Renovations Begin + Avocado Bibb Lettuce Salad Recipe | Waxing Crescent Moon in Aries

For weeks my friend Cino and I have been planning a trip to HMH together. The plan is to leave early morning on Wednesday 5th. She will rent a car and we will drive over together and I will ride back with Rick on Sunday the 9th. A long car rental story later, we leave Seattle around 9:00am with Cino driving a very swanky SUV Mercedes.

We passed the time chatting about projects at the house that we could tackle ourselves, her new friend, our children and her grandchildren… We made the mistake of stopping at a drive-thru for a fast lunch and for the rest of the night Cino’s belly made certain she knew it was not happy with her food choice. We had a simple dinner and went to bed at 9.

Twelve hours later... (I guess we were tired!) we woke and made a cup of tea. We broke fast with a thick slice of seeded bread from Sea Wolf Bakery topped with smashed avocado. I met with someone from Moscow Building Supply to give us a quote for insulating the house. There is not a bit of it anywhere and keeping the house warm is a full time task and expensive. We usually close off the upstairs from the main floor, so going to bed in ice cold sheets is part of the charm(?!). Slow to start, we headed up stairs around 11:00am to our decided task. I had warned Cino that removing the wall paper from the walls would expose us to 116 years of farm house dirt and mouse shit.

We suited up with hats, gloves, masks, and began the very dirty work. As we tore down the paper, dirt and droppings rained down on us, leaving clouds of black dust thick in the air! It was one horrible job. On the plus side we exposed beautiful ship lap wood. Today Rick is caulking all of the joints. Now we wonder if we should paint it all white or leave the wood exposed.

Cino woke up on Friday morning at 6:30 to check the weather forecast. Snow was to start at 7:00 am. She hurriedly packed up her things and was out the door, just as the snow began to fall. Rick was not able to leave Seattle on Friday until after 3:00pm. His trip was a long and slow one. It took him over 9 hours to make what usually takes us 5 1/2. I was alone here for the first time and spent the day cleaning and puttering. I went to bed around midnight and was just about to fall asleep when I heard him come in. I was anxious all day for his safe arrival.

Saturday was spent chopping firewood, doing the 5 loads of laundry Rick brought me from Seattle, where we have no washer and dryer, and bringing up a few more stored items from the Mercantile up from the barn. I made a nice salad to take with us to a friend’s house for dinner. 

Sunday morning we have a nice breakfast. I make a hash of left over black rice, Asian spiced marinated chicken, skin removed and set aside, and soft cooked eggs.

Bibb Lettuce, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
with Shallot Vinaigrette 

Wash and Spin a large head of Bibb lettuce.

Supreme at least one Grapefruit into clean segments.

Cut Avocado into similar sizes as the grapefruit segments.

Toast ¼ cup hazelnuts, rolling them in a towel after roasting to remove the skins. Chop coarsely. 

 

For Serving

Arrange lettuce leaves on a plate in a fan shape. Face the leaves so they are open facing up. Place the grapefruit segments and the avocado in a fan shape on top of the open lettuce leaves. Cover each salad with a large spoon full of dressing. Top with a sprinkling of the roasted hazelnuts.

 

Dressing

Chop very fine 3 Tablespoons of shallot

½ teaspoon mineral salt

3 teaspoons Dijon mustard

¼ cup rice wine vinegar + 2 Tablespoons grapefruit juice

½ good quality olive oil

Mix well with a small whisk until all ingredients are well blended