Made a great soup in my bathroom today...LOL!

[The empressof all]

So since the kitchen won't be done until the end of the month (cross your fingers and pray) I decided to whip out the Insta Pot and make some beef and cabbage soup. My Instapot has a saute setting so I started browning a small chuck roast and I browned up a pound of ground beef in the microwave to make it easier to degrease. Then threw in six cloves of garlic, four ribs of celery, the ground beef, a pack of lipton onion soup, and a handful of baby carrots. Topped it off with a can of Rotel, a can of fire roasted tomatoes, four cans of water and a spoonful of beef better than bouillon. Added lots of black pepper and set it on slow cook. About a half an hour before serving I added a bag of finely shredded cabbage. I had some garlic bread from a month ago stuck in the freezer so I warmed that up in the electric blanket. I microwaved a potato for SO to add to his dinner and I had mine with some shiritaki ziti..... (google miracle noodles if you are curious).

It was delicious...and a great change from Costco Rotisserie Chicken and take out....Best of all I have enough leftovers for many more meals and it will keep in the freezer.

Three weeks to go and counting.

BTW: My kitchen floor arrived today. We went with Cork. Far warmer than tile which was our initial plan. Appliances are coming Friday and they are templating the counters next week. My sink and faucet are also here...So we are seeing progress.

[fizzgig]

1. that sounds mighty tasty

good job macgyvering

and we get photos of the kitchen when it's done, right?

[rdharma]

2. Necessity is the mother of invention .......

So you made a great soup..... in the bathroom...... in your pot? Insta Pot, that is!

I looked into those insta pots and I regret not getting one. Maybe I will sometime in the future.

You made a wise choice going with cork. I went with tile and it seems like everything that stains, heads straight for the grout between the tiles. And it's not easy to get the stain out of the porous white grout.

[The empressof all]

4. The instapot is fabulous

I love the stainless inner pot and I'm actually able to get a great browning on roasts prior to pressure or slow cooking. No more cleaning two pans. My only complaint about it is the same I would have for the standard non stick pressure cookers which is the inner pots are difficult to remove when they are hot.

I have recently been experimenting with making jook and the instapot has a congee setting which is just perfect.

For the extra thirty bucks or so that the pot costs over the standard QVC non stick pressure cookers it's well worth it. Plus it makes rice as well as slow cooks.


And I do understand the grout....I tore out white tile counters. What crazy person thought that was a good idea! LOL. I think the cork will do well

[Lucinda]

3. Ohhh....i'm jealous about the cork!

We really thought about cork when we built our house, but went with stained concrete downstairs instead. I love the concrete though.

The soup sounds yummy and a nice change. bet you can't wait until you are fully kitchened again!

[The empressof all]

5. I agonized about the floor

I think I will love the cork. I'm a little worried about keeping it clean. But it was so much more reasonably priced than the tile and far easier to rip up if I hate it in a few years. I love the look of stained concrete but my kitchen is over a crawl space and I think I would have had to shore up the underfloor to hold the weight....plus at this stage of the game the budget is feeling pretty squeeky. Did you put radiant heating under your concrete?

[Lucinda]

6. No we didn't do radiant heating - I did give thought to passive solar and

glass placement when i designed the house to keep the floors warm in the winter and it works well. They are silky to the touch and retain the warmth well. And when it's hot outside, they are nice and cool. Love them.

The only thing I don't care for is the stain in the great room area. Bill wanted to go really dark, so he did the black/tortoise in several coats in the main room - it looks amazing when it's clean - beautiful and black, but with cats and woods off my deck door, its hard to keep clean looking. It is amazing in the guest room though, gorgeous mottled tortoise shell. If we build again, we will do the whole thing with one coat of stain.

I think you'll love the cork. I seem to remember it's really durable and gets better looking with age.

[MrMickeysMom]

7. I hope you'll share pictures!

As it stands, we are planning to re-do our (circa 1954) kitchen as part of a big project. Lots to discuss later on this…

I know you decided on Cork, but I loved having Marmoleum so much in a bathroom project, that I thought it would be best for the kitchen. I am interested if you considered Marmoleum as part of your flooring decision.

[The empressof all]

8. Ha! I did start looking at it

Honestly I started feeling overwhelmed with all the choices in front of me....I went back and forth with the linoleum tiles, the regular stone or ceramic tiles, continuing the wood into the kitchen ...that when I saw the cork and the price I just said STOP the Insanity and commit. My SO is an agonizing shopper and will go store to store looking at every conceivable option and badger folks about their prices. I just got tired of him dragging my poor old arthritic sack of bones hither and yon and put an end to it.

He's out today furniture shopping...HA! I already decided pretty much what I want but I told him if he could find better and cheaper options...have at it. I'm home dry and warm and he thinks he's the one having all the fun!

And yes, of course there will be pictures!