planted

Hello from the great beyond!  Silence has never been my greatest asset, but this time it was definitely needed.  We finally bought a house (!!) and for the last six weeks we’ve been gutting and remodeling like crazy.  Hence the long silence.

Most house purchases seem to be just another step in the progression of people’s lives – graduate from college, get a job, get married, buy a house, have some kids – but having a house of my very own has been an ongoing dream since I was about 19 years old.

I have moved a total of 26 times since I was born.  Sometimes I moved our of necessity.  Sometimes I moved for cheaper rent.  Sometimes I moved to pursue a dream, a job, a cute boy.

Now that I have a house of my very own and maybe because I am able to make my kitchen work for me…well, I feel a new sense of self.  I feel free .  I feel bold and strong and that I can make anything in the kitchen now.  And put my scattered self back together in the process.

Having lived in rental kitchens for so long I never could do everything I wanted.  You can’t heat the oven to 500 and then throw a cup of water in the oven when you lay that perfectly risen and proofed baguette in the too small, hot abyss, but I tried.  I successfully set off the fire alarm every single time and then marched down to the bakery to buy a baguette, all the while fuming about my rental oven.

You also can’t turn down the temp in your fridge without subjecting all the contents to utter chaos just because you want to hang a cured duck breast in order to make duck prosciutto.  I mean, you can, but you will have to throw away all the other groceries that spoil at such a low temperature.  Humph.

Enter the ferment fridge.  Say what?  Yes the ferment fridge.

When the hubs and I talked about what we wanted for our house, he asked for a keg-a-rator (still in discussion) and I asked for the ferment fridge.  The one in which I could grow sourdough starters, hang my duck prosciutto, and let my yogurt hang until it turns into yogurt cheese and without it dripping all over the rest of the contents of a regular household refridgerator.

So my friends, new and exciting things to come on this little food blog shortly.  Well it may be longer than “shortly” as we are still in the throws of complete remodel…  But my mind is racing and I feel like the gates are open and that anything is possible.  That whole “bloom where you are planted” thing.  I feel myself starting to bloom just like the garden I’ve already started sowing in my new backyard.

Finally.  I’m planted.