Last fall, I blogged about our seemingly never-ending kitchen remodel. From mid August to the end of October, we went without a kitchen. The only things I had to cook with were a microwave, a small toaster oven, a crock-pot, and an outdoor grill. I didn’t have anywhere to store food items, and only a small work table to prepare meals. If we used dishes, we had to wash them in the laundry room. Needless to say, we ate out a lot. By Halloween night, we had our base cabinets in, and we rolled the stove into place, plugged it in, and cooked a take-and-bake pizza. Ah! Victory at last! Slowly, life started to get back to normal. For the next month, we continued to plug away at the kitchen, installing crown molding, tile, and wrapping up little odds and ends. There was a definite end in sight, and for the most part, the kitchen was fully useable.

Then, on December 4th, a massive flood struck. We watched our brand new hickory cabinets and stainless steel appliances fill with water. Technically, we weren’t even 100 percent finished with the kitchen, and there it was, about to be ruined. We don’t live in a flood zone, didn’t carry flood insurance, and for several days during that month, we wondered what, if anything, would be salvageable. Well, here’s the good news—ALL OF IT! As far as kitchen appliances and cabinets anyway. Don’t even ask about other stuff… We’d upgraded our cabinets to all plywood, a move that I firmly believe you can never ever go wrong with. Pay the extra thousand bucks. It could save you in the long run. It did us.

It took us a good month and a half after the flood just to clean up and dry out. The work of rebuilding what was destroyed didn’t begin until after that. We’re still not finished. We do, however, have full use of the kitchen again, and hey, I haven’t been able to truly say that since August of 2007. So now I’m saying it—I SURVIVED A KITCHEN REMODEL! And a flood. Dammit.

The first recipe I prepared in my Project Food Blog Cook-Off was Cooking with Amy’s Ravioli Dinner Salad. My husband and I are huge salad freaks. We eat main dish salads several nights a week, and are always on the look-out for new ideas to add to the repertoire. I have a feeling this one will become a staple. It’s fast, easy, and extremely versatile. Just by switching the flavor of raviolis you can have an (almost) entirely different salad! We used three cheese and herb, but you can imagine the possibilities—roasted chicken, sundried tomato and artichoke, sausage, Portobello mushroom. Oh my! And the toasting of the raviolis is to die for! The recipe only calls for ten, but my I ended up cooking the entire batch after we’d finished our salads. My husband and I stood around the stove and ate them greedily. The one aspect to this recipe I wasn’t sure about was the cilantro. At first, it got quite lost, but once I found it, I was surprised that the verdant flavor went so well with the rest of the ingredients. The cilantro coupled with the feta turn this Italian type salad into a terrific hybrid. Click “Ravioli Dinner Salad” in the text above and it will take you to Amy’s site and the recipe.