make a good panzanella. It's too hot to argue about such things.

By the way, I wanted to thank the few people who actually make these recipes and comment on them. If you run into problems with the recipes, would you let me know? I'd love to perfect them, and appreciate your interest in my cooking.

Panzella (and variations)

Serves: 4 for a light summer supper
Kitchen Needs: None (ahhh!)

1/2-3/4 loaf of crusty Italian bread, day-old
1/4 cup water or 1/2 cup tomato juice (I use liquid from my homemade canned tomatoes)
2-3 large, perfectly ripe, delicious tomatoes
1/4 very thinly sliced medium-sized red onion (or use a Walla Walla if you're in the Pacific Northwest)
a handful of basil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (which should never be called EVOO because food doesn't need nicknames)
1 T. good red wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Cube the bread into 1-inch square cubes (or tear it in little pieces). If your bread isn't day old, toast the cubes to dry it out a bit. Sprinkle the water or tomato juice on top, mix well, and let sit for about 30 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, onion, basil, vineagar, olive oil, salt and pepper (to taste). Let salad sit for 30 more minutes on the counter before serving. (The picture is my salad just before I mixed it and let sit for this final 30 minutes.) The bread will soak up the juices, crumble, add a texture to the salad that's almost like couscous. Serve with a bit more olive oil drizzled on top and a few grindings of pepper.

And the variations:

- Add cucumber or celery;

- Add 1 T. capers, 2 smashed and chopped anchovies, hot pepper to taste, a minced clove of garlic;

- Add red, yellow and green peppers, and parsley;

- Add cucumber and dill (instead of basil);

- Add Italian import tunafish and capers;

- Add celery, Old Bay (instead of basil) and crab meat.

birthday present!

Lookee what I got for my birthday! All my dreams have come true. It's one of the only interesting-yet-simple modern porch flush-mount porch lights out there for a halfway decent price. I like the entire Hollywood Hills collection, especially the pendants.

Having searched to no avail in our local lighting stores, I purchased the porch light online. I chose Bellacor.com, which had mixed reviews and a longer wait time than other comparable merchants, but it doesn't have a ridiculous 25% restocking fee like most of the other lighting stores online, and there was free shipping via UPS.

It's too late now, but I'm curious -- have you purchased lighting products online, and if so, where? Would you recommend the vendor?

And...while I'm shopping...isn't this Westinghouse garage pendant lamp cute? Too bad I don't have a garage. The whole line of garage lights is adorable, and the price is almost too cheap to be good.

battery lanterns rule

And while I've still got camping on the brain, may I recommend one camping item that is excellent for house projects? No, not a hatchet. It's a Coleman battery-operated camping lantern. The light is brighter than LEDs, and it works well sitting in a dark corner or under the sink. We use ours all the time.