Projects – Page 7

Bringing back the bread machine.

We received an awesome Breadman Ultimate breadmaker for a wedding gift way back when. And I used it for several years but stopped for some reason. I was probably traveling a lot at the time.

A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out the pantry, and rediscovered it. I have since stocked up on wheat flour, gluten and other ingredients and am back in the bread making groove. The 1.5 lb loaves are perfect for the two of us for several days.

The light whole wheat bread loaf is delicious.

This one’s hot out of the machine:

And this is a link to 100+ page PDF for the bread machine with many recipes.

I ♥ Kohler.

When we remodeled our house 5 years ago, we put in a beautiful Kohler Simplice faucet (model number K-647-VS) at the big kitchen sink.

I love it. A few months ago, though, it started leaking water from under the single hot/cold control handle. There was always a puddle around the faucet. It drove me NUTS.

Google showed me that Kohler has really great documentation on how to fix this on their web pages here and even a short video here. And I eventually dug out and read the owner’s manual/guide that came with it – yes… i keep those things 🙂 I read about the Kohler Faucet lifetime warranty. You can read the fine print here, but Kohler basically says: “if the Faucet should leak or drip during normal use, Kohler Co. will, free of charge, mail to the purchaser the cartridge necessary to put the Faucet in good working condition.” Yes, free. I can’t believe anyone does that anymore.

So, I called Kohler’s customer service line (1-800-4KOHLER) and described the problem to a real and knowledgeable person and they said with all likelihood it was a bad valve. They sent me a replacement valve in the mail for free. It arrived over the weekend, and I installed it. VOILA problem solved!

I just wanted to give a shout out to a company that still provides great customer service!

Read on for a few comments on what was a little more difficult than described in my experience of changing the control valve. Good Luck! My DIY photo:

The documentation and video online are pretty much self-explanatory. There were 2 steps that took a bit more effort than I anticipated.

1) It took a significant amount of effort to get the Hot/Cold water control handle off (after removing the set screw) – more than I was capable of, so I enlisted Monte for that job. It took a while, but it did come off with a sustained, firm, upward pull. The problem was the black, plastic sleeve on the valve was stuck in the handle, creating loads of friction. The new valve comes with a replacement black sleeve, so I had to remove the old one using needle nose pliers after the handle came off.

2) the decorative “bonnet” under the handle was hard to unscrew. But, I used one of those rubber, grabber pads that helps unscrew the lids from jars. And with some perseverence, it did the trick. After those two steps, everything else went as advertised.

The replacement kit came with a teeny capsule of grease, which I spread around the new valve’s o-ring. The video doesn’t mention that.

Yay KOHLER!

Twelve-o-lantern.

Mom and I are ready for Halloween. And….GO HAWKS!!!!! 🙂

Shrinky dinkies.

The afternoon was filled with family stopping by to see mom and aunt Ellen. Rebecca and Aaron brought some shrinky dink paper… an arts and crafty kind that you decorate and then put in the oven to shrink and harden. We made lots of doodads. These that I made are destined to become keychains…

How?
You can buy the sheets of paper. Google sez #6 recyclable plastic can also work, but I haven’t tried that. Make sure to use permanent markers, and allow for 3x or 4x shrinkage. Punch a hole before shrinking, if you want to make into a keychain. Bake at 325-350 degrees for less than a minute. They will ball up and then flatten out again as they shrink. I put them in the oven on foil with a little flour or cornstarch to keep from sticking to the foil.

Applebuttery goodness.

I have had a hankering for apple butter lately. My HEB has a poor selection. The only one they stock was full of multi-syllable chemical ingredients, and high fructose corn syrup. I couldn’t bring myself to put it in my cart. When I was a kid, apple butter was one of the many delicious things my mom would make and I would help her with the cooking and canning. So, i decided to make my own apple butter.

There were many different recipes online. I wasn’t looking to go the whole canning route, as I just wanted to make a small batch. Some recipes started with apple sauce. But I wanted to go as close to the good old fashioned way as possible. I found a recipe that sounded minimalistic and simple. I halved the original recipe, and it yielded 2 pint jars (i recycled some Bonne Maman 13 oz jam jars) of applebutter, which have a fridge life of about 2 weeks. Or could be frozen up to a month.

I’ll start with a picture of the result, to get your mouth watering, and follow with the recipe:

You’ll need a crock-pot and an immersion blender. Here’s the before:

You may want to use a variety of apples. I used mostly gala, which are on the sweet side, and mixed in a few red delicious which are less sweet. I also have one of these awesome contraptions, which makes peeling/coring/slicing the apples a breeze:

Crock-pot Applebutter (yields 2 pints)

3 1/4 lbs apples, peeled, cored & sliced
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 T ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 T vanilla extract

Place apple slices in crock pot. In medium bowl, mix sugars, and spices. Sprinkle dry mix over the apples and stir gently to coat apples and combine.

Cook on low, covered, for 12 hours.

Stir in vanilla extract and puree with immersion blender until smooth. For thicker applebutter, can cook on low another hour with lid ajar.

Cool and place in jars. Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Framed.

I finally got around to framing a print that I bought on my last visit to Pike Place Market in Seattle. The artist is Leone Ardo.
Monte made the frame out of western red cedar. It turned out nice, I think.

Here we go again!

I wish you a most happy, loving, and exciting 2014! I’m counting my blessings while reeling through memories from the year we just wrapped up. Here’s to the next lap ’round the sun. Cheers!

A mind is a terrible thing to lose.

I have been impatiently waiting to make christmas cookies. So, when I passed the rack of cookie cutters at the store I picked out 3 shapes I liked, because I was sure I didn’t have any at home. I got home and….

I already had the exact 3 cutters that I just bought. Early alzheimers, I fear. Oh well.

I soon got busy making some sugar cookie dough. The before:

And the after:

November.

I learned about blogher.com’s National Blog Posting Month project, aka NaBloPoMo. The objective: post something on your blog every day in November. Ok. I’m in.

While every month is lovely in its own way, i especially enjoy November. Maybe it’s the onset of cooling weather. Or that it’s full of deferred-for-too-long vacation days for me. Or it is the beginning of the holiday season. Whatever. It just feels…nice.

I’m looking forward to sharing some of my November moments out here.

A fitting treatment.

My father-in-law served in the U.S. Army infantry in Europe in WWII. So, when he died 10 years ago, his funeral included military honors. At the family reunion this summer, Monte received from his sister the burial flag, which was still in the plastic zippered display pouch from the funeral home. We’ve been displaying it on the shelf in the living room, but it deserves a much nicer treatment. So, this week Monte set out to the shop to make a fine custom frame. He used some beautiful black walnut that actually used to belong to his dad. A day or two later, and it is done. Complete with beautiful inset splines to join the corners, and a strip of cedar inside.

After placing the flag in its new display case, we acknowledged the upgrade with a toast of sparkling apple cider. I’m sure Ross would approve of both 🙂

Tiptoeing through time.

I’ve spent the entire day today jumping back into my genealogy research. I have recently connected with distant cousins in my same generation, all of who’s grandparents were siblings born in the late 1800s. It has rekindled the fire in me to transfer the myriad of notes, stories and photographs that I have compiled over the last decade or so into a cleanly documented family tree. And we are pooling our research.
It is especially challenging to research my ancestors because virtually all of my grandparent paths on all sides start in Ireland. So I’m enjoying joining forces on the research.
Once I make a pass through my ancestors’ part of the tree, I’ll do the same for Monte’s, for whom I have significantly more information.

Work and werk.

Back home now, trying to focus on work. At the same time, Monte and Dan are sailing the catboat up the coast on a 200 mile adventure that I wish I was there for, but will have to be content with providing support from afar when needed. I wonder how they did this, back in the day, without cellphones, gps and google maps?!

Overdue.

I’m way overdue for a pedi, so I dashed out tonight to get one. Voila!!

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Indie-pendants.

I’ve been playing with beads again. I’ve gotten it in my head that pendants that can easily slip onto chains would be fun to make and very versatile. Here are a few I’ve recently made.

Made with (L-R): turquoise, tiger’s eye, swarovski crystal, and howlite.

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