Seven Minute Pink Coconut Frosting

Get ready for pinkness.

1 1/2 c sugar
2 egg whites (the ones you saved from making the cake)
2 T light corn syrup (again, something I randomly had around and was excited to get to use)
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/3 c water
Pinch salt

Put all ingredients in a metal bowl that will fit into a pot except for the vanilla and salt. You're going to double boil the mixture as you're making it. Fill the pot with a couple inches of water and bring to a boil. Before setting the mixture into the boiling water, mix with a hand mixer so ingredients combine. Then place in the boiling water and mix until fluffy and white, about 7 minutes. Hence the name. At the end, mix in about 4 drops of red food coloring to get a light pink (use more if you like!). Remove frosting from double boiler and stir in about 1/2 a cup of shredded coconut.

Here's the trick: it really is easier to have a hand mixer (rather than a stand mixer) for this one. Basically I ended up taking the bowl back and forth from the boiling water, whisking it while it heated, and then running it back to the stand mixer to mix at high speed for a couple minutes. It worked out anyway, but I got pretty tired by the end.

Coconut Layer Cake

Stuck inside with a new kitchen = baking a complicated cake! Right now the parts are all made, just not assembled. While I'm waiting, I'll post the recipe.

10 T butter, softened
2 c cake flour
1/2 c shredded coconut (which I had in the house randomly!)
1 1/4 c sugar
3 eggs, 2 egg yolks (reserve whites for frosting)
1 t vanilla extract
1/4 almond extract
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
3/4 c half and half


Preheat oven to 350. Since mine is testy, I preheated it for awhile. Butter the pans (sides and bottom) and flour them. You can also cut a circle of wax or parchment paper for them. I used two 9" round pans; you can use what you have but you'll need to adjust the cooking time up or down, depending.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter then gradually add the sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time. Make sure to keep scraping the sides until it's well mixed. Add in the vanilla and almond extracts and salt.

Next, mix together dry ingredients (coconut, flour, baking soda) alternate adding the flour and milk by hand, mixing just until smooth. Overmixing the cake can make the finished product more tough.

Scoop the batter evenly into the two pans and spread out using a spatula. You may want to "spank" the bottom to make it spread evenly. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake and make frosting (next post!).

To make the cake extra rich, I'm also making vanilla pudding to put in between the layers. YUM.

Snowed in with a new kitchen!

Well, we both will be home tomorrow as the federal government and my university are closed tomorrow. And we're supposed to get five more inches of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh well, at least I can cook (if we ever get to a grocery store again).

So, in the meantime, some new pics.

1. The finished product! Well, except for the shelf that goes between the stove and the hood. Not sure about that!

From Renovation

2. My beloved apron sink (I believe you saw this already).

From Renovation

3. Another view, from the door to the outside.

From Renovation

4. The island from the dining room.

From Renovation

5. The powder room (right now sans toilet)

From Renovation

6. And finally... this was actually early on Saturday morning, we got at least another 6-8 inches after this!

From 2010-02-06

Kitchen Remodel: Almost There

All that's left in the remodel is waiting for the granite countertops to be cut, a few paint touch ups, and the bathroom floor. We bought our tile floor at Amicus Green Building Center (the same place where we got the cork.) Although I really like the products Amicus carries and what they stand for - green building materials - their service is a little uneven. Some people are really knowledgeable while others are kind of like, "You totally just interrupted my blogging/The customer is always annoying." We think they need to communicate more regularly with their suppliers to make sure that the materials arrive on time.

That said they have some good stuff. We got some clay for our basement walls (one of the products they didn't know much about) and the beautiful cork in the kitchen (one that they did). Here are the latest pictures!

1. A glimpse into the kitchen:

From Renovation

2. The new cabinets

From Renovation

just as a point of reference, here's what this angle used to look like:

From Kitchen

3. A good look at the cork floor, the apron front sink:

From Renovation

4. New built-in shelves in the dining room

From Renovation

5. Better view of the apron sink:

From Renovation

6. View of the whole kitchen, with the rubbed bronze knobs and pulls:

From Renovation

Can't wait for the finished product! I'll also post where we bought the various items.

Kitchen Remodel: Phase ??

Lights! Color! Cabinets! It's all here! I've been a little lax this past week - most of you know I've had health issues so although I'm definitely on the mend, I have to work pretty hard to "listen to myself" and know when it's a day I need to just rest. So, I'm going to post the developments in stages for you. We're almost done - 2 weeks! Amazing! Once we put some finishing touches on the house ourselves, such as grounding some of the electrical circuits, getting vent covers, painting some woodwork, putting up pictures, and cleaning, we'll be ready to have a true housewarming party.

I have to say, I LOVE my new kitchen. And it's not even done yet!

So where were we? You'd seen the "before" and the post-demo. Now its time for the fun to begin!

1.After the framing, the drywalling.

the kitchen:

From Renovation

and the powder room:

From Renovation

2. Post-painting

In this picture, you can see the arch that we created between the dining room and kitchen, the frame of the island, and the wall cabinet boxes as well as the Colonial Revival Green of the kitchen paint.

From Renovation

Just for comparison... This was the entrance to the OLD kitchen.

From Kitchen

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

RMSF is a tick-borne illness, like Lyme disease. According to the CDC, between 250-1200 cases have been reported annually in the past 50 years, although it is possible that many go unreported. Because there are so few cases, it's kind of hard to get any information about the disease. I was diagnosed with RMSF (as well as Lyme) in mid-November, after I fainted and went to the hospital with an arrhythmic tachycardia on Nov. 12th. At the time (and really, to this day) although my heart has been weakened to the point of being classified as having congestive heart failure, no one has really confirmed that RMSF is the culprit.

I've found a source that says RMSF leads to myocarditis and congestive heart failure in some patients. However, I never had a rash, remember a tick bite, or had any of the other symptoms. And they did a heart biopsy and found nothing in my heart. Of course, this was after a course of doxycycline that most likely killed the disease.

It's frustrating being an anomaly and not having anyone be able to tell you what's wrong with you. The good news out of all of this is that I seem to be improving, and if you offer knowing what's wrong with me versus geting better, I'll take getting better. I just hope that the "parts of my heart that aren't beating as strongly as they should" start to heal. (In quotes b/c that's how the docs explained it to me.)

I could write at least this much on what it's like to live with a chronic illness and how it impacts every small aspect of your life, but I'll save it for another day. The good news is that most likely, it will be temporary for me, unlike for many others with lupus and other diseases.

Interesting Kitchen...

A faux aging glaze from Ralph Lauren (via @ATColor) created the aged look in this kitchen. You can see more here. I dislike the monochrome white-on-white with the walls and backsplash all being white, but other than that I think it's a neat effect. I wouldn't use it on my brand new cabinets, but I might use it on the dining room furniture we're about to paint. And by about to, I'm hoping it happens before 2011. It might be an easy way to paint and not have to work too hard to age the paint.

Find the glaze here.

Bathroom Style

So for the "cozy" powder room, I am making it more interesting thanks to my sister-in-law. She had remnants of the wallpaper they used in their dining room. Although there wasn't enough to wallpaper the whole room, I'm going to make a collage of matching frames, hopefully 8"x10", arranged in a 3x3 mosaic.

Here's the wallpaper:














I'm going to pair it with Duron's Grays Harbor paint.

Kitchen Reno: Stage 1

The basic overall plan is this: knock down the wall between the dining room and kitchen, add a powder room, add an island with the sink and dishwasher. Doing so creates a lot more counter and cabinet space.

1. Ready for demo!!!

From Renovation

2. The new wall. The arch between the dining room and kitchen will mirror the one between the living room and dining room.

From Renovation

3. The wall creating the new powder room. It's one of those rooms people will call "cozy" in real estate descriptions, i.e. it's freaking tiny.

From Renovation

4. Another glance at the space.

From Renovation

5. And another. Love the super safe hanging electrical wires.

From Renovation

Kitchen Renovation: The BEFORE

Our kitchen is being renovated! How exciting.

Here's some before shots:

1. Looking from the (messy) dining room into the kitchen. Messy mostly because we have no kitchen cabinets since June, the former ones being rusted out and generally not having been cleaned for, oh, 10 years or so.

From Kitchen

2. Looking directly from inside the dining room into the kitchen.

From Kitchen

3. The kitchen. We ripped out the top cabinets which would have been over the sink before we moved in. I couldn't take them, they were gross.

From Kitchen

4. Looking from the back of the kitchen to the door to the back of the house.

From Kitchen

5. Looking out the (mostly useless) door to the basement from the kitchen. Conveniently mostly blocked by the fridge.

From Kitchen