The Latest Projects

We were kind of forced in to our latest renovation project. When our tenant in the cottage of 8 months moved out in the middle of December it made us take a good hard look at the place. And we decided we could not show it to a single person in the shape it was in. Who ever would put up with that mess would not be a good person to have in your backyard. So Jake and Brian went to town.

 Hard wood floors in the whole house. 

  

French doors in one of the bedrooms leading to a deck and new siding.

A deck that incidentally has a better view than us really. 

Whoever built the cottage did a good job but forgot which way the mountains were. The porch is on the wrong side. We are also putting siding on the outside and to please the insurance company - a new roof. With all these improvements in place we just had to do something about the bathroom. New shower, toilet, vanity and floor. And to top it off a washer and dryer and a new efficient gas heater. SO! If you know someone who's looking for a country getaway starting in February send them our way. I will post pictures as soon as all the work is done.

  

The other project is a little film I'm creating with Nathalie Handal, amazing poet and just an all around fascinating global citizen. The film is going to accompany one of her poems and I think we succeeded in creating a haunting, dreamy tone. I finally got an opportunity to use the barn for a location. The light in there is better than I ever thought! 

These are stills that I have pulled from our video. In the last couple of days I've been setting up time lapses in the barn to create filler in our film. I'm having a blast. I made the first part this morning, up at 6 setting up the camera and then I went back to bed. Fun fun!

We hit up our first Midnight Ramble a few weekends ago. It was a total blast and we will definitely do it again soon. The ramble is a concert held in Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock. Levon was the drummer and singer in the Band. If you haven't seen The Last Waltz you should make it your weekend movie, it's one of the best concert films ever made and is filmed during the last show The Band ever played.

Friends from the Vineyard came down to go to the show and I took the opportunity to make French onion soup for the four of us.

I made killer stock from our Thanksgiving turkey and decided to use it for the soup. I chopped 5 sweet Texas onions. First I sweated them for about 15 minutes with some butter and olive oil. Then I added salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar for the carmelization. I let them sit in the pan for over 40 minutes but they never changed into that brown color I see in all the pictures. I decided I was done and added 3 tablespoon of flour and cooked for 3 minutes. Then I added 1/2 cup of sherry and 2 quarts of stock. I diluted mine a lot because it was so rich but after 40 minutes of simmering I took a taste and thought it was bland. OK Linda - take it easy now. What do you always do? You add salt when this happens and then you ruin everything. Soooo - what would Rosemary do... add a splash of balsamic vinegar. So I did, along with a healthy dose of thyme and saved the soup! To serve, we toasted ciabatta slices in the oven and then sprinkled muenster cheese over the bowls. About 5-7 minutes under the broiler and BAM - better than any restaurant!

  

The easiest breakfast to make with a crowd has got to be a frittata. And you can make it with anything in the fridge. Here's my Mexican version. I let the eggs soak with chopped up tortillas and then I add whatever may be hiding in the vegetable drawer. Onion, peppers, tomatoes... I cook it in the pan until the eggs on the are bottom is solid and then top it off with lots of cheese and in the broiler for about 5 minutes. We eat this one with the Mexican chipotle mayo I brought home from Chiapas last year. 

With all this work in the going on in the cottage, the house gets a rest. We are dressing it up for the holidays and we can't wait to get the tree ready. Put our feet up with a fire in the fireplace and a glögg  in our hand.

Merry effen Christmas BABY!!!