A Day to Remember

I never imagined that we might see temperatures like this in the Willamette Valley, where our average high for June 28 is about 75 degrees.

It was almost as bad yesterday during the Garden Tour. Our house was on the tour and I was outside all morning, with temperatures well above 100, reaching 110 by the time we quit, and topping out at 112 for the day.

Overnight, the low only dropped to 75, our usual high, a record high overnight low, and it was over 100 well before noon, topping out at 115 about 3:30 this afternoon. Fortunately, a cold front came through and it dropped 20 degrees in about 30 minutes later on.

So many of our plants suffered so much damage, despite my irrigating heavily in the days leading up to and during this heat wave. I hope we never see these temperatures again.

Redoing the Kitchen

Our kitchen as we bought it from the builder had a large blank space in its center, a perfect place for an island workspace. We had decided a couple years ago to build a rustic worktable for this space, but only lately have we had the time and money to bite off that project.

Building this worktable and the accompanying pot rack is the first step in redoing the kitchen. The next stage will see a new hood replacing the stupid microwave directly in my face obscuring my view of the range. And then we're talking about ripping out most of the upper cabinets and replacing them with more rustic open shelves.

Worktable and Pot Rack

As a retired restaurant chef, working in an efficient kitchen matters to me and the kitchen wasn't really working for me. My prep space was in the wrong place for easy access to the refrigerator and to the range. This worktable solves that problem beautifully and the kitchen works so much better now.

Even though the island worktable looks like it belongs here naturally, having it take so much space in the kitchen was a massive change visually, aesthetically, and functionally. To make sure that we were OK with the workflow, we mocked up the island first with cardboard, then with the actual table top perched atop large cardboard boxes. After a couple of weeks, it felt good and natural, despite being extremely awkward at first.

I violated every rule in the kitchen design book with the walkways in this kitchen. All the so-called experts will tell you that you need 36" aisles at a minimum for a single-cook kitchen and 42-48" for multi-cook kitchens. Well, I found out that was horseshit when I designed my last home kitchen with 48" aisles. At my restaurant, we moved the plating line around until we found the optimum width from the hot line and that was 30 inches, even with three cooks.

That narrow width made it easy to work at both the hot line and on the plating line efficiently. At home, my 48" walkways felt decidedly huge and terribly inefficient. Thanks, so-called "experts!"

In our present kitchen, the side walkways are 30.5" and the distance between the prep surface and the range is 32".  These narrower aisles work so much more efficiently, even with the two of us in the kitchen.

Raw Parts from an Architectural Salvage Store

First Order of Business: a Good Pressure Washing

Pot Rack: Pipe Fittings and Recycled Parts

The pot rack is recycled Douglas Fir, one-inch pipe fittings, Victorian hinges on the corners for decoration, and hand-forged iron drawer pulls for the pot hangers.

Building the Table

The table is made from four newel posts and Douglas fir rails and shelves. Because the newel posts were hand-turned, they are not totally identical and so the side rails attached at slightly different points to keep the shelf level with the floor. The rails are true 2"x4" and the shelving is true 1" stock, with the exception of the center shelf board, which is 7/8" shimmed to be flush.

Shelf Rails and Cross Support Installed

Recycled Door Casing Apron and Shelf Installed

Table Top Perched on the Base

The tabletop at 36.5" wide will not fit through our doors, so Ann and I brought the base and the top into the house separately and then I fastened the top to the base using large screws in slots in case things shift around with our winter humidity (which we know will happen). The top is recycled Douglas fir barn boards (1-3/4" thick after planing the bottom side), glued up, and finished with tung oil.

Likewise, all the raw fir is rubbed with tung oil. The only other finish is a transparent gray wash on the legs, rubbed off in a good many places to preserve the rustic look.

Something Old, Something New

From earlier in the spring, a couple of dishes celebrating the first asparagus of the year and the final butternut squash from winter storage, "Something Old, Something New."

The first dish took full advantage of a rare sunny spring day to grill both the asparagus and the butternut squash, giving them a nice char that works against the sweetness of the scallops. Garnishes are a quick sweet chile sauce and Korean chile threads known as sil-gochu.

Scallops with Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Butternut, Sweet Chile Sauce, and Chile Threads

Grilling the Veg

Black Steel Gives a Perfect Sear Every Time

Sweet Chile Sauce (Agave, Sambal, Salt)

The second dish came on the following night when the weather turned back to its usual rainy springtime norm, making us want something warm and comforting, the genesis of the butternut lentils, a batch of brown lentils cooked with cubes of the bell of the butternut, the leftover bits that I couldn't slice for the grill the evening before. The salad is shaved raw asparagus dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.

King Salmon, Butternut Lentils, and Shaved Asparagus Salad

Halibut Cheeks and Asparagus alla Piccata

Just getting around now, on the first rainy day in ages, to posting some photos from the spring. Been super busy working on remodeling the kitchen and getting the gardens in shape for the summer. There are just too many temptations in good weather, such as walks downtown to grab a hazy IPA, to want to sit inside in the office and post to the blog.

Halibut Cheeks and Asparagus alla Piccata

This was a celebration of the very first asparagus of the year and the re-opening of halibut season. Just a simple dredge of Wondra on the halibut cheeks and then a pan sauce of lemon juice, white wine, shallots, and capers. Simplicity at its best, which is all that premium quality fish needs or deserves.