How To Make Honey Butter

Relatively expensive to buy, ridiculously easy to make!

 

Honey Butter

1 stick butter (margarine works too)

1/4 Cup honey

 

Soften the butter at room temperature.  Resist the urge to soften in the  microwave because it doesn’t turn out very well.

Put softened butter into a medium sized bowl and add the honey.  Using a hand mixer, beat on high speed.  The butter will, after about 1 minute, clump into a ball.

Spread on toast, biscuits, pancakes or use it to carmelize onions.  Delish!

 

Kitchen Face lift (Under $300) Continues…

I’ve been plugging away at the kitchen for the past week and I must say it’s coming along better than I expected.

The goal:  revive one very dark, outdated kitchen for $300 or less.  Think it’s impossible?  Read phase one here and the second phase here.

The biggest part of the face lift was making something out of the floor.  The vinyl tiles were in good shape and I didn’t have the money to lay a new floor so I had to come up with a plan.

Serviceable, yet it needed help

With a very neutral wall color, the room needed a shot of color so I purchased a gallon of red (Bolero) and a gallon of white (Antique Lace) for a total of $22.  A quart of high gloss polyurethane ($10) would provide enough for three coats of durability.

I painted the entire floor with two coats of white and after it had plenty of time to dry, I marked off each vinyl tile with painter’s tape.  Using a small roller I applied two coats of red on every other tile to create a checkerboard pattern. 

Blue painter's tape marked the tile borders

Once the paint had a full day to cure, the polyurethane was ready to be applied.  Polyurethane darkens objects by a couple of shades, so pick out colors a little lighter than what you think you want.

The only bathroom in my house is accessed by tramping through the kitchen and I just knew the minute I polyurethaned in front of the bathroom door, I’d have to “go”, so the poly was only applied at night, just before bed.

Three coats later, I had a kitchen floor to be proud of.  The project was easy but time consuming. 

The kitchen has come a long way from this:

And the total to date?  $198.45

Considering I had more than $100 left to my budget, I made a pair of cafe style curtains ($2.99) and purchased a bamboo blind for the kitchen door ($22).

Robert and his friend Lew are building a cabinet/work surface to fit between the fridge and the stove, which is very very cool of them…and they work cheap, which fits my budget.

Some pictures on the wall and the kitchen will be complete.

I have, with the help of friends, created a pretty and functional kitchen on the cheap.  Just goes to show you what a little money and a whole lot of ingenuity will accomplish!

Yankee Ingenuity (Kitchen Facelift Under $300)

Progress on my kitchen has been slow but coming along nicely.  It doesn’t even look like the same room (for phase 1, click here.)

  Keeping the price tag to under $300 has been easy so far but the most recent project was an exercise in Yankee ingenuity.  The mission:  re-purpose an old blanket cabinet into an island of sorts to give added workspace closer to the stove.

 

The cupboard presented several problems:  it was 2 inches shorter than average counter height and the legs made the cupboard appear to “float” in the kitchen. 

Enter my friend Robert and his creative genius.

Robert raised the cupboard with some 1 x 4’s he had lying around which eliminated both issues in one fell swoop.  He attached the 1 x 4’s around the bottom of the cabinet, raising it the needed 2 inches and boxed in the legs to give the visual effect of the cupboard sitting solidly on the floor.

1x4's raised the cabinet to the needed height

I purchased a bead board panel from the hardware store  ($31.49) and we attached it to the back side of the cabinet so it would visually flow with the existing cabinets in the kitchen.

I used an orbital sander to remove the old cherry stain from the top of the cabinet and found a very lovely red pine work surface underneath.  A few coats of polyurethane ($5.99) will ensure the work surface stays looking lovely.

I removed the hinges and knob from the cabinet doors, spray painted them satin black that I had left over from the switch plates and school house light and painted the cabinet the same Spanish Chestnut ($10.47) as the walls but used a high gloss for ease of cleaning.

An old blanket cabinet given new life

 

Total to date on my kitchen face lift:  $166.45. 

But wait!  There’s more!

If you look at the top picture you’ll see the cabinet butted up against a wall.  That wall was a huge waste of space.  Look at the picture again and you’ll see the refrigerator kind of stuck in the corner. 

I think the wall was put up to hide a chimney and perhaps create an alcove of sorts for the fridge.  It didn’t work, it was wasted space and it had to go.

Enter Robert and his tool box again.  The idea was to gain space so the refrigerator could be turned to face the same direction as the stove (you know, just like everyone else’s kitchen). 

The wall came down and Robert used a scrap piece of sheetrock to close in the chimney.  I gained two more feet of usable space, we switched the hardware on the fridge so it would open on a right hand swing, and voila!

The  biggest project will be the floor.  I don’t have the resources (read “cash”) to put in a new one, so the peel and stick vinyl flooring is next on my hit list.  The room needs color and that’s where I intend to use it.

Next on the list: the floor

So until next time, be assured I’ll be in my Downeast paradise scheming up more ways to save a buck  ( a lot of bucks) and get what I want:  a functional and pretty kitchen for under $300.

Kitchen Face-lift (Under $300)

I love my home, I really do.  When I moved to Eastport 18 months ago I bought what a friend refers to as a “working man’s Victorian”.  No cupolas, turrets or round rooms vaguely reminiscent of towers. 

When you buy a house, you buy someone else’s taste and it takes time to make it your own.  I had been ignoring my kitchen for a full 18 months and knew the time had arrived for a face lift.

I couldn’t afford to tear it out and start over, so I challenged myself to make a pretty and functional room, fitting to the age and style of the house for under $300.

I had to think long and hard about the kitchen.  With five doors and two windows, it was a very busy room.  Add  green plaid wallpaper, fake pine panelling and a wagon wheel light suspended from the ceiling and it was clear to see I had my work cut out for me to rid the kitchen of what I call “1970’s chic”.

1970's chic

The most important part of my mission was to make the room less busy.  I had a plan but first things first:   the wallpaper had to come down.

Now nothing ever goes easy when your working around the house, especially if it’s an old house.  When I tore off the first sheet of green plaid wallpaper I began what amounted to an archaeological excavation. 

Under the first layer I found another layer of wallpaper and then another.  Hearts and ribbons that made me think “1980’s”, the orange, brown, yellow and avocado that screamed “1970’s”.  On and on it went until I discovered the wallpaper that must have been put up in the 1930’s.

I’m not sure but I think this may be a new Eastport record:  12, yes, 12 layers of wallpaper covered the walls of my kitchen. 

I recruited the help of my indomitable friend Rose who said she loves to wallpaper.  I went to Sherwin Williams and purchased two rolls of wall liner ($30).  Wall liner is meant to cover less than perfect walls and it did a decent job of covering up all the bits of Americana I couldn’t pry off.

Rose hanging wall liner

Rose spent the day applying, adjusting, and perfecting the art of hanging wall liner and I had to listen to Rose insinuate my walls were less than square.  She’s a good sport, is Rosie.

The plan was simple:  make the room appear less busy.  I wanted all those doors, windows, and their casings to fade into the background where they belong. 

I decided to paint everything one color.  Spanish Chestnut, to be exact ($22).  It’s a good neutral color that stops way short of tan.  The panelling, doors, casings…everything one color.  

2/5 of the problem (doors, doors, doors!)

It’s really easy to paint when everything is painted the same color and easy is my idea of the best kind of home improvement project.

The wagon wheel light had been scaring me  since the day I moved in.  I’m an early riser and there’s nothing funny about flipping on your kitchen light at 4:30 a.m only to turn it off again because you can’t face starting the day looking at a wagon wheel taunting you from across the room.

What can I say?

The light simply had to go.

I knew what I wanted, I just wasn’t willing to pay $200+ for it.  Enter eBay.  I found an old school house light ($12.50) circa 1900 that had been removed from (you guessed it) an old school in Oregon.  A simple rewire and a can of black satin spray paint ($4) and the old girl was ready to serve again.

At $12.50 it's a steal

The same can of black spray paint worked like a charm to change all my plastic switch plate and outlet covers to a little more sophisticated look than the standard almond seemed to provide.

I convinced my pal Robert to construct a simple farmhouse bench ($50–but don’t tell Rose; I only took her out for supper. But  hey, it’s not my fault if she works for substandard wages).

Sometimes I’m not sure who’s more patient with me, Rose or Robert.  They have a way of listening carefully to my schemes and help make them happen.  They really are the best friends anyone could ask for.

So, I gave Robert $50 for the bench and it’s worth every cent of it.  I found similar benches at Target for the same money but wanted something handmade and a color of my choosing. 

Robert comes through again!

I have to admit the monochromatic scheme of the kitchen freaked me out for a minute or two.  I found myself thinking, “what have I done?” but when I came out of my pantry and did a double take because it looked like a regular room, not a room loaded up with 5 doors, I knew my idea would work.

There’s still a long way to go, and I plan to keep you updated in one or two more installments. 

A checkboard floor, a  linen cupboard reborn as a kitchen island, window treatments, and more….all works in progress and all for under $300. 

For now though, I think I’d better wash the paint out of my hair and out of  Midge’s fur (please, don’t even ask).  But stay tuned; there’s more to come!

Standing Lamp Gets A Makeover

 

I paid a visit to a friend and immediately noticed a new pendant lamp hanging over a kitchen workspace.

“Cool lamp, ” I said.  “Where did you get it?  Is it new?”

Sue (one of those outrageously clever people who from time to time bring out the little green monster in me) crowed with delight, “Nah!  I made it.  It used to be a standing lamp.”

After checking it out, I decided I had the perfect lamp for just such a project.  A Walmart lamp I must have needed desperately at some point and was inexplicably still kicking around.

So simple and infinitely clever (thank you , Sue).

Here’s the before picture:

Before

 

Please make certain the lamp is unplugged and unscrew the lamp where it meets the long skinny pole support.   The cord runs through the pole; gently pull the cord out as far as it will go.  You can’t pull it completely out because the plug will not fit through the base.

I used a pair of wire cutters to cut cleanly through the cord just above the plug.  Pull the rest of the cord out of the pole support.  It should look something like this:

 

 I took the decapitated plug to the hardware store and asked for help finding a replacement plug to fit this particular sized lamp cord.  Follow the manufacturer’s directions for attaching the new cord. 

I installed a heavy duty hook into a ceiling joist by using a stud finder.  I passed the cord through the hook, hung the lamp from said hook,  and plugged it in to a nearby outlet.

After!

A serious improvement on one very ugly standing lamp, wouldn’t you agree?

Poaching Chicken Made Easy

My sister called me today to ask me how to poach chicken breasts.  Sadly, it took me quite a lot of trial and error over the years to figure out how to do it right without overcooking (or undercooking).  And I figured if I could share the “secret” with my sister, I can share it with you!

Without further ado….

1. Take your skinless, boneless chicken breasts and put them in a stock pot.
2. Put enough cold water in the pot to cover the chicken breasts by a good 3 or 4 inches.
3. Do not put a lid on the pot
4. Put the pot with the water and chicken on the stove and turn the burner on high.
5. When the water gets hot and steam is rising and little bubbles are starting to form and pop (not boiling), turn the burner off and put the lid on the pot.
6. Leave undisturbed (the hot water and steam are cooking those breasts). 
7. Once the water has cooled enough so you can comfortably put your hand in and take out the chicken, they will be completely cooked and ready for use in salad or what have you.

The Easiest (and tastiest) Peanut Butter Cookies Ever

I shared this recipe with just one person and the next thing I knew, I was inundated with requests for it.   Yes, it really is this easy to make fudgy, chewy, peanut buttery cookies (warning:  these are not your run of the mill barely taste the peanut butter cookies!)

 

Right Wicked Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (not the all natural kind that’s ground peanuts and salt)

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

Yes, that’s really it, I didn’t forget any ingredients, I promise. 

Mix everything together well.  Roll into balls and use a fork to press the typical criss cross pattern all peanut butter cookies have.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for approx 8 – 10 minutes (or just until the edges set when touched with your finger).

Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Lavender-Rosemary Dream Pillow

It’s foggy and raining in Downeast Maine today so I got out the sewing machine and set to work making a dream pillow.  Dream pillows are little pillows that slip between your bed pillow and pillow case.  They’re filled with dried herbs or dried flowers and the scent is reported to be relaxing and promotes restful sleep.  I’m all about sleep and relaxation, so here’s how I did it:

Materials

• two pieces of material (I used some leftover muslin) 12″ long x 9″ wide (allowing for 1/2″ seam allowance)
• velcro
• 2 cups dried lavender buds
• 1/4 cup dried rosemary
• 1 Tablespoon powdered orris root
• 7-10 drops lavender essential oil (more or less depending on your preference)

cut the material into 2 rectangles 12″ x 9″ , stitch 3 sides (wrong sides facing) then turn right side out. 

 turn in each piece of the open side  1/2″ and stitch the velcro into the opening (the velcro opening will allow you to add to or change the herbs/flowers inside or refresh the essential oil whenever you choose).

In a bowl, mix the lavender, rosemary and orris root.  Add essential oil a few drops at a time until you achieve the scent you desire (keeping in mind your nose will be very close to the pillow as well as remembering the scent has to make it through 2 layers of fabric). 

Mix well and pour into the dream pillow case. Remember you will be sleeping on this pillow so you don’t want it overfilled and lumpy.  You can always add more lavender and rosemary later on if you want.

 Seal the velcro shut and slide the dream pillow into your pillow case.  To ensure it’s working properly, test drive it by taking a lovely Sunday afternoon nap.

 

DIY Beeswax furniture polish

I don’t recall where I got this recipe from as I have had it for quite a few years, so I can’t give credit where credit is due.

Beeswax Polish

• 4 ounces beeswax
• 2 T carnauba wax
• 2 1/2 C odorless turpentine

Melt the waxes in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring each time, until waxes are melted. Stir in turpentine (I also added some essential oil for fragrance to mine). Pour into storage container and allow to cool. The consistency will be a creamy paste.

To use the polish, use a clean cloth and rub into wood in a circular pattern, let the polish dry, and use a clean cloth to buff to a shine.

Lavender Body Powder

With summer upon us, I thought I’d share a recipe for lavender body powder that is easy to make, easy to store and best yet –the ingredients aren’t hard to find. If you aren’t crazy about lavender, consider using rose or some other fragrant petals. Or you could add another essential oil to the lavender to give a more complex scent.

1/4 C arrowroot powder (found in many natural food stores)
1/4 C cornstarch
3/4 C powdered lavender buds (you can grind them in a food processor)
1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon lavender essential oil

Place everything except the essential oils in a bowl and mix well. Add essential oil a few drops at a time mixing well after each addition. Store in airtight container.

You may want to change the proportion of arrowroot and cornstarch depending on your preference for skin feel.