Campstoves & Soup

Taking care of myself throughout the remodel is a huge goal for me. Especially with all of my food issues (allergic to just about everything). Not to mention my six days a week job.
Last week, I cooked a gigantic arm roast that barely fit into my dutch oven. That got me over the hump. 
We have stray people coming over to do some of the remodeling subcontracting job. We have lookylou neighbors dropping in. Not a whole lot of quiet with my husband thinking of new decisions to torture me with at 4:30am. That's my time for self-meditation- to get me in the frame of mind where I can deal with my bipolar boss.
Throughout the remodel, I have made decisions as simple as I can. Such as, using up paint we already have. I don't know about you, but trying to decide on a new paint color can be a treacherous road. When my husband mentioned wallpaper last Wednesday, I told him I would rather have my nails pulled out than look at another wallpaper book AND deal with the sizing that remains after you decide you don't like the wallpaper anymore (been there, done that).
We are down to the bathroom to repaint - before the 'new' tile guy comes and the toilet goes back in. We finished the kitchen today.
Last night, we bought a 'fake' turkish rug off Craig's List that was  over by the Alemeda area where my daughter lives. 

Removing carpets just to put in rugs is still a  fairly odd concept that I am adjusting to, but we will learn what we like as we go.
First off, I had in mind an oriental/turkish rug for the living room in reds/maroons. The Dapper Tan walls would coordinate, the fireplace brick would be okay and we even had a line on a hand-tied rug for $1600 at Upscale Consignments. New, these rugs go for well over $5000.00. But then, we stepped back, remembered we have two dogs and new wood floors and the point is to protect the floors.  And the other question that popped is "Do we want turkish style rugs in every room?". No answers yet.
Buying used appears to answer my need for less chemicals swirling around, but this is still synthetic fibers and I would like some cotton or wool rugs as well.
Anyway - this rug was much cheaper (much cheaper) - it's synthetic, not wool. But, if the dogs decide they want to chew it up because of the strangeness of it all, no worries. Not so much red as a rose which goes with the brick very well.

This afternoon, I made my non-dairy Butternut Squash Soup - on a campstove.
I wanted a meal that would last most of the week and be quick to heat up - trying to take care of myself here.


This soup involves grinding of coriander spice, pureeing the peppers in the blender, and blending the soup - also in the blender. The campstove managed to blacken up those peppers just fine and it cooked down the squash in the usual time. In my mind, the juxtaposition of the campstove and electric appliances was to be photographed. But I was too tired to style and the oddity did not come through.

And, a little too tired to eat.