Master Bathroom rehab!

We finally began the rehab of our master bathroom today and I am so excited!

Cosmetically, the bathroom wasn't really our style (way too much pink!), but when we bought the house in December, we didn't have any plans to change it.


Sure, we thought it was weird that the shower door swung inward, but we didn't think too much of it. Until we moved in, actually used the shower, and discovered that the whole enclosure was installed backwards. So EVERY time we shower, the water just runs down the inside of the door and straight onto the bathroom floor. What?!?! Hence the mop that has lived in our bathroom since February because we have to mop the floor after every shower. Such a pain!

It is possible that someone would have been able to just flip the enclosure around the proper way, but it was just as likely that it wouldn't go back together. So, it looked like we would have to completely redo the shower, which meant that we would also have to redo the tiles around the attached tub.


These photos don't really do justice to the incredibly pink tiles on the floor, but trust me when I say that it was difficult to find shower tiles that didn't completely clash. And it doesn't help that neither Ian nor I has a great sense of color matching. After staring at tiles in a warehouse for what seemed like forever, comparing them to our pink floor tile and getting more and more confused, we ended up at The Gallery at IFC where a designer looked at our existing tile, laughed off our suggestions of what we thought would look good, and quickly came up with several great suggestions.

We chose three tile colors from American Olean for the shower walls and tub enclosure and one color for the mosaic shower floor.





Here are the photos of the bathroom after today's demolition:

They still have to take out the shower bottom tomorrow and then the new construction can begin! So excited!

Sunchoke Soup

My husband and I are members of Fair Shares, a Combined Community Supported Agriculture group (CCSA). We joined Fair Shares in the spring of 2009 and have been loving it so far!

From their website:

• Fair Shares is an organization dedicated to getting fresh, local, seasonal food into the hands of more St. Louisans. We think it's important to know the origin of your food--who grew it and where. With all the horrifying stories of food contamination in the news lately, it's a health risk not to know. We're also committed to spreading the wisdom of eating seasonally (if you've ever eaten a grocery store tomato in the winter, you know what we're talking about). Sustainable farming techniques are important to us as well. Organic is great, but certification isn't a must for us. We know our farmers use minimal chemicals only when necessary and more importantly they use practices that don't rob the earth of resources or harm the delicate equilibrium. Nature had it right to begin with, so we love it when farmers know how to work with nature instead of against it. Our food loves it, too. So do our bodies.

Each week we get a pound of meat, a variety of seasonal, fresh vegetables, fruits, bread, and pantry items. Three out of every five weeks we get fresh eggs. Some weeks we get farm fresh butter (so good!), rice, pasta, beans, honey, coffee, or olive oil.

We pick up our share from a church in University City every Wednesday evening. Last week's haul included:

• Prairie Grass Farms Ground Lamb
• St. Isidore Jalapeños
• Biver Farms Sunchokes
• Bellews Creek Delicata Squash
• Marble Creek Corno di Toro Sweet Peppers
• Marble Creek Globe Eggplant
• Lee Farm Beefsteak Slicing Tomatoes
• Meyers Grapes
• Lee Farms Red Watermelon
• Jacobs Orchard Peaches
• Mangia Roasted Red Pepper Tagliatelle Pasta
• Heartland Chevre
• Companion Crostini
  

We love that we know exactly where each food item came from and that we have the opportunity to meet the farmers at an annual Fair Shares potluck.

The other great thing is learning about new fruits and vegetables. Until we picked up our share last week, I had never heard of a sunchoke.

Meet this weird looking guy:




It doesn't even look edible!

It turns out that a sunchoke (or Jerusalem Artichoke) is a species of sunflower that produces beautiful flowers and delicious tubers that are high in potassium, iron and fiber. They can be used like potatoes (mashed, roasted or baked) or sliced and eaten raw in a salad.



I chose to try a recipe from the Fair Shares website for Jerusalem Artichoke Soup.

The recipe calls for:
2 T butter
2 T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 1/2 lb Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
1 1/4 c. milk
8 slices French bread
1 cup Legacy cheese, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat the butter and oil in a large saucepan, and cook the onion, garlic and celery over a medium heat for about 5 minutes or until softened, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the prepared sunchokes and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add the stock and seasoning, Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20—25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the artichokes are tender.
4. Process the soup in a food processor or blender until smooth (be careful blending hot liquids!). Return the soup to the pan, stir in the milk and heat through gently for 2 minutes.
5. Lightly grill the bread on one side, then sprinkle the untoasted side with the cheese. Grill until the cheese melts and is golden. Ladle the soup into bowls, and top with the cheese toasts.

The sunchokes, cleaned and ready to be chopped


The soup simmering away before blending

I used the Companion crostini that we got in our share in place of the french bread and it was delicious!

The finished product wasn't the cutest thing I had ever seen, but it tasted good. The soup had the consistency of a potato soup, but with the slight flavor of sunflower seeds.

I never would have bought a sunchoke at the grocery store, but thanks to Fair Shares, I got a chance to branch out and have a new culinary experience!