Domestic Goddesses

Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Wonder of Contact Paper

So Mike bought a roll of contact paper a couple of months ago to line some of our kitchen shelves with and give me something a little more pleasing to look at when I open the cabinet up. We have a healthy amount left, and I've been eyeing up the wall spaces behind my sink and stove. I think I may have to investigate further.

The paper is greyish-blue and looks pebbled, if that makes sense. My kitchen is currently yellow with french blue doors on the cabinets. Will I mbe making my kitchen look even more like a hot mess? Could be. But since I'm dying for a change, perhaps now is the time to find out.

Bathroom - that door. It's peeled (courtesy of me and my middle of the night projects) and chipped and my darling husband keeps blathering about how he'll get the super in to do it. So I chip away at it a little more every time I'm in there - OCD, much? If there's one thing I've learned, it's that if I don't just do it, it'll look like a Salvation Army.

I think the next series of Girls' Night Outs should involve us gathering at one home at a time and working on renovations. Anyone with me?

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Carrot Cake Bars a Success!

I finally made some carrot cake bars from a Cooking Light recipe that I've been meaning to get to for a couple of years now (I have a lot of recipes.) The recipe is very easy to make and they come out very tasty. No cream cheese frosting, but if you really can't enjoy the full carrot cake experience without it, take some cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract, mix it with some powdered sugar, and mix until it's nice and blendy. Refrigerate it for about 10 minutes until it's at a nice spreading consistency and then knock yourself out.

Here's the carrot cake recipe (makes about 12 servings):

Ingredients:
* 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons stick margarine or butter, softened
* 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 large egg whites
* 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
* 1 1/2 cups regular oats
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup shredded carrot
* 1/2 cup raisins
* Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
Beat sugar and margarine at medium speed of a mixer (note: I used a hand mixer; you don't need to chuck the recipe if you don't have a KitchenAid) until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add buttermilk, vanilla, and egg whites; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (flour through salt); gradually add to sugar mixture, beating just until blended. Stir in carrot and raisins.

Pour batter into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 33 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 12 equal squares and enjoy!

Weight Watcher fans, this should be about 2-3 points per bar. Enjoy.

NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 121(17% from fat); FAT 2.3g (sat 0.5g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 3.1g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 68mg; SODIUM 138mg; FIBER 2g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 23.3g

TV Parties

I swear, if Lost didn't premiere on a Wednesday and two days before Battlestar Galactica, I'd have a Lost season premiere party. Can you imagine how much fun that would be? You could go crazy on the luau gear. I still think I may order this just to have:

What home doesn't need their own tiki totem pole?

I could serve coconuts and coconut-dusted goodness, pineapple, and heck - since Dharma drops food on the island all the time, I could even serve No Frills foods.

Oh man... why does Lost have to be on a school night?

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Geek Party!

Okay, so I've committed to throwing a party for the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica this year. What should I do to prepare for this momentous occasion? If it were a Lost party, I'd totally do the luau type thing, have tiki torches, and the occasional black mist monster come out and scare people.

Season premiere is October 6th. I need ideas, people. Decor, food - c'mon.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Walls...

So, I have some issues with my hallway walls... they were the first we painted when we moved in, and we went with sort of an off-white. They're starting to get a little dingy, and I wipe down the high traffic areas on the corners and stuff, but need some tips on scuff marks, and so forth.

Maybe it's just time for a new coat of paint.

Pimp My Cubicle!


I'm thinking I need this.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Waffles!

So I love waffles. And while I do have a freezer full of Vans and Eggos, I love fresh waffles. There is nothing like biting into a fresh waffle, with buttery, syrupy goodness. So I decided to listen to the newest commandment from Alton and make my own freezer waffles.

I don't have flour in the house currently (hey, cut me some slack - I was doing a lot of cooking and baking and ran out) so I went with a mix. Don't judge me, I still cooked! I had Jiffy baking mix in the cupboard from my Chicken & Biscuits recipe and whipped up a waffle batter, then busted out my waffle iron. Yes, I do actually have one. Got it for my bridal shower eight years ago and can probably count on one hand the number of times I've used it - until now, because waffles really aren't that difficult to make. I was just uneducated before.

A quick scoop in the center of each waffle area and I was rocking. (Don't forget to spray the waffle iron - I did the first time around, and had to clean the darned things with a toothbrush before I could try again.) Those buttery, syrupy beauties melted in my mouth. Mmm...

I let the rest of the batch, about 8, cool off and zipped them into a freezer bag, stashing them in the freezer. This morning, I decided to treat myself to their syrupy goodness once more, and popped 'em in the toaster.

They warmed up a little stiff for me, but I seem to have horrible luck with toasters. I may try to warm them in the oven next time - I'll keep you posted. But they were still awesome.

Monday, August 14, 2006

The Great Toss-Out

So yesterday I decided that I have been saving stuff that I am most likely never watching or listening to again because of the warm fuzzy feelings I had when I watched/listened to them. My living room cannot afford the real estate taken up by these fuzzy memory avatars, so I started what I affectionately call "The Great Toss-Out".

I fought every packrat tendency I had and parted with over a hundred cassettes (high school mix tapes - ah, the days where I'd put Kiss and Blancmange on the same cassette... nothing like hearing Heaven's On Fire and Lose Your Love one after the other) and VHS tapes.

No, I did NOT toss any of my Duran Duran recorded interviews. I have some sense of decorum.

Out went the video compilations recorded from Friday Night Videos 20 years ago. Out went videotapes worn so thin that it would be a hazard to even play them these days. And when it was over, I felt pretty good. I have an extra cabinet now, so I'll stash some books in there until the next great purge. I still have some cassettes left, but I want to try to listen to those to see how the sound quality is and decide whether or not to keep them.

Slowly - but surely - I'm finally kicking into gear with getting my apartment to look like I want it to look, and not like a Salvation Army firesale.