We haven’t come to a complete stop on our work at the Gingerbread House, but compared to the frenzied work of before, it almost feels like it. It’s a welcome break – to just be able to go at your own pace without danger of tripping over something or not being able to find anything.
Last week we worked on a lot of smaller projects, some unpacking went on, bits of painting here and there, carpenters came out to look at our poor first floor bathroom which needs a huge amount of work since our trubbles. Our basement has been professionally cleaned since the waste water went into it and the first floor bathroom was disinfected and it’s looking pretty good now. If we get a chance this would be the perfect time to go down into the basement and prime the floor and lay down some tile. If we get a chance.
Winter is coming. You can feel it even now as we have some of the most beautiful weather ever. It will be cold and snowy eventually and I don’t know where we will be in terms of projects. We have a list of projects so that James and I can remember what we’ve discussed and which projects we need to tackle next. I’m sure this list will take us well into next year and that sounds pretty good to me.
My picture today is from Metropolitan Home. I liked how this room felt and was open to the outside. Sometimes the most comfortable rooms aren’t any one kind of decor.
It’s a rest and recharge again for us at the Gingerbread House. I feel like we are settling in for a stretch of being complete homebodies, which suits me just fine. Our kitchen was made for cooking and the living room is the perfect place to watch movies or play wii.
I’d love to tell you that I have some grand plans for this weekend or even next week, but I’m just going to wing it. Since we had our trubbles, we’ve had carpenters and plumbers come to the house and it looks like we are in for some company. I don’t mind making changes in the house, but I anticipated being able to live in it a little longer before I needed to call a carpenter to come change things.
Since we do have some work to be done on the house, I”ve been thinking a lot about bathrooms and how uncomfortable some can be. Our downstairs bathroom has a big window behind the toilet and when we first moved in there was a full length mirror on the back of the door – that was directly in front of the toilet. Yes, that came down first. Anywho this beautiful lavatory is from House Beautiful, I love a nice vanity. Have a good weekend yall!
Place the chopped squash in a medium-size mixing bowl. Drizzle the squash with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and place the squash on top of the sheet pan. Set the sheet pan into the oven and roast for 30 minutes, or until the squash is lightly caramelized and tender.
Remove the squash from the oven and set aside. Place a 1-gallon saucepan over medium high heat and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and render the Italian sausage. Cook, stirring often until the meat is caramelized and has released most of its fat, about 3 minutes. Add the onions, carrots, celery and leeks in the pan and sweat, stirring often for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the shallots and garlic to the pan and sweat for 1 minute stirring continuously. Deglaze the pan with the vinegar and add the chicken stock to the pan. Place the squash in the pan with the maple syrup and sage.
Bring the pan to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Continue to cook the soup for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are all tender. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup to a smooth consistency and velvety texture. Alternately, you can puree the soup in batches using a blender. Taste the soup and re-season if necessary with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Keep warm until serving.
Put a spin on creamed onions this holiday by using an ingredient from the same family instead. Not only do these leeks bake into something extraordinary, they get you out of the time-consuming task of peeling all those tiny pearl onions.
3 1/2 lb leeks, root ends trimmed
2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from a country loaf, crusts discarded)
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/8 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
Special equipment:
a 1 1/2-qt gratin or other shallow baking dish (10 by 8 inches)
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F.
Cut each leek into an 8-inch length, measuring from root end, and halve lengthwise, then cut crosswise into roughly 1 1/2-inch pieces. (You should have about 8 cups.) Wash leek pieces in a large bowl of cold water, agitating them, then lift out and transfer to another bowl. Repeat with clean water, then drain leeks well.
Cook bread crumbs with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in 3 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp and pale golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
Cut out a round from parchment or wax paper to fit just inside a 12-inch heavy skillet.
Cook leeks with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately low heat, leeks covered directly with parchment, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 12 minutes.
Discard parchment and transfer leeks with a slotted spoon to gratin dish. Pour cream slowly over leeks, then scatter bread crumbs on top. Bake until cream is bubbling and slightly thickened and crumbs are golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Cooks’ notes:
Bread crumbs can be cooked 1 day ahead and cooled completely, uncovered, then kept in an airtight container at room temperature. Scatter bread crumbs over leeks just before baking.
Leeks can be cooked and assembled in dish with cream (but not sprinkled with crumbs and baked) 1 day ahead and cooled completely, uncovered, then chilled, covered.
Last week we had trubbles. Not much was done in the house until after we got the plumbing fixed. I don’t want to talk about it, because it was bad enough living in it. We’re still recovering from our trubbles. After getting through all of the trouble, we did manage to get some things done. We had trick or treaters! That absolutely made my night, because we weren’t sure how many kids were going to show up and we had tons of kids. We refilled our pumpkin a few times (although I never let it get empty) and were dressed up when we opened the door.
On Sunday James installed the shower! I tried it but haven’t showered yet, but it’s so nice to know that I can shower now if I want! It looks great in the bathroom. We did a little rearranging of furniture, a little unpacking of this and that and made the bedroom feel much more comfortable. It’s funny how if you do something for a long time you can get used to it, even if it was only supposed to be temporary. I had the dresser out just outside of the bedroom door and we just got used to going out there to get our clothes. Now it’s where it belongs – inside the room.
Today I’m just going to go with whatever I need to do. I’m planning on working a lot on the house this week, but I’ve also got some bloggy changes in store. We may have a bit of technical difficulty. You’ve been forewarned!
Picture is from House Beautiful. For some reason today I just wanted to see walls painted black, so here you go!
It’s Halloween weekend! I really love this time of year, not only is it fall, which is my favorite season but I do enjoy Halloween quite a bit. This year I did get a costume but I am not sure I am going to get a chance to wear it. This year let’s have a treat, because I think I am done with tricks!
Our trubbles with the plumbing are fixed for the time being, but we’ve got more trubbles than we counted on since our previous owner did his own plumbing and has connected copper to pvc to cast iron and it seems all of it needs to be replaced. Fun times.
Since we were having trubbles with the plumbing and couldn’t use the facilities, we jumped ship (in a rainstorm) and stayed in a hotel one night. Fortunately for us, this meant we got to watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin on TV. In the midst of so many problems, it made me happy to see good old Charlie Brown. I’m linking my Friday post to the Beautiful Life Party at the Inspired Room because it’s great to have working plumbing and Halloween goodness.
If you didn’t get to see the good old Great Pumpkin Caper yet this year, here’s a clip and Happy Halloween!
PS. Did you notice I put a Random Factoids section up? I thought it would be fun to put some survey type info up about me.
Our plumbing troubles are still working themselves out, and it includes us waiting for the plumber right now, but here are some pictures I’ve taken recently.
This is my street, about a month ago. We went down to the beach and I took this when we were walking home. I really love this street, but I thought it would be prettier now. The trees are turning, but the storms we’ve had have taken the leaves off of them and today there is a drizzle that is making it grey and cool out.
I’ve started painting the stairs on the side of our house. I think this weekend I will be able to finish, that way it can all get one coat of paint and sealer before it gets too wet outside. This is Satin Black interior/exterior paint from Valspar. I really liked using it, it was so easy to put on and if I hadn’t ran out, it would look awesome. Our shutters are black on our white house, and it looks really good together. The next door neighbors came by as I was painting and commented on how attractive it looked.
This is how my Pain Perdu came out. I actually got Egg Rolls at Walmart and cut them in half because I couldn’t find challah. I burned the whole first batch because I was helping James hang a shelf, but I served them and they got eaten too. The fruit is pretty optional. I think it is good if you are making an individual serving, but if you are making quite a few, leave the fruit to the side and use whipped cream!
This weekend I had planned a nice relaxing weekend since we’ve been so busy the past few weeks. Moving, traveling, cleaning, painting, unpacking – last week I took it easy and didn’t do too much in the way of the house and wanted to continue the trend this weekend, but…
We had plumbing problems all weekend. Thank goodness the weather was nice this weekend, because we spent a lot of time drying out the basement, the first floor bathroom and going to home improvement stores. The water comes back into the house whenever we run the washer, not sure why it is coming into the bathroom, but I suppose it isn’t picky where it backs up into.
We need a plumber. It’s beyond our scope, though we gave it a good go this weekend. Other than the plumbing and problems it caused, nothing much has been happening with the house. We’ve got some new shelves for DVDs in the living room that I am going to get around to putting up and I’ve got some new plants in the kitchen, but mostly we’re just doing damage control. So much for a relaxing weekend!
The above image is from Traditional Home. It’s a beach house and it’s got some serious chic going on. I think I’m ready to trade my house in for this one at the moment.
