Island

Changes up in here!
Over Christmas I cooked a gigantic feast for my pal Maggi and I which was a lot of fun. I could not help but notice that my little galley kitchen is, well, little. I had more food prep area on Felicity Jane, my recentlly departed Ericson 27 which you may remember from these pages.
In the course of preparing our Xmas dinner, I made a pie, which was a good bit of the aforementioned fun.
The other day I made another, as you well know. How could you forget when I will not shut up about it?
It, too, was an amusing and engaging thing to do. As I kneaded and mixed and chopped and measured a plan sprang forth fully formed, like Apollo from the forehead of Zeuss.
I would remodel my kitchen!
Well, sort of, anyway.

Years ago I was given a sample chunk of a similar orangey granite by the folks at Oregon Tile and Marble which I heat up and wrap in a towel to warm my little cold feet at night in the winter time. It was sheer coincidence that the only slab that was finished on both ends was a.the appropriate size, and b. orangey. There were plenty other slabs, including a two-part chunk of round table-top in inch thick marble that was quite tempting, but I don't really have room for that much surface, although I do have an unlimited supply of clutter.

So I hopped on the #4 bus the other day and hotfooted it over to Mississippi Ave to the Rebuilding Center where I quickly located and purchased an old 24 by 24 base kitchen cabinet with a wide drawer under a wide slide-out cutting board over a door with two wide shelves on which a vast number of pots and pans may reside instead of on the top of the range cluttered and clattered in plain view, as they have for the past 11 years.In the lumber shed I had previously noted a couple of rolling pallets with an array of stone slabs suitable for kitchen use, leftovers from Portlands many kitchen remodels, slabs of granite and marble and travertine and even a green chunk of slate.
I found just the thing, a two-foot hunk of fully finished orange speckled granite drainboard, highly polished and  bullnosed on both ends, 24" wide ande maybe 32" long, which was mine for a mere 10 bucks. This shit sells for 60 a square foot downtown. Savvy?

Mom gave me the little stoneware bottle that I am using for a rolling pin in my quest for puff pastry. It's quite heavy which means mass which means good thermal reservoir: chill it in the freezer for rolling out the Mille Foille!
Mom says I gave it to her a long time ago which I have absolutely no recollection of doing but I probably stole it someplace its just about the right size to go under a young criminal's jacket. I have much to atone for.

Maggi, bless her little Plymouth Saturn heart, brought me and my stuff across the river. Tired and very excited and happy.
It took about a half an hour to set the thing up. Budget total $30. At some point in the near future I shall finish things off with four roller dolly feet, and my island will meander around in the stream, and out of the stream, and any damn where I please, for I am American, and my will is not a thing with which to trifle.

I kept the stone cool with a bag of ice cubes under a towel while the dough was resting in between turns. Even so I was shocked and amazed when the stuff began to puff at about the 15 minute mark in the oven at 400°
Warning: There is a pound of butter for every pound of flour...which does not go away in the baking it is usually worn on the hips.

 Something about "no man is an island" etc, but the island, unlike the man, is a very useful place to prepare cool stuff to eat, such as Julia Childs and Michell Richard inspired MIlleFoile  dough which became today some reasonably nice apple turnovers. The pastry actually puffed, the filling was delish, and we are very happy up in here tonight.