After Hurricane Irene

We made it through with minimal damage.  Some large tree limbs, and we are going to have to take down the rest of the tree.  Some shingles.  That's about it.  No flood damage.  No windows or siding.  We didn't lose power.  We sure were protected!  Thank you, Jesus.

Hurricane Preparedness

So, after I remodeled my kitchen, we had a catastrophe. No, not the earthquake, it didn't cause any damage. No, not the hurricane, yet. We had a bad leak, caused by one of my wonderful, new LG appliances.  More on that later.

Meanwhile, pictures of the prep we are doing for Hurricane Irene.  (we are supposed to get hit starting tomorrow at noon.)

We started on the deck.  Cleared off all the plants, the table and chairs, the grill and toys.

Moved on to the hot tub.  We have a strap system set up, attached to the stakes you see.  We just took it apart so it can be used tonight before the storm.

See all the stuff in the garage?

We had to come up with a good plan for the chicken coop.  It's just a shed set on cinder blocks, a flying kite.  We didn't want to have to try to drag it and my chickens from the field on Sunday, so we anchored it.  Steel cable and huge spikes.  It's pretty strong, we hope.

My husband is so smart, look at the system he designed to tighten the straps.

We cleaned the gutters, yucky.  There were a few crepe myrtle branches hanging over the front, trimmed them off.

And, we removed all the hanging plants, potted plants, bird feeders and bird baths.

I picked all the ripe tomatoes and hope to either can or freeze them tomorrow.  And, I dug a few potatoes to have fried up for breakfast or something else delish.

So, we seem to be prepared.  What I'm mostly concerned about is the chickens, never had to protect something living outside in a storm before.  And, I'm pretty sure we will lose power.  Not too bad, except it's hot and muggy and my family is spoiled by AC.  And...I have a freezer full of stuff like blueberries, corn, venison and I would cry if it spoiled.  I plan to plug it into the car periodically if I have to.

(Is it too hokey to say, "Come On, Irene"?)

A Quick Kitchen Remodel

Well, it happened quickly.  But, I've been planning it for a couple of years now.  Started back when we owned land and planned to build a house.  I've been saving ideas in my red 3-ring binder for a long time.  I finally got to put them all to use!

Just a note, we are not done completely.  We still need to add things like trim , cabinet backs, etc.  But, it's functional and T needed to get back to work, so, it'll do for a little while.

Here's the before pic.

Our house is a pre-fab built in 1981.  Pretty sure the kitchen hadn't seen any updating since then.  except the removal of some pretty swell wallpaper and addition of some pretty awful laminate floor.  (I despise laminate floor.)  Please ignore the new white cabinets as you drool over my former kitchen.

Day 1
Tear out.  Completed while I took the girls off to buy flooring, I think.  I went somewhere, anyhow, and came home to see it all done.  Whew.  Although it's hard to tell, got the floor, walls and ceiling patched.  Didn't get the popcorn down, that's a winter project.

Day 2
Final coat of mud.  Most of the flooring down, (just doing stick-down tiles for now.  Couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted permanently, so we went for the cheap but nice in the meantime.)  Plumbing and electrical also done.  Mostly...

Day 3
Wall painted.  We are tiling the window wall, so it's going to be ugly for a while.  Wall cabinets hung.  The others aren't attached, just set into place.  Flooring nearly done, all except for under the fridge.  More electrical done, had to move it quite a bit.

Day 4
Base cabinets attached.  Floor finished.  It took a long time for those base cabinets.  Our house is really crooked.  Yes, that's a level in the floor.  I insist on perfection.  Do you believe me?

Day 5
This day, I had to make the trek to Ikea.  All the cabinets, the sink and countertops are from there.  But, the store is nearly 2.5 hours away.  So, it truly does take a day.  Especially when you have to stand in line for an hour for returns, then stand in line for an hour just to get started with  kitchen designer who is necessary to use to purchase your cabinet products.  Then, another hour or so with him turning down his up-sells.  Oh, and 15 minutes waiting for the guy in product pick-up to acknowledge you and give you your cart of stuff.  I'm so glad my friend went with me to help out!
Anyway, gas was run today, so we have a stove!  No oven, er, actually, no oven racks.  So, if I want to bake, have to use one of the burner grates until we can find someone to fabricate a track for the racks.  This stove came all the way from Michigan.
Plumber hooked up the sink and dishwasher.  Unfortunately, the drain line leaks, so we have to run it pulled out with a bucket underneath.  LG is sending a new one.  Seems this is a common problem.

Day 6
Nearly done.  Have to add the sides and bottoms to the wall cabinets and the sides and back to the base cabinets.  We have hung the sink light since this pic.  Have to change the fan out for something else.  Have to find a hood.  Have to tile.  Add kickplates.  Probably going to do these things in the winter.

So, there you have it.  I'm using Ikea Akurum cabinets with Stat doors for the base and Lidi white doors for the walls.  Pragel black stone effect countertops.  My stove is a very old Viking 48" with 6 burners and a griddle, (which I love!).  Sink is from Ikea, Domsjo farmhouse - very nice.  The faucet is by Koehler.

Watermelon Cake Pops

My sister pointed me in a new direction for cake pops.  I have only made normal cake with pretty outsides, but she showed me an idea to make a surprise inside to my pops.  So, I tried a watermelon!  I just used a strawberry cake, added mini chocolate chips to the balls, dipped them into white chocolate and then green. They turned out so neat!

I took them to church and shared them with our summer missionaries.  They're a group of college students who give up their summers to come to OC and minister to the international student workers, vacationing families, life guards, beach patrols, etc for a summer.  You can read more about them through this link on our church's web site... CALM  (Feel free to browse the web site, I helped set it up :)

I love making cake pops.  And, my family loves eating them.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of them before they were eaten up.  I guess I'll just have to make some more again soon to take better pictures...

"The Little Couple" is making me cry

Ever watch this show?  They're going through IVF, I think mostly due to their size causing fertility issues.  They have done 4 IVF cycles, and had failures each time.  I watched one where she ovulated on the way to retrieval.  How defeating.  But, in tonight's show, they made it to retrieval and got an egg - only one.  And, it fertilized.  I'm sitting here on the couch sobbing at how happy they are, how happy I remember us feeling when we got our fertilization report.  How on edge we were waiting for thaw reports at each FET.

Infertility, as I think so often, is so unfair.  Why do we have to go through it?  Why do we have to try for years, get so excited about one single fertilized egg?

A friend posted the following status update today...

The prettiest smiles belong to those who have been through the hardest of tribulations...but still managed to make it through with a smile

And that, that is what it's for.  Gives us, not just the prettiest smiles, but the most appreciation for each tiny egg that turns into an embryo and goes on to join us in this world.

My laundry room is complete!

I have had the same washer and dryer since I got married, 13 some years ago.  Actually, we bought a used, pukey green pair from the Thrifty Nickel right after we were married.  When my dad was visiting us, the dryer conked out and he surprised us with a new dryer delivered after her left.  I treasured that dryer.

We bought a washer after a few months.  So, I estimate the pair were 12 years at least.

My washer only wrung well with a large load.  So, I spent a year hand wringing all my cloth diapers.  And all my loads smaller than large.

The "before" picture...

Troy and the girls surprised me with a washer and dryer for mothers day!

We spent the last month working on the closet laundry room.  We painted the wooden panelling.  We hung white shelves.  We added some pretty baskets.  And, the finished product...

The room is attached to my kitchen.  It used to have bifold doors, but they won't fit over the machine doors.  I don't mind, I love to see my pretty appliances ;)

(I just noticed I haven't cleaned all the goop from the double stick tape the store used on signs from the doors yet.)

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Daiquiri Icing

I was husbandless for the last couple of days, Troy's travel is starting to pick up again.  But, even without his help, I managed to get a lot of stuff done around the house.  Tomatoes planted, peppers planted, the house cleaned and redecorated.  And, a few loads of laundry done.  I love doing laundry, now.  I walk around the house looking for something to wash.  Lame, I know.  But true.


All this to say, I also ended up with time to bake cupcakes today.  Last week was my sister's birthday, and we were going to celebrate, but something came up.  So, we went out tonight, a bunch of ladies from church and us.  Her husband watched my two older girls.  He was brave!


I thought it might be nice to take some cupcakes to celebrate with.  I'm working on finding a good from-scratch cake batter recipe, but can't find one that isn't nasty after a day or so.  


Means I have to use a cake mix.


The only mixes I had were Yellow or Red Velvet.  I chose the yellow and added white chocolate pudding to it.  Filled my cupcake liners and baked them.


I wanted to make a strawberry icing with some frozen berries I had left from last summer's picking.  I got them thawed and blended, added them to my basic buttercream, and was highly disappointed with the blandness.  So, I got creative.


I added a few extra ingredients and made...

... Strawberry Daiquiri Icing.


Or, Strawberry Margarita, if you prefer.


I'm so happy with the results, the citrus I added gave the icing such a fresh flavor.  I garnished them with mint, just to be pretty, but it infused an additional level of freshness to the icing.


I will absolutely be making these again.

RECIPE:

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Daiquiri Icing


Ingredients:
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 small box of White Chocolate Pudding


2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly cooler than room temp.
2 pounds of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rum extract
1 cup of frozen strawberries
zest and juice of 1 lime
zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2-3 Tablespoons half & half


Mix up the cake according to the directions, adding the box of pudding when you add the cake mix.


Fill 24-28 cupcake holes with liners.  Fill each 2/3 full and bake at 350*F for 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.


Transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely.


For the icing:
Puree the strawberries in a food processor.  Strain them through a mesh sieve to remove most of the seeds.  Place the puree and the butter in a stand mixer and begin mixing.  Slowly add some of the powdered sugar.


Add the vanilla, rum and salt.  Continue beating, adding the remaining powdered sugar and half/half until they're incorporated.


Add the lemon and lime zests and juices.  You may have to add more powdered sugar after those are mixed in if your icing is too thin.


With a large round tip inserted into a pastry bag, ice the cupcakes.  Garnish with a mint leaf.

If you would like to try these and don't feel up to making them, just send me a SASE and I'll fill it for you.

Just kidding.


I think...




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