Reno update

Just a few newer demo pics to make myself think we're actually making some progress. You can see our appliances waiting behind the curtain :)

The big excitement today was the dumpster was picked up and our driveway's being poured!

Kitchen work

We moved into this old 1912 (or 1917 according to another source) farmhouse in January, and though we had some things taken care of before we moved in (plumbing, asbestos in the basement), we got the flooring and ceiling tiles (thankfully only in one room) tested after we moved in. And also, thankfully, only the kitchen vinyl turned out to have it.

The previous owners back in the remodel of '65 laid the vinyl four inches under each of the cabinets. So we had the cabinets all taken out, too. We were a little disappointed the vinyl was glued so well that we couldn't save the birdseye maple below, but now we have an open slate :)















The soffit was removed today, and that alone make a huge difference in how the space looks. And I've been crazily reading the kitchen forum on GardenWeb and looking up period kitchens, trying to find a layout that will be clean and give me a nice counter workspace. It's only 12x13, and it gets segmented by the applicances pretty quickly. I'll be missing a few TWD's, but I'm looking forward to getting a kitchen put back together and baking again this fall!

Parties

Last Sunday we had our kids' joint birthday party with the family. I took pictures of the cakes before, but then after realized there was no card in the camera - ahhh! My three year old got another Thomas, and my six year old wanted Hello, Kitty. The kitty cake was on two 8 in rounds of the famous epicurious double chocolate cake with Rosenberg's buttercream and Michele Foster's fondant using El Rey Icoa for the white chocolate version. There were pastel and bright pink double daisies around and single for the border. So you can imagine those :)

I cheated and bought a tube of Pillsbury for the cookies, but I had no idea how much they would spread. I probably could have cut them down, but I thought the edges would be too rough. And with all the other party prep, I just decided it looked good enough :) I used Toba's glace icing, and it was fantastic! It seemed much easier to use and tastier than royal. I'm looking forward to trying it again this fall, maybe some cute harvest cookies :)

Mixed Berries with Mascarpone-Limoncello Cream

This was the simplest and one of the best desserts of the summer so far! It's just berries - here our strawberries we picked and then black raspberries and red currants from the garden. The recipe calls for raspberry jam, but I used the strawberry-currant jelly I'd made, and even reduced it to a couple of TB (I also left out the extra sugar for the berries). The cream was so easy, I overbeat it a bit, but we'll definitely be having this again!

TWD Brrr-ownies

Not the most photogenic pic, but these were great brownies! I layered the brownie, patties, brownie, instead of chopping - I keep thinking I'd read a Maida Heatter recipe like that, but I've not been able to find it again. Anyway, I loved that the brownies are dark, dense and rich, but they don't feel too sweet. I pretty much ate them all myself :)

Thanks to Karen of Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life for this week's pick!

Strawberries!

The kids love strawberries, and the first time we went picking, we got one flat that was gone by the next day. The following trip we got two flats, and I was able to play around a little :)

First I got to try Gourmet's Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, and then a strawberry sorbet. Both were incredibly easy, only required a few ingredients, and didn't require any cooking. The sorbet was the favorite, I think because we has such great berries. It was almost a little sweet, next time I'll cut back the sugar to 1/2 c. The ice cream was my husband's favorite, though I ate most of it :) I liked it best right out of the machine, soft-serve-ish. It ended up getting a little icy, but that was also after a couple days.

Strawberry Sorbet
4 cups strawberries
3/4 sugar
2 T lemon juice
Puree all in food processor and freeze in ice cream maker.






















I also tried Ferber's Strawberry and Red Currant Jelly with Whole Strawberries and Black Pepper. I really liked the flavors, the strawberry-currant was almost raspberry-like. The jelly below set well, but by the fruit, it was syrupy. I'm not sure how I can fix that, but the kids and I like it anyway :)

TWD Tart Noire

This wasn't my most successful TWD ever - my crust was still in the oven when through miscommunication, the oven was turned to broil :)















It doesn't even look like a crust - it looks like a flat, burned, shrunken pancake. I can't believe how much it shrunk!

Anyway, I made 1/4 recipe of the ganache, which was incredibly rich, very smooth (even with the bubble), very dark. I managed to eat the whole cup while watching old tv on netflix. Thanks to Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life for this week's pick!