New Little Old House

Recently I got into making chocolatey treats for a few gatherings. I made strawberry shortcake kebabs (delicious and easy)…

… chocolate covered strawberries (much better than my poor photography would suggest)…

… and white-chocolate-crasin cookies (no photo ‘cause they got eaten too quickly).

But there was one chocolate creation that went terribly wrong: chocolate-dipped s’mores. See, they were supposed to look this gorgeous and taste even better.

Instead I got these.

Things started out fine. I put chocolate on some grahams, put marshmallows on some other grahams, and melted them in the oven. Easy, right?

Well all three “easy” ingredients failed me. The chocolate melted much more slowly than the marshmallows, which were far too large anyway for the crackers, which scorched something terrible. The end result was a burnt s’more with overflowing marshmallow and hard chocolate chunks. They went in the trash long before I could dip them in a cute little chocolate coating.

If I ever give these another go I’m sure they would turn out better. We’ll see if I ever get around to it.

For various reasons I’ve been taking a long hiatus from home improvement. I have, however, gotten back into the kitchen. My most interesting achievement as of late: quinoa muffins.

I adapted this recipe to suit my tastes.

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 Tablespoons honey 
1/4 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup flour
Pinch nutmeg  
1 Tablespoon orange zest
1 Tablespoon diced Crasins
1/2 cup cooked quinoa

Preheat oven to 350.

In a bowl, mix oil, sugar, vanilla, egg, and honey. Add milk and stir again.

In a separate bowl mix the salt, baking powder, baking soda, flour, and nutmeg. Add to wet mixture and stir until just blended. Fold in orange zest, Crasins, and quinoa.

Pour into greased mini muffin pan and bake for 10-12 minutes. Makes approx. 20 mini muffins. 

These were so quick and easy and surprisingly tasty to boot. A few muffins make a nice little snack with a bit of added heartiness and protein. They have a texture somewhat like cornmeal or bran. The softer the quinoa, the softer the muffin.  

I will definitely make another batch of these later this week. I’d like to try some other flavor combos: raspberry lemon, chocolate banana, or apple cinnamon. Yum!

A belated thank you to my beloved Offbeat Home for sharing my caramel recipe!

Life has been a little too… crazy to write lately (or do much of anything else). But I did have fun with one little project this weekend. 

My mom’s family exchanges homemade Christmas gifts for each household. Inspired by a brownie mix in a jar that I was given last month, I decided to make soup mixes. I chose a recipe that was vegetarian and was simple for the recipients to prepare (not requiring too many extra ingredients). I used this one, then halved it to fit pint jars instead of quarts. I had to be flexible, of course—I couldn’t find vegetable bouillon in granule form and couldn’t find dried veggies. So I substituted dried Knorr vegetable soup packets in for both.

Assembly was fun and easy. I just layered the ingredients, added some fabric (the only stuff I had), and made a tag.

I only needed five for my mom’s family, but I was having fun and had extra ingredients and jars, so I made ten. That was Friday, and nine have already been given away! I’ll save the last one for a hostess gift… or maybe eat it myself since I haven’t actually tried the recipe yet. I can always make more.

The recipients have been delighted—who doesn’t love a simple, warm, and healthy meal? I’m definitely making these again. I’ve got a few other recipes set aside, too, like cocoa mix and chocolate chip bread.

Our carpet job yesterday was quick and dirty, but it’ll do. We used a remnant piece that we got on sale for less than 40 bucks. At that price I don’t care if it doesn’t last forever.

Thank goodness that furniture has a way of distracting from carpet and paint flaws. I just tossed the furniture we used to have in the porch back in there; eventually we’ll figure out how to make it more functional for us. The table serves as a great hiding place for a few things we wanted to store. We use the table more for yard parties than for regular use in the porch, so it’s fine in the corner.

We have come a long way.

I kind of like that this is one area for which I can take credit since I give Sam the props for most of what our home has become. My contributions during and since pale in comparison to the year he spent transforming this little house. So the porch, imperfect as it is, makes me kind of proud.

We know that the porch is falling off the house and needs to be completely rebuilt someday. All of this work has just been a disguise. We’ve talked about starting  over: tearing off the porch, expanding the front bedroom (now office) into some of the current porch space to create a decently sized master and closet. That would cut the porch to about half of its current size. We even had a contractor give us an informal cost estimate; the price wasn’t that outrageous.

Will we ever do it? Who knows. It would depend most heavily on how long we want to stay here. We’re happy for now and not looking to go anywhere. We’ve got dreams, though, of other homes and other places in which they would be. (You should see what I’ve been Pinteresting.) But we’re not in any rush. I’m happy to have our porch made over for now— it’s a much better place to welcome guests and watch the seasons go by.

I wrote several weeks ago that I just wanted a comfortable spot to relax with a glass of wine. That’s exactly what I did yesterday evening, curled under a blanket in my porch.

When I spotted a recipe for Apple Cider Caramels on Pinterest I just had to try them. They were delicious and well worth the work!

The ingredients are quite simple:

• 2 cups high-quality apple cider 
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (divided)
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. allspice
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

The recipe advises using a heavy pot (like a Dutch oven) but I don’t own one. My regular nonstick cookware worked fine, though I made sure to stir a lot to prevent scorching. You will need a candy thermometer—no getting around that one. 

1. Boil cider on high for about 20-30 minutes or until the cider is reduced to 1/3 c. Set aside to cool.
2. In a large saucepan or stock pot, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/3 c. whipping cream plus enough water to reach the 1/2 c. line on the measuring cup. Cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Then simmer until the syrup reaches 234 degrees (my candy thermometer labels this as “thread” stage).
3. While the sugar is cooking, combine the reduced cider with 2/3 c. cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
4. When the syrup reaches 234 degrees, remove from heat and slowly mix in the cider mixture. Cube and add the butter. Stir until the cream and butter are fully blended.
5. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until the temperature reaches 248 degrees (“firm ball” stage).
6. Line an 8” square pan with parchment paper or foil. Coat with a bit of cooking spray or vegetable oil. Pour the caramel into the pan. Cool in the fridge or on the counter.

I was a little intimidated by making candy just because I thought something would go wrong, especially when I didn’t use a Dutch oven. But this was really easy and has given me the confidence to try candy again sometime. Cooking did require 90 minutes of pretty much constant attention, but not much skill.

Slicing and wrapping is time-consuming, too! I chilled my pan in the fridge overnight so I had to let it soften up somewhat (but not too much) before slicing. (I should have waited a little longer to make uniform slices easier.) I recommend cutting up all of the papers beforehand so the caramels don’t get too soft while wrapping.

I wrapped each piece in waxed paper (which required larger pieces of paper than you would expect). It wasn’t bad once I got the hang of it.

Behold, a tasty pile of apple cider caramels! They were a hit with my family at Thanksgiving and I plan to make them again soon for the employee dessert contest at work. 

I recognize that I just showed off my pretty bathroom closet. However, I still believe that some decorating and organizing is just ridiculous. Pinterest has opened my eyes to this whole new world of decor and organization fetishizing that kind of cracks me up (when I’m not falling prey to it). 

Laundry rooms seem to be a hot Pinterest thing right now. I can get that having an attractive and functional laundry room makes laundry less awful. Sam and I agree that laundry is our least favorite chore. The laundry area in the basement is terribly dark, cold, and messy. I might hate laundry it a little less if it were on the main floor (we’ll never have room for that here) and not dungeon-like. But do I really need a laundry room like these?

May I never have the time and money to create a laundry room with granite countertops and cutesy appliances. And as much as I crave a window seat, I don’t know why I’d want it next to my washing machine.

We’ve only got three small closets in our house, so our bathroom closet holds a lot. And it had gotten just a little out of control…

Part of the problem is that the closet is really narrow, so getting things from the back of the shelf is a challenge. The shelves are so full that reaching for one thing inevitably knocks three others onto the floor where they get lost.

I tore into the closet this morning and pulled everything out. I got rid of a few items but mostly just organized. Once I filled the random bins and baskets already in there, I resorted to cardboard boxes.

Ugly, but an improvement. This closet is curtained so it’s not like people see it unless they snoop (who doesn’t?). I wanted to do a little better, though, especially since the curtain is open a lot just because we’re always grabbing something or the other.

If this were Better Homes and Gardens or Martha Stewart Living this would result in a beautiful $100 makeover. I, however, work at a homeless shelter, not a shelter magazine, so I wasn’t about to put that much money into a bathroom closet. The Dollar Tree was a little more within my target budget.

$10.73 later, everything is sorted and much easier to access. Because our stuff is contained in bins it won’t constantly fall and spill.

I especially like these new baskets for small towels and rags. Previously they all just sat in a pile slowly overtaking the limited floor space. Whenever we spilled and ran to grab a rag, we would dig though the pile and make even more of a mess. Now one basket is for rags and the other for washcloths, kitchen towels, etc. We considered adding hooks for the mop, broom, and ironing board but they’re okay on the floor if we keep things cleaner in there.

My hope is that with the closet functional and attractive, we’ll put more effort into keeping it that way. If I can easily find a Band-Aid the next time I need one, I’ll consider this a good $11 investment. (All of you bathroom snoops out there please pretend to be impressed the next time you come over.) Now if only our other two closets were this pretty…

I can’t believe I just wrote that much about a bathroom closet. Who do I think I am, Young House Love?

I’ll confess that we didn’t finish the porch today. We decided to wait until the end of the week when it will be warmer and we’ll have plenty of time off. So the bathroom will have to be your excitement for the day.

I like Minnesota’s seasons best when I embrace them and try to live in seasonal rhythms. Our fall has been long and beautiful; I’ve tried to take full advantage of it. I did many miles of hiking (much more than I did all summer), enjoyed one last bonfire with friends, cooked hearty comfort foods, and tried to appreciate the natural beginnings and ends of autumn. Fall also means putting away a lot of things for the season. I cleaned and packed all of my camping gear (though I do plan to try winter camping this year)…

… put away the garden …

… and cleaned up the yard.

But one thing hasn’t gotten done yet: the porch, of course. Our first snowfall came today, oddly late but still too early for me to finish my painting.

I am dead set on finishing this danged porch that I’ve been working on since July or so. If I wait until spring I have to look at my half-done project all winter and by spring acceptance will set in. I’ve got more determination now than I ever will again about this.

So as the first snow blew in this evening (literally inside the porch around our janky crooked old windows), I threw some long underwear under my paintin’ clothes and set out to finish the last coat of trim paint.

With space heaters going and the door to the living room open, the porch eventually got quite warm, definitely enough to let the paint dry properly. We have decided that we’ll leave the heaters out there all winter (they would just be in the garage otherwise). If we turn them on and curl up in a sleeping bag the porch will be a nice place to watch a pretty snowfall.

The painting is finally alllll done! It only took me, oh, two months. My paint job won’t win any awards for perfection by any means, but the porch is such a huge improvement over what it used to be. Tomorrow will be the final day of work. Sam is going to razor all of the paint off the windows (we purposely painted right onto the glass on the upper panes to add just a bit of sealing to the ancient frames) and then we’ll lay the carpet together. After that I definitely need to clean the windows and the metal frames the best I can and then just arrange the furniture. So excited.