Yesterday, we had our marmoleum kitchen floor installed and we love it. It’s completely worth not having a refrigerator in the kitchen for the next 36 hours while it continues doing whatever it’s doing before we seal it Wednesday night. We do have a fridge in the garage though, so that is helpful. I’m just not doing much cooking for the next couple of days. Again, though, completely worth it!

The Details
I seriously thought this would never happen. We started by going to Marion’s Carpets, which stocks marmoleum and in the beginning, seemed that they would be easy to work with. Nope. Now, perhaps carpet through them is fine, but trying to get Marmoleum purchased and installed through Marion’s was like trying to get the kitchen floor covered in gold, with the work only being able to be completed by exotic and highly-skilled, yet surly circus animals. Also, Marion’s was very bad at returning phone calls. In addition, we had to put a deposit down for materials before we could get an estimate (we got this back). Oh and they are overpriced. Blah.

Plus, the contractor they sent out never left us with a bid sheet or an estimate of his costs — we just got the cost for the marmoleum (about $800!!?). While trying to get an answer as to why the estimate was so high, our salesman asked if jwa (the male) was home while the measurements were taken on the kitchen. Because, I kid you not, as a female, apparently, I may not have noticed if the contractor had accidentally measured the dining room and the living room as well. Uh. Okay. Buh-bye, Marion’s. You suck.

We next tried to get a few basic installation estimates from other contractors but without much luck. Why is it so hard to find someone who is bonded, reliable and knows what they are doing?

The marmoleum sits in the dining room…waiting

Finally, we turned to (and should have used from the beginning) Linoleum City. Their Marmoleum prices are about $10 less per square yard than Marion’s. Plus, they work with Dave from DJs Floors for installation, who, in a word, is awesome. Our materials costs came to about $450 through Linoleum City — oh, don’t ask me how the hell the Marion’s contractor measured — I’m just a girl!

About a 1/3 done…Hooray!

Dave and his son came early Monday morning and patched up the old floor where it was coming up and covered the whole floor lightly with a cement-like topping. Let it dry and scuffed it up so the Marmoleum adhesive would have something to hold on to well. Then, they started to put the Indian Summer floor down.

Almost there!

Another good thing is that DJ’s Floors is bonded and insured. Seems like a given but you’d be surprised at how many contractors we met with that were not. This is a good source for finding out that information (in Oregon — I’m sure every state has this type of information online, you should seek it out).

So, we will be eating out the next couple of days (Detour Cafe for Breakfast on Monday and PokPok for dinner that night — basement dining room opening in about a month, by the way. Oh and the new lamb skewer special is really good!)

The kitchen when we first bought the house (almost) 4 years ago and now. The counter tops are the next to go.

Resources

Round-up here!

The theme this month was to use a neglected gadget. I didn’t have to look far for this one — my immersion blender. Ever since I got my food processor, I’ve hardly ever used it. I only grabbed it last week for the white bean soup because both the food processor bowl and the blender were dirty. But for this Tenth Weekend Cookbook Challenge, it was the hand held blender I turned to first.

The dish I chose was a Curried Acorn Squash and Leek Flan from the Williams-Sonoma Autumn cookbook. The original recipe calls for pumpkin but I had an acorn squash, so that is what I used.

The only other thing I changed in this recipe, was that I didn’t make the sauce described in the cookbook. For that they took some of the squash and cream, held it out of the flan, and used it for a sauce, along with some chicken stock. Instead, I reduced some apple cider, spices, chicken stock and used that. More syrupy and less fat than the cream option. I thought it worked well (and I was also using the sauce for a pork tenderloin I made that night too — recipe here!)

Now, the sad news — none of my final pictures of this turned out at all (blurry, cut-off, etc), so unfortunately, not really any finished product pictures this post. Wah.

Curried Acorn Squash & Leek Flan
Note: This is a full recipe, which makes 6 flans — I made a half recipe of this, using 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk for the egg part)
1 small pumpkin (about 2 pounds) or an equal amount of acorn or butternut squash
2 tbsp unsalted butter
6 leeks, rinsed and sliced
3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp curry powder
salt & pepper
boiling water as needed
1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down and roast until done 40-50 minutes. Let cool and scoop out flesh. Use a hand held blender (or food processor) to puree the squash with about 1/2 cup of the cream.

Meanwhile in a large frying pan over medium heat, saute leeks in oil until soft and golden, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside until needed.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 of the remaining cream, the eggs and yolks, sugar, curry powder, salt and pepper. Add all of the squash puree and the leeks. Mix well to combine.

Butter six ramekins and place in a large baking pan with high sides. Divide the flan mixture between the ramekins and fill the baking dish up halfway with boiling water. Cover pan loosely with aluminum foil and bake 25-30 minutes. (Remember, custard sets at around 165 degrees — take the temp if you’re not sure).

Remove flans from oven and let cool five minutes. Spoon a little of the cider sauce onto a plate and then run a knife along the inside edge of each ramekin. Turn the flan out onto the sauce, sprinkle with a little chopped parsley and serve.

Thanks as always to Sara at Weekend Cookbook Challenge and Mary from The Sour Dough, this month’s guest co-host!

Round-up for the event is posted: here

My post for Sugar High Friday this month, hosted by Cook Sister, is something that I have wanted to make for quite some time. The recipe is from Butter Sugar Flour Eggs by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto & Julia Moskin. I originally was thinking of making grapefruit cupcakes for the Je Mange la Ville birthday thing, but instead decided on lemon and chocolate-stout. So, grapefruit cakes got bumped.

Until today, that is. I used the regular cake recipe and used a 2-inch biscuit cutter to make mini cakes for this SHF’s theme — mini bites of delight.

Mini Grapefruit Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
3 eggs separated, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice
3 tbsp grapefruit zest
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

For the frosting
1 grapefruit (2 if making a full-size cake)
12 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp grapefruit juice
1 tsp grapefruit zest
3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup walnuts, crushed
mint leaves

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan (square or round).

Whisk the egg yolks in a mixer with the paddle attachment (it says in the book to use a whisk attachment, but the paddle will work better for mixing in the flour, so I just used that one). With the mixer running, drizzle in the oil. Next add in the grapefruit juice, the grapefruit zest and the lemon zest.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg yolk mixture and mix. It’ll be a little stiff.

In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy and a bit stiff. Fold half into the cake batter, being not super gentle — just too loosen it up a bit. Fold in the remaining egg whites a bit more carefully.

Pour the batter into you cake pan. Bake until springy in the center, about 25-30 minutes. Let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then run a knife along the edge and turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out smaller circles. You could also use a knife to cut into small squares. If you do use a round shape, the remnants are great snacks while you are frosting. I’m just saying…

Make the frosting
Use a small knife and section the grapefruit. Let pieces sit in a paper towel. Beat the cream cheese in a mixer until fluffy. Add the sugar, juice and zests. Add 2-3 diced up grapefruit sections and beat a bit more.

The original recipe just used lemon zest and juice in the frosting (aside from the grapefruit segments), I added the grapefruit zest and juice to the cream cheese to make it more grapefruity.

Frost the cakes. For some of them, frost only the sides first, then roll in walnuts. Frost the tops of those last, so that you can hold onto them easily while rolling in the nuts. Decorate the tops with the grapefruit sections and some mint leaves.

For a whole cake (instead of mini-cakes), this recipe make one cake. Cut that in half horizontally after it is cooled to make two layers. Put a layer of frosting and some grapefruit sections between the cakes. Frost the sides and top and garnish with the grapefruit sections and mint leaves.

Thanks again to Cook Sister for supplying a great theme and for hosting this month’s event.

One of the reviews at Epicurious said of the sauce for this pork,”I could drink it with a straw.” It’s not like I can pass up a recommendation like that! And, after making it, I totally concur. Bring on the straws, I say.

The original recipe called for 5 tablespoons of butter (practically a whole stick) — imho, not at all needed. I used 1 tablespoon of butter and the sauce was very rich, flavorful and straw-able just like that — and a bit healthier.

For the pork, I used my old-standby way of preparation — slather with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and fresh chopped rosemary. Sear in an oven-proof pan, roast to finish cooking. I always pull it out around 145 and it’s always perfectly moist, tender and juicy.

We had this with the curried acorn squash and leek flans — my WCC10 post (coming early next week) and some braised brussels sprouts. Quite a nice Fall dinner!

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apple Cider Jus
2 cups apple cider
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped onion
6 whole allspice
3 large fresh thyme sprigs (or a big rosemary sprig, which is what I used)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 12-ounce pork tenderloins, well trimmed
Olive oil
2 Rosemary sprigs
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt & pepper

Mix first eight ingredients in medium saucepan. Boil until mixture is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 30-40 minutes. Strain, pressing on solids to extract liquid. Discard solids. Return liquid to saucepan and boil until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 10 minutes. Whisk in the butter and season with salt and pepper, if needed.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slather pork with olive oil, salt and pepper generously and coat with the minced garlic and rosemary.

Brown on all sides in a oven-proof pan. Finish roasting in the preheated oven, 20-22 minutes or until the pork reaches 145 degrees.

Cover with foil and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Pour any pork drippings from the rested meat into the cider sauce.

Then slice and serve with the sauce drizzled over the top. Deee-licious.

Yes, we’re taking a break in the Fall Foods Fest (Pumpkin!) for a post about vodka sauce. Typically, penne is served in this dish but I had some fresh pasta from Pastaworks so there you go.

This recipe was in the most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine — a subscription that I make far too little use of. One of the tips they list is to use good quality vodka. Rot-gut booze will produce sub-standard, rot-gut sauce. Okay, I can get behind that sentiment and luckily I had some Crater Lake vodka from Bendistillery in the freezer. (Hmmmm, did luck really have anything to do with that?)

I also bought heavy cream (something I try to not use very much of) specifically for this recipe and another recipe that I will be posting about later in the week for WCC10.

Was the cream purchase it worth it, you ask? Hell, yeah.

Penne alla Vodka
Mostly from the Nov/Dec 2006 Cook’s Illustrated.
1 28-oz can whole tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 - 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 salt
1/3 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 lb penne or rigatoni pasta
2 tbsp finely chopped basil leaves
freshly grated Parmesan for serving

Puree half of the tomatoes in a food processor until smooth. Subsequently, you could also crush them with your fingers. Dice the remaining half of the tomatoes. Combine both in a measuring cup and add reserved liquid until you have two cups of tomato.

Measure your vodka out so that it is ready for you.

The vodka cow goes, “vooooo.”

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the onion and tomato paste when hot. Stir occasionally, until the onions are light golden around the edges, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and pepper flakes. Cook about 30 more seconds.

Stir in the tomatoes and about a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Remove the pan from the heat and add the vodka. Return to medium heat and simmer briskly for about 8-10 minutes. Start your pasta water around now. When ready, add the pasta and some salt and cook until almost al dente. Drain but reserve some pasta water.

Stir in the cream to the tomato sauce and cook about a minute.

Add the drained pasta to the sauce and cook 1-2 minutes. Add reserved pasta water if sauce is too thick. Taste and adjust salt if needed.

Rigatoni alla vodka with vegetarian Italian sausage,

Garnish with basil and Parmesan cheese. This should serve about four — three if someone is super-hungry.