Coconut Soup - chicken

We love Thai Kitchen's coconut Soup, but we want to have it more often and have more control of the ingredients. This is our first try.

2 cups dashi - Japanese soup stock, usually in dried form and is the base of miso soup. We bought the miso soup kit at HEB.
2 tablespoons lemongrass, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon ginger, sliced thin or julienne
1 tablespoon cilantro leaves, picked not cut
1 habinero, top cut off, seeds removed
1/4 cup fish sauce - get the good stuff without preservatives
1/4 cup lime juice
14 ounces coconut milk
2 chicken breast - cut into 1x2x1/4 inch

Bring the dashi to a simmer after following directions to get the broth going. Add everything but the chicken and coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken and coconut milk and cook until chicken is tender, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

The Verdict:
Amazing soup. Chicken was cooked perfectly. A lot of recipes say to flatten the chicken, but I sliced the chicken thin and it was great. The bad parts were the ginger and lemon grass. both were too tough to chew. Next time, we'll cut silver dollar sized pieces of ginger so we can take them out or avoid them, and we'll put the lemon grass in the food processor. Net time we will also scrap the habenero (because there was no heat in this soup) and use thai chili peppers. I am actually glad we used the miso kit.

Sitting room - Plywood floor and quick level

So this room is falling into the abyss. The back left corner of this room has shifted about 4 inches down. It was built on top of an existing deck, and with the water erosion and decking, the addition did not hold up. Demolition of the addition is the best solution, but this probably won't happen for years. So, to make the room usable we are going to level the floor by ripping some 2x4s at the angle of the slope. We removed the carpet, carpet tacs, and as much of the adhered carpet underpad that we could.

The plan is to lay string that is level and in 12 inch intervals along floor. We will put 2x4s alongside the string, use a chalk line to mark the angle, and rip the 2x4s using a jigsaw and a planer to smooth things down. We'll screw the 2x4s into the subfloor using recessed screws.

Home depot will cut the sanded plywood for us for free, which is great cause we don't have a table saw. We'll do rips of 12 inches and alternate them perpendicular to the 2x4s that fix the slope.

Stay tuned...

Medium Bath Renovation

This room was simple. Remove carpet, linoleum tile, wallpaper, lay tile, texture the walls, prime, paint, install toilet.

We had the same cutback adhesive that we did in the small bathroom renovation.

We had more cuts of tile for this bath, and we cut the hole around the toilet flange much closer to the hole to avoid any gaps like the small bath had.

1 piece of tile was cut too short, but it was behind the toilet so we went ahead and laid it.


We bought the tile over 2 days, and they also came from the discount rack at the depot.

Surprisingly they color was a shade different, but we noticed after the tile was already on the floor.

You really have to stare at it to notice the different, but it is still annoying.

Stay tuned...

Smath Bath renovation

This home improvement job was pretty complicated for such a small space.

The Floor:

We removed the dog and mildew stained carpet, carpet tacs, and laminate tiles to find a solid slab but the concrete had cutback black mastif adhesive. After a lot of research, and fear of removing the cutback because of asbestos, I found that any modified thinset mortar will do the job and provide a long life for the tile. We discarded the toilet because of decaying guts and a chip near the back of the bowl. Because of the weird small space, and to minimize the amount of cuts needed for the tile, we chose to buy some small 1.5 inch square decorative tile to fill in the space under the doors, and around all but one side (side behind the toilet) of the perimeter. The 13 inch tile we purchased was from the discount rack at Home Depot, and the tile was left over from the bathroom renovation on the B side of our duplex. I was surprised that even the discount tile store prices didn't compete with the discount rack at Home Depot.


Our time-line went like this: One night we cut the tiles and laid them on the floor. The next day we grouted the tile. The following day we found out that the unsanded grout that the guy from Home Depot recommended was only supposed to be used if the space between the tile was less than 1/8 inch. Our width was 1/4 inch. The grout cracked on every space except the space between the smaller tiles. We used flat-head screw drivers to take out the unsanded grout. This was miserable and I really hate that guy from home depot now, I avoid him every time I go in. I had even picked up some sanded grout and had it in the basket when the guy suggested I use un-sanded grout. Most pro installer will say it is my own fault I guess, but in my experience most DIY project are learn as you go and someone working at Home Depot should put some disclaimers on their recommendations when a non-pro DIY customer comes in the door. Anyway, enough of the soap box. We grouted with sanded grout the next night. The following day I installed the toilet. We bought 2 toilets from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and bout was rings from the depot. After installing the toilet, I noticed the back-end did not cover up my tile cuts around the sewer flange. I guess the toilets were at the Re-Store because they had an unusually stubby back end. A little grout the next day covered up the tile issue.


The Walls:
We removed the wallpaper because of mold residue around the corners. It was surprisingly easy to remove, and the mold seemed to be contained to just the wallpaper. We used a shellac based primer for the walls. Zinsser BIN. I love this primer, but it was very expensive, and the guy at Breed and Co said it was due to the extinction of the beetle the company uses to produce the product. BIN 2 apparently is better. I'll do a post about the re-paint of the entire house later. All the cabinets and walls, excluding the inside of the standing shower were done in a shellac based primer.

Stay tuned...

Grilled Chic Baked Pot and Steamed Broc

Main Ingredients:
2 frozen chicken breast
1 package frozen broccoli
2 russet potatoes

Baked Potato:
Vegetable Oil
Kosher Salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees with the middle rack and bottom rack in. Scrub potatoes in cold running water with a clean vegetable scrubber. I scrubbed until I saw more white skin than brown. Poke deep holes with a fork throughout the potatoes so moisture can leave the potato during cooking. Lightly coat each potato in veg oil and sprinkle kosher salt over the entire potato. Place the potato directly on the middle rack and a cookie sheet on the bottom rack to catch anything that drips. Cook for one hour. Check with a knife to be sure it is cook through.

I've added motz cheese, Parmesan cheese, smart balance, kosher salt, pepper, and of course some sauteed onions.

Steamed Broccoli:
Kosher Salt
Olive oil

Pretty simple. Steam the frozen broccoli florets in a steamer basket until cooked to desired tenderness. I like mine on the crunchy side. Blanch the broccoli directly after cooking to retain the crispiness and color. Plate and lightly drizzle olive oil and kosher salt to taste.


Grilled Chicken:
Raw Honey
Worcester Sauce
Teriaki Sauce
Whole grain mustard
Soy Sauce
Apple cider vinegar
Lime Juice

In a bowl large enough to marinade the chicken breasts, put 2 table spoons of raw honey, 1 table spoon of mustard, and one table spoon each of the other liquids. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar, and a splash of lime juice.

Once the chicken breasts are thawed, butterfly and then place in the marinade. Lightly poke a few holes throughout the breasts and put the chicken covered away in the fridge until about 15 minutes before it is time to eat.

Once ready to grill. Heat the grill to 400 degrees and grill with the lid open until cooked through. I really can't say how long to cook the chicken, but stay next to the grill and keep touching the thickest parts until you are sure it is cooked through.

The Verdict:

Chicken was cooked a little too long, but the grill marks came out nice. The temp of the gas grill was right, but I should have flipped and turned them a little faster. Total cook time was bout 10 minutes. The soy sauce over powered the taste of the chicken a little too much too. I need to find a consistent marinade to keep in the fridge. Maybe I need to do a homemade Italian dressing and homemade barbecue sauce? The potato was awesome, cooked perfect, the skin was delicious with the kosher salt. Broccoli was also cooked perfect.