Chocolate Sable Cookies

I've been eyeballing this recipe on the Smitten Kitchen website for a week or more and I had to wait to get my dutch process cocoa from Amazon so I finally got a chance over the weekend to make these cookies.  Why grocery stores don't stock dutch cocoa I will never know.  I'm sure I could have found it somewhere but it's easier to wait for the UPS person.

 Anyway, they were worth the wait.  I had a little trouble with the recipe and made a few changes to the original recipe.  I had to add an extra egg yolk and when that didn't make the dough come together I added two more tablespoons of butter and beat the heck out of it.  That did the trick.  I was worried the texture wouldn't be sandy and sable like but they came out just fine.

See...

I have much baking on the agenda for Valentine's day.  These were just for us but I'm making a couple of things for my husbands 4th grade class.  It'll be fun.  Maybe I'll share.

What's Next

My house and my brain are in perpetual states of "what if".  I always want to do something but I need to come up with cost efficient ways to do so. We've had tons of company lately.  Some of the sleep over variety (which was fun) and some just for dinner which was also fun.  The sleep over company made me really get my act together.  The third floor of our house gets the least amount of attention from me so I spent quite a bit of time up there cleaning and organizing and throwing things out.  We managed to score a futon frame for free and I bought a mattress from Amazon so we had something for people to sleep on.  There was no way I was taking in a second hand mattress.  That stuff just screams bedbugs to me.  Ick.  Anyway, after I got that all figured out, I started working on the ugly, gross bathroom.  I scrubbed it until it sparkled and I bought a new, non squishy, toilet seat as well as a new shower curtain and some pretty bath mats.  It still doesn't help the ugly floor but at least it's usable.

My real goal is to get a dormer put in up there but unless I win the powerball that is probably not going to happen.  Last time I got an estimate it was $12,000.  If I want the bathroom redone, which I do, it would probably be another 10k.  I think if I did redo the bathroom I would opt for a double vanity and a stall shower but all of this is just dreaming anyway.  I have two kids to put through school so it's doubtful that any of this will happen any time soon.  Probably the best I'm going to get is to paint the ugly green trim white.  That I could afford.  And maybe a new light fixture too.  

If I knew then what I know now...

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the kitchen, but as with most things, hindsight is 20/20 and there are a couple of things I would probably have done differently.  The biggest thing is that the refrigerator area lost about 3 inches between the plans and the actual building.  Because of this, when you open the freezer door, it bangs into the wall.  Plus you can't really open it all the way which will be a problem should I ever need to pull out the bins, etc to clean.  Knowing me, that won't happen often.  The other thing I would like to have changed is that the refrigerator door bangs into the dishwasher door if it's open at the same time.  This could all have been alleviated if only I had chosen a top/bottom fridge/freezer instead of a side by side.  But it wasn't supposed to be this way so there was no way to know that.  I also would have gotten an electrical outlet in the utility closet in the laundry area.  I'm going to have it put in because you need a place to charge up the little hand held vacuum and stuff.  Speaking of electrical, I would most likely have gotten the dimmer switches over by the desk instead of by the dining area.  It's a tiny thing but I tend to use the ones by the desk more and I like to have all of the switches either up or down.  It's a stupid thing but it's my ocd tendencies! 

Probably the biggest thing is that I might have gotten tile in the kitchen area instead of wood had we known that there was going to be a threshold in the floor the way there is.  See, another thing that couldn't have been helped.  Really, the only reason I would rather have less wood is because the dog is going to wreck it with his stupid nails.  He can't walk without spazzing out and he digs his toes in and makes scratches.  Lots of scratches.  We will have to save up so that when he dies we can have the floors refinished the next day.  The living room is so bad I finally had to take stain on some qtips and paint the deep scratches because they were so unsightly.  I was thinking of getting a runner in the kitchen but it's likely he would wreck that or I'll get it all greasy from cooking.  Hard to say.  I love the wood though and I hate cleaning grout so it's probably all for the best. 

Anyway, here are some pictures from the real camera:





This is what you see when you walk in through the dining room and pantry area

  



If you turned around, this is what you would have just walked through.  Pantry on the right, powder room on the left.

  





This is the family room.  The coffee table is temporary but will probably still be there next year.

   Someday I'll hang up the pictures.  It's such a committment.

Back to School

I'm always anxious to get back to school but there's something sort of sad about it as well.  My oldest started high school yesterday.  I find it hard to believe that he's that old.  The other sad thing about school starting is that my lovely husband has to go back to work and I kind of enjoy when he's home over the summer.  There are never any dishes in the sink when I get home and all of the annoying painting gets done.  This year it was the railings on the porch.  They look really nice too.

We've really been enjoying the kitchen too.  I can't explain how much nicer it is to have space and pretty cabinets with tons and tons of storage and a gigantic island.  Of course there are a couple of things I would change if I could go back but that's a post for another day and the list is really small.

Finally...and why it took me so long to say so.

I'm very, very, very belated in posting this but it's official.  The kitchen is done.  19 weeks and 3 days.  136 days or 3264 hours.  It was officially finished when the painter came for touch ups on June 21st, which was a Thursday.  We had two lovely days of peacefulness and then we were to host my inlaws for Father's Day dinner.  You know what they say about best laid plans?  Yeah, we had a huge monkey wrench thrown at us.  Suffice to say it was a really bad extended family medical problem that required rallying all of the troops to get things done the best we all could.  It's been ongoing since mid June.

Also, I was waiting until I could actually get my stuff together to post pictures at the same time.  That took an additional couple of months.  I finally gave up trying to remember to have everything clean and take pictures with the good camera.  I will someday but this is the iphone version:

19 weeks and still almost done

Someday we'll be completely finished.  I can't believe it's taken so long but little details keep popping up and my contractor is a perfectionist so I'm very pleased even if there are people in and out of my house all the time.  It doesn't really matter since they aren't bugging me.

Last Friday they picked up all of the trash that was left in the back yard.  There were huge blocks of field stone and the sad remnants of my demolished marble mantle back there.  Everything was so heavy that even if I had thought of something to do with it, we would have never been able to move it so I listened to my husband (a first!) and had them cart it all off.  It's sad and I wish I could have used it all but it just wasn't feasible.  They fixed the driveway and mulched around the house.  It's nice back there.  We still need more landscaping but you can only do so much.  I would love to plant those arbor vitae trees around the perimeter of the house but I haven't gotten around to it.  We have some but we could use a bunch more...especially on one side.

We have the floor guys there again today.  A couple of spots by the chimney and pantry area were a little messed up so they've been trying (so far unsuccessfully) to fix them.  Hopefully they'll get it today.  Then I really think we are only waiting for the painter.

We did buy a couch and a chair from Ikea.  I decided that spending lots of money on those things was not smart and the things I bought fit well.  Plus they had a deal where you could get a gift card rebate of $90 on the couch and $40 on the chair so it wasn't bad.  I still need a rug but haven't found anything I like.  I don't want an expensive one.  The kids and evil Sid are rough on the floors.  I got a coffee table off of craig's list.  We're picking it up tomorrow so I'll see how it looks.  Might need paint.

I did end up choosing to spray paint the windsor chairs I have for the kitchen table.  They are now a lovely semi gloss black and look really nice.  I need a rug for under the table as well.  I've been perusing overstock.com because they are cheap and that's what I'm looking for but I want to visit homegoods again before I make a final decision.

I'll have to take some pictures again soon.  I keep meaning to but the end of school is busy and I just haven't had the time.  Maybe the end of the week when everyone is done.  I can't wait.

Is it over yet?

Nope.  Still not done.  It's really only tiny bits of things that need to be finished.  All of the cabinet doors were installed in the laundry area as well as the few that were missing in the kitchen.  I got kitchen stools for the island and the desk and we bought a sofa for the family room.  I'm waiting on a new window that I realized was broken when I went to wash it.  Also the cabinet pulls need to be installed on the new doors.  I need a mirror for over the powder room sink and a chair and some rugs.  We have lots of art work to hang too but I have to wait for the painter to come to do touch ups first.  I figure all in good time but I would really like to not wonder who will be coming into my house every day.  And maybe the dog could stay home for once.

It's been a very long haul but I would do it again in a heart beat.  A nice kitchen makes spending time in it a real pleasure.  There are very few things I would change if I had the opportunity.  I'll have to get things together and post some updated photos when everything is done.  Today is kid #1's 14th birthday and the other one is with the entire 6th grade at camp until Friday.  I hope he has fun.  Kid 1 already is.  He's getting exactly what he wants for dinner (finally) and he already got his big gift this morning.