Pancakes and Paninis

This weekend, we are hosting an open house for neighbors and friends to come and meet our new son as well as see our new kitchen.

It will be our first trial run of entertaining a crowd with the new kitchen! It will be fun to see how it all works out -- the various serving spots for appetizers and desserts, the flow of the buffet line, the comfort and sociability of the space. We definitely will need to add more seating in the future, but it's not in the budget for now. Parties like these, however, will help me to figure out how to plan that seating, creating comfortable niches where small groups can socialize and yet still have some circulation to the room.

Here is the menu for our open house. The theme of "pancakes and paninis" is an honorary nod to the 24" modular griddle, perhaps the most unique appliance in our new kitchen:

Appetizers
Melon and Grapes Platter *
Plum Jam [homemade by me] and Goat Cheese Crostini Platter *

Breads
Croissants

Salads
Caprese (buffalo mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, basil) *
Potato Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette *

Breakfast Meats
sausage
bacon

Main dishes
Walla Walla Strata (caramelized onion, fontina, egg and bread dish) *
10:30a-noon, Made to Order Pancakes (options: chocolate chips, various berries*, fake maple syrup, fig syrup)
Noon-1:30p, Made to Order Paninis (options: gruyere and veggie [mushroom, roasted pepper*]; chicken pesto; kids menu: nutella and banana)

Desserts
Berry Trifle *
Carrot Cake *
Brownies (from a friend)

Drinks
orange juice
rosemary lemon rhubarb spritzer (from a friend)
milk
coffee
soda
mimosas

* Includes farmer’s market ingredients

It takes quite a bit to pull together a brunch when you have two kids. Today I am creating the plan so it all comes together at show time. Most of the dishes are make-ahead or make-on-the-spot, in an effort to reduce prep at the busiest time -- the morning of the brunch. My biggest snag right now that the grapes that I ADORE -- from a specific stand at one farmer's market, a variety called "sweet seduction" -- are only available for sale once per week. And that stand opens basically half an hour before my brunch starts. So right now I hope to have everything mostly ready by 9:30, then I'll pop over to the stand (8 minutes away), get the grapes, and pop back. My husband will (probably rightfully) freak out when he hears that this is my "plan" :)

Finished Kitchen Pictures

My original vision for this blog's start was to document the remodel as it progressed. I knew that I would be having a baby mid-remodel, yet ambitiously hoped to still add new content weekly. Our kitchen is now 99% complete and over the last six weeks, I've written just one post! And yes, this was my second baby, so I should have known better. At this point, I can still move forward with the subsequent phase of this blog, which was (and still is) to review the products I selected, design decisions that I made, and lessons that I learned.

I really hate the remodeling status of "99% finished!" To me, it is NEVER 100% done. Even if there is no more construction, there is always more decorating, organizing, furnishing, or other tasks. Given that a room's function often evolves over time, as well, it's impossible to ever completely nail the end of a moving target.

The decorating, organizing, and furnishing tasks all still remain for the kitchen. Regarding construction or installation, the following remains: paint touch-up, installation of kid's art cabinet components, addition of one soap dispenser, and a myriad of minor, very minor, punch list items.

Here is an album of finished kitchen pictures. A couple angles are really hard to photograph (for an amateur like me), as the windows create a good strong glare at seemingly all times of day. So much for the famous filtered light of the Pacific Northwest! You can click on the slideshow to go to the full album of photos, with captions and comments.