New Kitchen: Coping with Construction

This post is part of the series "A New Kitchen for our New House," and deals with some of the issues of being without a kitchen for an extended period.

Clearly, the demolition and reconstruction of our kitchen necessitated some temporary lifestyle changes, fairly serious changes in our lives in that we cook at home nearly every night.

Undertaking this project, we were fortunate to have 900 square feet more room in this house than in McMinnville. We did not set out to buy a larger house, but nothing smaller was on the market when we were ready to buy. The additional space is mainly on the second floor where we have a comfortable loft area and a laundry room with running water, spaces that we did not have in McMinnville. A big bonus is a sink in the laundry room so that we can wash dishes fairly easily.

Our 46-Square Foot "Kitchen"

We moved the television from the open-plan family room/kitchen which we were renovating to the wanna-be media room/loft upstairs so that Ann could watch her shows with less interference from hammering and banging. We had always intended to put in a big screen TV up in the loft for our movie nights, but we have been focusing our time, energy, and money on renovating the kitchen. We discovered that it really is a nice space in which to watch our movies.

We also relocated the coffee maker, perhaps the most important thing in our kitchen (like-minded coffee fiends will understand), to the upstairs laundry room. Rather than have our morning coffee downstairs, we'll stay upstairs. The laundry room is 46 square feet, much of that occupied by the washer and dryer. The washing machine isn't all that bad of a surface on which to put the cutting board, a bit high for a lot of people, but then, I'm 6'-4" so it's all good. In fact, after working on the washing machine for a few weeks, I found the new island height very low!

At the onset of demolition, we slid the refrigerator into the family room portion of the open plan kitchen/family room, so we always had refrigeration. Ann missed having an icemaker during the construction, but I assume that was a small price to pay for a new kitchen.

As for eating, we cannot exist on a steady diet of restaurant food. Granted, we did eat out more than we usually do, often because I was too tired to contemplate making dinner, but the rest of the time, we focused on meals that could be prepared without cooking. Many of our non-cook dinners were based on canned beans: White Bean Salad with Olives, Tomatoes, and Red Onions; Chickpeas with Tomatoes, Green Onions, and a Pimentón Dressing; Black Beans with Tomatoes, Nopalitos, Cilantro, and Corn with a Lime Dressing.

A Sample Dinner: Black Bean, Corn, and Tomato Salad with Ahi Tuna

We had the grill out on the patio and the crockpot, both of which I could have used more (and perhaps should have), but being focused on construction nearly all the time, I didn't really have the time or energy to go grocery shopping regularly for things to grill and slow cook. I did manage tacos de carne asada on the grill a couple of times, heating the tortillas in foil packets in the grill. And I did make a big pot of Mayocoba beans, a kind of chile verde de pollo, but the crockpot proved quite unwieldy. Our master bathroom turned out to be the best place for it and that was, shall we say, in a word, awkward.

How Bizarre! Cooking in the Master Bathroom:
Mayocoba Beans, Anaheim Chiles, Tomatillos, and Chicken

For the first several weeks, until I finished the drywall and stopped making drywall dust to clog filters, we did not have access to the built-in microwave. I finally got that installed and we celebrated with what I was calling "microwave magic." I have never cooked in a microwave before, we professional chefs using anything but a microwave to cook. Still, I managed to create a passable version of my shrimp and white beans without toughening the shrimp, mainly by nuking them in very short bursts. That proved to be terribly labor intensive, constantly checking and restarting the dish.

Making use of some cans of refried beans that Ann keeps on hand for her lunches, I managed some warm (you have no idea how much you miss warm food until you don't have the ability to make it) ersatz five-layer dip and tostadas. I would heat the beans and tortillas in the microwave and then top them with all kinds of things: tomatoes, salsa, onions, fresh corn, avocado, nopalitos, jalapenos, etc.

Lest you think that all we ate is beans (which admittedly is a mainstay of our diet, often to the chagrin of Ann "The Carnivore"), we ate a lot of cold cut sandwiches, most of them fairly simple, but on a couple of occasions, I got a baguette and made Italian subs. And several times, we put together one of our favorite no-cook, no-energy dinners: a small charcuterie and cheese board. Some salame, some cheese, and a bottle of Pinot Noir is a dinner that is hard to beat, kitchen or no.

A Simple No-Cook Dinner

Although our meals tended to be pretty simple (fewer dishes to hand wash is always better), towards the end of construction, we celebrated with a microwave-grill meal of steak, potatoes, and salad. The only trick is the potatoes, which do not grill well without being par-cooked. I slabbed them and microwaved them until they were just barely cooked, then marinated them in olive oil with garlic and rosemary. I grilled them at the same time as the steak and then topped them with some chimichurri that I had made pre-construction.

Almost Done Celebration: New York Strip, Charred Potatoes with
Chimichurri, Arugula with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese, Eola-Amity Hills Pinot

Really, the bottom line is that not having a kitchen is extremely inconvenient, but you really can eat halfway well if you are flexible and creative.