Plum Bread

We got some plums recently from the CSA, but after eating one, they weren't quite as good as the first batch we got. I wasn't too interested in just eating them plain so I searched for "plum recipes". I came across this plum bread and figured I might as well try it. Otherwise the plums would just go to waste

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/My-Mother-in-Laws-Plum-Bread/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

Turned out pretty darn well. The plums weren't that good by themselves, but when mixed with the bread, they seemed sweeter. It's definitely a recipe that could work for other berries too. We have a raspberry bush next to the house, but rarely get more than a handful of ripe berries at one time. But if we did get a cup's worth, maybe I'll try them out in this bread. And who knows what sorts of berries will show up in our next basket.

Bathrooms are Done!

Aside from a door stopper and possibly some paint or grout touchups, both bathrooms are done. The shower in the master bath was slightly sloped away from the drain in one corner, so there was some pooling and that was fixed today. The rest of the tub fixtures were installed and Jameson demanded an early tubby time to try out the new bathroom.

Piper is a fan of the new bathroom too. Here are the hooligans hanging out on the potty

Hall Bathroom: Day 4

Shower head is in. New light fixture is in. Mirror is back up. Some small things that you don't notice in pictures were done. We should be back to two full bathrooms upstairs tomorrow. Though I think Jameson will want to continue to shower in the master bathroom.

You can't tell from the picture, but it's nice to not have a dripping faucet.

Hall Bathroom: Day 3

Progress progresses. The floor and wall are grouted. The walls have been painted. The toilet and vanity have been put back in place. It looks wonderful. Not much more to say.

Hall Bathroom: Day 2

Work is coming along swimmingly. The floor tile is in. The wall tile is in. I like the color Jessica chose. Not as brown as the master (the photos are a little deceiving), but with a white tub, that makes sense. The decorative tile looks real nice.

Not sure if it's related, but Toby's having another allergic reaction. His face is all puffy again. Looks like another trip to the Vet is in store for Wednesday.

Hall Bathroom: Day 1

Now that the master bath is done, time to turn our attention to the hall bathroom. Andrew came by again to assist with the demo. Here's what we started with.

Even more dull than the master bath. The walls are even white. A few years back we did have the tile on the floor redone, but after a year or so the grout started falling out and a few tiles cracked. The new tile is similar to the master, so there should be a vast improvement.


First day of demo also included installing the new tub.

Not only will it look better, but the faucets in the sink and tub won't drip anymore!

Master Bathroom Nearly Done

The shower was grouted yesterday, but here's the first picture. The hardware was put in today so it's essentially finished.

Piper is checking out the grouted floor and finished shower. The walls were painted and the vanity and toilet were put back in place. All that is left is grouting the tile along the floor and maybe a little touch-up with the paint. Oh, we might need a bar for a shower curtain. Small details.

Bathrooms Day 3

The floor looks pretty marvelous, doesn't it?

The shower was grouted also, but I'm not entering the room right now even though the thinset is probably totally set. Better to be safe than sorry.

Tomorrow might be a painting day. We picked up the semi-gloss this morning. Things are really coming along.

Master Bathroom: Day 2

Work continued on the master bathroom. It's looking pretty marvelous. The shower is completely tiled and I really like the tile Jessica chose, especially the little accent tiles.

The vanity and toilet were removed temporarily to put in the new floor tile. The floor itself is pretty uneven, so that will need to be fixed first.

Brand New Bathrooms

Our bathrooms are pretty small. They're also kinda blah. While we can't make them any bigger, we can make them look better. Here's what we're starting with.

Plain white, old school tile. Ugly shower door (that's slightly askew so it doesn't close very well). I like the wall color, but that doesn't seem to show very well in these pictures.



So after the first day, the shower has been completely removed, as well as most of the tile. Just the part around the toilet remains to be removed.

Zucchini Bread x 3

We are now a part of a CSA (that delivers) and have received zucchini 3 times. Thus I have made 3 zucchini breads. The first was probably over baked a bit. It was also made from all whole wheat flour and upon reflection, the resulting batter wasn't as liquid as it should have been. It ended up much dryer than preferred.

The second batch had a random flour assortment. It was a little over 1/3rd whole wheat flour, a little under 1/3 all-purpose flour and the remainder bread flour. It still turned out tasty, but I should check my flour supply prior to grating the zucchini and cracking the eggs.

Today I made the third iteration. I used a 2/3rds 1/3rd whole wheat to all-purpose flour mix. The batter seemed fine, but I think the oven was a little hotter than 350. It's still good, but ever so slightly dry.

As an experiment I'm going to try using melted butter in place of the coconut oil the next time we're sent zucchini.

Cantaloupe Ice Cream

Once again, I used the recipe from Ben and Jerry's book. I liked the taste, but think I could have simply used the juice. The cantaloupe bits don't add much and freeze pretty hard. No picture as I made this over a month ago.

Rum Raisin

The rum raisin turned out pretty good. The little bit of rum keeps the ice cream from over-freezing. I am considering doing a batch without the rum or raisins as simply using some brown sugar and adding cinnamon is yummy in it's own right. Also, Jessica would like it better.

Furnishing has started

At long last we've found free time to start getting junk out of the garage and putting it in the basement. We actually started 3 weeks ago, but it was almost entirely stuff that ended up in the storage area. But now the poker table is in place.

Let the gaming begin.

Baked Apples with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

We had Lee and Molly over for dinner last night as a last minute event. This was a great opportunity to make something new. Jessica found a good baked apples recipe (http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/baked_apples/print/) and I made some homemade ice cream. It was a rousing success.

More Bread

We found a different bread recipe that we like better. It only makes one loaf, but it is a large loaf. Perhaps the fascination with homemade bread has passed since this loaf will last much longer than our first loaves did. Jameson is generally a good helper when Jessica makes it.

Back to Desserts

The basement is done... sorta. We still haven't found the time to go through all the junk in the garage, so the basement is pretty sparse. Most of the Christmas stuff is in the back storage space, but that's just about it. Hopefully we'll find some time soon and I'll post a final "furnished" post.

But for now, back to desserts. We started doing the "Real Food" thing where we try to cut out all overly processed foods. This includes hydrogenated oils, white flour and processed sugar. Prior to this, we had made cheesecakes for each other for special events. I found a recipe on 100 Days of Real Food (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2014/01/28/recipe-individual-cheesecakes/) for individual cheesecakes. It does have some white sugar, but not very much. I don't know if a good cheesecake can be made with just honey or maple syrup. I planned on making this for Valentine's Day, but some bad weather and having to work late cut into my free evening time.

Overall it tasted okay, but I didn't like the consistency. It wasn't quite firm enough for my cheesecake preferences.

Four were eaten before I thought to take a picture :)

Back to Food!

It wasn't a dessert, but we made some bread yesterday. It was pretty good.

Basement Renovation: Day 9

Carpet guy was here for only about 2 hours, but it looks great. Just a few paint touch ups and some finishing work on the recessed lighting and they're done.

Basement Renovation: Day 8

Thursday was an off-day for the renovation. The vinyl flooring guy wasn't available, so Day 8 is Friday. And what a day it was. They showed up a little early and apparently they brought extra help. The leveling started right away and I could hear the chipping and sanding. The liquid leveler was applied and apparently dries quicker than I expected. With the extra help they were able to finish the whole thing in one day. What a difference a nice floor makes.

Jameson enjoyed posing for the pictures. We finally let the cats down there again. They were all curious, even Samantha.

Basement Renovation: Day 7

Painting is done. It looks great down there. We asked if they could also replace the electrical and light switch plates. Those look nice. Tomorrow the flooring starts.

Blurry, but the bannister is painted white and looks a whole lot better.

More interior shots.

The only extra thing to do now is replace a few of the actual outlets that had been painted grey initially.

Basement Renovation: Day 6

Tomorrow should be the last day the painters are here. The vinyl flooring guy is scheduled for Thursday and Friday and the carpet guy will be here Saturday. It looks real nice down there now. So nice that the bannister and old outlets are looking out of place. We will be looking to fix that too.

The bannister is back up. From this picture you can't really get a taste of it's crumminess versus how nice the rest of the place is.

A little oops that needs to be fixed. This light switch was painted over so the light cannot go off.