True Colors

It must be Autumn.  As attested by Jen in her last two posts, we seem to have color on the brain. Unfortunately, unlike her happy meanderings about different hues mine are giving me a colossal headache. Since we replaced the roof, and changed it from a very nothing much gray to charcoal, replaced some rotting window moldings and replaced the buckling back porch, it is now time to paint the house. Frank and I have never been of the thinking that when you repaint the house you just go with what was there before. Our first house was blue with gray trim. I love the color blue but not on a house so when it was time to paint we went with white (my personal favorite) and green trim. When we moved into our current house it was painted a very dull gray with white trim and some burgundy accents. I love gray and find some hues gorgeous and rich, however this house does not look good in gray. So soon after when we decided to paint we again went with white and this time the trim was a deep red, in an oil finish for sheen. It is now 11 years later and white on wood shaker shingles gets a tad dirty therefore it's time to shake it up a bit. Our thinking went this way. Barnyard red. Don't know what happened but it immediately went out of our heads. The other two choices were green, I envisioned olive with a whitish trim and some very dark, charcoal, caviar, accents. Or....a very deep plum with bright white trim and accents, something like this.

After much deliberating we decided that we would rather go with green. We chose a painter and he brought over the color books and chose three different greens a trim color and an accent color. Yesterday he came over and painted three large samples of the greens on our back wall, laid the white trim on the window molding and a big splash of the accent on the wall. Here they are:

OK, these pictures are awful but so are the colors. They are muddy greens or something altogether bland and boring. I am very disappointed. I look at the color samples again and can't find another green that I like. They are outside power washing the house so they can start on Monday. I don't have a color.

Max could care less, being a dog he's color blind.

so he'll just go take a nap.

 I need comfort food.

Garbanzos (chick pea stew)

1 pkg of dried chick peas
1 squash or pumpkin
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 to 3 cloves of garlic minced
1 or two spanish chorizos, sliced
2 ham hocks
1 tomato chopped or one tablespoon of tomato paste
salt & pepper
cumin

Soak the chickpeas overnight in enough water to cover them

The next day. Preheat oven to 350F.

Add some salt to the chickpeas, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for about an hour.

While the chickpeas are cooking. Slice the squash or pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Bake in the oven about one hour or until tender.

I chose this one cause it's so cute.

then peel and cut into chunks.

Meanwhile saute the ham hocks over high heat.

Saute the onion, green pepper, garlic and sliced chorizo, until vegetables are soft and chorizo is slightly browned, season with salt pepper and cumin.

After the chickpeas have cooked about one hour, add the pumpkin chunks, the ham hocks, and the onion mixture, and cook for about another hour. Season with salt & pepper.

Serve over white rice.

Feel better, call the painter and ask him to bring a sample of deep plum paint.