Almond milk chocolate PUDDING!!!

Who doesn’t love chocolate pudding. Especially when it’s fresh off the stove and takes minimally more effort than instant with 5 ingredients you can actually pronounce? I have a weakness for sugar. I am completely unable to relate to people who dislike chocolate. I am also inherently lazy, which is why I’ll never be a food blogger.

But I also like real food and have very few cans outside of tomatoes in my pantry (there is that laziness thing again). And while I am recovering from a minor medical procedure this week, I’m not going to be hauling any lumber around for awhile. Standing in front of the stove to satisfy a critical 9:30pm chocolate craving will do. This can easily be vegan depending on the brand of chocolate you choose, though not paleo because of the corn starch, and takes about 20 minutes to make if you don’t mind hot-off-the-stove pudding.

Stovetop Non-dairy Chocolate Pudding

Adapted from Mark Bittman’s Stovetop Pudding recipe

4 to 6 servings

2 1/2 c almond milk

1/2 – 2/3 c sugar, depending on how sweet you like your desserts. I used 1/2 c of organic evaporated cane juice.

Pinch salt

3 T cornstarch

1t vanilla extract. Or if it’s not too weird to you, try a few drops of peppermint extract, which I did.

1. Combine 2 c of the milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan and stir. Put over medium-low heat until the mixture just begins to steam. This took me about 5 minutes.

2. Combine the cornstarch and remaining 1/2 c of milk in a bowl or measuring cup and whisk until there are no lumps. Add the cornstarch-milk mix to the pan and raise the heat a little. Cook and stir occasionally until the pudding thickens and just begins to boil, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to very low and stir constantly. The pudding should “plop” but certainly not burn. It should thicken noticeably and stick to the pan. This will take 3-5 minutes. Stir in whatever extract you are using. If you want vanilla pudding, stop and continue to Step 3. If you want chocolate, continue to Step 4.

3. Pour it into a large bowl or 4-6 small ramekins or glasses. Cover with plastic if you don’t like skin or leave uncovered if you do. Refrigerate.

4. For chocolate, stir 4 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate into the pudding until it melts (though I am too lazy to wait that long – I left mine slightly chunky, which I like). I used 8T of semisweet chocolate chips because that was what I had. Follow Step 3.

For some reason, this tastes infinitely better cold to me than hot, so if you don’t like it when it’s hot, then wait until it’s cold.

Mmm, 9:30p chocolate craving!

Trainwreck to cute DIY spice storage tutorial.

After. I want to leave the door open just so I can stare at it.

Before. Nothing motivates like a little public shaming.

That’s right, world. You get to see what my spice cabinet looked like in its train wrecked glory!

Oh, the 1970s. How did residents organize their stuff in their small number of cavernous storage spaces. Oh, they probably didn’t have as much stuff as we do today. Ah, materialism.

So, as I was waiting for that $5k to fall out of the sky for our kitchen remodel, I continued to be on the lookout for storage gadgets that would fit in our cabinets and budget. And of course, if one criteria was satisfied, the other was not. I began to seriously consider building this one and just modifying it. Then noticed it was for a pantry rather than a small cabinet, and a one piece in-the-door rack wouldn’t be practical for this cabinet because the shelves would prevent the door from closing.

I was lackadaisically intending to just design one myself to build, then I saw this. Problem solved. Here’s what I did. The measurements I include are for my cabinet, so you’ll have to adjust. I’m really sorry that I neglected to take pictures of the process, but it’s not complicated and I think it will make more sense if you look at the picture of the rack. If you want to try this and have trouble visualizing, get in touch with me.

Supplies for 3 little 12″ racks:

1 8′ 1×4

1 4′ 3/8″ dowel

12 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws/12 2″ wood screws

12 1 1/4″ wood screws

2 wood screws to hang the rack (I used 1″ screws)

Enough 1/4″ plywood for 3 3 3/4″x12″ pieces

3/8″ drill bit

Miter saw, carpenters square, tape measure, wood glue, carpenters level

Cut list:

3 12″ 1x4s (bottoms)

6 3″ 1x4s (sides)

3 12″ dowels

3 3 3/4″x12″ plywood pieces (back)

Directions:

1. Cut your pieces.

2. Drill 2 pocket holes, set for 3/4″ stock, in each of the 6 3″ 1x4s. Drill them in the side that is 3 1/2″ (a 1×4 is actually 3/4″ x 3 1/2″). If you don’t have a Kreg jig, I would drill 2 pilot holes through the bottom of the 12″ pieces where the sides will attach.

3. Drill the holes for the dowel. You will need to figure how high from the floor of the rack you want the dowel and how far in front. This will largely depend on the size of your spice jars. I designed mine so that the top of the dowel hit exactly 2 1/8″ from the bottom (pocket holes are at the bottom) because of the way the clamps on my jars were positioned and the front of the dowel was at about 3″ from the back, maybe a little more. I found this point, traced the hole, and drilled. I drove the bit up and down after the hole was drilled to make actually driving the dowel through the hole easier.

4. Fasten the sides to the ends of the bottom 12″ piece with glue and screws.

5. Fasten the 1/4″ plywood backs. I drilled 4 pilot holes – 1 through each of the side pieces and 2 to fasten to the bottom piece (through the side grain). Use glue. Use screws, not nails, for strength.

6. Bang or twist the dowel through the holes.

7. Get out the level, mark on the inside of the cabinet door where you want your rack to hang, drill your pilot holes, then fasten to the inside of the door. My cabinet door was 3/4″ thick.

Here are the measurements corresponding with steps.

I love my spice rack.

I found these cute little jars at World Market for $1 a piece. If anyone has ideas for cute, non-permanent labels, I’ll take them.

Refinishing An Antique Schooldesk

2 months ago, a symphony colleague of mine got in touch with me to ask if I would be able to help her out with an antique, real-deal school chair that had been in her family for awhile. “I have a desk from the one-room school house that my great great grandmother taught in out in Nebraska. The legs are rusted and the wood needs to be stained perhaps and refinished. My grandmother stored this piece of furniture out in a shed and did not take care of it. I want to put it in my new house, but it needs a little bit of work.”

A neglected antique schooldesk top

Why is her garage so much cleaner than mine?

Complete with metal legs, seat that swung open and closed, and inkwell, this desk is the real deal!

I know there are ways to restore some finishes with products like Restor-A-Finish and Rub and Buff…but this really didn’t look all that salvageable to me. Plus I really didn’t feel like taking a product on its maiden voyage with someone else’s furniture.

So…I decided to start from scratch. Strip it naked and put some new clothes on it. My colleague wanted it to look as close to the original finish as possible, so no paint would be involved, outside of repainting the metal.

Staining scares me. It has always intimidated me because there is far less room for slop than there is with paint. Plus with antiques, you just don’t know what will be lurking beneath the surface, especially if it has been thrown in a shed for a few generations.

So I set out on the alien task of taking this thing apart. I spotted some screws underneath where the metal contacts the wood and removed them.

What lies beneath?

I thought this would be easy after removing that screw at the top that you can’t see. If you look closely, you will see that there are metal knobs inserted into grooves.

I didn’t really know what to expect. I guess I was sort of looking at this with a modern furniture perspective and was half expecting the metal bar to just slide out. So of course, nothing happened. The seat didn’t budge.

I googled around and found that the metal pieces had a line of knobs that were inserted into grooves into the wood. The grooves are long and contain holes spaced apart every few inches. In order to keep the desk together, the knobs insert into the holes and then have to slide in between the holes. The screws keep the wood parts from sliding once they’re in. In order to take it apart, the wood parts need to slide back over to where the metal knobs are aligned with the holes, then they just slip off. I realize that probably makes no sense, but it does once you see it.

I sort of half-heartedly wiggled the metal pieces; I hemmed and hawed. I am not an engineer, so I was terrified of breaking something. I knew I had to pull the metal out of the wood, I just didn’t know how to do it. So I broke down. I asked my husband, the handy engineering, problem-solving-with-a-vengeance computer nerd, to help me.

So you know that antiquated saying that says women need a man to do things? Forget that. Just get an engineer. Hubs flipped the thing over, eyed it from several angles, and figured it out. We got out a rubber mallet and a piece of scrap 2×4 and went to town banging away on the edge of the seat (well, he initially went to town, then after I saw that nothing broke, I finished the job) to move it over so that the knobs would line up with the holes. The 2×4 acted as a shield between the mallet and the seat. I initially started with some 3/4″ plywood as the shield, but I was too afraid to bang away. Once I banged the seat about an inch over, the metal knobs were aligned with the holes and I was able to wiggle the wood parts off.

These people knew how to make furniture to last. Even after successfully getting the seat off, I could probably have danced on the tabletop. This thing didn’t even wiggle, even without a seat.

Here’s a gallery of all the parts involved in just that little seat!

A cute guy figuring out the swivel hardware

Closeup of the metal swivel hinge joint

Hinge hardware

After hinge hardware was removed

Success!

We got you, sucka! And the mallet that hit my fingers a few times.

So I finished taking the whole thing apart after about 2 nights.

The desk! And my toe.

So because You Are Not Supposed To Strip An Antique With A Power Sander And You MUST Strip It By Hand…I initially planned to – insert spotlights and microphone – sand it by hand. I really, really dislike chemicals – I have mineral spirits, thinner, and even bleach only for the rarest of cases. I really didn’t want to go the Klean Strip route, plus I really didn’t know how I felt about applying something so highly toxic to an antique. I have had good experiences with Citri-Strip on paint, but stain typically doesn’t even budge.

So I started scrubbing away on the underside of the tabletop with 60-grit sandpaper. After half an hour, uncovering about 1/4th of the surface area, and feeling like I had just lifted some serious weights, I decided to pay my favorite nearby mom-and-pop hardware store a visit.

Talking to Tracy, the owner, is always enlightening. Big box store employees typically answer any questions I have by reading the label of the product in question out loud to me. I especially love it when the lumber employees tell me either that a 1x piece of lumber is actually less than 1″ in depth. Or that yes, a 1x is supposed to be 5/8″ in depth. It’s just awesome. Anyway, Tracy is a “real” carpenter and about 99% of the time has the right answers and/or products, fresh popcorn for my kid, and fresh vegetables from his garden in the summers.

I showed him the desk and explained the project and that sanding by hand was getting pretty old and giving me biceps. I told him I knew that You Are Not Supposed To Use A Power Sander and asked what he would do. He sort of sniffed and muttered something about extremists. “I always used Klean-Strip. I never had luck with Citri-Strip, so I don’t sell it,” he told me. “Cover the ground with cardboard, get ventilation, wear goggles, gloves, and a mask, and don’t get any of it on your skin or clothes.” He showed me a nasty red mark on his arm. “Because this is what happens.”

I was not thrilled about using a product requiring a DIY hazmat suit. I asked if something so toxic would pose any harm to antique wood. “Not any more than sanding would,” he said. “But if it were me, this desk probably isn’t worth THAT much, and she’s not planning on selling it to a collector. I’d just use a power sander and sand out any swirl marks by hand,” he told me. I nearly fainted. Would an angry mob of woodworkers come after me? Would they swarm into my garage the second the power sander turned on with pitchforks and torches?

Tracy just shrugged. “There will always be extremists,” he said.

I went home, feeling considerably lighter now that I had permission from someone who really knew what he was doing to use a sander. I got out my beloved Bosch RO sander, still covered in white paint from when I dumped half a gallon in it. I seriously peeked over my shoulder, placed it on the surface, and turned it on. And sanded the finish off. And laughed at my neuroses as I imagined a mob of angry middle-aged men yelling at me on the internet.

The next day my next door neighbor, who built his way through college, came over to see me when he heard my sander running. I asked what he would do in my situation. “What you’re doing,” he replied. Well, knock me over, but that was 2 people who gave me permission to use my sander over my lack of sanding muscle. Because really – ain’t nobody got time for that.

So I stripped the finish off. And that is really all I have to say about that because the rest of the process was really rather uneventful.

Getting the pencil groove

Here’s the seat once it was stripped. Isn’t it pretty?

Perfectly fitted desk pieces, which I glued and clamped back together. Look at the wood grain up close! It looked like someone at some point had maybe sanded up and down rather than with the grain?

Paint? Gum?

If you are a real carpenter with some constructive feedback, I’m all ears. If you are a real carpenter outraged at this crime against woodkind, think of me as a troglodyte, and convinced I ruined this desk, I have all the respect in the world for what you guys do, but, well, you’ll get over it . I used clear printing labels for my wedding invitations and printed out most of my guests’ addresses on them. The wedding police will get over it.

And the next dilemma:

Probably water stains?

Once I stripped the finish off the tabletop, I saw the dark splotches. Big, black, and an eyesore. I mean, I saw them when my friend dropped the desk off, I had just assumed they’d come off once I sanded. My other friend Google told me basically that it was stains from water that had seeped through the wood. My neighbor told me to try mineral spirits, but that it would still be difficult to remove. I saw solutions from household bleach to wood bleach to hydrogen peroxide to vinegar to mineral spirits. So I decided on the path of least resistance and got out the bleach since I had some in the garage. I took the cheapest no-name paint brush I had, a tiny little 1″ or so, dipped it in, and dabbed a very tiny amount full strength on the splotches. I did 3 treatments, allowing several hours to dry, then wiped it off with vinegar to neutralize the bleach (so Google told me), which did lighten the splotches.

Here’s a list of what I did next:

1) Scrubbed the loose dirt off the metal with a metal brush and then washed with soap and water from a high pressure spray gun. Air dried outside.

I’m guessing the date it was built? 1907? How cool is that?

Before cleaning. Gorgeous detailing

2) Primed with Rustoleum’s Rusty Metal primer. Let dry.

3) Spray painted with Rustoleum’s 2x Coat in black with several thin coats. I lay them down on a tarp to cover one side, then when that was dry, leaned them against a work table with a tarp behind them so I could flip and paint the other side.

4) Applied Minwax’s oil-based wood conditioner to the wood. Wiped off after 10-15 minutes.

5) With a clean rag, applied 2 coats of Minwax’s gel stain in Aged Oak. Wiped off excess.

6) Applied 2 coats of Minwax’s polyurethane in semi-gloss (from the can). Initially tried a sponge brush, but didn’t like that it gave me little control over the amount. I tried a clean cloth on the second layer and that felt a lot better.

Finished

Sadly, I could not get the splotch out and the stain just accentuated it, but fortunately the owner was all right with its “character marks”.

Side view of the antique desk

Close up of the legs

My friend later told me that her father, upon seeing the restored desk, said his mother would be very happy to see her desk today, which, to me, was the highest compliment I could’ve hoped for.

And because I don’t have a picture of the finished desk in a setting other than my garage, here is a picture of it in my friend’s home in its own little nook in progress, complete with her grandmother’s other belongings.

The antique school desk, restored in its new home

Featured!

My Tiffany desk was featured over at Power of Paint and Better After! Thanks to Maryann and Lindsey for the features.

Beethoven, shelf fails, new DIY shelf and picture frame.

Shelf last week. Floating shelf massive fail.

A slew of last minute freelance work and a sick toddler has kept projects from happening as quickly as I’d like. But I get to use my college degree and play my violin for money! I thank God I’m able to freelance and do projects while staying home with my child. I realize I’ve been blessed beyond measure and remember that whenever I’m tempted to complain about being short one screw, yet another load of laundry that has been calling me for 2 weeks by now, waiting impatiently for paint to dry, or a project is an utter fail.

So about 2 years ago, with storage remaining an ever-present (actually, not present at all at my house) problem, I decided to try my hand at some floating shelves, these in particular. At that point in time, I was much less experienced, I didn’t have a stud sensor, and we still couldn’t hang things on the walls without it being the drama of the week.

So I built the shelves and stained them. I built 3 for the master bathroom, one of the lesser touched up rooms of our house. I constructed the frames, then got a rare earth magnet and started stud hunting.

What I found was that the studs in the bathroom are…bizarrely spaced. Not like I know much about framing, but I’m guessing to allow for plumbing and/or electrical? Whatever. So some studs were 12″ apart, some 6″ apart, it all seems kind of random. So that was challenge 1.

Challenge 2. Our walls, for whatever reason, are not straight. I don’t know if this was a hallmark of 1970s era homes and if contractors at the time were all wacked out on hallucinogens, just had cruel senses of humor, or if it’s even just a factor of time, but if you get at the right angle and look at our walls, they “wave”, kind of like a funhouse mirror.

Challenge 3. I just don’t remember what I was thinking at the time. I tried 1 drywall anchor + 1 stud for the short shelf under the mirror, completely missing the fact that there are 2 studs. So, while it hung ok for a couple of years, it ultimately ended as a fail.

The other 2 were massive fails as well. They had at least 2 studs, but this is my life, and these things happen to me.They do not happen to Ana White, who built her own home with her bare hands, but they happen to me. The picture at the top was what the most successful shelf looked like after 2 years. That is what the other 2 shelves looked like immediately.

Last week, I was practicing for a concert when I just got sick of visualizing my shelf fail, as it mocks me every morning. So I took a break and decided to build this shelf. I found some scraps in the lumber bin and went to work, and I had it built in an hour.

A necessary work distraction. This is the bottom of the shelf.

I sanded, puttied, finished, caulked the edges, drilled pilot holes, and I hung it myself under the mirror, using the 2 studs. And I didn’t screw up. Then I went back to practicing.

Scraps + oops paint = thrifty win. I can’t decorate worth the salt in your turkey, but I can build you a shelf.

I still have to replace the other 2 floating shelves. And my hub’s substantial essential oil collection needs a home, so more will likely come.

The second little project I undertook around the same time involved the photography of this guy, whose work I discovered a few months ago. I fell in love with this particular print of his and decided to gift it to myself for my anniversary. <Snicker>. I showed it to hubs and asked nicely, and he replied, “If you build a frame for it.” Deal.

I used a plan from Ana White’s new book, The Handbuilt Home (p. 70), which is also very similar to this one.

Picture frame – first step.

I used pine and my Kreg jig for pocket holes. Titebond glue is drying  and various clamps are squeezing the joint together. This was my first time to use the Kreg face clamp. I don’t know how I survived before it. Here I’m using my miter saw cart leaves as a work table.

Frame, step 2 – constructed

Here’s the front of the frame after the inner part was constructed.

Wall frame step 3 – glue and clamps

I don’t have a nail gun, and I know by experience that using a hammer and nails would’ve probably destroyed the inner frame (don’t ask me how), so this step went a little slower.

Finished. Middle print by Patrick Latter.

And here it is. Finished with Valspar spray primer and spray paint in black semi-gloss that I had sitting in the garage. I bought a square of glass from Lowes, which came in a 16″ x 20″ size, for between $5-$6 USD. The cardboard backing the print came with provided just enough thickness for 1″ screws and mirror clips, which cost about $1.50. The lumber cost about $5. Not bad for a 16″ x 20″ fully equipped frame for under $15.

The print on the left I bought years ago. It’s an unusual size, 11″ x 11″, so I was never able to find a frame for it. I used this plan and glazing points to keep the print in place.

Up next – a real-deal antique school chair from a one-room school and a toy chest I’m building for someone. So, I guess if you want me to refinish or build you something, I’m available.

And may your turkey not be dry and your crazy family members as entertaining as ever, especially if you’re the crazy one. Happy Thanksgiving Eve 2012.

I heart deuglified blue dressers

Look, Chinese Food! Shiny dresser top!

I love blue. Blue ceilings, blue walls, blue vases, blueberries. My favorite house that I’ve lived in was bright blue. My favorite room in my house is blue. My kid loves Blue’s Clues.

Whenever I see blue oops paint, I snatch it up. I’ll paint anything blue. I’d paint my cat blue if she’d sit still long enough.

I went out on a limb and took a risk by painting this dresser blue, as well as the desk I posted a few weeks ago. And, erm, well, I don’t have much to say because I had the good fortune of not having to do much to this dresser as it was actually in pretty good shape. I wheeled and dealed a little when I bought it as the owner was moving and just needed it out, so I got a good deal on it.
Solid wood, structurally in good shape. Just needed some (well, a lot of) putty and new knobs to replace the old ugly wood ones. I used Valspar’s oops paint for the blue and Antique White for the drawers with some glass knobs.
I also tried General Finishes’ water-based polycrylic for the first time, and I’ll say that I don’t know that I can go back to Minwax. GF is more expensive, but the ease of working with the product surpasses Minwax by far. I tried the first coat with a Purdy brush, and I’ll say that I’ve always had trouble brushing on poly – I think it just takes practice – but this was actually ok in that there were far fewer brush marks than with Minwax’s product (whether that was because of the product itself or the brush I’m not sure of). I had trouble getting it on really evenly though, til I read this little tip from Mouse in Your House and used a small foam roller the next pass. I had never read of any blogger who did that, but I have to say that rolling it on worked like a charm.

*Yawn*

Pretty pretty

A bathroom storage shelf is the perfect excuse to avoid working

I have towel and TP storage! And I don’t have to go outside in the cold now!

I am a cold weather wuss.

It’s about 50 degrees and windy out, and I’m afraid to go in my uninsulated garage to poly a dresser I’m almost finished working on. I know, more FWP…I’m not complaining because I’m also not in the middle of a “Frankenstorm” or a hurricane. I can’t stand being cold. Give me 105 degrees in August, and I will putz all day in the garage.

So today is a perfect day to find other things to do, like scrape caulk off the bathtub, which my husband has just tasked me with if I want to avoid spending $450 on labor to install a new one. Does he know how much lumber that could buy? Or what kind of router or how many shoes and purses at Marshalls?

Before I scrape away, I realized I forgot to post one of my first projects. My house, as I have said several times, was built in the 70s. Homes from the 70s are known, aside from their glorious popcorn ceilings, for their lack of storage and sensible layouts and awesome ugliness.

I’m afraid I don’t have a before picture, but I saw on Craigslist an oak bathroom cabinet for $25, and I needed wall storage in the bathroom since the floor was completely taken up by a toilet, a vanity, and a bathtub. I suppose I could have put something on the floor, but I decided to indulge my family by not creating an obstacle course to any of these three. It had 2 mirrored doors on it – just let your imagination feed on the 80s honey oak-stained awesomeness.

So I knew nothing about joints, filling in holes, sanding, etc at the time. Looking at it now, it’s actually built really nicely. I don’t know if it’s handmade, but the box, I would guess, seems to be put together with dowels or pins, and it attached to the wall with the horizontal bar, sort of like a French cleat but inside the box rather than behind it, that runs under each shelf – if you look closely you can see it.

I removed the mirrored doors, primed, and painted. Distressed lightly with a medium grit sand block, glued the applique to the top, and with spray adhesive, attached some countertop sticky paper that I liked to the back.

So this was a productive use of time that kept me from going into the garage. Now I will have to finish my dresser tonight after it gets even colder.

Added some girly-girl

A picture in which I am awkwardly standing and holding a book

Ana White and me, with me standing awkwardly to the side holding a book

Ana White, the woman who started it all (“it” being my furniture obsession), came to Houston to promote her new book, The Handbuilt Home. My 5th wedding anniversary gift to myself was to get myself in the car at 7am this morning and drive from Austin to a Home Depot in Houston. My gift to my husband was to leave him with the toddler for most of today.

Ana first complimented my necklace. She’s just as beautiful, down to earth, and positive as she is on her website and Facebook page. I handed her my book to sign and she asked if I build. I told her that yes, I had posted my builds on her site and Facebook page. I introduced myself by my first name. She responded, “Oh, you’re June Solomon (not actually my real name).”

This was a pretty awesome day. Now off to celebrate my anniversary for real.

I think I can die happy now

I am not a food blog, but I occasionally play one on the internet – Raw Brownies!

I promise this is not the same picture as my ground almonds!

I really like food. I do not like to cook, but I like to partake. My food board on Pinterest is somehow my largest board, much more so than any DIY, decor, furniture, etc boards of mine.

That being said, I cook for my family most of the time, and I buy organic when I can. And avoiding processed foods is something really important to me. We’re in the middle of changing our eating habits, which were not bad to begin with, but we’re trying to cut down on as many animal products as we’re comfortable with. We’re not sure where that point is yet, but that is for another post.

Anyway, I have been intrigued with the concept of raw foods for awhile and alternative forms of sugar. I eliminated white sugar and high fructose corn syrup from my diet years ago and have used evaporated organic cane juice instead – white sugar now gives me a pounding headache – but my husband is far more sensitive to sweeteners than I am, so we’re playing with cutting out more sugar and perhaps replacing fructose with glucose where we can. Enter dates.

I found this video which addresses different types of sweeteners from a health perspective. Point of my blathering: date sugar is the healthiest form of sweetener. So my husband asked me to start buying dates, which then made me remember this recipe for raw brownies that I saw awhile back. I didn’t know where I could buy medjool dates at the time (affordably) so it didn’t cross my radar, but I recently saw that my Costco began carrying them in 2 lb boxes for about $8, so I went for it. Plus I have a weakness for brownies, my favorite recipe being Mark Bittman’s from his How To Cook Everything. The blogger discusses the various health benefits of medjool dates so I won’t cover that here, and I also have not tried to make date sugar to date.

So tonight I desserted on raw brownies after priming an ugly dresser.These are VERY rich and moist. They’re actually pretty amazing. No dairy, no sugar, no gluten. I think this may be heresy to raw food enthusiasts, but since I didn’t have raw cacao on hand, I used this organic cocoa powder my MIL sent me that she bought at her church. Which still bests Hersheys by far.

Here is my modified recipe that I made in my blender. The original is made in a food processor, but mine sucks so I used my blender.

Raw brownies for slightly more than 1

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole walnuts
6 Medjool dates, pitted
1/4 cup organic cocoa powder

1. Place walnuts in the blender. Blend at speed 3. It should be ground to a fine powder.

2. Add cocoa powder and dates.

3. Pulse 3-4 times, about 5 seconds each. Consistency should be very cakey and moist.

4. Mash it into a bowl and put it in the refrigerator to set. Go sand and prime some furniture.

This batch didn’t grind all of the walnuts to a powder, but I kind of liked it with the chunks.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how food bloggers make the most beautiful pictures of brownies, but that is why I am not a food blogger.

This is the cocoa I used. Yum.

Note: this is the second time I tried this today after tweaking the blender settings. The first time I made half this amount, and I used almond flour that I had on hand instead. It was still good, but much more crumbly. Whether it was the almond flour or not enough dates I don’t know, but this version is far and away superior to my first attempt. Also, if it’s not sweet or moist enough to your liking, add another date.

Let me know in the comments if you try this and what you thought. Til the next furniture redo – cheers.

Edit: This is why I should never post after midnight. I am incapable of differentiating between ok pictures and crappy pictures.

The Tiffany desk, a broken foot, and a nomination

Shinyinlove.com has kindly nominated me for the One Lovely Blog award! Thanks to Larkin for the nomination. Now go show her some blog love.

I snatched up this desk when my BFF Craigslist told me about it.

She had potential

I sped over to the house, stopping at an ATM on the way, and pulled up where a man had placed it outside on the front walk. I suppose there’s always the temptation to pick it up and run, but I wouldn’t have been able to anyway because this. was. Heavy.

The man called a teenage boy in the house to help me load it in the back of my car. I drove off with it nervously shifting side to side in my trunk, and I shuddered at every thud I heard when I turned. Husband had to help me load it in the garage.

Later that week. I went to the garage to work on it, thinking it would be a fairly quick project since it was structurally sound and just had cosmetic damage, and that I would definitely be able to finish before leaving for our midwest vacation and the symphony started for me.

It was not to be.

Fail

The foot had broken off completely. I didn’t know how I missed that. There was no way I was willing to sell this thing with a missing foot.

I initially dealt with this by ignoring it completely and addressing all the other cosmetic issues. Like the fact that it needed to be bathed in wood putty.

Desk and wood putty: head-on collision.

Then I sanded, sanded some more, puttied some more, sanded again, primed and painted several coats. Went on vacation, got my symphony music. And it sat in the garage, lamenting the fact that it was a fabulous color of blue but had no leg or drawers.

To condense a lot of boring details, I eventually decided to deal with the foot after talking to several “real” woodworkers by getting a rasp, a coping saw, and making the foot myself.  I did consider just prying off all the legs and replacing them with new ones, but after realizing how heavy this desk is and seeing how all 8 legs are heavily braced, this is the route I decided to take.

Here’s what I started with.

The canvas I had to work with.

Here’s my arsenal:

Coping saw

Arsenal of Insanity 1

Rasp

Arsenal of Insanity 2

I took a piece of scrap 2×4, cut it to the correct height, placed it against the other leg, and traced the shape. Then I took the biggest drill bit I had and started drilling holes into the end grain around the border of the leg, if that makes sense. I cut away the excess with the coping saw, then rounded the concave part with the rasp. I lost a significant amount of sanity while whittling shavings away. I assume most woodworkers who had no access to power tools are legally insane.

I whittled away my sanity, but at least I had a leg.

Finally, I had this.

The left half is the foot I repaired. The right is one I was trying to match.

I pondered for awhile what to paint the drawers. I wanted white but as I mentioned in my previous post, I was afraid of it being too 8-year-old girl. I considered keeping the blue and also silver, but the majority liked the idea of white. A commenter on my FB page opined that the white against blue looked very “Tiffany’s” and I was sold.

Here’s the final product from a few angles.

I have to say, I LOVE this color combination.

Look at these details!

Here’s the breakdown of steps and materials used.

1. Wood putty and spackle to fill in dents, gaps, other imperfections. Overfilled each one.

2. With my Bosch RO sander and 150-220 grit sandpaper, sanded off the excess putty after it dried. By hand in spaces too small for my sander.

3. Puttied again because inevitably there are always spots you miss, the putty shrinks more than you anticipated, etc.

4. This time, sanded by hand.

5. Vacuumed off dust, then wiped with a damp cloth or tack cloth, whichever was handy at the time.

6. Primed with Kilz latex. I am meh about this primer – it was on sale awhile back, but once this is gone, I don’t think I’ll be going back. It doesn’t wow me at all in terms of adhesion. It’s not horrible, but I think there are other primers that are better.

7. Sanded with 220 grit on the RO sander.

8. Vacuum, wipe, etc.

9. With roller, rolled on some Valspar oops paint I got awhile back that I’d been dying to use but hadn’t had a chance to. Added Floetrol and rolled on thin coats – thin as in, barely enough to cover the surface.

10. Brushed on where it’s too small for the roller.

11. Sanded with 220/320.

12. Lathered, rinsed, repeated steps 9-11 3 times.

13. Sprayed Minwax’s spray-on water based polycrylic in the blue can in semi-gloss. I’d had problems in the past with this product looking splotchy on darker colors (as in, anything darker than white), but I made sure to keep at least 10 in. of distance and went really light. It looked better after sanding with 320 grit by hand. I have mixed feelings about Minwax products at this time.

14. Scrap 2×4 for the foot – cut to size, traced the shape, drilled off the excess wood with a drill, cut off extra with a coping saw, then used the rasp to smooth out the curves.

15. Glued and clamped to the foot after filing the broken edge down, filled the crack between the two with putty, and sanded. Attached a block to the inside like the others with glue and wood screws.

16. New hardware from Hobby Lobby. Fixed the one drawer bottom with water damage by breaking it, then sliding in a replacement piece of plywood. Painted and top coated drawers.

This sits patiently (for now) awaiting a buyer. If you are local (Austin) and are interested, drop me a line through my contact page.

So the end of summer is finally upon us in central Texas, and while my output was slow last month, I have a garage full of furniture, a head full of ideas, and a house full of crap with nowhere to go, so the projects will again be forthcoming!

Update: I applied General Finishes’ water-based polycrylic to just the top in gloss. Hard as nails.

Linking up at Liz Marie’s linky party!