Tour de downstairs bathroom

After Sean's parents helped us tackle the kitchen, den and dining room, I was mentally (and fiscally) spent and couldn't really get inspired to work on any new rooms. Last weekend I "got my groove back" and painted a second hutch that I purchased at salvation army (same time as the green one) for the dining room. pictures will be posted soon.

This bathroom was particularly difficult to tackle for 2 reasons 1) the peach toilet, sink and tiles 2) the psychadelic orange and and metallic silver flowered wallpaper.

I was kind of stumped about where to start until i got a phone call suggesting that my "sanctuary" green might fit the bill. Initially I imagined myself spending hours pouring over fabric section at JoAnn's to find the perfect paisley or striped combination of peach and green to make new curtains and tie it all together. But as the green went up on the walls things just started to fall into place.

You see, I had this picture just sitting up stairs waiting to find a home. Sean took me to a "starving artist" sale (held in a hotel lobby, classy indeed) a few months ago hoping we could pick up some decent looking art at a reasonable price. And we did!

Anyway, once i put that up, the old orange curtains went from looking dowdy and dated to kind of sassy and fun. Total cost of renovation so far $0 (Green paint was leftover from the hutch, curtains came with the house, and I had the painting in the upstairs closet!)

In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that i did pay $70 at Lowes (plus a coupon for 10% off) for a new mirror. I kind of lucked out on this one because I REALLY would have bought a less expensive less ornate mirror but the space was really narrow and this was the only one I could find at Lowes that fit the space. Score for pretty.

 

I didn't get a picture of the old mirror in place, but I did take one of it on the counter. Its actually not a terrible mirror, but its too gold and too small (even for this small bathroom). When I stood in front of the sink I could see my neck and chin and thats about it. I think I can take it apart and paint it black or something cool to update it.

At this point I had the major elements covered, but the wallpaper actually REFUSED to come off the wall so I just painted over it... I ended up having to putty some ares where the wallpaper was loose, which didn't look that great, and once the geren was up you could see every imperfection in the wall behind the wallpaper. It kind of looked like a disaster (this is actually what made me go look through our pictures and find that painting).

So then I moved on to covering the rest of the major flaws. I had taken a shelf (gold bars with a smoky gray glass) down from above the toilet and done a poor job patching the holes so I wanted to replace it with something more modern. I agonized over the options at home depot while talking on the phone with my mom, only to come home with my white floating shelf and find out that even though it technically fit it was really too big for the space. SOOOO as i stopped in the upstairs bath to stick something in there, I found what turned out to be the perfect shelf to cover my ugly patch marks.

The flower pot and red and orange gerbers are from JoAnn's thanks to a Christmas giftcard (total $18). I also picked up 3 orange hand towels from Kmart for $4.99 a piece. The monkeys we already had (and Sean has informed me they cannot stay there long term)

I also got an $8 towel ring (yep to cover more issues with the walls) and am here to tell you that all towel rings are NOT created equal and it might be worth your time to and money to buy the $15 version instead of the $8 one!

 And I leave you all with a short novel about my bathroom (pretty sad huh) and plea to help me find more of this light switch plate. The house came with 4 (I pilfered this one from the upstairs bathroom) and I love them, just wish we had more!

I wanted a St.Patricks Day background...

But I've never taken pictures of my shamrock cookies. So I decided to go with a general spring/easter background which will technically last longer anyway. In honor of the Irish holiday which is quickly approaching I feel this post is appropriate.

This is somewhat of a passion of mine (on behalf of Sean because if I'm honest I probably prefer the Bailey's verson). I cannot tell you how many restaurants we've been to where Sean has ordered an Irish Coffee and recieved a beverage no where NEAR what it should have been. In the worst case, a coffee with Baileys Irish Cream comes out (WRONG), sometimes though a coffee with Jameson (or so we can only hope), canned whipped cream and some sort of green minty slime on top (FAIL) comes out. Certainly I understand in College Station, TX you might not expect a proper Irish Coffee to be in every bartenders repertoire, for the most part the bartenders are college students, and well Texas isnt generally known as a strong Irish enclave. Ok so we deal with it.

BUT now we live literally minutes from Philadelphia (known for large concentrations of proud Irish families). A few weeks ago I headed into the city to meet Sean for dinner on a Friday night. After a decent but not really memorable meal in a hip center city eatery, Sean ordered himself an Irish Coffee and our waiter said..... "So, do you want a coffe with Bailey's or with Jameson?" To which Sean of course said Jameson, but what we both wanted to say was... NEITHER he ordered an Irish Coffee!

This recipe is reportedly from the restaurant that invented the Irish Coffee  (in California not Ireland, I know) which I reasearched several years ago when I gave Sean a set of crystal Irish Coffee mugs for his birthday.

Admittedly, I have not researched the importance behind the shape of an Irish Coffee glass, I just think these are pretty. An otherwise properly prepared Irish Coffee in a "standard" glass is perfectly acceptable :).

First you want to start with a jigger (used a shot glass) of Irish Whiskey in your mug.

Then fill your mug to aproximately 3/4 full with a bold (unflavored) coffee.

The original recipe calls for 3 cocktail sugar cubes (which is 3 teaspoons) but I generally add a heaping teaspoon full because Sean doesn't really like it that sweet and stir until its disolved.

To finish it off top with lightly whipped cream. For this, just take a small amount of heavy whipping cream and use a fork or a whisk (or an electric mixer with one "leg" attached) and whip the cream until frothy, but not stiff. Then gently pour the cream over the top of an upside down spoon so the cream settles on top of the coffee but does not fall through.

And voila, you have a proper, potent and pretty Irish Coffee.

The New and Improved Flourblossoms Kitchen!

Well, its blizzarding outside right now, adding an additional 15 inches to the 25 we got on Sat! Fortunately, Sean's parents made it in Thursday before the snow started falling, and we've been hard it work pulling down wallpaper, sanding, painting, installing baseboards, changing light fixtures and putting in a new kitchen faucet.  Its been the perfect weather to get lots of home improvements taken care of, and the kitchen is overwhelmingly improved but I don't think its coming across as well as I'd like in the pictures!

I tried to do this from as close to the same angle as possible...

Yes this is actually the same part of the kitchen. I haven't actually loaded up that hutch yet, but I bought it at salvation army and painted it green. I kind of love it. We also pulled down the black rubber baseboards, put in wood ones, and took out the hanging light fixture and just put a cap on the ceiling right there.

Paint is really the only change here, but before we painted (Behr "dried plaintain") I was convinced I was going to paint the cabinets the same green as the hutch. I've decided maybe they aren't SO bad now and will leave them as is at least for a while.

And this I just had to change because I missed having a sprayer, and the other one was so low over the sink that if you had something in there it was almost entirely impossible to fill anything else up.

I've got more Monkeys up my sleve.

This is seriously one of my all time favorite recipes! (I say that a lot, am reflecting on WHY we need to diet!) And since we are on a diet program that graciously includes a day off to eat whatever you want, WE DO, and we've recently started having this delightful delicacy EVERY Saturday morning. We used to treck out to duncan donuts on Sat. mornings but honestly we're really too lazy to keep that up, and the donut quality is not really that stellar anyway.

So back to the recipe, well almost... I need to mention, now, that its Wed. and we officially only have 3 more "sleeps" (nights, if you don't speak baby talk) in the apartment. I am so excited about moving and getting started on the rennovations that I can't sleep at night and can't sit still during the day. Today, however, I have an excellent diversion. My boss (my brother) sent me to DC for a workshop on SmartGrid and the internet (yeah I know you are jealous) and I'm writing this post from a Starbucks in Bethesda while I kill time and plan my attack of parking and public transit to get me to said conference on the NIH campus. After the workshop Sean is taking the train from Philly to DC (I still think the public transport up here is really cool!) and we're having dinner with his grandfather before we turn around and drive back to Delaware. I THINK I might actually sleep well tonight!

So seriously, this is the kind of recipe thats great for a lazy Saturday, or if you have guests over for the weekend and has been featured at many a Collins family Christmas breakfast. You actually put the ingredients together the night before and just pop it in the oven the next morning about 20-30 minutes before you are ready to eat.

MONKEY BREAD:
18-14 Frozen Yeast Rolls (Kroger has their own brand if you are in TX and up here I get Bridgeford Rolls)
1-2T Cinnamon
1 pkg. Cook and Serve Vanilla pudding
1 Stick Melted Butter
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1) Place frozen yeast rolls in a zip lock bag with cinnamon and shake to coat. (Some recipes call for the enitre package of frozen yeast rolls, I don't think this works quite as well. I try to make a layer of 1 -2 frozen rolls of the bottom of the pan)
2) Pour cinnamon-y rolls into a bundt or tube pan.
3) Dump contents of pudding packet evenly over rolls, do the same with the brown sugar and then the melted butter. Your pan should look something like this.

4) Cover your pan with a towel and let rise overnight (while you sleep!)

Your rolls should double in size and be approaching, if not puffed over the edge of your pan by morning.

 5) In the morning, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and then bake Monkey Bread for 20 - 30 minutes until tops of the rolls are golden brown. (I highly reccomend setting your bundt ban on a larger cookie sheet for baking as they can sometimes bubble over creating a difficult mess to clean in the bottom of your oven!)
6) Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges of the pan and then invert onto your baking sheet.

All the pudding, butter, and brown sugar bakes into a delicious carmel like sauce and you have fun pull apart rolls to serve. AWESOME!

Savory or Sweet?

I really started this blog as a place to show my decorated sugar cookies, to show the steps and the variations etc that having a plain website didn't let me show. I've, obviously, since decided that its OK to sneak in a few lot of other dessert recipes, and more recently, a cocktail. I've been debating for a while now whether or not I should post a savory recipe here and there. Its seems just plain wrong because the theme has always been sweet, but seriously people I'm on a diet so I don't cook as much dessert as I used to, and I DO have a few savory and dare I say low-cal recipes that Sean and I enjoy. So I've decided I'd leave it up to you, my faithful readers and commenters, to let me know if you want to see copious pictures of the savory dishes that occasionally come out of the Flour Blossoms kitchen.

I even considered starting a "Savory Saturday" special entry, kind of like cakewrecks does with "Sunday Sweets" but lets face it, I am NOT that consistent, and I HATE schedules.  Its just never going to happen that way with me.  But if you guys/gals are interested, I'll photograph and post our favorite savory meals on occasion.

Also in the near future look for installments of the NEW! Flour Blossoms kitchen remodel. We move in HERE:

In less than 2 weeks, and I have a detilaed plan for a $500 (kitchen) makeover to start IMMEDIATELY upon taking posession of the house. And, well, sweet readers, you're going to see it whether you want to or not!

THIS is the current Kitchen wallpaper. FAIL!

I'm feeling a little pink these days... (just the pink background. thats all!)

And want to share another Kay recipe... This one is really a Kay and Sean recipe, which they perfected over Christmas at my request. You see, in our house, there only one type of liquer purchased with any regularity, and for that matter only one brand... Beefeater Gin. Sean and I both enjoy Gin and Tonics, and generally dislike other varieties of liquer. I, however, can tolerate a little bit of vodka or tequila because I am more than willing to mix them with something sweet and fruity (Sean not so much). But at Christmas this year, a new cocktail was introduced into my repertoire that harkens back to the late 90's and sex and the city, but tastes all the better for actually being a GIN Cosmo.

This one is particularly pink because I used Cran-Pommegranite juice instead of straight cranberry.

2 ounces cranberry juice 

1½ ounces gin
½ ounce cointreau
¼ ounce Roses Sweetened lime juice (because I have cranberry juice cocktail I use fresh lime juice)

Each one is unique...

Snowflakes and fingerprints that is. Today we woke up to another snowy morning, and last night I made a double batch of Thumbprint (my new favorite) Cookies for Sean to take to the office. SO June Cleaver of me! I was suffering from a serious need to bake yesterday and thankfully Sean's mom sent me this recipe on Monday morning.

This is seriously a great, melt in your mouth, super simple cookie recipe. Chances are you probably have all the ingredients on hand. I, of course, did not and had to make an emergency trip to the store for powdered sugar. I hear it was all worth it though... Husband says "They are more popular than a guy that just won the lottery." I think thats high praise!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix: I mixed the whole thing by hand.
½ cup butter
½ cup margarine (Didn't have this so I used butter)
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 egg yolks (reserve whites)
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix in:
2 cups flour
½ tsp. salt

Chill the dough before rolling into SMALL balls. I stuck the dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes before making it into balls. You have to make them pretty small, I got them 5x6 on a standard cookie sheet. I doubled the recipe and got 4 cookie sheets like that. (A LOT OF COOKIES)

Use the remaining egg whites to dip your finger in and make a depression (thumbprint) in the middle of each ball. Its OK to go a little bit deep because they will puff up when they bake. I had to re-dip in egg whites each time to keep my fingers from sticking to the dough.

Bake for 6-8 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet until they firm up or are slightly brown around the edges.

While the cookies are cooling make a simple icing with butter, milk and powdered sugar. I tried to measure to give you a start, but its one of those things you're probably going to have to feel. It should set up but not get super hard in about an hour.

I used 2Tbls. butter, 1 1/2 Tbls. Milk, a splash of vanilla, and 3/4 cup of powdered sugar. My butter was cold in the fridge so I put the milk and butter in the microwave for a few to soften it up. I think I ended up using more powdered sugar than I might have needed. because I ended up totally melting the butter.
For Sean's office, I did just plain white, and sprayed them with silver luster dust (in honor of the snow and new years) Photo taken prior to spraying with luster dust.
 

For Christmas, Sean's mom tinted it pink and green, but you can make it any color you like, of course. Since the white is kind of boring, I did three shades of green/teal for Sean and I to devour this weekend. I hear they also freeze really well, but I am pretty sure we will not be testing that theory with the cookies at our house.

This Recipe is courtesy of Sean's mom, my mother-in-law, Kay Collins and her mother, "Grandma Marie" (who I was never fortunate enough to meet.)  I have a few other Kay recipes I need to post here too, but this is a great one to start with!