2 birds and some bread

George's banana nut bread

(Inget för mamma kanske men vi andra kan ju tycka om...)

Named so because it is going to be given to George the neighbor who plowed us out yesterday. Since it was the first time I made it we had to taste it before handing it off...

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/8 of a teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups flour

3 large ripe bananas

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Stir in mashed bananas and walnuts.

Pour into greased and breadcrumbed pan and bake in the oven for 1 hour at 325 degrees (162.778 degrees celsius to be exact). I did mine in a shallow baking pan and 1 hour was enough, if its made in a loaf pan it may need more time.

The birds are going crazy outside and I got snaps of two that I haven't caught before. This is ahmph... the tufted titmouse. I don't name em - I just shoot em. With a camera that is.

This is the red bellied wood pecker. Pretty lousy shot but it's a miracle I got this one. We think he belongs in London 1977 wearing Doc Martens. 

Baking Bread!

My mom and my sister are both new devotees of the following bread recipe. It's called the Toft Sisters Loaf. The Swedish version of the recipe is on my sister's blog.

(Ser den ut som den ska?)

1.5 dl (.6 cups) rye flour

1.5 dl flax seed

1 dl (.4 cups) sunflower seeds

1 dl wheat bran

2 table spoons olive oil

2 table spoons salt

Mix these ingredients and pour 4 dl (1.6 cups) boiling hot water over to blanche. Let it sit for 1 hour.

Mix 50 grams (1.7 oz) of yeast with 3.5 dl (1.4 cups) of finger warm water. Mix in the blanched ingredients. Add 1 liter (4.2 cups) of flour and make a dough. Let the dough rise for at least 3 hours or over night. 

Knead the dough with 2 dl (.8 cups) of flour and flatten it into a square and roll up like a roll cake. You guys don't know what that is but you can imagine - it's a cake. That you roll.

Let the roll rise for 30 minutes and then bake for 40 minutes at 437 degrees. That is a direct conversion of 225 degrees celsius. 

Let it cool off without a cloth over it. 

My sister says you shouldn't keep the bread in a bag but keep it out because the thick crust keeps it moist inside. 

I don't think we'll ever know over here because the loaf is almost gone already. Yummy!

Coze factor - lo

Came up on saturday morning. Hello House. Contractor bills on the kitchen table, a general bloody mess and a shower we didn't ask for. Welcome back. It's been frikkin Grand Central Station over here on Maple Ave. The electrician started looking over our less than ideal situation. In the spring we want to upgrade our box, bury our lines and get power to the barn. The plumber fixed the toilet and the shower and started planning for our 2nd bathroom. Scott is working on finishing the windows and Michael is our floor sander. Yes, we started a few too many projects and the house is a construction zone. We knew it would happen and this is the worst it's gonna get. 


We moved in to the blue room upstairs for the weekend. It felt like staying in a hotel. And it's good we're testing it out because my parents are coming over for quite the stay this spring and that will be their room. Couldn't keep me completely out of the kitchen though and for sunday breakfast I made scones. 


Cranberry Pecan Scones

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4+1/3 cup brown sugar. The recipe called for 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/3  cup white, but why use white?
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspon salt
• 1/4 cup chilled and diced butter
• 1 cup of dried cranberries
• 1/2 diced pecans
• 3/4 cups of liquid. I used milk, the recipe called for cream but I think I would like to try buttermilk or plain yoghurt next time.
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put batter-dough on greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. My sister said to use a muffin pan which is a great idea and now I know what to wish for for my birthday.

WT...? Whose green car is that?

Our wonderful neighbors who look out for us will wonder. It's Ebba! She's on the east coast! Ebba is my California car that was just shipped out via car carrier. She is named after the Swedish punk band Ebba Grön (green). Because of the color AND her rather punk attitude. She does not take crap from anyone and does exactly what she pleases. Be it drain all transmission fluid on a hairpin turn in Baja, Mexico or bust a fan belt exactly 5 minutes into reaching civilization after 3 days driving in the desert. Sometimes her timing is good.


Here is a finished window, trim and everything, in the living room. It still needs one more coat of paint, but that's it.

Here is the bay window in the bedroom. Also almost close to finished.

The door between the hallway and the living room, my vacation project. Stripped and ready for a final light sand. We like the bare look. No puns, no jokes. We'll see if we'll stick with it.

One last look at the floor in the living room. When we left on monday morning, Michael the floor sander was just about to start making a mess. After the sand he is staining it with a light stain and then coating it with polyurethane. Can't wait to see it. 

The couch is done and we will most likely have a living room in 2 weeks. 

I would have you all over for Superbowl because I want to make wings but I'm afraid we would have to reenact the football part of the event cause we don't have cable.

Four Day Weekend

Dear followers of Maple Ave Gazette... Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by and read my modest blog. Now hold your horses everyone - here are the latest and greatest updates and reports.

First, fall in Clintondale:

This is the south end of the house with one of the 2 Maples visible.

The back and north gable. And our favorite grandaddy Sugar Maple.

This is mainly for Eva. I hired an architect to draw up a floor plan so you could get the gist of our quirky house.

Just kidding! It's me and a Sharpie 10 minutes ago at Kinkos. Click on it to enlarge it.

So it's nice to meet the locals and get tips about the area and where to buy the best apples and who's got the freshest eggs. Who delivers your fuel and who cleans your septic tank? And then there is the age old question. Who's got the better pizza? Well, let me tell you, we got the inside scoop from our cab driver the other night. He picked us up in a rainy Rosendale after our friends Sam and Angela's pre-wedding BBQ. Minutes into the ride, apropos nothing at all, he offered the following tidbit.

"So I had a slice at Village pizza the other day and I had to spend 15 minutes in the Dunkin Donuts bathroom. So you gotta go with Fat Bob's. That's the place."

Thank you Mr. Cab Driver, for that valuble information.

It became a 4 day weekend for me taking friday off to go to the BBQ and monday was Columbus day. We got good stuff done around the house, but we also took a little drive. We went to Rhinebeck for the annual antiques fair. If any friends of James are reading this, just for the record: it was my idea, James would never be caught dead at an antiques fair... I seriously considered a life size brass monkey head, but decided rent was more important.

After that a stop at the Vanderbilt mansion.

And we are scared about our heating bills...

View over the Hudson river from the Vanderbilt mansion.

We drove through Poughkeepsie on the way home and found thousands of people trekking Walkway Over the Hudson. It's an old railroad bridge that just opened for pedestrian traffic this weekend.

The last stop for me before getting on the bus monday night was the Esposito house, .3 miles from ours, to say hello to the latest editions to their family.

Ethan and Banjo

Cassidy

Things are slowing down a little bit around the house. All those projects we thought we were doing right off the bat (new furnace, electrical upgrade, porch and wood floor in the cottage, starting the master bedroom...) have all been pushed to the spring. The only one left is THE WINDOWS. It's a big one (read expensive....) but it's a good one. 16 (SIXTEEN?!?!?!?!) Marvin aluminum clad double pane argon filled 2 over 2 simulated divided light bla bla bla... Hopefully they will make the DRAFT PALACE a little more air tight.

So LA-LA-LA-LA sign the check, don't think about the amount... LA-LA-LA-LA-LA go back to work, think about the tax credit these windows will provide April 15 LA-LA-LA-LA go on with your day.

These are the beautifully restored 2 over 2 windows at the Gunk House and that is the type of window we are going for in our house.

As if you are the least bit interested in my heating system... If you're not you can skip to the next paragraph, but if you are as fascinated as this suburban-kid-turned-city-gal-come-country-bumpkin, stop and take a look at Dr. Furnace von Frankenstein.

It's scuffed up and in bad shape, But Matt the furnace guy says he'll live another 10 or so years. Cross every finger you got.

Our heating system is set up pretty great, dividing the house into 3 different zones, meaning you don't have to heat the whole thing. As soon as we leave one room that thermostat goes down to 55. Every room has sweet old radiators and the place heats up pretty quickly. So come on up, Elena, we can turn it up to 57 for you.

James has been hard at work in Clintondale, while I've been hard at work in the city. The living room is about to get primed and painted. It's looking better already with just the skim coat.

The future couch corner.

My sister and Gizmo's house seems to have a very similar lay out to ours, especially the dining/living room scenario. Same shape, same picture window and same opening between them. They decided to paint theirs black. Well, we couldn't do exactly the same thing, so ours in greenish-black. So there.

The black dining room of Goatvalley.

The in progress GREENISH black dining room of 19 Maple Ave.

This is all a joke of course and the Goatvalley folks approve, we took them on a Skype tour around the house on saturday and it was like they were right there! Skål, det var trevligt att få en stund tillsammans!

So the top shade is the Polo green in flat finish. The bottom is only primer so far. By next weekend I think it will be covered by a first coat of Polo green in a semi gloss finish. Sexxxy.

These are the sweet chairs we got for the PAAARLOOOR. They preside in the cake shop right now which has become a very comfy temporary living room.

Finally, I made corn bread... Went a little too nutmeggy (muskotnöt) for James but I think it took on a "fally" taste, a little spicy and very hearty. Trying to get into baking cause to quote Elizabeth of the Gunk House, "we owe muffins all over this town."

1 cup flour

1 cup yellow corn meal

1 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

Aaaaand I topped off with 1 teaspoon nutmeg.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and pour into a buttered pan.

Put in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 mins.