I Scream, You Scream...

Sorry for the long time in between posts.  It's been a busy time, with the end of school, start of swim team and a 6-day trip to California's Sonoma County thrown in there.  But I'm back, and I thought I'd give you a fun, summery treat to make:  brownie ice cream sandwiches.

These are not hard, but they do take some time, as I unfortunately found out.  The day after we came back from California, we were getting together with friends to celebrate one of our birthdays, and I had volunteered dessert.  We had nearly nothing in the fridge (or pantry), but I thought I had a box brownie mix (don't judge), at least, and eggs to make the brownie part of the sandwiches before I had to run the boys out to the dentist.  In retrospect, I really did not plan any of this well. It turns out that I didn't have brownie mix in the house, so I had to do a quick brownie from scratch (don't laugh, it's possible, and I'll show you how). It made us a couple (literally two) minutes late for the dentist, but it was okay. Then I had to stop at the grocery store to get ice cream. Why not just get a brownie mix then, you might ask (and I might call you a smart ass)? Because the brownies needed to not only bake, but also cool completely before you can spread the ice cream on them. So there.

I apologize for the picture quality of the final product.  For some reason, my camera refused to focus on the brownie.  After taking, like, 15 pictures I just gave up.  Sorry. This was the best I could do.

The bad part was that the ice cream didn't harden up in time for the birthday celebration, so we ended up not eating them.  It's okay, though, 'cause I'm planning a taco party later this week, so we can serve them as dessert then.  See? It all works out in the end...

Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Brownie layer:

This is a simple, one-bowl (one-saucepan, actually) brownie. If you have all the ingredients, it should only take about 10 minutes to throw together. Honest!

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
8 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees (F). Prepare two rimmed baking sheets (10 inches by 14 inches).  DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Grease (I used Crisco, but you can use butter or other type of shortening) the inside of the pan, then line with parchment paper (or waxed paper if you don't have parchment). Grease the parchment paper.  Sprinkle with unsweetened cocoa, then tap the pans until they are coated with cocoa. Like this:

 TIP: if you're pressed for time, melt the butter and cocoa first, then while it cools, prepare the pans. Melt butter and cocoa in a 3 quart saucepan over low heat.  Stir until combined, then allow to cool (5 minutes or so).  Add sugar and vanilla, stir to combine thoroughly, then add one egg at a time, stirring after each egg to incorporate completely before adding another.  Add flour and salt, mix together until the flour is completely incorporated (you shouldn't see any white).  :-)

Evenly divide the batter between the two pans. I am horrible at this, so I used a measuring cup to help get the batter sort of equal.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until firm to the touch but not crispy or dark brown on the edges.  Pull pans out of the oven and let cool completely.

If you use a brownie mix, don't use the family-sized box of brownies.  Just get the kind that makes an 8x8 or 9x9 inch pan.

Sandwich Assembly:

Allow 1.5 quarts of vanilla ice cream to soften.  If you have the time, you could let it soften in the fridge for a couple of hours, which would probably be preferable, but I had a deadline looming, so I didn't have time to do it the "right" way.  I let my container sit on the counter for about 20 minutes.  When the middle still wasn't soft enough, I plopped it in a large bowl and just started stirring.  That helped a little.

Once the ice cream is soft (but not too melty), spread it evenly over one of the pans of brownie. Run a knife around the edge of the other brownie pan, then turn it over on top of the ice cream-covered brownie.  Pull off the pan and the parchment paper, then cover completely with plastic wrap and return to the freezer and freeze until ice cream is firm.  This took a lot longer than I thought, so you want to allow at least 4 hours for this.

















After the ice cream has hardened, remove from freezer.  Remove plastic wrap. Run a knife that you ran under hot water along the edges of the brownies (a warm knife will cut through the frozen brownie and ice cream easier and cleaner), place a cutting board (larger than the brownie pan) on top of the brownies, then flip the whole thing over so that the pan is now on top.  Lift off the pan and the parchment paper.

If you want the sandwiches to look really nice and even, you could trim off the sides (keep those trimmings, put them in a bowl and snack on them while you're finishing up...just a suggestion.  Don't want things to go to waste).  TIP: I use a pizza cutter to slice through the brownies. Cut bars into desired size (I got about 16). Wrap in squares of parchment paper and store in the freezer if you're not serving them right away.

Final thoughts:

You can customize these in so many ways.  I chopped up chocolate chips and toasted almonds and rolled the edges in them.  I also thought of spread raspberry sauce (you can see it in the picture) on one side of the brownie before I put it on top of the ice cream. I didn't do that this time, because a) I thought of it too late, and b) I was making these for kids and wasn't sure if they would eat them that way.  You also could use a different ice cream or cover in a ganache and freeze for a chocolate-covered brownie ice cream sandwich.  So decadent!

It's A Movement!

One of my favorite blogs ever is Pintester, where the intrepid Pintester (Sonja Foust) tries out various pins from Pinterest.  She is hilarious!  I found out that she is looking to start a movement to get as many people as she can to try a pin they've been meaning to try and link them all together on her blog.  Honestly, it sounds like she might be leaving for vacation (totally allowed, BTW) and is looking to make sure she's got some interesting posts for a while...

But I digress. As luck would have it, I have a Pinterest board called "Gotta Try This," so I thought Sonja's idea was a perfect way for me to actually try one of those pins (confession: in the 3 years I've had a Pinterest account, not once have I actually attempted one of the "Gotta Try This" pins).  I also have a board called "Cool Ideas I Will Never Do," but all of those things are way more complicated, and, frankly, I didn't want to come off as being a liar.

Of course, even though I've had a week to think about it, I only started working on this the day before we are all supposed to post, so I had to choose a pin that didn't require extra shopping.  Since I'm not crafty at all, that posed quite a restriction.  You will be pleased to know that I had, in fact, all the necessary items to attempt this:

The original post was from Thrifty Decor Chick, but the picture didn't link to any sort of instructions.  So, not wanting to go in blind, I googled "apple candles" and found instructions here.
It didn't seem too hard.  I just happened to have 3 apples left in the house, and three votives (I have a ton of votives, because you can't just buy, say 3 or 4; they always seem to come in these huge packs of 50, which lasts me approximately 10 years -- more, because we're still counting - and I still have 20 left from my pack).

Sorry, more digressing.  Anywho, so I gathered my supplies:

I would advise using bigger apples, because these didn't have a lot of room around the top once the holes were cut for the candles, but these were literally the last three apples in the house, so I did not have much of a choice. None at all, truth be told.

 Now, the directions said to mark the circle using a pen, and then cut out the circle, but I couldn't find a pen that worked, plus that seems like an unnecessary extra step, so I just held the votive in place and lightly scored across the top to give me a guide. This method could have ended with me driving, one-handed, to the ER, but all was well.  I'm used to using kitchen knives, so I wasn't worried, but if we were using, say, a craft knife of box cutter, I might have been in trouble (side note: my first ER trip ever happened only 2 years ago, at 44 years old, and involved a box cutter, which I am no longer allowed to use without supervision...also, no one will ask me to make decorations for their class party ever again).

After I cut around the guide marks a little deeper, I cut across the top, making an X to make it easier to pry the pieces out from the top.

Then, you cut away more of the insides so that the votive will fit into the apple.  I think the instructions said you should use a spoon to scrape out the insides, which might have worked better, but that would have entailed messing up another utensil and the kids were going to be home from school soon, so I couldn't be bothered with grabbing another thing when I had a perfectly good knife in my hand.






Here's the finished product.  I know, it's a little lopsided, but if you turn your head the opposite way, it looks great, so just go with that.

Original pin:                                                      Nailed it (to use Pintester's vernacular):

  



Conclusion: Although it was relatively easy to do, frankly, I thought it was a waste of some tasty apples.

One final note: you might want to use an apple that doesn't turn brown very quickly, because, about 5 minutes after I took the final picture, you could see a ring of brown starting to form around the holes where the candles were.  Maybe you could rub lemon juice on the inside. Or do a better job of cutting than I did...

A Little Drinky-drink

So, it's Friday, and I'm tired and I need to unwind.  Now, I'm usually a beer or wine kind of person. Nothing complicated.  But the other day I was talking with a friend, who remarked on the sizable amount of liquor we have in the house.  Not in a critical way, just more of an observation, because, well, frankly, we do have a lot because we just don't drink hard liquor very often. But it got me to thinking, so the next time I went to the store, I got a few mixer-type items (really, just a couple of juices and tonic water, to be honest).

So, here we are back at Friday, and I have liquor on my mind.  Specifically, the Godiva chocolate-raspberry vodka taking up space in the freezer.  So I take it out, along with a couple other things, and come up with this:

I'm not sure if it's an original recipe or not (I didn't follow a recipe, but that doesn't mean it doesn't already exist out there somewhere).  Y'all, for not being much of a "mixologist" (like, not at all), this thing was pretty tasty, if on the sweet side.  I don't know what to call it, so we'll just go with Chocolate-Raspberry Cocktail.  :-)  I had two, they were so yummy!

Marna's Chocolate-Raspberry Cocktail

1 part Godiva Chocolate-Raspberry Vodka
3 parts cran-raspberry juice
1 tsp. Penzey's Raspberry Enlightenment (it's a sauce)
Chocolate sauce (to make fancy designs on the glass)

Put the first 3 ingredients in a cocktail shaker with some ice (I used a handful) and shake to blend.  If your chocolate sauce isn't already in a squeeze bottle, you'll need to put it in one, then squeeze the chocolate sauce around the inside of your glass making a fun pattern (mine looked a little like a flower, but a swirl would be fun, too). Strain your cocktail into the prepared glass.

Serves one (generously...)

Syttende Mai!

Yes, yes, I know it's actually May 18th, but I didn't have time to finish my post yesterday, and I am not about to let a little detail like a number get in the way of sharing some some stuff that you can do in your kitchen!   Syttende Mai is the Norway's Constitution Day (literally translated, it's "May 17th").  It's an important holiday in Norway, equivalent to our (American) Independence Day on July 4.  In honor of this holiday, I thought I'd try a traditional Norwegian dessert: Troll Cream.

Troll cream only has 3 ingredients and is amazingly simple.  It is usually made with lingonberries, but, being in Virginia, we don't have a ready supply, so I substituted blueberries.  So here's the amazing part.  You dump the sugar, berries and egg white into a mixing bowl all together, and then you just start whipping it.  It takes about 2 minutes, but it turns into this amazing, feather-light, pillowy, mousse-type of cream.  When I first read the original recipe, I was really skeptical. But, I followed the recipe as it was written and abracadabra! Everything did what it was supposed to do!

I used the troll cream as a layer in a lemon-blueberry trifle, but you could totally serve this on it's own, maybe with a little whipped cream and fresh berries and/or cookies on the side for a little texture.  It is best eaten the day it's made, I think, because the texture changes a little bit (turns more meringue-y) the longer it sits.  I have to admit, though, the leftovers still tasted pretty good the next day!  :-)

Although I thought I was taking pictures of the steps for making the troll cream, nothing was on my camera (my camera battery was low), so you'll have to just use your imagination.  Here's what it looked like in the trifle I made (it's the slightly lavender-looking layer):

Blueberry Troll Cream

1 cup blueberries, rinsed and patted dry
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites

Have all ingredients at room temperature.  Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl (I used a stand mixer, but I think a hand-held mixer would work, too).  Turn mixer onto a medium-low speed to start, then gradually increase speed to high.  Mix for about 2 minutes.  The troll cream should be light and fluffy, but not stiff.

Note: This recipe can be increased or decreased, depending on how many servings you want.  This amount was used for a trifle that served about 12, but you could decrease the amounts - 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup blueberries, 1 egg white - for just 6-8 servings.


This was the only picture I got of the troll cream, which I took with my phone:

This recipe was so easy, I'm definitely going to experiment with different berries/flavor combinations!

If you want to make the trifle, here's how:

Lemon-Blueberry Trifle

1 Lemon pound cake (if you want to make this from scratch, here's a good recipe)
1 recipe Blueberry Troll cream
1 cup lemon curd (store bought or make your own)
3 cups whipped cream
1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry

Start by folding the lemon curd and 2 cups of whipped cream together. Set that mixture aside for a moment.

Slice thin pieces of pound cake (no more than 1/4 inch thick).  Layer slices of cake to cover the bottom of the trifle bowl.  Scatter fresh blueberries on top of the cake layer:

Then layer half of the curd/whipped cream mixture, followed by half of the blueberry troll cream.  Repeat layers (cake slices, fresh blueberries, lemon whipped cream, troll cream).  After the last layer of troll cream, top with the remaining cup of whipped cream, then scatter more fresh blueberries over top.  This is what you end up with:

Serves 12.  The curd and cake can be made a couple of days ahead, but the trifle should be put together only about 4 hours ahead of time (refrigerate until ready to serve).  Best eaten the same day, but still good a day after, too.  :-)

Last Remodel Post - It's a Wrap!

We are in and using our kitchen, and I am loving it!

I'm not sure what my favorite feature is, but I really like having the knives right next to the sink and over the trash.  I have to re-train myself to not always use the island for prep, since I now have more room next to the sink, so that entire set up is a lot more convenient.

I know my husband likes having all the silverware and dishes closer to the dishwasher, making unloading so much easier.

I still love the open shelves under the cabinets, too!  Here's a little more detailed look:

And here are a couple of photos of the room with all of our junk back in!  

We spend a lot more time in that back room in general, which is nice! The kids eat breakfast at the island during the week, and I rearranged the pantry so they can reach the things they need for snacks, so they can get those themselves. We actually have less seating for dinners right now, because we sold one of our dining sets, but I'm looking for some new furniture in the back, anyway. I'll post more photos when I have any of the new pieces.  My husband bought that painting on the mantle for me for our anniversary last year and was done by a friend of ours, Dana Ellyn, who is amazingly talented.  It says, "for better or worse... for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, til death do us part."  Way more traditional than our actual vows (we kind of wrote them ourselves), but I love that painting! We have another piece of hers in our bedroom.

Some might be curious about the first meal I made in the new kitchen, once we got everything in and put away.  Well, I have to say it wasn't very fancy, just sausages with peppers, onions and sauteed baby kale:

This spring is really busy with practice or games for the boys four of the seven days of the week, which means we need quick, practical meals.  Plus, I'm working at our elementary school two days a week, which cuts out a lot of my experimenting time (much easier to do when the kids aren't around).  It means I'll be posting a little less, but hopefully giving you some higher quality ideas to get you into the kitchen and having some fun, too!

Finally! All Finished

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and loading the kitchen back in has been no small part of that craziness!  I haven't taken pictures of the kitchen with everything loaded back in, but wanted to get a post out there, since it's been a while.  Everyone loves before and after pictures, so here they are:


Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Anyway, I thought I'd give a couple of thoughts about the whole renovation process, in case anyone else is thinking about doing this any time soon. I think, for us, this is the last major project that we'll hire out, except for new flooring upstairs, but I wouldn't call that major, just a pain in the ass.  :-)

So, in case you are looking for advice, here's some for you:

Go with a company whose representatives you trust, with whom you have a good rapport, and that has a good reputation.  We interviewed three different companies, and we ended up choosing Case Design because they have been around a long time, and I really liked the kitchen designer with whom I worked.  He wasn't put off by some of my more quirky ideas, but also knew when to edit and/or jump in with his experience of what might work and what might not.

Also know that the kitchen designer you worked with will not be the one overseeing the project.  So you also need to trust the Project Manager who is assigned to your project.  You should meet him at least once before you sign the final contract.  But also know, at least in our case, the Project Manager will not be on site every day.  Ours was very responsive if we had any questions or concerns (I had his cell phone number and his email, and he was always very prompt in replying). So, that being said, you also need to like the crew that's going to be in your home on a day-to-day basis, but unfortunately, you're not really going to be able to choose them.  The guys who were on our project were really great guys, were very efficient and knew what they were doing, for the most part. I'll get into what "for the most part" means in a bit.

Go over every part of the contract and the design very carefully, even if you keep it for an extra couple of days before you sign it. Just because you talked about something or another, doesn't mean it will actually make it into the contract, so go over every detail to make sure it is exactly how you discussed.  Case in point: we discussed using a tinted (light gray) grout for the backsplash, but when they installed it, the grout was white.  I asked the guy doing the tiling, and he showed me the part of the contract where it specified white. Turns out that, while we discussed it, neither I nor the kitchen designer confirmed that with each other, and he specified white in the contract.  They were going to come out and make it right, of course, but we decided that we preferred the white, so it all turned out for the best in the end, but just keep that in mind.

Also, I found it really hard to make decisions about stuff based on little samples (squares of this and swatches of that), so part of you just has to trust yourself and your vision (or your designer's vision). That is why it's important to look at lots of pictures of kitchens (or other style inspirations) so that your kitchen designer knows where you are coming from.  I found Pinterest to be enormously helpful for putting my ideas and inspirations in one place so I could look at everything together, and our kitchen designer joined Pinterest so he could see my kitchen board and get a feel for my style. Another thing I liked about David, our designer, was that, when he came to our house for an interview, he asked to look around the whole house, to get a sense of what our style was and how we lived (which would have seemed like "pig pen" style on the particular day he was here, but he's a professional and had vision).  :-)

Now,  a word (or two) about specific design elements and installation:

For us, because we had chosen cork flooring, which is kind of softer than other types of flooring, I should have insisted that the floors go in as late as possible, perhaps with the painting done as soon as all the electrical and wall prep had been done.  Also, to have someone there to put the appliances back in place as the floor was installed underneath, but before it was put in the rest of the room (to minimize scratches and scrapes from moving those heavy pieces). As careful as our crew was, there were still nicks and dings to the floor, and some small paint drops here and there, but because of the texture of the floor, it was hard to scrape away.  It's a little disappointing to pay for a brand new floor, just to have it "worn in" before you even get to move your stuff back in.  The Case crew touched up the nicks in the floor, but I contend that it's easier to touch up the paint on the walls than it is to fix scrapes on the floor or paint drips.

Under-cabinet or task lighting is a big thing in kitchen design, but I'll tell you one thing to keep in mind: those lights get really warm if left on for very long -- to the point where the bottom of the inside of the cabinet got warm.  Because of that, and where I chose to put my spices and oils, I've turned off about half of those lights. If I had known that, I would only have put task lighting in on one bank of cabinets, rather than all, which would have saved some money.  I hate paying for things I won't use.

Now, for the minor details. The one thing I was disappointed about was the lack of attention to detail in the installation phase. One of the reasons we chose Case was because they've been around a long time and (I thought) had every aspect of the design-build process down pat. And they did, for the most part, but it was the little things that bugged me: a new outlet that obstructed our pocket door (they actually caught that themselves before I said anything, but I did notice it right away after they had left that day),  a phone jack that didn't work, sloppy caulking, exposed wiring to our cabinet lights (which you could easily see, because it's right at eye level) a crooked switch plate, a finishing nail that pierced through the back of one of the cabinets, rough edges where they had to bore holes through the cabinets to run wires, a leaky pipe under the sink. I also contend that the moulding used at the top of the cabinets is a different color and finish than the cabinets, but I'll get the opinion of our designer when he comes out in a week.  None of these were big deals to fix (except maybe the leaky pipe and the outlet), but I think should have been caught if the crew had done a more careful "once over" before the project manager came out for the final walk-through.  Perhaps there would have been more things wrong if we had gone with a different company, so maybe my expectations are set too high, and I realize that they can't get everything perfect the first time.  That being said, our crew is very concerned that we are happy with the work and have said to call them whenever we discover something that needs to be corrected, and (more importantly) they follow through.  I don't think we would have gotten that level of service with, say, Home Depot.

Now, understand, we've never done this type of project before, and we have no other frame of reference to compare Case to, so I am willing to concede I'm being very exacting and nit-picky.  Would I recommend Case to others? Definitely!  Are they the best company compared to everyone else? That, I can't say, because I only have the interviews to base that on, not the execution, so it's impossible for me to say that Case performed better than another company's crew would have.

All in all, I would consider this a very positive experience, and we are definitely going to enjoy our new space for a very long time! And for that, I am grateful for the staff at Case Design.  :-)

Kitchen Remodel Week 5: Almost There!

There is a light at the end of the tunnel!  I know that 5 weeks might not seem a long time for a kitchen remodel, but for what we're having done, it kind of is. I'm getting antsy to get things moved back and organized, because it drives me crazy when I can't find stuff.

But it's looking really good, and the anxiety about how the shelves would look was unfounded.  I really like them!

The grout was supposed to be a light gray, but somehow that didn't get into the contract.  They were going to come back and fix it with the other stuff they have to do, but we actually like the white and think the subway tiles give enough texture to the back splash, so we're keeping it the way it is.

Thanks again Virgin Timber Lumber Co.! If you ever need custom wood working done (shelves, tables, etc.), these are your guys!

There are still a few little things that need to be taken care of, which means we can't fully move back in, but we can start in the areas that they won't need to work on.  And, hopefully, by the end of Tuesday, it'll be really finished.  :-)

 Here are a couple of shots with the lights all on.

This is the small butler's pantry, which is now a beverage station, with a beverage fridge, coffee maker, electric kettle. It's hard to see at this angle, but the fridge is sitting kind of tilted back, so that's another thing they have to fix.

 And here's the other side of the room.  It's not put together, yet, but you see where we're going with this...

There have been a few challenges, which I'll discuss in my next post about lessons learned, but all-in-all, it's been a really good experience.  I think it turned out really nicely, which is good, because I don't think we'll ever do something this big again!