Dairy Free Irish Soda Bread #dairyfree #irishsodabread

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner and social distancing in place due to the COVID-19 virus spreading, it seemed like an appropriate day to make some Irish Soda Bread.  I have a few Irish cookbooks and ended up choosing the recipe from The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook.

Here's the recipe I adapted to be dairy free so I can eat it too.

vegetable oil
3-2/3 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar (I added this)
1-3/4 cups dairy free buttermilk (1T+2t white vinegar and oat milk)
raisins (I added this, could do currants too)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 425, oil a baking sheet
2. Make the DF buttermilk by pouring 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons white vinegar into a measuring cup, then filling with oat milk to the 1-3/4 spot.  Stir and let sit 1-2 minutes.
3. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and sugar together into a large mixing bowl, making a well in the middle
4. Pour in a bit more than half the DF buttermilk and mix with your hands, add more buttermilk until the dough is soft but not wet
5. Flour the raisins, then mix into the dough
6. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and kneed lightly - this is where I didn't do so well which is probably why it was dense
7. Shape into an 8-in circle and cut a cross into the top to let out the fairies
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
9. Let cool on a wire rack, serve warm.

Verdict:

It's ok.  Way too dense which could be from the lack of kneeding (what does kneed lightly actually mean?) plus the fact that I kneeded mostly in the bowl, or it could be from the oatmilk buttermilk.  Guess I'll need to make another loaf to try 😁

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hall Bathroom Update #diy #theswalehouse

There is a good reason that there were no pictures of the upstairs hall bathroom in the MLS listing - it is terribly small (and thus hard to get a good picture of) and it was painted a lovely baby poop brown.  Who chooses colors like that and thinks "hmm...perfect color for a bathroom!"!?!?!?!

View from in the tub

 Yeah, not pretty.  One goal this summer was the get rid of the brown!  (I sense a theme here, last summer it was bye bye brown kitchen cabinets....)  Warm white here we come!  In the process of course, I discovered that not a lot of time and care was put into flipping this bathroom in 2012 when it was done with the rest of the house.  Example #1: the extra large and yellow quarter round trim that doesn't go the full way around the bathroom, which made me paint the trim.

I picked a warm white: Behr Twinkling Lights as this is a northern facing room that doesn't get a ton of direct sunlight.  Even with Paint + Primer combined it took 3 coats to get a good coverage. 

First coat done!

Compared to the earlier photo, SO MUCH BRIGHTER AND BETTER!!!  

Example #2: the extra large hole behind the light fixture that left it hanging off the wall by a quarter inch.  Not safe!  To fix the light, I ended up just screwing in a piece of scrap wood behind the base of the hole so that the bar of the fixture would have something to rest on, thus holding it steady and flush against the wall.  (Don't forget to turn off the power when working near any wires! And then don't forget to turn the power back on when you're all done :-) 

That little piece of wood you see was all it needed!

Two screw holes I can patch no problem.

Here it is brighter and all put back together:

Someday we'd love to redo the floor as some tiles are missing, and get rid of the brown tiles in the tub, but that will be another summer project down the road.

A Favorite Hike #MDI #SargentMountain

One favorite hike, that my family has done 10+ times (basically every time we head to MDI), is up to Sargent Mountain, then down and up Penobscot Mountain.

From: http://npmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/acadia-map.jpg

The little pond isn't seen on the NPS maps,
but you can see it on Google Maps (my text edits).

To start we would park at the Jordan Pond House in the morning, make reservations for afternoon tea and popovers at the Pond House, then start our hike.  Sometimes we would go up to Penobscot first, climbing up the built in ladders and then picking blueberries on the ridge to accompany a PB&J lunch, then a quick swim in the little pond just over the hill from Penobscot before climbing up Sargent to the peak, then back down to the Pond House for those tea and popovers.

Other times, we would go up to Sargent first, following the trail along Jordan Pond first, then after Sargent stop at the pond, then up Penobscot, over the ridge (collecting blueberries in remembered tupperware for pie that night), and down to the Pond House.

It makes for a lovely day!

If you don't have strong hikers, you can always to do the loop around the pond which is pretty flat and has some boardwalk.

Extended family hike (2017)

View from Penobscot Mtn

Those bushes in the lower left? Blueberries!

This is waiting for you at the end!

Here's recipe for popovers if you want to try to recreate them at home.

Kitchen Makeover Part 4: Add Doors

We left the doors to sit unattached and cure while we were at the beach for the week, and upon returning they definitely were harder, although I was able to pick off a few of the drips (just the top part) from painting the sides.  We got the bottom doors back on on Sunday evening after we got back, then got the top cabinet doors back on on Tuesday evening.  It was definitely a two person job, especially with my bum hand (recovering from the cut and anding sprain still, starting PT soon, should have started sooner).

all done!

with natural light the next day

Before and After

A couple lessons learned:

• Put the screws for each door in one bag per door so they don't get all mixed up and then you use the wrong screws for the wrong door and have to re-do it.
• Before taking the doors off, take pictures of how the hinges go, especially if you have any funky ones like for the lazy-susan cabinet, and check if all the hinges are the same or whether you have one set of cabinets that just happen to have different hinges from the rest.  Note it all or take pics.
• Not sure that the foam roller that we used was the right one as there are still some areas (like the back of the doors - don't look too close if you come over) that are a bit light and could have used another coat, despite being cabinet rollers.  Maybe a different roller or just needed more paint/coats? 

The full story:    Part 1: Prep and Sanding     Part 2: Priming      Part 3: Painting  

And the hand story...

Tiny cut with the blade below trying to get a rubber bumper off the cabinet before painting.

Do not put your stabilizing hand in front of the blade in any way, shape or placement - keep the area in front of the blade clear for multiple feet!  Two feet away was not far enough.

Added a band-aid, continued to sand, then dropped the sander and tried to catch it - possible sprain?

All wrapped up 3 days later to travel to NYC - trying to straighten the thumb

One month later, hand weakness and loss of left thumb extension due to cutting that tendon - the hand doc said surgery is the only option - I'll try PT first thank you, and maybe only ever have 1.65 thumbs up - so much for hitchhiking with the left hand - ha!

Beach Pie 2018 #dairyfree

This pie became called Sand & Surf Pie, not sure why, as the others got called other beachy names for the competition.  You could also call it DF Ice Cream Chocolate Strawberry Pie which would be way more descriptive.


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Dairy-Free Ice Cream Chocolate Strawberry Pie

Crust Ingredients:

5 1/2 ounces (about 3 1/2 cups) pretzels (crush slightly to fit in the measuring cup if measuring instead of weighing)

1/4 cup brown sugar

6 tablespoons vegan butter, melted

Chocolate Drizzle Ingredients:

8 oz. Vegan Chocolate, chopped

½ C. Coconut Milk

1 T. melted vegan butter

1 pint Vegan/Dairy-free Ice Cream – Cookie Dough (but any kind that would work well with chocolate and strawberries would be good)

1 lb Strawberries, cut into coins

Vegan Whipped Cream Ingredients:

1 14-ounce can coconut cream or full fat coconut milk

1/4 - 3/4 cup icing/powdered sugar

STEPS:

• Put one can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight (or in the freezer for 30-ish minutes).

Make the crust:

• Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray.
• Place the pretzels in a ziploc and crush into very small pieces. (A food processor might be better here, but leave some centimeter-ish pieces for the crunch) Pour into a bowl and add the brown sugar and vegan butter. Stir to combine.
• Pour into the prepared pan and press into an even layer. Bake for 10-12 minutes until toasted. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before filling.

• Chill a large mixing bowl and beaters in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

Make the Drizzle:

• Place the chocolate, coconut milk, and vegan butter in a glass or metal bowl.
• Fill a small saucepan with 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil.
• Place the bowl of chocolate on top of the saucepan.
• Once the chocolate begins to melt, whisk the ingredients together until all of the chocolate and vegan butter is melted and the mixture is combined and smooth.

Assemble the Pie:

• Take the vegan ice cream out of the freezer so it can warm up a bit
• Drizzle the bottom of the crust with chocolate and let cool (5 mins in the fridge)
• Spoon the vegan ice cream onto the crust and smooth out with a spatula or the back of a spoon
• Drizzle the ice cream with chocolate (if not serving immediately, put it in the freezer now and finish just before serving)
• Layer strawberries on top of the ice cream and then stick in the freezer for a short bit to firm up the ice cream.

Make the Whipped “Cream”:

• Remove the coconut cream or milk from the fridge without tipping or shaking and remove the lid. Scrape out the top, thickened cream and leave the liquid behind
• Place hardened cream in your chilled mixing bowl. Beat for 30 seconds with a mixer until creamy. Then add powdered sugar and mix until creamy and smooth - about 1 minute. Taste and adjust sweetness as needed.

• Remove the pie from the freezer and then add the whipped cream on top.

• Serve immediately (or drizzle some more chocolate on top, because #chocolate) and enjoy!

Competition results?  Second place...not bad!  Beaten out by Grandpa's peach pie for the first time "because it's a classic pie" and I'll add because we were in North Carolina which has fine peaches, and he boiled down the juices to concentrate them.  I see your tricks...

It was delicious, but melted a bit too much before it got to the judges, so maybe for the next competition I should stay away from ice cream.  But I make the pie for myself and I love ice cream, so we'll see.  

Sources:

Crust: https://meaningfuleats.com/gluten-free-vegan-chocolate-pudding-pretzel-pie/

Chocolate Drizzle: https://www.thekitchenmccabe.com/2014/02/12/vegan-chocolate-ganacheglaze/

Vegan Whipped Cream: https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-coconut-whipped-cream/

Kitchen Makeover Part 3: Painting Cabinets

Two coats of paint they said...and after two experiences painting cabinets, I still say LIES.  Maybe it worked for others it was because they did 2 coats of primer and we just did one.  Maybe they did much thicker coats of paint than I did.   It took us 3 coats and there are touch ups that are still needed.

First coat I used the 2 inch angled brush on the corners, then a 4 inch foam roller on the flat parts.  No worries, the first coat always looks a bit thin - see the board above the window.

Same method of paint the backs and drawers, let them dry while painting the cabinets, wait another hour until dry to the touch (who am I kidding, I needed to finish an episode of Home Fires - put that on your watch list), flip the doors, paint the fronts, let dry overnight.

At this point was when I realized how many gaping holes now looked even more obvious, like between two cabinets, or between cabinet and ceiling, so I ended up taking another day to caulk all most of those spots (missed a few I still need to do).

#fixme #needcaulk

I learned that you can lay a layer of caulk in a gaping hole, let it dry then go back and add in some more and then smooth it out, almost building a wall.

I also learned that you really need to smooth it out and take all the excess off as there are some areas where in certain light you can tell that there's some extra caulk around a seem that should have been taken off, either when smoothing it out, or after with sanding.

Finally, I learned that you should caulk before you paint anything.  Whoops!

On to the second coat.  Do a really light sand with at least 120 grit sandpaper if not 220 grit.  Use a tack cloth to get all the dust off (especially if you've also had electricians working in the area who made some dust).  The first corner coat with the brush left streaks so I used the end of the foam roller in the corners to try and get more paint on it and only have to do 2 coats, then roll the flat surfaces.  Still didn't work and in certain lights you could tell it wasn't complete.  So a few days later (delayed by my dance school's feis weekend) I found a 1 inch Purdy brush in my collection and carefully painted the insides of the groves again with a decent amount of paint.  Looks better.  Just be careful around those corners for drips and pools of paint.

A day later we noticed that the sides needed a bit more coverage, and so back I went with that one inch brush.  So now, a week later, I think we can finally put the doors on tomorrow (Monday - three weeks after the start of the project).  Granted, humidity and massive rain storms haven't helped, even with keeping the AC on and aiming fans on the drying paint. #thanksDCsummer But, for about $250 in paint and other needed parts, plus my hours of labor...well worth it.

Here's the current look sans doors.

With family coming in, and to have a bit more functional of a kitchen we put the drawers back in, but didn't fully tighten the handles so the paint could continue drying and curing. (Man that seems to take FOREVER!)

Here's the side by side...see how much lighter it is?

#lightandbright #success

Lastly, last weekend I reattached the light we had under the corner cabinet, and figured out how to hide all the wires in the area we discovered behind the corner cabinet.

Looking up into the hole behind the cabinet

Still needs a bit of work, but better than the wires sitting on the counter

Everything was hung up with command strips behind and under the cabinet as the back panel of the cabinet is too thin to drill into.  From farther away, it doesn't look half bad and will probably stay that way until we re-do the kitchen - maybe in a few years.

Now to just get those doors back up.