Five Things I Love This Week

Well, we made it to Friday.  I always feel a sense of accomplishment when Friday comes.  Five days of waking up at 6:00 AM, five bike rides to work (five rides home but they don't count because I always have a tailwind and birds singing in my ear on the ride home), five lunches packed and five dinners made.  Yes, Friday is an accomplishment.  To celebrate, I bring you "Five Things I Love This Week".

• Bicycle Oven Mitt.  Keeping with the kitchen/food/drink fascination I've been on, I found this oven mitt to blend several of my favorite things.

• Handmade Bread Knife.  Yep, still on the food obsession.  I can almost call myself an experienced bread maker, having recently completed three loafs!  Read about my experience here, here, and here.  This knife looks beautiful and functional, the best of both worlds in my opinion.

• Linen Apron.  One thing about bread making you can count on, you will get flour all over yourself.  Enter this beautiful linen apron.

• Hand Loomed Bath Towel.  Now this is just a splurge.  I love hand loomed towels but I've only splurged enough to buy hand towels.  Would love to one day have one or two of these.  Perhaps I need a loom....

• Himalayan Salt Bar Goat Milk Soap.  This artisan soap smells like a lemon tree and is a natural, moisturizing way to bring luxury to your bath, especially if you can't afford hand loomed bath towels! 

Did I Really Bring That Home?!

Back when the weather was nice (doesn't that seem like ages ago!) I picked this up on the curb along with this swing arm vanity.  As is quite obvious, this little trunk was very dirty.

It sat in my work room all Fall while I worked up the courage to even clean it!  But clean it I did and then the possibilities for it became more obvious.

Honestly though, it's hard to beat a trunk for a purposeful piece of furniture.  It could be used for a toy chest, foot stool, bench, laundry basket, the possibilities are endless.




Painting the trunk was an obvious next step as it was already painted and not some fine piece of wood furniture. I used milk paint to paint it.
This color is Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (Boxwood)

I lined the bottom of it with contact paper and then it sat for several more weeks as the holidays came and went.

I knew I wanted to upholster the top of it so it could be used as a bench/foot stool.  I had a hard time deciding what to upholster it with though.






I finally decided on 40" Wide X 2 Yard Long Natural Burlap  This burlap was a great price and I'm very pleased with the quality and looks of it.

I also purchased some new hinges because the old ones really weren't strong enough to move the lid up and down.

With everything now in hand, I went about upholstering the top of the trunk. 

And then reassembling it. Here's a look from the back. 

Here's another before....

....and a couple after pictures! 

Yes I did bring it home and I'm glad I did!

 

Peppermint Ice Goat Milk Soap

I have a new soap on the curing rack right now.  Peppermint Ice is made with all the quality ingredients all Lora's Beauty soaps have; olive oil, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and goat milk.  Included in this one is a dash of Himalayan Pink Salt, Pink Brazilian Clay, and Peppermint Essential Oil.

This is one bar of soap that will wake you up in the morning and leave your skin tingling and fresh!

Pink Himalayan Salt is embedded in the bottom of each 5 oz bar.  This exotic salt is not only beautiful but is very nourishing to your skin, leaving it clean, smooth, and soft.

Pink Brazilian Clay tops the bar of soap.  It is wonderful at cleansing and detoxifying the skin.  This clay is all natural with no artificial dyes.

Peppermint Essential Oil provides an all natural scent that is not only refreshing to smell but will literally leave your skin tingling and brighter!

Peppermint Ice Goat Milk Soap available at Lora's Beauty soon!

Italian Bread

Another weekend and another bread making (and soap making) undertaking!  Man, my full-time day job is seriously getting in the way of my life!

This weekend I picked another recipe in my Christmas gift bread book.

I started with making my biga (bread starter) Saturday evening.  Sunday morning I used the biga and made dough for two Italian loafs.

After a couple hours of rising, you can see how nice the dough was.








I separated the dough into two pieces and formed a batard, a shape similar to a baguette but slightly shorter.

Another hour of rising and the dough is ready to bake.  I used my Emile Henry Rectangular Baking Stone, Black
again and steamed the oven by pouring a cup of steam in a hot cast iron pan and every 30 seconds opening the oven to spray water against the sides for 3 times.

I believe these loaves are my best yet!  I got the nice air pockets in them and they taste divine!

Homemade Pizza

I'm pretty open minded, but for as long as I can remember there are a few foods that I've always felt were better made at a restaurant and not homemade.  I've always put pizza in that camp, so I never really made homemade pizza.  I ate it, but it was made by someone else.

I then started buying those ready-made crusts, like Boboli.  I'd add cheese and pepperoni and call it pizza.  It was convenient.  A couple years ago I noticed the grocery store was actually selling pizza dough in the refrigerated section.  I bought that and added cheese and pepperoni.  It was an improvement over the ready-made crust.

After a year or more of buying the pizza dough, it dawned on me just how easy it would be to make it myself.  Problem is, I didn't want to have to wait for dough to rise when I wanted pizza.  You know the feeling I'm sure.  When you want pizza, you NEED pizza SOON!  That's when I decided to consult the internet and see if I could freeze pizza dough.  Much to my amazement (there is yeast in it and yeast is alive, afterall) you could!

Armed with my new found knowledge, I went to Amazon and purchased a dough hook for my Kitchen Aid mixer:



You can find the recipe I use here.  I usually double it and get three large sized pizzas.

I simply pull the dough out of the freezer the night before.  Once thawed,  gently pull the dough on the edge and turn it clockwise to shape it.

I've found this AirBake Nonstick Pizza Pan, 15.75 in

to work great for baking. 

Add your favorite toppings (pepperoni, of course) and bake at 420 degrees for about 22 minutes.

I'm still a huge fan of pizza made at a restaurant (preferably with a wood burning stove!) but this sure is a close second!

Yum!

Can I Reupholster? Kinda...

Another long weekend project wrapped up!  This one I started a while ago and what a pain in the, well you know.

As per usual, I didn't get a good before picture, but I have a picture and it has a back story!  I've had this dressing chair (is that a thing?) for 20 some years now.  It's original upholstery was in pretty bad shape so I had a slipcover made for it.  This worked good for many years but then I started reading blogs about how easy it was to reupholster furniture and I got the itch to try it myself.  I decided this chair would be the perfect piece to practice on, if it didn't work out, I still had a slipcover for it so no harm!

Funny thing happened as I started to take the old upholstery apart; my 21 year old son panicked!  "What are you doing to that chair?", he asked.  "You're not planning on selling it are you? (I was.)  "That was my timeout chair!"

And so it was!  In fact, that's the only before picture I have of the chair; with my son sitting in it in timeout!  I don't remember why he was in timeout but he doesn't look too distressed about it.  Isn't he just the cuuuutest ever!?
Needless to say, I won't be selling this piece.

Taking all the tacks and staples out was the real pain in the butt.  Once that was completed, the reupholstering of it really wasn't that hard.  There are plenty of videos out there to walk you through it if you're interested because, alas, I didn't get many (none) pictures of it.

I did get some after photos though!

I painted the legs with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (Shutter Gray)

I purchased Navy Blue Bull Denim Fabric - by the Yard

for the fabric and Wrights 183 9001-29A Cotton Piping, 50-Yard, 1/4-Inch, Naturalto use as the piping.

Not too bad for a first time, in my opinion.  Like I said though, I still have the slipcover!

Dutch Oven Homemade Bread

I made more homemade bread this weekend.  This time I baked it in a dutch oven.  Without further ado,  here's where you can get the recipe:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread

And here are the pictures!

Baking it in the dutch oven creates a wonderful crisp and golden brown crust.

Inside, the bread is airy and delicious!
Add a little butter and....heaven.