Lizzard Loves Blue Sky Snow Covered Vail

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Baking supplies; from a wonderful baker

I love baking. 

Twin loaves fully cooked in the pan
The dough fully risen ready to bake
I also love when someone thinks of me as "someone who loves baking" because it somehow legitimizes my love. My great friend, CC, is moving in a matter of days (she is an accomplished professional dancer as well as a wonderful baker of extreme deliciousness) to take a new job on the other side of the world. It warms my heart to see someone I hold so dear embarking on such a great adventure. But, as usual, I digress. 


Crusty twin loaves ready to be e
As I mentioned, CC is a wonderful baker, but she is also a very thoughtful friend. She was beginning to pack up her apartment to move her worldly things to a storage unit and realized she was the proud owner of A LOT of baking supplies. Not wanting them to go to waste, but rather to a happy home, CC emailed me to find out if I would like the supplies. A quote from her email that made me smile from ear to ear: "you're the only one i know who may bake as much as i do. i certainly don't want to be throwing away precious baking supplies." CC is right; baking supplies are indeed precious & I was to become the proud owner of a plethora of them! Please don't think that I was lacking in the department - my cabinets stay chock full of the makings for bread, cookies, cake, and scones but that wasn't important to me. The important thing was that CC was giving me a piece of her kitchen that she couldn't store, nor take with her on her new adventure. She knew by giving them to me, the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and decorations would come to life as wonderful treats rather than be thrown in the garbage. 

So to appropriately honor my love of baking I baked a "twin" loaf of bread using some of the new supplies. I formed the dough separately, but cooked them together in 1 pan.....so its sort of a two for one type of boule :) I am looking forward to sharing other baking creations soon. Thank you again CC for sharing your bounty with me!



Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Chalkboard paint

I love chalkboard paint. 

There is White Castle, my home for 2 years!

Who knew back in 2003 when I moved into a college house called "White Castle" (with 11 other people) that I would have my first experience with chalkboard paint? Some forward thinking college woman before me had painted a large portion of the living room wall with chalkboard paint & hung a frame around it. It was our house's place to track bills/expenses & it worked perfectly. You may wonder why it took me so long to try it out! I don't have a great excuse although since I own my home now; it is much easier to do painting projects of any kind. (I have owned my condo for 4 years.....so it still has taken me awhile to get going on this!)



Paint & primer are on!
Chalkboard paint drying
Fast forward 9.5 years to now & chalkboard paint is everywhere! My brother & sister in law painted 2 of the walls in my nephew's bedroom with the stuff and it provides him with some entertainment when he wants it. Pinterest is overflowing with chalkboard paint ideas, which is where I got the idea to paint the inside of my pantry cabinet doors with the stuff.





Almost out of list on the left
Ongoing projects on the right
A moment of love for my pantry cabinets; my Dad gave the cabinets to me, stained them to match my other kitchen cabinets & helped haul them up to the 2nd floor walk up I share with my husband. They give me so much additional storage in my kitchen, which I desperately needed (not to mentioned wanted.......because I love my kitchen and spend lots of time there; I want it to be orderly.)




Pretty colors of chalk
So over the course of a weekend, I taped, primed & painted the inside of my doors. I had the benefit of a recessed area in each door, which gave me a perfect outline of where to paint. I like the natural border or frame the door style gave me. Once I had painted the second coat of paint, I needed to wait 3 days for the paint to be ready for writing. All in all, the project took less than a week, including all of the drying/waiting time. In terms of supplies, I spent $20-$25 on 1 small roller brush set (which included a tray), 1 roll of painters tape, 1 small can of primer (only necessary if you plan to paint on unfinished wood; which the insides of my cabinet doors were), and 1 small can of chalkboard paint. I regret not asking for a paint stir stick at the hardware store........so do my wooden spoons :(

As you can see in the photos, I am using the left side of the pantry for a list of things I'm almost out of and the right side as a place to track ongoing cooking/baking projects. 'Tis the season for stocking up on cookie dough for my freezer and I like to have a list so I don't have to dig through the Ziploc bags in my freezer to remember which dough I've already made! The completed doughs have a check mark in the box (I don't want to erase them until I've finished them all; lest I end up with 4 batches of plain peanut butter cookie dough & no chocolate chocolate chip dough :)

Reused a preserves jar for my chalk!

Please let me know in the comments what you think & if you have any questions about how to do this relatively quick project at home.

I will have another post soon about the pantry reorganization (specifically baking supplies) that happened in the same weekend!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

I love fall.....part II

I love fall enough that it warrants a second post!
Lizzard Loves Fall.Walking on the Geneva Lake path
Lizzard Loves Fall. Fire in the fireplace. Perfection.


Lizzard Loves Fall. Jack-o-lanterns keeping watch from our place
Lizzard Loves Fall. Trick or Treat!



There is just something magical for me about fall;
the weather
the coziness
the hot drinks (spiked apple cider anyone?? I used Apple Pear Brandy last weekend and it was delicious)
the curling up by the fire, the chilly walks along the water
the Halloween costumes on my nephews & neighborhood kids
carving pumpkins & the resulting pumpkin seeds
making Pumpkin Pie Almonds (obviously I found the recipe on Pinterest- here is the link; http://kneadtocook.com/?p=2151)
there are so many reasons this season is the best one there is. 

I hope you all are enjoying fall this year!