Many of you have been concerned since my blogs have been missing for a while now. Since construction at the house is moving slower than a snail trying to cross the street I haven’t had much of anything to blog about. Now that doesn’t mean Scotty is not working hard. He is! And we have had cabinets put in, countertops put in, work on the plumbing, and work on the heating system. It’s just that they are still working on the heating and plumbing, so though the cabinets and countertops are installed, I really can’t use them.
John, Lothar, and Seth from Herrl Woodcraft, installed our bakery cabinets. I can’t begin to say how fabulous this team of men are. John and Lothar have taken Seth under their wings and are teaching him how to be an artisan.
The work they do has no comparison from anything I have seen. I used to be an open house groupie… and in all the open houses I ever saw I’ve never seen cabinets that addressed attention to detail the way Herrl Woodcraft has in our primary kitchen and bakery.
Granite & Marble Works installed the countertops for the bakery. Their experienced artisans handcrafted our Black Fantasy Leather Granite and Bianco Parana Quartzite to the exact standards we needed using cutting-edge tools and methods. And, their installers are most delightful.
Every step of the way, their professionals guided us. Everyone was delightful but, I have to give special accolades to Kristine Phelan. From the first time we walked in the door, through the whole process, she checked repeatedly that we were happy and everything was going well. That is not to say that numerous people were not involved also… it’s just that Kristine kept checking to make sure everything was going the way we wanted. I highly recommend Granite & Marble Works to anyone looking for an incredible countertop and a fabulous team.
My ovens are hooked up. I have one working sink in the bakery. But, I am still lacking heat in either the primary kitchen or bakery , a cooktop, or a single working sink in my primary kitchen. To help heat the bakery and primary kitchen, we have installed toe kick heater’s under one of the cabinets.
Not sure about you, but most of my cooking efforts benefit from warmth and require at least two steps… preparing certain items on the cooktop, i.e., dry roasting spices to release their volatile oils before grinding them then, and only then, adding those spices to the other ingredients for whatever is being created that day. So even though I have a primary kitchen, a bakery, an oven, and a sink, I’m still basically kitchen-less. But, growing closer to being operational. And, possibilities are growing close enough that I am dreaming of cooking.
It has been ‘an eternity of fairy tales’ (borrowed from Fredrik Backman’s “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry”) since I’ve cooked. Not sure if I’m going to remember how.
Many eons ago I baked whole-grain breads from scratch. You know, those breads created from pre-fermented doughs, soakers, and mashes. Well, though methods are much the same, there are also dramatic differences. Plus, my failure to keep my kneading muscles in tiptop shape will challenge me as if running the Ironman when I just stroll around the block.
With fortitude, I move forward, planning the development of the starter for my mother dough…
