Apparently I've reached my photo storage limit here on Blogger. So off to Wordpress we go: Click here to visit Another Roadside Attraction.

I can't believe I've never posted this recipe! These are a staple at our house, and are the thing we most often grab for an on-the-go snack.
 
Granola Bars

Preheat oven to 325.

3 1/2 cups oats
1 cup rice krispies
1 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 cup ground flax seed*
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup + a couple of glugs honey

Combine oats, rice krispies, flour, baking soda, salt, flax, and brown sugar.
Melt butter and add vanilla to it.
Add butter/vanilla to oat mixture and stir to coat.
Add chocolate chips.
Add 2/3 cup honey and stir well. You will probably have some dry, powdery parts that won't combine with the other ingredients. If you do, add more honey, a glug at a time, until it's all sticking together pretty well. You don't want to make a liquidy mess - more of a pasty one.

Butter a 9 x 13 pan and press the mixture into it very firmly. I use the back of a spatula.

Bake at 325 for 19 minutes.

Let cool and then cut into bars. We've found that cutting them in thirds the long way and then into the desired width makes for a good sized bar. We wrap ours individually to make it easier to grab and go.

If you have trouble with the bars crumbling, add a bit more honey next time.

(*You can leave out the flax if you want. If you do, you may not end up having to add extra honey.)

With so many big projects to do, the details sometimes have to wait a while.

That just makes it even more exciting when they finally get done.

Lights! On all three entrances!

Such luxury! I can't wait til it gets dark tonight so I can bask in their glow.

These fixtures took me way too long to find. I saw plenty I liked, but they cost much more than I wanted to spend. I finally ended up at Arcadian Lighting. Their prices were by far the lowest I found, and so far the quality of the fixtures seems very good. And I think our house looks pretty happy with itself, don't you?

(Note to self: Trim that giant bush next to the stairs.)

I posted the other day what's to the left when you walk in our house.

(photo by Dagny)

Here's what's to the right.

The door on the left is a coat closet. The door on the right leads to our craft room. Rather than leave the walls bare, I decided to create a little nook to play in.

On one side, there's a geoboard wall, two geoboards wide and seven tall. Some of the boards have a square pattern of pegs and some a circular.

It was inspired by the geoboard wall at a local children's museum, where Rowan and I spent hours and hours stretching elastics while Dagny explored.

On the other side is a giant magnetic chalkboard.

I had to apply layer after layer of the magnetic paint to get even the lightest of magnets to stick, but the board has been in use for years, so I'd say it was worth it.

The cans, which are quart-sized paint cans covered in patterned paper, contain chalk, elastics, and magnets.

Oh, and the answer to my question? (This time, anyway...)

Only took him about 2 minutes to notice it. He's a keeper.

When we took the canoe out the other day I finally got to see what's around this bend, which I've walked and driven by hundreds (thousands?) of times.

No sign of Bigfoot, but maybe once he gets used to seeing us he'll make his approach.

I've been eating this bread, which my sister-in-law introduced to the family, since I was 8 or 9. In my professional opinion, there's only one way to do it: toasted, with butter.

My mom always made one loaf with caraway seeds and one without. My version of the recipe makes no mention of caraway seeds. Because yuck. But if you're a caraway lover, by all means, sprinkle some in there. Just warn other people before letting them take a bite. Because yuck.

Eileen's Irish Bread

Preheat oven to 375.

2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg - beaten
1 1/4 cup milk

1 cup raisins 

Mix together by hand. 

Pour into buttered bread pan.

Bake at 375 for 50 mins-1 hour, til toothpick comes out clean.

All of my houseplants are potted in soil from my yard. Not recommended procedure, I know, but it seems to work just fine.

A couple of months ago I noticed one of the plants in my bedroom window had a little green friend growing next to it. Being of the pacifist persuasion, I let it be.

Recently I moved the leaves aside to give the plants a drink and I noticed a distinctive smell. A sniff of the fingers confirmed it - definitely a tomato plant.

The earth wants to feed us. We just have to step back and let it.

My sister Anna made blackberry jam.

Now the question is, will she give me the recipe or go for the extra sister points and hand me a jar every time I see her?

I spent a few hours gluing on Saturday

and Jon spent a few hours grouting today.

Our takeaway? The human body does not enjoy kneeling on slate for hours at a time, knee-pads or no knee-pads.

Santa delivered a big red canoe last December.

(photo by Dagny)

While it was lots of fun in the living room, it was even better out on the river today.

(photo by Jon)

Every once in a while, it's ok to buy something you know you'll probably think is weird in a few years.

With the kitchen finished, our attention turned to the flooring waiting to be done in various parts of the house. Three hallways got their share of hardwood, and next up was solving the laundry room/half-bath problem. We've had a hard time deciding what the best flooring option is for this little room. It's directly off the kitchen. It sees a lot of traffic, including that of the dirty four-legged kind since there's a doggie door to the outside world in this room.

The solution ended up being so obvious, I can't really explain why it took me twelve years to think of it. Why not try to match the kitchen floor? That floor takes a beating. Scratch it, and a few days later the scratch has disappeared. Cover it in mud, slush, and ground-in chalk (yes, that happened), and it all disappears with a quick steam mop. And if it loses its sparkle, a coat of sealer makes it shine like new.

Only trouble was, how to match a 40+ year old floor? Twenty years ago, I may not have been able to. These days, Google made it simple. I searched for red slate floor tile, thinking that was the most unusual aspect of our floor. Google brought me to this site, and there was a picture of our floor. Our job was too small for them, but they referred us to Taran Brothers Slate in Vermont. I emailed back and forth with a member of the Taran family, we sent off a check, and 40 square feet of flooring plus one threshold cut to fit were delivered to our door.


One thing I've learned during our renovations is to buy things based not on what they look like today, but what they'll look like when they've been lived with a good long time. I'm confident this new floor will look a heck of a lot better in 40 years than I will.

I never heard of hummus until I started going to Jon's family's functions. It doesn't make a very good first impression, does it? Sitting there all gloppy and brown? For a long time I swerved right around it on my way to the kugel. Over the years I've become a more adventurous eater, though, and have found that hummus, well made, is delicious. Good with little triangles of pita bread, as Jon's family serves it, or on chips. Even better spread on your favorite sandwich. (Well, maybe not if your favorite sandwich is a fluffenutter.)

So live a little. Try the gloppy brown stuff. If I can do it, you can too. You can forget about the gefilte fish, though. That's just not going to happen.

Hummus

2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
6 oz water
1/2 cup tahini
4 cloves garlic, peeled *
6 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons ground cumin **
1/2 teaspoon salt
few dashes pepper

Toss in a blender til smooth.

*Dagny usually makes this. I asked her how much garlic she uses. Her response? "I don't know lady! A lot! A lot is always better. I usually end up doubling garlic in anything I make." To which I reply, "Of course you do! Always double the garlic is a Rue-l."

**Dagny suggests adding more cumin - to taste - after blending.

As I've mentioned, we like leftovers. This recipe makes quite a bit of hummus. Feel free to cut it in half. Or don't. Dagny thinks the flavor improves after it sits in the fridge for a while. So why not make a bunch?

When I was a little girl I loved to visit my Grampa's house. There were snow globes in the dining room and no one worried I might break them when I tipped them over and over to see the snow fall. I was sure there was magic waiting for me in the yard somewhere, if I could manage to turn just the right corner at just the right time. And best of all was Grampa's candy. A little box balanced on a picture rail. Chewy red candy that stuck in my teeth, handed out one piece at a time.

Imagine my surprise when I realized those delicious candies were actually cough drops. Pine Brothers Softish Throat Drops in Wild Cherry flavor, to be exact. And imagine my excitement when I found that they are now being sold again.

I haven't ordered any, though. I'm a little nervous that the memory might be sweeter than the drop.

This is a very easy recipe, made even easier for me by the fact that I never cook it. Dagny does. She doubles the recipe, which usually means leftovers. The first night we eat it on rice, and I like a sprinkle of salt. Out of the fridge, I like it rolled up in a tortilla and heated. (Although it's just as good over rice again, too.)

Tomato Chickpea Curry

splash of olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic (Dagny probably uses more than this. Garlic is good.)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can chopped tomatoes

Heat the oil.
Add onion and garlic, and cook til translucent.
Add spices and stir to coat onions.
Add chickpeas and tomatoes and stir.
Cover and simmer 10 minutes.

I was looking at some pictures Dagny recently took of our kitchen and ended up staring at this one for quite a while.


This is what you see when you first come into our house. This is what Jon and I saw the first day we ever came into our house.

Sort of.

The floor's the same. For whatever reason, the second I saw it I knew this was our house. (I had a similar experience when I met Jon. The first thing I saw when he walked in the room was a bandage on his thumb - he had sliced it open with a box cutter at the grocery store where he worked - and I had this instant feeling of recognition: Oh, there he is - mine.) So the floor's the same, although it's been rearranged a bit and cleaned and patched up and sealed. But here's what's different:

The windows. When we first moved in there were the kind of windows that crank out. They didn't work very well, and some handles were missing, and even when they were open it didn't feel to me like the windows were open.

The walls. I can't actually remember what was on the walls, but it had to have been wallpaper. There was wallpaper all over this house. Layers and layers of it. (Thanks again, Drew.)

The pass-through window to the kitchen. That was much smaller and higher, and the counter didn't jut out into this part of the room at all.

The counter. That was white tile. I use the term white loosely. People advised us to live with it for a while, but I just couldn't. And when we pulled it up and saw maggots living under it we knew that was a good decision. Yes, we lived with a plywood counter for years after that, but it was a clean plywood counter.

The drawers/window seat. There were no cabinets/drawers/window seats in this area. The old owners had a little round table with chairs. I imagined a drawer for each of us to store our mittens topped by a comfy place to sit and put on our shoes. Jon installed the drawers and pulled up the floor under them, knowing we'd need the tiles in another area of the kitchen. Then he and I made the seat.

The light fixture. Was there a light fixture here? I think so. Maybe. Can't remember.

The sink. That was metal and stained. Jon wasn't sure about a soapstone one, but I loved the idea of a sink that would outlive us.

The stove. This stove is the reason we lived with plywood counters for so long. A wise financial decision? Maybe, maybe not. I'll let you know in twenty years, when I see if it's still going strong. But after 12 years I can say I have no complaints. Love my stove.

The faucet. On the old counter the faucet was in the usual place - back center. When we put the new one in we installed it on the side so kids would be able to reach the handle themselves if they wanted to. This is still one of my favorite design decisions.

The doorway to the left of the stove, which leads into the dining room (which used to be a den, but that's another story). That was a wall. There was a doorway to the right of the stove. We realized if we moved it we would have more useful and better-flowing space. Jon closed up the wall, opened up the new door, and used that tile he had saved from under the window seat to patch up the floor.

The soffit. See how it's plain - just painted? Picture, if you can, a faux roof of sorts, made of rectangular pieces of slate. All the way around the kitchen. Picture my dad asking me very earnestly if I was SURE I wanted to take it down? Wasn't it kind of neat? Um, no, it was not.

The lessons here?

1) That part of our minds that looks past the ugly and sees the possibilities is some kind of magic.

2) Don't be surprised that it takes a really long time to re-do a big old house. This is a small part of one room, and it has taken a huge amount of work.

3) Take before photos. Having not one before photo is just plain sad.

4) Remember to tell the one you love that you're very impressed with all the things he's learned how to do, and grateful he was willing to do them. Maybe publicly, on a blog.

Here's what I like: cloth napkins. 100% cotton, please. If they happen to be old, even better. Add a bit of thread wielded by someone's (my own, in this case) grandparent? Perfection.



Too pretty and precious to use? No way. Enjoy your food, wipe your chin, let the napkins live a happy, useful life.

Do you want to read about Dagny's photography business, her wedding, her projects, her vintage finds? Of course you do.

Maybe you need a new idea for a simple, quick dinner? Try this:

Heat up some water and throw some pasta in. While it's boiling, put the following in a blender or food processor:

However many avocados you think you'll need for the number of people eating

For each avocado, add:

juice of 1/2 lemon
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup fresh basil
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Blend it all up and serve over pasta. Maybe top it with some Parmesan cheese if you're feeling fancy.