New Brahm Family Tradition

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Yesterday I decided that I wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Thanksgiving. I'm thinkin' new tradition. I mean, my kids might not actually be mine if they didn't like cinnamon rolls. I'm a fat kid at heart. Really, I am. After my spur of the moment Brahm Family Tradition making, I started scouring the internet for an amazing recipe. Well, I found it, so here I am, after eating my second one, (See, told you- fat kid.) to share the yumminess with you all. I found this recipe, and really only decided on this one because I was curious about the whole potato thing. I mean really, who puts potatoes in cinnamon rolls? Apparently I do. Always. Forever and ever I will put potatoes in my cinnamon rolls. Next time I'm thinking of trying more of a cream cheese type frosting, but the frosting (or glaze, whatever) in this recipe is just peachy. (Or sugary, really.)

Classic Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

• Rolls:
• 1 cup mashed potatoes
• 1 cup reserved potato water
• 3/4 cup butter OR margarine
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 2 envelopes Fleishmann's® Active Dry Yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F)
• 2 eggs
• 8 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, or more if needed
•  
• Filling:
• 1/2 cup butter OR margarine, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Spice Islands® Ground Saigon Cinnamon
•  
• Icing:
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter OR margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon Spice Islands® 100% Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract
• 5 tablespoons milk, or more as needed

Directions

1. Combine potatoes, potato water, butter, sugar, salt and hot water in large mixing bowl. Stir until butter melts; set aside and let cool. Combine yeast and 1/2 cup warm water in small bowl. Let rest 5 minutes. Add eggs, 2 cups flour and yeast mixture to potato mixture. Beat until well mixed. Continue adding flour, 1 cup at a time until soft dough forms.
2. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic (about 4 to 6 minutes), OR knead with electric mixer using dough hook. Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover.
3. Let rise in a warm, draft free area about 1 hour, until doubled in size. Punch dough down; divide in half.
4. Roll one portion of dough on a lightly floured surface to a 12 x 18-inch rectangle. Spread with half the butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle half of the mixture over surface. Roll up tightly lengthwise, sealing edges. Cut into 12 slices. Place in greased 13 x 9-inch pan. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover.
5. Let rise 30 to 45 minutes until nearly doubled.
6. Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
7. Cool for 15 minutes. Combine icing ingredients and drizzle over rolls.
8. Makes 24 rolls.

Footnotes

• 2 medium potatoes yield about 1 cup mashed potatoes.

Nutritional Information 

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 404 | Total Fat: 13.5g | Cholesterol: 51mg

Entry re-do. Or really just "Entry Do."

Since we moved into our house a year ago, I've been wanting to do something with our entryway. You know, like make it look like an actual entryway and not just a short hallway with a door at the end? Plan A was to do board and batten, but I couldn't get away with just doing the batten and painting it white since our walls are textured and that would just look weird. Plan B was beadboard, which I still might do someday, but I wanted something cheaper and easier for now.

A couple weeks ago The Lovely Neighbor Jan and I went to Urban Salvage in downtown Fresno, which is by the way, my new favorite place, and along with a few other things, some of which I have no idea what I'm going to do with, I picked up two sets of shutters. I've been looking for old (cheap) shutters for a year. These, were $2 a pair. SCORE! After bringing them home, I decided that I finally knew what I wanted to do with the entry. Turns out, that one pair of shutters matched the height of an old window I had sitting in a closet. The window used to be in our guest bathroom, but I'd replaced it with something else a little while ago. I painted the window a cream color with some $2 ReStore paint from my paint stash, and then used a dark walnut glaze over it to age it a little bit. The bottom pane used to be a mirror, and the top was just a regular window, but I wanted something a little more functional for an entry so I put the mirror on top, and painted the bottom glass with chalkboard paint. I'd planned on not doing anything with the shutters, but after I got them up, they just didn't look right, so I dry brushed them with some of the leftover grey/blue paint from our bedroom.

The coat hooks I made out of some scrap wood I had in the garage that had come off of a pallet I'd found in a dumpster. In the process of making these I learned how to put in a new blade on a circular saw, and how to use a circular saw. I am woman, hear me roar. Again, I painted them with ReStore paint from my stash. The actual coat hooks I picked up from Lowes for $4 a piece. They're in the doorknob aisle, in case you're ever looking for them. Took me about 20 minutes to figure that one out. Fun fact: The hooks in the bathroom aisle cost 3 times as much as the hooks in the doorknob aisle. (Ok, not fun fact. Just an irritating fact.)

I saw a picture somewhere on Pretty Handy Girl's blog of some similar coat hooks that she'd made and adapted it to what would work for us. Her version had a lot more scrap pieces of wood put together with several hooks. I wanted ours to frame the window, and also have some hooks low enough for the kids to reach by themselves, so I made four individual coat hooks.

The garland came from my bookshelf. I think I've finally found a permanent home for that thing. At least until I decorate for Christmas...

The "Family" thing I found on Pinterest. Well, sort of. They used yarn, I used twine, 'cause I just love twine.

Source: cfabbridesigns.com via Hannah on Pinterest

I wish I had a before picture of the entry, but really, there was nothing, so just close your eyes and pretend like the inside of your eyelids are a light grey/blue color, and you'll get the idea.

Why I've been gone

With this post the world will see just how obsessive I can get when I want something done. I get a little nuts. Just ask Husband. Our yard was a mess. Last winter it looked okay because of all the rain, but it wasn't anything to write home about. The grass was green, and that really was about it. Then spring and summer happened, and without working sprinklers the grass died. It was really really dead. The weather recently got cooler, so I set out to fix the sprinklers. With the help of The Lovely (and knowledgeable) Neighbor Jan, I'm now an expert on most things sprinklers. I fixed all the broken sprinklers and pipe, then went on Sprinkler Search 2011 to find all the sprinkler heads that were broken and/or buried so far underground that the water pressure wasn't making them show themselves. After finding all the sprinklers, I realized that I still wasn't getting the coverage that I wanted, so then I set out to put more sprinklers in.

Lots of these were dug. I ended up laying a little over 50' of PVC.

Now we have good coverage. I put in 5 new ones on this side of the house where there were none, and 2 more in the main part of the backyard where sprinkle was lacking.

Next I started in on the oleander bushes. ALL of them. We have about 8 of them, I think, and they're all enormous. Well, they were.

Now they're a little more tree like, and they're about to bloom again, so I'm kinda looking forward to that.

Here's the evidence of my labors. All this is hanging out in the little strip of no-man's-land on one side of the house.

I noticed pretty soon after I was done hacking those up, that some flowerbeds would be nice....

....all the way around the yard. I'm about 3/4 of the way done.

This is where I stopped. For now. Until later today.

Problem was, that after I loosened up the dirt next to the fence, then the dog next door (Not The Lovely Neighbor Jan's dog) started digging under our fence to come visit Bob. That was frustrating, but it wasn't a HUGE problem until I got out of the shower yesterday and the dog had come THROUGH our screen door, pooed in our living room, and was in the hallway to greet me. That was it.

Last night I put down 15 12x12x1 pavers just below the surface of the dirt. That dog isn't coming through there no way no how. That's Bob, by the way. Not Neighbor Dog. Neighbor Dog will never be seen on this side of the fence. Ever.

Now I'll show you some of the planting I've done.

Here next to the patio I've planted a new white rose bush, several garden mums, an aster, and some other thing that's pink that I found on clearance. Farther around the side of the house are two more rose bushes, a lavender one, and a red one. I've also planted some morning glories up against the side of the house, near the lavender roses, but I'm not sure if they're gonna pop up or not.

See! White rose is about to bloom!

I also made a big pot out of pavers and put a delphinium in it.

Around the side of the house I planted some calla lilies.

Noah also helped me plant some early snow glories, and wild tulips that hopefully will come up in the spring.

This is my new baby lemon tree. I'm excited about this.

Now to the front yard.

This is half of the shared yard between The Lovely Neighbor Jan and I. She planted all the stuff here. The only contributions I've made to this side is cleaning and sealing the wagon thing, and painting the little girl. Well, there's one other thing, but I'll get to that in a little bit. Lovely Neighbor Jan has planted broccoli, cabbage, mums, begonias, day lilies, and some other stuff that I don't know what the names are. I do have some garlic that I'm going to plant here, I just haven't done it yet.

A close up of the little garden girl.

This is my other contribution. I started some morning glories and moon flowers from seed and then planted them out by the fence. Since we're both cheap, instead of buying a trellis or something for them to climb, I just put some fishing line up for them with a few nails.

My side of the yard isn't so pretty, but that's mostly because everything is still young and small. The Lovely Jan gave me lots of stuff to put over here. (Free!!!) I've planted morning glories, moon flowers, day lilies, elephant ears, society garlic, early snow glories, daffodils, poppies, mums, and Japanese fountain grass. The rose here has a bunch of new growth and lots of buds on it that I'm excited about. I've only ever seen one blossom on this thing. I feel like I almost know how to take care of it now.

:

Noah likes to hide behind all the bushes while I'm working in the garden. :)

I also found some of these things on clearance. They're supposed to grow ridiculously fast and hopefully will cover up this stupid sliver of ugly next to our sidewalk.

I also fixed all the sprinklers in the front yard, so our tree has been watered and is about to bloom! Yay!

Happy fall everyone!

Mmmm...Potato Soup

This is the best potato soup I've ever had. This soup is a big reason that I look forward to cooler weather. It'd probably be good no matter what time of year it is, but I'm a little weird about soup in the summer. Just can't do it. I made this for lunch today and thought I should share the love. Noah has loved this soup since he was just a baby, but he never remembers it since I only make it in the fall and winter. This year, since he's talking more, he's dubbed it "New Soup." He ate it with a piece of butter bread in one hand to dip with, and a spoon in the other hand to eat with between dips. That's my boy. :D Without further adieu, the Cheesiest Potato Soup recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup diced onion
• 2 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 3/4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (I double)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in potatoes and broth, bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
2. Puree potato mixture in a blender or food processor or using an immersion blender; return to pot over medium heat. Stir in cream, cheese, dill, pepper, salt and cayenne. Bring to a low boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 minutes.

I'm still alive...really, I am

The last month or so has been busy around here. Not so much because of running around with the kiddos, but because of all the projects I've been into. It has cooled down a little bit here, so I've been able to spend more time (comfortably) outside, which has been fun. I've always loved to be outside, and thankfully, the little boys do too.

Since it's cooled off, and the plants around here have decided to show small signs of life, I've decided to take on putting in flower beds and fixing all the sprinklers in the backyard. The sprinkler project turned out to be more of a "if you give a mouse a cookie" type of thing, because to get to the shrub sprinklers repaired meant I had to cut back all the shrubs...of which there are many that look like they haven't been touched in years. Then we had Sprinkler Search 2011 where I ended up following the PVC underground to see if there were sprinklers that had been covered up by dirt. I ended up finding two, but still wasn't quite getting the coverage I wanted, so after getting all of the sprinklers repaired, I put in almost 40' of PVC pipe and put in 4 new sprinklers off of the existing lines. I still need to put in two more, but I ran out of pipe. Bummer. Until I make it out to get more, I'm stuck.

My neighbor has been helping with all of this because she's awesome like that. She's also teaching me how to garden. It's been...about 3 weeks since she helped me put in a flower bed, and, knock-on-wood, I haven't killed anything yet. I think some of the mums might be on their way out, but there's still hope, right? Just the yellow ones though- the white ones are doing just fine for some reason.

I've also started working on a Master Bedroom make-over. I'm about half way done with that as I'm doing it in phases so that I don't have to dish out all the moo-la at once.

All this along with cooking, cleaning, and attempting to keep up with laundry, and everyone being sick for two weeks has kept me away from the blog for awhile, but soon, I promise, I'll take pictures of the madness and give you all a real update. Until then, cheerio!

Full Housewifery Disclosure

Today at Life of a Housewife, I'll be letting you in on a few embarrassing secrets. First off, on my drivers license, it says I'm 5' 3." I'm not actually 5' 3," but 5' 2.75." Secondly, I occasionally use my lack of height to uh...well, you could say, play dumb. My mom is also short, and also used to occasionally play dumb. For her, it was the top of the refrigerator. Who knew what was up there, but she couldn't see it, (and neither could I, for all that goes,) so what she didn't know, couldn't hurt her. We keep our refrigerator pretty much cleared off, but I have my own version of her refrigerator.

I've mentioned in previous posts that our house is a little...uh, quirky. Well, part of that quirkiness is this little ledge thing that's above the oven. I understand why it's there, but I don't understand why it's there. If that makes sense. This ledge, is my refrigerator. The picture above is taken exactly from my eye level. See, I have no idea what's up there. Every once in awhile, I'll think that maybe I should actually drag a chair over to see what's up there, but then I think, "Do I really want to know?" and never do it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, today was the day. I gathered up the courage to stand up on a chair and see what everyone over eh, 5' 5" has seen for oh, about 9 months....but who's counting? Let me tell you, it was not pretty. Ready? Brace yourselves....

Ahhhhh!!!!!! The horrors! To think of all the people that have come over to our house and seen this. Ick. Sorry, everyone! I don't even know what all was up there, but I'm pretty sure it'd been up there for years. It was, shall we say, gooey, with a little bit of fuzz. Kinda like a rotten peach mixed with tar. Oh, and it smelled a little funky too. Although, come to think of it, so would a rotten peach mixed with tar, so we'll just stick with that description. While Noah was playing, and William was exploring the kitchen, I went ahead and grabbed my spray bottle of water/vinegar, my new-found love, and went to town. I even brought out the big guns, aka baking soda, for this one. Twenty minutes of scrubbing, a little vacuuming with my Dust-Buster, and it was all clean.

Ta-da! Not even a hint of grey....or fuzz. Then it was time to clean up, which brings me to the next part of the story. Last week we went on a little excursion to Target to pick up a spray bottle. I, being the Best Mommy Ever, complete with the cape, grabbed an extra spray bottle because I knew Noah would like to play with it. It holds more water than a squirt gun, and sprays farther than most the ones that he could use anyways.

This is my spray bottle with the vinegar/water solution in it. Apparently, while I was scrubbing away on my perch, Noah was paying very close attention to what I was doing, and when I went into the living room, I found this.

I couldn't help but laugh...and grab the camera. :D He must have thought the ottoman/toy boxwas dirty. He's got his spray bottle, just like mine, he managed to swipe the baking soda when I wasn't looking, and he had the Dust Buster, which I did give to him, because he's not old enough to know that he's not supposed to like vacuuming.

This just made me laugh even more. :)

Now you all know my secrets- I'm not actually 5' 3," I play dumb occasionally, and I don't hover over my kids ever second of every day.

If you give a mouse a cookie... (or a light fixture)

Since we moved in to our house, I've wanted to replace the light fixture above our kitchen sink. It would be fine if say, it were still 1980, but (thankfully) it's not. My neighbor confirmed for me today that it is in fact the original fixture, only, it was an upgrade, because hers was just a plain white milkglass, and mine was textured. Wooooooo-wheeee! If I were to try to sell it today, the I would describe it as "art-deco" code word for "ugly." (Sorry all of you art-deco lovers out there. I just don't get it.)

Back to the story. I've been wanting to upgrade it to a pendant light, but didn't want to dish out the moo-la for it. Instead, I've been checking the Habitat Re-Store hoping to find one there. This last trip, I found one! One I actually liked too. Only the mounting plate was missing. I figured I cou go next door to Lowes, and pick one up for a couple bucks, so I went ahead and bought it. I thought wrong.

You see, the light fixture manufacturer hates me. This particular pendant light, is hung on the mounting plate from the sides of the canopy, which means that it needs a special mounting plate. Grrr... While waiting (...and waiting...and waiting.....) for someone at Lowes to help me, I happened to notice in the clearance section that there was a light similar to mine, that had the mounting plate that I needed. Not cool man, not cool- having what I need, but attached to something I don't. When Mr. Lowes Helper Guy told me that he didn't have anything like what I needed, and didn't know where I could get one, I showed him the plate attached to the clearance light that I'd found to explain to him that that is what I need. Mr. Lowes Helper Guy then told me that since I only needed the mounting plate, and not the whole fixture, he could mark down the clearance light from the $13.99 that is was priced at, to just a couple bucks, just for me, and that's exactly what he did.

I thought that now I'd be all set to put up my new lamp. How wrong I was. After taking down my old light, I discovered that the old electrical box in my ceiling was no longer completely in the ceiling. It was hanging out past the ceiling by about 3/4 of an inch, which meant that putting up my light had to wait yet another day.

Yesterday, on my way to the gym, I stopped at OSH (my favorite of the three home-improvement stores because I never have to hunt down a Mr. Helper Guy- they (plural) come to me) to pick up an old work box for the ceiling, and then this morning while William took his morning nap, I put it in, and finally got to put up my new light.

This is what is left of the old box. I broke it out with pliers because that's how I roll. There's probably a better way to do it, but I have, at this point, a limited number of tools, so this is how I do it. Don't worry, I wore gloves since there was insulation falling out of the ceiling. Into my sink.

The new box all put in and flush with the ceiling. Imagine that! As you can see, the ceiling still needs some work. The old light fixture had damaged the ceiling, so I patched that already, but now I need to patch around the box and do the whole spray-the-texture-stuff thing to make it all blend in before I paint it. Oh, and I need to get paint. Minor detail.

The new light, all semi-flush like it's supposed to be. Just think how much better it'll look once I finish painting around the canopy? I left the tag on so that I know what kind of light bulb to get, but after I get one, it'll be coming off. Next kitchen project- painting the cabinets. I'm thinking fall would be a good time for that. You know, when it's below 100 degrees?

Oh, how I love thee

This little shelf started out in the garbage one Saturday morning, only to be put out at a yardsale later that day to see if anyone wanted her. I drove by that particular yardsale, and stopped ONLY because I saw this lonely little shelf leaned up against the house. That's how this shelf ended up coming home with me. I've been excited about this one, but obviously not excited enough to actually take pictures of it and put it up for sale. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to keep it, for no other reason than to just look at the knob on it. I love the knob on it. Tonight was the night however, that I took pictures, and put it up for sale. This is the shelf that is the button to my Etsy Store ( The Shabby Corner) up there on the right. I like it so much, it's there always on my blog. Now for the unveiling-