Hendrix Visit

Being Parents is Hard Work!

India and Jack get reacquainted

Pallet Guest Bed

It took many coats of Poly and a lot of sanding, but we finally
got a nice, smooth finish on these pressed wood pallets

There are a total of 4 pallets; in this picture they are stacked onto one another.

This bed can be made into a twin or a king size bed. When we have more than one person we can unstack the pallets and the mattresses - We wanted it to be very functional!

Homemade Granola

We really enjoy eating oatmeal in the mornings and this winter I've been making large batches of steal cut oats in the crock pot. With summer fast approaching, I find that warm oatmeal doesn't sound as appealing, so this week I made a batch of granola that seems to be both delicious and healthy!


Recipe for Simple Granola
From Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 Recipes

Note: measure oil first – this way the honey will slide out easily and make for simple clean-up.
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup honey
Big splash vanilla extract
1 teaspoon brown sugar
5 1/2 cups rolled oats (not the quick cooking ones)
3 cups bran bud (Grape Nuts or something similar)
+/- handfuls of dried fruit (golden and brown raisins, cranberries, blueberries, chopped
apricots, dates, etc.)
+/- Fruit for layering if making parfait – bananas, apples, grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew

Oven to 300. Heat oil, honey, sugar, and vanilla for about 1 minute in microwave or two minutes on stovetop. In large bowl, mix warm ingredients and add in dry (except for dried fruit). Stir gently until combined.

Pour onto parchment-lined cookie sheet and spread into one layer. Bake for 25ish minutes, shifting/mixing granola a few times. If you need to leave, turn off the oven and it will be fine. If you’re home, take it out.

LET COOL completely before testing or doing anything else to it. The crunch comes only upon cool down. Once cool, add dried fruit if desired or mix into plain yogurt for a healthy lunch. Feel free to add toasted almonds or sunflower seeds if you like.

Guest Bathroom: B&A

Before

So this isn't a true before picture because I had already painted the
cabinet doors dark grey, but you get the idea.

Before the cabinets were a yellowing white & had white plastic 3" handles

Prepping for the paint

Painting completed! Now on to the red flower stencil. The red spray paint was a little tricky - I was cleaning up red dust for a week after.

After
Completed spray paint flower

What a difference some paint & new hardware make!

Farmer's Markets are Back!

After the long winter, the Farmer's Markets have returned to Chicago's city plazas! Tuesdays at Federal Plaza (shown above with Calder's flamingo keeping a watchful eye) is my favorite Market in the whole city and just a few blocks North of our place!

This week I got some new herb plants (most of mine died in our middle of winter move), Raw Honey, Potatoes & Asparagus! I love bringing my booty home and cooking with my local finds!


This week I made one of my favorite spring/summer recipes - Southwestern Potato Salad. This is a great side dish or even a whole meal in itself

Southwestern Potato Salad
From Cooking Light

1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (optional: I never have these on hand)
2 pounds small red potatoes
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 3 ears)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Remove 1 chipotle chile from can. Chop chile to measure 2 teaspoons. Reserve remaining chiles and adobo sauce for another use.

Place potatoes in a saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool. Cut potatoes into 1/4-inch cubes. Place potatoes in a large bowl.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add corn; sauté 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Add corn, celery, and next 5 ingredients (celery through jalapeño) to potatoes; toss gently.

Combine 2 teaspoons chopped chipotle chile, lime juice, oil, salt, and black pepper, stirring with a whisk.

Drizzle the lime juice mixture over potato mixture, and toss gently. Cover and chill 1 to 24 hours.

Welcome to Plymouth Court

After months of packing, unpacking, painting, doing projects, creating a home and just plain living we are finally all settled in to our new home on Plymouth Court! We really love our new place and neighborhood and over the next few weeks I'll give you some before & afters and a tour of our new hood!


This weekend we completed our last big project - putting up new window coverings. Like most projects, this turned out to be more time consuming than planned and required about 7 trips to the Hardware Store but in the end it was all worth it!

Window Coverings - Before
Biggest Blind Problems:
1) Blinds wouldn't go up and down because the windows were too tall.
2) Blinds were just plain ugly
3) We couldn't open the top section of windows that opened in, because the blinds covered them up

Window opening in

Solution!!!

Using the pre-existing holes from the other blinds we hung the whole section of new blinds down a window using metal rods and attached all the blinds to a long wooden 1x4.

Brad working on the blinds - he looks so short by these windows!
(BTW, we were watching Meet The Press for those who care)

Blinds - All done! Woo-hoo!