Disappointment With A Slice Of Life

This years vegetable garden is a bust. Except for my potato plants which are thriving. We feel lucky to even have these at all. Managing properties takes a lot of time, and work. Just showing a house takes a lot of time. I once told myself that being a landlord/property manager would be cake...true, but it's time consuming cake. So anyways, the time spent this spring and summer so far is time away from my garden. And sadly, it shows. I haven't even had time to weed. Now if it would stop raining, I might just get on that.

Even my other projects are being neglected. I bought this dresser and have been sanding it down to bring out the beautiful wood, and it too, is sitting. Partially sanded.

On top of all that, my husband was really sick for a few days and so I spent my days trying to keep the girls away from him so he could sleep well. I baked, and cleaned the house, all while it rained outside. I was also really bad at getting any pictures. Oops!

I had my birthday last week and I got a cool new Kindle! I love it! Over a month ago, my husband told me I couldn't order anymore books, and I was confused and thought maybe I was spending too much. Now I know why. It will hold thousands of books, it's lightweight, it has access to games, magazines, newspapers all over the world and so much more. The books that you buy in the Kindle store are way way cheaper. A book I almost spend $19 on, cost me $4.68. Awesome!

Aside from "sick cooking" like making soups etc; I made some dinners that didn't turn out so well. Once I made Gorgonzola Linguine with walnuts. Made it before but this time I added way too much Gorgonzola. It was very overpowering. I also made sort of a shrimp scampi served over rice. I put too much lemon in with the shrimp, and I didn't cook my rice properly. In fact, I made the wrong kind of rice alltogether. Needless to say, I didn't cook the next day. I'm hoping I can get back on track to edible and tasty foods this morning. I plan on making a giant breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and cake pancakes.

Meanwhile, my daughter turns into a cat all too frequently, and I have been forced to learn the language.

Cakes

Check this book out!

Peonies

My Peonies are in bloom.

A Happy Fathers Day

New York steak with Stout Pan Sauce. First, you rub them with grey poupon, salt and pepper. Then you fry them in a bit of oil. I cooked them for 8 minutes total to make medium rare.

I made an egg bread loaf.

More cooking.

Getting ready to make my stout pan sauce. I'm sad I was too busy to take a picture of that, but it was a nice, rich and flavorful sauce that you drizzle over the steak. It also went good with the potatoes.

Apple Cobbler with White Miso Streussel - served warm and with a scoop of simple vanilla ice cream. It was seriously rich and nobody could fininsh the pieces I cut.

All in all, Marks special Fathers Day dinner was a success. I spend probably 80% of my day in the kitchen doing something. The mess in the end was aweful but he was full and so I was happy.

Catch Up - With Cake!

Ready? Set...GO!! 9am...Eggs seperated and "warmed", butter is soft, cream cheese is soft, and I am ready.

Perfectly sifted cake flour. This is my first time using cake flour - not sure yet what the difference is.

Carefully folding in stiff egg whites. I'm familiar with this b/c I do it with German Chocolate. But for this recipe the egg whites required a bit more. I added sugar in them, as well as cream of tartar which is suppose to help keep the form of the whites. Apparently, this step is easily ruined by overmixing so I had to be very careful of my timing and mixing. No pressure.

And to think I almost didn't get a picture of it finished. I was happy with the overall taste of it, but being my own worst critic, I noticed a bit of dryness. I did have to refridgerate the cake because of the cream cheese frosting and I don't know how I would get around that. Also, the recipe didn't make a lot of batter and the layers ended up being very thin. If I make this for Isabels 1st birthday cake, I will need to quad the recipe. Maybe if I wait until last minute to frost the cake so the cake dosen't spend as much time in the fridge, will that help cut out the dryness?

Dead Batteries...Again

I started to take pictures of what's been going on here. I got 2 unfocused pictures of my special flower for my Ms. Bel. "Isabella Rosella" It's beautiful! The hummingbirds can't get enough of it. I also found some watermelon, corn, potatoes and 1 sunflower. Without pictures, this is no fun. I'll be back.

Apple Oven Pancakes & Salmon Dinner

This was a treat. I made oven pancakes for breakfast, the apple version. You heat the butter in a glass dish in the oven. Take it out, sprinkle brown sugar and cinammon, top with sliced and peeled apples.

Then you pour your batter on top. Don't mix. Bake for 33 minutes.

Yummy! I put syrup on the table just in case it came out bland...not necessary. It was a tasty treat. Not bland by any means, but perfectly sweet. It dosent make very much, and I doubled the recipe as is. For 2 adults and 2 kids, I would triple it. Definitly one for the box.

Fresh green salad topped with feta.

Cheddar, garlic, parsely and pepper filled biscuits.

My own mix of wild rice. I used all the pure wild rice that I bought at the Food Co-Op...it sure was good!

The King. Salmon that is. My husband grilled this and it was delish! My Bel sure loves Salmon, she ate it up so quickly!

I made myself an apron for an early birthday present to myself. I enjoyed wearing it today while I cooked and baked. It has all the little features I've always wanted in an apron. It's loose and comfy but also tight enough to not get caught on anything. I also finished the one for a friend, but what I found for her is a big secret so I won't put up a picture yet. I'll post one later of my own.

Enough said, goodnight!

Dear PETA...

How do you compile a grocery list? I grab a few cookbooks, my recipe box, and a list of things I've made in the past or I want to make.
Dear PETA, this is how you filet a fish after you've pulled it out of a raging river with a sharp hook

...then you flip it over, and continue the process. Then when you're husband gets home from yet another fishing trip, you BBQ and consume.

Love, The Johnson Family

It's All In The Cornbread

Putting the wet ingredients into the well made of dry ingredients. Who needs to measure the honey, free poor it!

And we have honey cornbread folks! A pot of chili must always be accompanied with cornbread. Anybody can make a pot of chili, but it's all in the cornbread. That said, I think I need to eat some leftovers.

Wild Rice And Cod With Tomatoes

My mix of long grain rice and wild rice. Getting ready to make a simple rice pilaf.

Frying (slowly and on low heat) cod seasoned with salt and pepper. If you fry a fish such as cod - you want to put the fish in the pan when it's still cold. This will prevent the ends from curling up. Start the fish on very low heat for about 2 minutes, then bring it up to medium heat. This method works best when there is skin on the fish. I used skinless, but always a good tip to keep in mind. Salmon fishing just started and I expect fresh salmon on my table in the next few weeks. Skin on.

Sauteed quartered cherry tomatoes, fresh scallions, a dash of white wine vinegar, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Once that is done, you then add fresh cilantro and thyme sprigs. I was out of good thyme sprigs so I used dried thyme.

A healty dinner served, Chef Ramsay style. I baked a loaf of egg bread and sliced some for dinner as well. I enjoyed this dinner, with some reservations. The way Gordon Ramsay writes out his recipes, dosen't always include a measurment. So I'm not sure what a "splash" is to him, but I did my "splash" and felt it was just a tiny bit too much. Next time - less white wine vinegar, more powdered sugar.

The wild rice pilaf was good! Again, with reservations. The long grain cooked well, and the wild rice was probably 30 seconds away from being fully cooked. I've read that soaking rices like this would be beneficial as to ensure that all the rice is cooked properly. The flavoring was awesome and we still gobbled it all up. Aww, life's little lessons.

Bread For The Soul.

I have been stressed out. I haven't had a single day where I have had nothing to do. No leasure time with my family at all. So after spending almost a month trying to identify where all my stress and irritability was coming from, I've finally found it.

I also think that it's the cause of my lack of motivation for doing things around the house. All I dream about these days is bedtime and for elves to clean my house and do the laundry. Well I'm done with this feeling, I think it's pathetic. It's still an uphill battle, but I believe I have the advantage. It may have kicked me while I was down, but no bones were broken so time to kick it's ass.

I started fixing myself last night. I did a workout routine and have set things up for myself so that I have ZERO excuse to not do it at least 5 days a week. I'll take 2 days off - Wednesday and Thursday (my husbands days off). I already feel good about it although I am soar today .

This morning, I did what I always find to be therapeutic, whether or not I need it to be. I made bread. Egg bread. I wasn't in the mood to go buy bread at the store so I did it myself instead. If it wasn't for Mia liking that bread for her PB&J's, I probably wouldn't buy bread at all. She will just have to adjust.

I also got a descent handle on the starting of my vegetable garden and I'm hoping that if I can stop Mia from making mud pies in that area, and keep up with the weeding, that will be an accompishment for me as well.

So in the beginning of the end, I can already say that I have won. Now, to schedule a massage and do some research for my next dinner party - I will be doing a Classic French dessert and the possibilities seem endless, so this should be fun. Can't wait!

Rest Of Kitchen And Laundry Room

KITCHEN STOVE AREA BEFORE

..couldn't really do much here but paint and add new handles.

..all done.

...another little area of the kitchen. Just paint really, and new electrical outlets, new doorbell, and love.



LAUNDRY ROOM/BACK ENTRY BEFORE.

LAUNDRY ROOM/BACK ENTRY AFTER

..new blinds, no more green wallpaper, new outlets, some major scrubbing, new trim, and more love.

Front Bedroom - Finished!

FRONT BEDROOM - BEFORE

..dark, dank, more than outdated.
...more dark, dank and dirty stuff.

...the original closet (the other one is an addition from the 80's) the accordian door was more than broken.

...ugh.

...randomness, pointless, time to say goodbye!



FRONT BEDROOM - AFTER

...view into living room.

...the busy back corner, not so busy anymore. Fresh paint ceiling to floor, refinished floors, new trim, new accordian door. This room was actually pretty easy. No major ordeals here.

...I know it's dark, but you get the idea.

Lasagna And Bread

One word - dinner! I made a loaf of egg bread and lasagna. I spent a total of 4 hours on this dinner. Enough said.

Dining/Living Room Finished

DINING ROOM - BEFORE

...again, why didn't I take pictures of every single thing? In one of the corners of the dining room, there was this hanging lamp thing that was probably 40 years old. It was rusted, broken, and had been "rigged" to work with what looked like a cell phone charger...I was almost scared to touch it.
...unbeknownst to us, there were 2 carpets that lie here. Also, roman blinds so poorly taken care of and in bad shape that when I tried to roll them up, they crumbled in my hand where I touched them, paneling and old yellow paint.

LIVING/DINING DURING RENOVATIONS

...after finding the second carpet and the jewel below that, we stared at this well put on carpet padding for a short while. It was a huge challenge to us and many, many, many hours were spent on hands and knees scraping off inch by inch.

..everytime I saw another foot of this beautiful hard floor, I got real excited. We had planned on laying all new floors, and in the end I was glad we didn't need to. Once we got this floor sanded, it was in perfect shape. Not a single thing wrong with it. Couldn't believe it. I think it's my favorite part of the house.

...primered and ready for paint. At this point, we had gotten almost all the blue stuff off the floor. The last bit that you can kinda see in this photo was the most difficult spot. It seemed to be 3x as hard as the rest because it was a high traffic area.

..primered, except the off white dirty looking windows.

DINING/LIVING ROOM AFTER

...fresh paint ceiling to trim, all new electrical outlets - that was a nightmare! Completly refinished hard floors - my guess is that these were installed in either the 30's or 40's. They were not original to the building of the house. The original floors weren't finished wood, it was wood that was put down and then painted over (as I understand they did that in the old days). We had that in the second bedroom which is why we had to put new flooring in there.

...ahh, the wood burning stove ordeal. I didn't want this thing back in. I wanted it gone. It takes up way too much space in an already small house, and renters don't use wood burning stoves. They use the electric heat. After much debate, I lost. So we put it back in and made it as pretty as we could.

...rest of the living room. Also, this part of the house gets south sun, so when the sun is out, the house is really alive. It's awesome!

...this room got a new ceiling fan as well as the usual - paint from ceiling to trim, floors, new electrical - again, what a nightmare!