While removing food from the pantry to empty the old shelves, I had a chance to rediscover hidden food treasures. Seaweed and seasoned rice vinegar jumped into view. Treasure!

My daughter had blessed me with pickled ume plums after her summer exit from Seattle. She muled them from Uwajimaya's as they aren't the kind of thing found in rural Eastern Washington. I already had pickled daikon in the refrigerator so I was set for a wheat free feast. No fat no gluten no hidden dangers. Score!

Here's how to make them:

Cook a cup or two of rice after gently but thoroughly washing it. I use a rice cooker so as not to over cook or over water it. For rice balls and sushi pearl rice is fine. I've even used jasmine rice in a pinch. If you only have converted rice stop here and forget you ever saw this recipe.

Transfer the hot cooked rice to a large bowl and gently stir in the seasoned rice vinegar to taste, about a half cup more or less, while doing this have someone fan the rice cool. This allows the rice to be coated with a sheen of vinegar.

Cut the sheets of seaweed into halves. No need to toast them for this use. Most seaweed comes pre-toasted anyway.

Put a half cup of seasoned rice vinegar in a medium bowl.

Cut the pickled daikon into halves.

Pit the pickled plums, if that is your preference. I use them unpitted as sucking on the salty pit is an added pleasure for me.

Take a half sheet of seaweed and dip it in the bowl of vinegar, coating both sides, and shake off the excess.

Hold the sheet of seaweed , shiny side down, in the left hand and dish a heaping tablespoon of rice into the center.

Add a plum or a piece of daikon, (plain rice is also good) cover with a little more rice and wrap it up in the seaweed. Gently squeeze and form into a ball.

Place on a plate and allow to cool at room temperature for half an hour. OR you can, like me, dive right in. YUM!

You may have noticed the gentle treatment of the rice. It's a revered food in Asia and is best when the outer surface is not roughed up or the kernels mooshed. One is looking for whole, smoothly coated grains that have a firm but cooked texture. Over cooked rice or rice that is too wet is only good for jook, a nasty Chinese soup dish. Google congee if you have over cooked your gloppy rice. I won't be posting a recipe here.

The shelves are completed and waiting for me to paint. We moved out the old shelves and all the food to access work space. Being able to stand in the newly opened up room gave us a better feeling for how it would look by continuing the shelving onto the adjacent wall. We talked it over and decided it didn't feel right. Putting a shelf at the same level as the top shelf and building shelves above the freezer feels better. There's something to be said about negative space or blank walls. It's good feng shui.

I'm not much help in the early phases of this project except for occasionally applying a coat of paint. The design and execution of the shelf building I find ingenious. At each step the level proves this guy knows what he's doing.

After the initial wall surface was painted, Eric cut and mounted 1x1 inch strips to the wall with a spacing of 12 inches. That still gives extra wiggle room for even my tallest food storage containers. He first drilled pilot holes then attached the 1x1 inch strips to the studs of the new wall (16 inch centers), leveling each one. This is the foundation for the rear support ledge of the 12 inch wide shelves. Starting at the base he built a solid structure for the first shelf building upward with each consecutive shelf. The supports between the shelves are 1x2's screwed from the top and fastened at the bottom with L brackets. The shelves are 1/2 inch plywood. It's structurally very sound and will hold all the food I want to store.

The adjacent wall will also have shelves for kitchen gear and appliances. That will be next after the free standing shelves are emptied and moved out of the way. It's a tight space for one person to maneuver so I'm best standing back and playing cheerleader. His job is really something to cheer about!

The ceilings are 9.5 feet high so this wall alone will have eight shelves six feet long! I'm a very happy girl.

When this phase is complete I will be helping by painting and lining the shelves. Sometimes doingitlikeawoman means standing out of the way.

The new wall is painted a lighter shade of turquoise than the foyer. The working space is tight so it's all about accomplishing one small step at a time. Once we put the shelves up on that wall and can empty the free standing ones then it will be easier to move around the room to work.

The wind was slight, the temperatures perfect and I felt great. A perfect morning for a ride with Moon and Shrek. He's probably going home to Olympia soon so we need to get in as many rides together as possible. I'm beginning to think "horse" instead of "mule" as this was such a pleasant way to start the day. I may not want to wait for Dinah to be finished and safe.

This video of Matt Harding dancing around the world makes me laugh and cry at the same time. With all the strife and anger in the world it's always good to see it as a happy and friendly place to be.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo

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Hint: Touch Pause and let it load entirely before playing.  It's more fun to watch without all that buffering.

This man's Thursday night is his Friday night. After a hard week of work, his idea of relaxation is to shoot a few rounds at plastic liquor bottles. I joined in for a bit then went into the kitchen to cook dinner. He still had a few guns to warm up.

Even though we had house guests this last weekend and were keeping busy with the fun of entertaining, Eric found time to build a wall for the water closet in the pantry. His precision in measuring, cutting and fitting the wood was a joy to witness.

It's tiny but economy breeds a creative use of space. The wall is only six feet long but enough to house a 4x2x2 stock tank and a marine toilet. I can see shelves for candles to light when soaking in hot water on cold winter evenings.

Last year it was the bathroom project that I documented in phases. This year it's the pantry/water closet/guest room that is going to appear here. It means a wall and shelving being built, plumbing for a toilet and soaking tub installed and the painting and decorating. The ceiling is going to be finished with foam board just as was done in the bathroom. There will still be room for the freezer and all the cooking tools that I keep there. With the shelves going all the way to the ceiling I feel confident that this year's garden bounty will be canned and stored with ease.

My brother-in-law, Mike, was the valued help I had last year on the bathroom remodeling job, this year I have a house mate, Eric, who is very accomplished help on this project. His enthusiasm about having a second bathroom and more storage has motivated both of us to get it done. Right now the room is a terrible mess and a difficult place to work in but we are confident it can be done. So the "doitlikeawoman" team is at it again.

We have house guests this week so I've been cooking for six people. My kitchen appliances consist of one induction stove top and a small toaster oven. I purchased a roaster for preparing larger quantities of food. Now I'm able to do a big batch of ribs, cook a whole roast or chicken and casseroles. I made lasagne to feed the troops and still had leftovers. It's a marvelous tool and it's actually more efficient than a conventional range.

I like to roast butternut squash and put a layer in the lasagne. Leftover rotini served as a layer too. The casserole turned out great and no one complained about the use of gluten free pasta. The picky six year old even ate all of her dinner. I consider that a grand compliment.

Thank goodness for gluten free lasagne noodles. I was almost sure I'd never fix and eat it again.