Archives for December 21, 2008

Christmas miracles

…or, for want of a dishwasher, the floor was lost. Our old dishwasher was a malcontent, with rusting racks and a tendency to cook food on to dishes every several loads instead of washing it off. Unfortunately, it was also entombed in its hole. A layer of pergo and two layers of vinyl flooring (with an extra subfloor in between) created a ledge over which the grumpy old appliance couldn’t be removed. So, out went all of it:

Out, out, damned pergo

John demonstrates the... unloveliness of our old floor

Pretty, no?

The final subfloor.

I think the disgusting subfloor is rather festive with the tree in the background, don’t you?

Here’s the tree itself in all its glory. I’m sparing you the scene just to the left, which is everything that usually lives on our countertops, relocated to the dining room table.

Christmas tree 2008

John’s got a new subfloor down, and our new flooring should arrive… in time to have a proper kitchen floor by New Year’s.

The chaos in the kitchen wasn’t severe enough to divert me from my desire to make Julekake – Norwegian Christmas bread. Full of dried fruit, walnuts, and cardamom, it makes lovely buttered breakfast toast. I got a good first rise:

Julekake

A good second rise:

Julekake

And perfectly lovely loaves:

Julekake

Let’s hope the Julenisse and the Dala horse are fierce enough to protect the cooling loaves from Dash…