The Doors, Part One and a Sweet, Simple Salad Trio



Food Mood: Sweet Salads, no crockpot needed today


Reno Ridiculouso: Early Door Issues, Solving the Problems
Oh the doors. Consider yourself forewarned that this innocuous beginning masks a much deeper, darker, door journey.  The doors that threatened to send us to counselling. 

 In the beginning there was a plan.  The plan had French doors coming off the dining room, facing north.  The dining room connected interiorly to the back entry via a step down and in the back entry area there was another single back exterior door facing west .  A bit busy to say the least, but this is the footprint that we had to work with without wrecking ours and our neighbours' much defended parking spots.

WAAAAAAY back in May when these plans were drawn both of those doors were at grade, out a wee four inch step to the ground.  And then city of Toronto inspectors got their hands on our dining room plans and we had to add a whole other course of stone.  Leaving our four inch step as a full foot and a half, making the doors look utterly ridiculous once we put the needed extra steps from building to ground in.  Now when we did the drawings it looked crowded and crazy, and, not surprisingly, like someone had neglected to plan this.  

So… we worked with the Architect and created a cantilever overhang for the whole thing with gorgeous cedar panelling that unified those two doors and created  AN ENTRY WAY.  Oh, aahhh.  How lovely it was.  How proud we were of our brilliant and gorgeous solution. How confidently we ordered all the doors on sale. What a glorious, early summer day.

Bean Salad
One can black beans, drained and rinsed
Half a red pepper chopped
¼ cup red onion diced
One cup frozen or fresh yellow sweet corn
One chopped avocado if you like, but Its gotta be firm, no mushy avocados here
Dressing
Two tbsp’s adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo (chop up the chipotle peppers and throw them in store bought potato salad to complete this salad dinner trio)
Two tbsp red wine vinegar
Two tbsp. liquid honey
1/3 vegetable oil
Mix it all up, adjust to take as you like , toss it with the ingredients

Pear and Parmesan Salad with Lemon Honey Dressing
Two pears sliced thin
Lots of parmesan (as much as you want), shaved
One or two heads of romaine lettuce depending how hungry you are, washed (in the bloody bathroom sink or under the outside hose, where else ya reno freak?)
1/3 cup pecans (if your kid doesn’t have a nut allergy.  GD I miss nuts)
Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp honey
4 tbsp lemon juice (fresh or out of the bottle, don’t get fancy now)
Put it all in a mason jar and shake it up, store any extra in the mason jar once you dress your salad to taste

Hello! Thanks for stopping by to check out my recipes and commiserate with my (our) misery. Misery loves company! I live in Toronto with my husband and little girl. We have spent a year (yep, that's right, renovating our home) About seven months into this crazy renovation I thought to myself, this has got to be funny or it will be pathetic! And so, I have chosen for funny! This is my collection of mostly crockpot (although sometimes not) recipes paired with the days (weeks, months) that inspired them. Please share your best reno stories and crockpot recipes too.

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