Ark Valley News - In the kitchen

In the kitchen
By Lisa Strunk
Last Updated: August 20, 2015

Another room in the house to decorate

Sending your kid off to college sucks. Sorry to be crass, but I'm just being honest.

I know that as parents we have kids knowing that someday they are going to grow up and leave us. However, none of us really think that's going to happen.

I've been keeping myself busy by doing household projects. I'm planning on surprising Ray when he gets home for his first visit.

When we moved into this house 2 1/2 years ago, I planned on decorating Ray's room first. I thought since he would probably be going off to college in a few years, he should be able to enjoy it while he was here.

All of his stuff got moved in and I soon realized that you really can't do much to a teenager's room while the teenager is living in that room, unless you have one of those neatnik teenagers. We don't know what those are around here.

So Ray went away to college with his room still builders white. The old light fixture still hangs sadly from the ceiling. The furniture consists of castoffs from the rest of the house.

I'm not going to invest in a new bedroom set, but I do hope to have the room painted and the new light fixture up. I am also thinking about having Chris help me build an upholstered headboard. Maybe I'll even get some things hung on the wall.

First, Jer has decided he wants to move downstairs. We have an extra room down there. We call it the music room because it's where we store the drum kit and the guitars that have almost never been played. It's also where the kids play Xbox.

Because it became on overflow room, I didn't plan on doing anything until the rest of the house got done. Now we're painting. It's going to need a new window and a closet too. And we're eventually going to have to move the door into the storage room from Jer's room to the family room.

First we have to get it painted and we have to get the "music room" furniture moved up to Jer's room and Jer's furniture moved downstairs. I've made promises that this is going to happen this weekend. Let's hope for the best.

Ray's coming home in a couple of weeks. He wants to run in the Hornet Hustle. My brother will also be in town that weekend and we need to celebrate his birthday. I plan on making him his favorite, soup. I was going to make homemade chicken noodle soup and homemade French onion soup. I tried the homemade French onion soup first. I wanted to make sure I had it down before something as important as a birthday dinner.

French Onion Soup

1/2 cup salted better

2 T. olive oil

4 cups sliced onions

4 cans beef broth

1 tsp. dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

4 slices French bread

mixed cheese such as Swiss, provolone, gruyere, or parmesan

Melt butter with olive oil in a stock pan over medium heat. Continually stir until carmelized. Add beef broth, thyme, salt and pepper and simmer for 30 minutes. Heat the oven broiler. Ladle soup into oven safe bowls. Layer cheeses on top of bread slices. Place bowls on a cookie sheet and broil until cheese is light brown and bubbly.

Lisa Strunk is co-owner of The Ark Valley News. Reach her at lisa@arkvalleynews.com.