What I Want Now

One of my favorite parts of Lucky magazine was where all the various editors show the stuff they want right now. Lucky is no longer nearly as cool as it used to be, but the part where each editor picks a trend and shows a bunch of different variations is still one of my favorite parts of the magazine, so I thought I'd make my own version here. Anyway, what I want right now is lacy, organic-looking, gold jewelry. I'd love to find some more affordable variations.

Clockwise from top left:
Yayoi Forest Lacy Hemisphere ring, $236 from Catbird NYC
Yayoi Forest Lacy Triangle necklace, $130 from Catbird NYCErica Molinari branch bangle, $1,580 from Fragments
Celebes Ring, $198 from the Sundance catalog
Paper Fig Shell Necklace: $300 from Catbird NYC
Alex Woo Narissa cuff with diamonds, $7,878 from AlexWoo.com (yeah, not gonna happen)

Thanksgiving Breakfast

Because our kitchen is so small, I usually let Chris do his thang on Thanksgiving, since it actually does more harm than good when I get in there. But this year I did a bit of cooking just so he didn't have to do it all.

The brother-in-law announced that he'd bring a chocolate rum torte for dessert, but since Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without a pumpkin I decided to make one. I stuck to the recipe on the back of the Libby's pumpkin and just added 2 and a half teaspoons of Trader Joe's ginger spread to liven it up a bit.

For appetizers, I made my favorite cream cheese stuffed dates topped with walnuts. I also topped some brie with the same TJ's ginger spread to smear on crackers (good and EASY).

For breakfast, I made maple cornbread topped with bacon and scallions. For extra flavor, we added a bit more maple syrup just to top it off. So. damn. good.

photo courtesy of Bryan, recipe courtesy of domino magazine

Maple Cornbread with Bacon and Scallions

2 tbsp. butter, plus 4 tbsp. melted
8 slices bacon, cut into ¼" pieces
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1½ cups whole milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup maple syrup
1½ cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. double-acting baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 425°. Grease a 10" cast-iron skillet (if it's new, season first according to the manufacturer's instructions) with 2 tablespoons butter. Heat a medium-size frying pan over medium heat, add the bacon and cook until it begins to get crispy, about 6 minutes. Add the scallions and continue to cook, stirring often, for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. In a large bowl, combine the milk, egg, maple syrup and 4 tablespoons melted butter. In a separate bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir with a fork. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and stir gently to combine. It's okay if some lumps remain—do not overmix. Pour the batter into the buttered skillet, sprinkle the cooked bacon and scallions on top, and bake until set in the middle, about 25 minutes.

I'm Pretty Sure This Will Cause Some Trouble for my Dad

We made more much-needed progress on the kitchen today: we needed to put in two more base cabinets to make some room in the living room before we host 8 people for Thanksgiving on Thursday. These two cabinets made us a bit nervous because it dealt with the sink, which means plumbing is involved! And, really, who doesn't love plumbing???

We started off the morning by installing the ribbed glass panels in the wall cabinet:

(The drywall has since been patched.) I'm pretty sure we had this done before 8 am, but who's keeping track?

Next we removed the countertop and took out the two base cabinets. Not too difficult. And installing the new base cabinets really wasn't all that bad either. We had everything installed and the plumbing reattached by 4 pm.

Here's the end result, which I'm pretty sure is going to mean a complete kitchen remodel for my parents in either of their two kitchens, since I'm pretty sure this is what my mom's wanted for the past 15 years at least.

We have two (count them, TWO!) drawers that fully pull out. Daddy, are you taking notes?

And...behold! A doo-hickey that holds the sponges!!!

That, my friends, is living.

Poised to Strike!

Tee hee! This cat reminds me of the Ol'.

Kitchen Remodel Update #1

Last weekend we broke ground on the kitchen remodel. We removed two base cabinets and replaced them with two glorious new base cabinets filled with drawers, drawers, and more drawers. We have acres of space now. Which is weird because we're not altering the footprint of the kitchen or really even changing the layout all that much.

We'll do two more base cabinets this weekend so we can make room in the living room for the 8 people who'll be at our house for Thanksgiving next week. Pressure? Nah!

Last night, Chris and I replaced our first wall cabinet. We totally thought we had it done on the first try only to remember that we hadn't left room for the piece of moulding that goes around the top. So we took the cabinet down and tried again. We thought we had it fixed on the second try, only to find out that the door wouldn't open because we had butted the cabinet right up to the wall next to it. So we had to take it down again. The third time was a charm.

Anywho...here are some pics. We installed some drawer pulls tonight, which was more difficult than we expected (expect to hear that phrase repeatedly over the next few weeks). And because it's officially Beaujolais Day, we celebrated:

Before

New cabinets. The glass isn't installed yet, but LOOK!!! New hardware!!!

Drawer pulls and wine

Kitchen Inspiration

Here's the design board I created for our kitchen. The kitchen cabinets are white and will have ribbed glass inserts on the top cabinets. We're going to paint the walls the sage-y green below. And we already have the red KitchenAid mixer and steak knives (love!), which I think will complement the green nicely. I'm going to make some curtains for the windows in the Amy Butler fabrics. And finally, we'll be getting dark grey Corian countertops and we're still trying to figure out the backsplash. Huzzah. I'll post tons of before and after pics, so don't you worry.

Hyperventilating

Well, as you can see from Chris's blog, the new kitchen cabinets took over our house yesterday. I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed, so why not just really push myself over the edge and make a list of everything I'd like to do in our house?

1. Kitchen Remodel
2. Install crown moulding in hallway, guest rooms
3. Patch kitchen ceiling and re-paint (done)
4. Patch living room ceiling and re-repaint
5. Paint kitchen green
6. Install moulding in breakfast nook
7. Replace screen doors
8. Repaint front door
9. New carpet in bedrooms
10. New Pergo in hallway
11. Stain front and back decks
12. Add window to master bedroom
13. Sitting area for master bedroom (under new window)
14. New closet system in master bedroom
15. New desk in office
16. Buy computer desk for guest bedroom
17. Buy flat screen monitor for computer desk in guest bedroom
18. New entertainment center
19. New tv some day
20. Recover living room chair

Thank You For Your Patients

This post has nothing to do with anything (as opposed to every other post on this blog, which is oh-so-relevant), but this picture makes me laugh.