Around the house: I have a functional dining room!

Remember this?

And this?

A few weeks ago I managed to clear all the junk out of the room and off the dining room table:

But the massive cleaning left a fairly blank wall here:

My plan was to get a cube organizer and get more storage with something that could anchor the room without taking up too much space. Last weekend, that's just what we did. And then I filled the cubbies in a hurry cause our landlord was coming by with our new lease(!) and I wanted it to look like we hadn't just thrown it up cause he was coming (we sort of did). And here's the result:

Now I just have to hang the prints I framed:

Total cost to me: $35. The cube organizer was on sale for $35 at Target, the frames (available right now in a 4-pack for $15 at Bed, Bath and Beyond) I purchased with a gift card and the prints are from a calendar I got for Christmas a couple years ago. Booyah!

Plant identification success

It's a candytuft! Yay!
Let me back up.
When we moved into the house, it came with some lovely bushes in the front plot, including three holly bushes, a dying azalea (I'm currently attempting to bring him back) and a few other types I can't immediately identify. There was also two crawling plants that were green and fairly pretty, despite it being winter. But it wasn't until spring that we learned that the gorgeous little guys sprout pretty white flowers. Like this:

The problem is that they were planted on only one side of the house, so the house just looks lopsided, especially with them in full bloom.

That's me in the reflection and to the right of the front stoop you can see our sad azalea. I hoping it will bounce back after a few doses of azalea food, purchased at the most magical place on earth, otherwise known as Anderson's Showplace, a gardening store in Newport News that I promise to talk about soon.

So I posted this photo on Facebook in the hopes that someone would be able to identify it.

Turns out one of my friends from Algeria that I met during a summer cultural exchange immediately knew and messaged me the name. So now all I have to do is get some candytufts to plant on the other side and my home will look less lopsided and more lived in. Now if only I can get the dying azalea to play along too!

Around the house: Outside looking in

It's time I finally shared what our house looks like. It's a great little house from the 60s and I am so grateful we were able to rent it when we did. Really, I just love it.

The roof is actually dark gray, but it was so bright out last week it looks white. Odd. Also, the "chimney top" above the front door is completely fake. There is not a chimney in our house.

 Forgive the bad quality stitch job.

You can see the bushes along the back that used to be 6 feet tall before our landlord got at 'em. Chopping them down did give us a great view of our backyard neighbor's garden, of which I am eternally jealous.

Backyard 

The garage and actually the mud room were new additions from the 80s. Back then the whole house was covered in ugly slate blue wood siding. They put the garage in in brick, bricked the front and then put new white vinyl siding on the back.

Back of the house 

The garage door is not motorized. It weighs a ton, so we only used it to move in.

View of the front from the side of the house.

Around the home: Cleaning up the dining room

Until recently, the dining room has been a storage room for things that didn't have a place yet. Or for coats, scarves and other things that really shouldn't be just thrown down. It looked a little something like this:

But no more! I've spent a bit of time every day working to remove the clutter so that one day, we may actually be able to use our dining room table. A shocking concept, I know. I've just recently alighted up an idea for what to with the unused portion. See it's sort of empty and calling for something to live there. Something that is piles of clutter, but more organized. A cube storage system, perhaps?
Yeah. That was my thought, too. Especially after a visit to a friend's house showed how nice they can be, displaying books, photos or hiding other things in those neat canvas cubes. Like this one:

And above the lovely unit, I'd like to frame and hang my Hokusai prints that I've rescued from a wall calendar (Calendars are the easiest and cheapest way to get art. Add a frame and they look like you spent a bunch of money on them). I have four favorites that are about 11x14. I'd love the hang them above the unit in a neat row like so:

With these frames, from Bed, Bath and Beyond, perhaps.

New plan for an old fave

I have a slight obsession with cork - but not in the way you might think. I truly dislike the traditional corkboard that we were all given as a going-to-college present. But I love when the beauty of cork - it's earthy color and it's usability - gets repurposed into something unexpected.

Case in point:

From "Original Ideas," Young House Love

The best part is that this looks incredibly easy to do and has the potential for plenty of applications. Ergo, you won't be wasting a whole bunch of cork since you won't be buying a whole roll for just one project. Looks like spring is bringing on a whole bunch of inspiration for me to try new things!

A taste of childhood: Zucchini cupcakes

Until I was in middle school, my favorite thing that my mother ever made was banana bread. I remember marveling as she measured the flour, sugar, eggs and butter from memory. She used to let me mash the bananas and fold them in to the mix. She always made two loaves and I remember always being angry that she would give one away. Even the "heel" of these golden brown loaves were delicious and I knew nothing would ever make me feel better than to eat a slice, warmed and spread with butter.

Of course even our childhood favorites must someday make way for evolving opinions. While I still love banana bread and often request a loaf from my mom, my heart has pined for a bread that puts the banana variety to shame. I'm still not sure what possessed my mom to sneak a vegetable like zucchini into bread, but I am forever thankful that she happened upon that idea. My mouth still waters at the thought of the dense yet moist loaf, striated with slivers of green. Mom used to grow zucchini the size of a loaf of bread in the summer. She always grew far too many and often froze some for use in the winter. It never occurred to me to attempt the recipe for one trivial reason: I didn't have a food processor. The idea of shredding zucchini (or cabbage or carrots or apples) had always (irrationally, I admit) seemed dependent on owning the contraption. And then I purchased a value pack of 5 large zucchini at Farm Fresh and I knew it was time to brave the uncertainty and shred the squash with the handheld cheese grater that had never occurred to me to utilize.

And so, dear readers, I am finally able to say that I have made my own zucchini-based dessert. Not the perfect bread that I grew up with and dreamt about, but some things should be left to a mother to make for her daughter as she aims to use up a bounteous harvest. I instead chose to go with a more portable package - and something a little more sweet.

Zucchini-Walnut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Loosely Adapted from Eggs on Sunday's Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Someday I will make that chocolate zucchini cake, but this seemed a little rich for Travis, and I wanted to introduce him to the wonders of zucchini desserts without covering up the zucchini. Most of my tweaks involved using the ingredients I had on hand as well as following my gut feeling on a few measurements/ingredients. Feel free to try the original recipe, but I always encourage you to trust yourself when it comes to your cooking.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (a substitute for oil that I always use)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter(soy)milk (See a recipe for making your own buttermilk here, under the heading "replacing buttermilk")

1 tbsp. plain soymilk
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium)

1 cup crushed walnuts

12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup powder sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place cupcake wrappers into a cupcake pan, or butter and flour it if you aren't into wrappers.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter and applesauce until they’re well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk in 3 additions each.
5. Mix in the grated zucchini, then the walnuts.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool completely.
7. While the cupcakes are cooling, mix the the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract on low speed until the sugar is incorporated.
8. Beat the mixture on medium to medium-high until frosting is light and whipped, about 3 - 4 minutes. Frost the cupcakes once they are cooled.

I shredded the zucchini as soon as I bought it since it was the value pack from Farm Fresh, which really is the "we-have-to-sell-this-today-or-it-will-rot" pack. Of course, 5 fairly large pieces of zucchini for just over $2 is an amazing deal and it's a neat money-saving trick I've been using lately.

I then stuck it in a bag in the freezer until I would have time to make this recipe.

If you choose to do this, just dethaw the zucchini and wring most of the liquid out in a paper towel or cheesecloth. Freezing adds a lot of water and baking requires that you be very specific with the liquid to dry ratio.

There were no spices in the original recipe, which struck me as odd because the dish just screamed for a bit of cinnamon. It's no sweat if you don't have the rest, I just happen to have them on hand. At the very least add some cinnamon. Maybe 2 tsp. if you are dropping the cloves, nutmeg and ginger?

As I strive to be more ecoconscious in my choices, I must acknowledge that cupcake wrappers are wasteful and really unnecessary. A mixture of equal parts shortening, oil and flour has always kept my baked goods from sticking to the pan and I would have gone that route if I hadn't found another product that I will share more details about in a future post.

Baked Challah french toast

There are pros and cons to shopping at bulk retailers like Sam's Club or BJ's. The best part is that you can often save money in the long run. The worst part if you are like me and you buy actual fresh food from BJ's, you have to use that food before it goes bad, or you'll have wasted all the money. I usually shop for nonperishables at these retailers, but sometimes the deals are so good (or the food looks so good) that I grab that 24 pack of Italian sausage or indulge myself with two giant loaves of golden Challah bread. I've stretched that sausage from a cookout with the fiance's coworkers, to a sausage, cabbage, carrot and potato soup, to sausage and cabbage pot stickers. I've even added a few chunks to an omelet and some more to a rendition of the Spicy sausage and rice recipe I posted in February.
The Challah has done little except sit on the sidelines as a slice of toast or half a grilled cheese sandwich to accompany the soup. But no more. I decided to honor the slightly sweet and soft bread by making it into french toast.
I love french toast. But, by the time it takes to grill all the slices (grilling them two at a time in my not-so-giant pan) seems to take forever. By the time I'm done I'm usually hot, hungry and at least one of my pieces has gone cold. This recipe is the best solution to that.

Baked Challah French Toast
Adapted from a recipe by My Italian Grandmother

1 loaf Challah bread
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3 cups milk (I used soy)
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. Cut up Challah into 1 inch cubes. Place into pan. You will have to squeeze the bread together to get it to lay in a single layer. Sprinkle cranberries on top and press them into between the bread cubes.
   
2. Whisk together the eggs and milk until combined. Mix in the sugar and spices until the mixture is frothy and well combined. Pour over the Challah. Press the bread down and make sure the milk is soaking all the bread. Cover and put in the fridge at least four hours or over night.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add syrup, brown sugar and walnuts. Mix to combine.
   
4. Pour mixture over the bread. Spread evenly. Bake in the oven for about an hour. Bread is done when a tooth pick comes out mostly clean. Baked french toast is closer to bread pudding. If you want to the mixture more done in the middle, cook longer but know that the outside will eventually burn.
   
5. Serve warm, covered with more syrup.
   

Sausage and cabbage pot stickers

Remember that blog called Budget Bytes, which I mentioned when I posted about enjoying good food while saving money? Well I finally got around to trying one of her recipes and I am super excited that I pulled this off with only spending around $7. I made pot stickers!
These little guys happen to be one of those Asian foods that I refused to eat as a kid but now absolutely love. But man do they cost a lot. And, wow, are they easy to mess up. I think the last time I had edible pot stickers was a few years ago at an upscale Chinese restaurant in Florida.
So, I decided to try and make them myself. This recipe is super easy, it just takes a while. Not something you want to do when you are really hungry. So without further ado, here goes (with more photos after the recipe):


Sausage and Cabbage Pot Stickers
I modified the recipe to fit what I had and my time constraints. Feel free to use the original recipe for Ginger and Pork Pot Stickers from Budget Bytes.

1/4 onion, chopped
2 Tbsp of minced garlic
1/4 head of cabbage, sliced thinly
4 links of Italian sausage (I picked this protein cause I had some leftover from a cookout. The meat in pot stickers is supposed to be uncooked, but these were already grilled and they worked perfectly and added a alight smoky flavor. If you want to use raw meat, just refer to the Budget Bytes version because I skipped steps you need to follow for the raw meat).
Approx. 2 Tbsp cumin
soy sauce (no measurement here. It's kind of up to your taste buds)
Approx. 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Approx. 1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 package of won ton wrappers
1 bowl of cold water (to use as glue for wrappers)

1. Saute onions and garlic in a pan with oil of your choice over medium heat. As these are cooking, slice cabbage and chop up sausage.
2. Season onions with spices, brown sugar and soy sauce (The sugar adds a lovely teriyaki flavor to the sauce). After onions have softened and turned translucent, add cabbage. Add more soy sauce (to assist in steaming) to taste. Cook until cabbage is translucent and soft.
   
3. Add sausage. Cook Just until flavors are incorporated. Remove from heat and transfer filling to a bowl. You will need the pan later, so don't clean out the yummy flavors just yet.
4. Put a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Add 1 cup of broth (we had frozen leftover stock from last week's corned beef and cabbage) OR season the water with salt.
5. As the water is coming to a boil, set up your won ton station. You'll need a bowl of water, a place to fold your won tons and a place to put them when they are done boiling. Place a 1/2 of Tbsp of filling on each wrapper. Fold into a triangle, and then fold the outer tips together, as if the pot sticker is hugging itself (aww! I think I said "That's so cute!" every time I folded one. Seriously.)
   
6. Place folded pot stickers into the boiling water. Cook for about five minutes (Remember, our meat was already cooked, so we were really just cooking the wrappers and further meshing the filling flavors). As the first batch is bowling (we did about 7 - 10 pot stickers at a time), put a little more oil in the pan that you cooked the filling in and put it over medium-high heat.
   
7. Pull cooked pot stickers out and place on a grate over a cookie sheet to drain the excess water. I even dried the super soggy ones with a paper towel. **This is a crucial step. If you just dump the sopping wet pot stickers into the frying pan it will turn into a sausage and cabbage stir fry with gooey won ton wrappers all over the place. Not so awesome.**
8. Place pot stickers into the pan, fold side down and cook for about 7 - 9 minutes, or until the bottom gets a gorgeous golden brown crust that is slightly crispy. Don't let the pot stickers touch each other, or they will stick together. This means you can really only cook 6 - 8 in the pan at a time, depending on the size of your pan.
   
9. Serve with more soy sauce. Eat with chop sticks. Watch an old Jackie Chan movie and enjoy life.
   

A note on using grilled Italian Sausage in my pot stickers: I know it is not traditional. That being said, the light smoky flavor was awesome with the teriyaki-inspired sauce. When it comes to having good food on a budget, you have to be willing to compromise the "traditional" aspects of a recipe with what you can afford. Why not tweak a classic based on what you have on hand and what might add a delicious twist? People who yell about me not using plain raw meat can go spend $10 on 5 pot stickers at their Chinese restaurant. I'll stick to these, which cost somewhere around $7, made 48 pot stickers and taste better than almost any other pot sticker I've had. Alright, there's my rant.



One last note. My won ton wrappers were not perfectly square. So, when I folded them to make a triangle there was extra wrapper hanging off. The good thing is the second fold (to make the "hug") pretty much seals the extra wrapper off and helps keep the yummy package together. Also: If they do happen to get little holes in them, don't sweat it. These will taste great no matter what they look like.






Easy, right? A little time consuming, but wow, these are totally worth the wait.
I'd have a picture of the final product, but I got hungry and started eating instead of taking photos. Looks like you caught me!
Have you ever tried to make something that seemed too complicated to be worth the effort? What is your favorite pot sticker filling, or do you just hate pot stickers (don't be afraid to admit it. My 6-year-old self is encouraging your irrational hatred)?

Blog find: "Young House Love"

If you know me, you know I'm an obsessive blog reader. At last count I follow 81 blogs, split almost evenly among the general topics of design, food and weddings (and by follow, I mean I visit them at least 3 times a week). Whoa, this is the first time I've actually counted them. That's a lot.

Anyway, I've been building this list since senior year of college. Before that, I only ever read my friends' blogs. I still read those, but I only see them when they update, which is infrequent for most of them.

I began my obsession with food blogs, moved to design (think interior design) and, obviously, got on the wedding blog craze in September (I wonder why?).

I didn't discover one of my favorite design blogs until January. To be honest I can't remember where I found this one, but I'll tell you how I've built my 81-strong collection soon. Until then, let me introduce "Young House Love."


Here's the deal: A couple in their 20's buys a house that's over 50 years old outside of Richmond. The savvy couple decides to renovate and chooses to share their experience online. They can't be the only people to do this, but they are so popular because they are so down-to-earth and funny. And their house is lovely. It makes me want to buy a house and paint all the rooms (and change my mind and repaint, and then repaint again, or so their running joke goes). Seriously, one of the things I'm looking most forward to when I "grow up" is making a house my home. This couple takes you on a journey as they update their kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms to sometimes jaw-dropping results. Through it all they were nice enough to include photo tutorials and fun hypothetical redesigns for readers.
Can I gush enough about this blog? Seriously go there, read it all and be entertained.