Step #8: Roof Trusses

I know, I know. I am the biggest blog slacker ever. Better late than never, here are some pics of the roof trusses going up!

Mmmmmmm...Stuffed Peppers on the Grill!

Yum. I have been craving Stuffed Peppers for months now, and anytime I've stumbled upon a Stuffed Peppers on Pinterest*, I couldn't help but Pin It!

When I finally got all of my poop in a group, and found nice sized, fresh, red bell peppers, I ended up doing something completely shocking...................
.....I didn't follow a recipe. I just made it up as I went. The options here are unlimited. You can use italian sausage, shredded chicken, ground beef, tofu, or black beans. Rice, orzo, quinoa...add in any type of veggie that you like. Pick a cheese or leave it off. Use your favorite herbs or whatever you have on hand. Like green peppers better than red? Use 'em. Use multiple colors for all I care.  I cut mine in half to maximize the amount of filling, but if you want to cut the tops off and stuff them the tradional way, go right ahead! This is a great summer dish that is easy and delicious.

I hope this tides you over until I can get my Roof Truss post together!


*what is Pinterest, you ask? That is the content for an entirely different post. Google it and be prepared for it to take over your life. I'll work on getting a link up to my Pinterest account so you can follow me, but for now you can just search Lindsey Growette to find me.

Grilled Stuffed Peppers
Serves 4-5

-4  large bell peppers, cut in half and cleaned (as you can see from the pic above, I left the stems on so that none of the filling fell out)
-3/4 cup of uncooked rice
-1 lb of spicy Italian sausage
-1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, un-drained
-2 cups of fat free low sodium chicken broth
-2 cloves garlic
-1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste
-1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
-1 bay leaf
-1 handful fresh basil
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 cup shredded cheese

Preheat grill to 350 degrees and prepare for indirect grilling.

Brown the sausage in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Add garlic and cook until tender. Add undrained tomatoes, chicken broth, bay leaf, Italian seasoning and rice. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until rice is tender (15 - 20 min). Stir in tomato paste and fresh basil, check seasonings and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Make a tiny hole in the bottom of each pepper half with a tooth pick or a very shape knife tip. This will help to drain some moisture that may gather while cooking. Spoon filling into peppers. Arrange on the grill so each pepper half is being indirectly grilled. Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the filling is hot and the pepper is tender. Top with cheese and cook for one minute more. Remove from heat, let sit for a couple of minutes and serve! If you have extra filling left over, serve that along side the peppers, or just stand at the stove and eat it with a fork. :)

Enjoy!




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Step #7: Wall Framing and Roof Tear-Off

Step #6: Floor Trusses

The floor trusses are on!

This is the floor of the upstairs addition...living room, master bedroom and walk-in closet...

Here is the view from the front of the house (the open space will be the entry way/mudroom/stairs). Fortunately/Unfortunately, Northern Trends is here working during the day (while Steve and I are at work), so I can't get process pictures showing guys working. The up-side of this is that when I come home from work each day, something is different and I can see the progress!

The downstairs view...this will be bedrooms...one for each egress window! The bathroom is at the back of the house.

Here is Steve and Andy in the bathroom...Steve clearly has testosterone poisoning and is doing pull-ups on the new floor trusses. :)

It is all happening fast and it is super exciting! Stay tuned for more!!!

Step 5.9999: Floor Trusses Have Been Delivered

This is just a little preview for you of what the next step in the house building project will be.

To be honest, things have been moving pretty slowly. All of the rain and flooding pushed us back a couple of weeks, and so the framers just started yesterday! Now that they are starting, I hope to see (and share with you) lots of progress!

FOOOOOOD!!!

And because I think about food 23 out of 24 hours of every day, here is some food porn for your viewing pleasure!

I made homemade marinara sauce with the last of last season's tomatoes that I had in the freezer. I basically just cooked the tomatoes down for several hours (probably about 8), added a couple of generous handfuls of fresh basil, 3-4 cloves of minced garlic, salt, sugar, and a little white wine, and continued to cook for anther couple of hours. I bet when it was all done, it had reduced almost by half. YUM.

I added some of Steve's family's homemade Italian sausage to the sauce, then I cooked up some cheese tortellini.

To make it extra special, I drizzled the 18 year aged balsamic vinegar that Stephanie bought me for my birthday, and then loaded the bowls with the pasta and sauce.

TO.DIE.FOR.

It was so good. I could eat it every week for the rest of my life. Maybe I will.

Step 5: Pouring the Concrete Floor

I know, I know - I have been seriously slacking on updating the blog! Steve even took pity on me and bought me a new MacBook Air since my laptop was broken, and here I am still using my phone to post. I'm spoiled rotten!

Anyway, I'm trying to play catch-up so here goes! This is the guys pouring concrete over the in-floor heat tubes, the finished project, and (...can I get an AWWWWWWWW...) our names carved in it. The cool part is that this area is going to be a storage spot under the entry way, so the concrete won't get covered up and we'll still be able to see it when you go in to get Christmas decorations out!