A Refashioned Chest of Drawers

One of my favorite projects is to take an old family piece of furniture and give it a face lift. The main reason I enjoy such a project is that I am terribly sentimental. I also love the whole creative process that is involved.

When I was putting Amby's nursery together (25 years ago), my grandmother, Mimi, gave me a simple chest of drawers to use for her little clothes. It was stained with wooden knobs. I then used it for Zac when he was a baby, and later painted it wild colors when he was a little boy. Years later, Amby used it when she went away to college. She painted it white and put crystal knobs on it.

Well, it seems that it came full circle back to me. I needed a chest of drawers for my bathroom, and it was the perfect size.

I painted my bathroom walls deep khaki with sort of an army green glaze on them (which I will post sometime). I had some glaze left, so I used the white paint that Amby had painted the chest as a base coat, and rubbed the glaze on top of it. Then I over-sanded it. Amby had added this piece of wooden scroll work to one of the drawers. These can be purchased at craft or home supply stores. The glaze really brought out the design.

I also love mismatched, antique-looking knobs. I bought these at Anthropologie at the Summit. They can also be found at Southeastern Salvage in Irondale and at At Home in Homewood.

I really like to listen to the radio in the mornings when I get ready, but I didn't want anything that looked high-tech or modern, so I found this funky Crosley radio online. It has a streamlined 50's look, almost like a piece of luggage my parents would have had.

I found a table runner that I really liked at T. J. Maxx, and laid it across the top of the chest.

This project made for a very unique piece of furniture that holds many years of happy memories for me.

Raspberry, White Chocolate and Almond Cake

A daily serving (1 cup) of raspberries provides:
60 Calories with 15g Carbohydrate, 1g Protein, and 1g Fat
50% of your day's supply of vitamin C
32% of your day's supply of fiber
6% of your day's supply of folic acid

A one-ounce, 160-calorie serving of almonds, or about a handful, is an excellent source of vitamin E and magnesium, and a good source of fiber. It also offers heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, protein, potassium, calcium, phosphorous and iron.
Eating a daily handful of almonds a day may lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol.
Eating almonds may help maintain or even lose weight.

I wanted to throw in the nutritional values of almonds and raspberries to show that this cake does have some redeeming nutritional qualities. It is, however, fabulously rich. Hopefully the butter and sugar do not cancel out all the vitamins. I found this recipe about a year ago in a book called Quick Breads, by Liz Franklin. I found gorgeous raspberries at Publix the other day and decided it was time I tried it. I made several changes to the original recipe, including the addition of vanilla, decreasing the amount of butter, the use of regular granulated sugar instead of superfine, and the elimination of lemon juice. It is a wonderfully unusual combination of flavors. I will, however, bake it in small loaf pans or a muffin tin next time, because it some of it stuck in the bottom of the pan when I turned it out, even though I baked it for the correct amount of time.

Raspberry, White Chocolate and Almond Cake

2 sticks butter, softened
1 - 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 - 1/4 cups ground almonds
1 - 1/4 cups raspberries (1-6 oz pkg)
1 cup white chocolate morsels
confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs. Beat in flour and almonds. Stir in white chocolate and raspberries. Pour into greased muffin tins or mini loaf pans and bake for about 30-40 minutes. If you use a large loaf pan, bake for at least an hour and 15 minutes. The loaf should be risen and golden and a skewer should come out clean when inserted into the center. Leave the cake in the pans to cool for about 30 minutes. Dust with confectioners sugar.

Grind the almonds in a processor. I left some of them in pieces:


Gently stir in the white chocolate and raspberries:

Pour into a greased loaf pan, mini pans, or muffin tins.

Allow to cool and dust with confectioners' sugar. The tart-sweetness of the raspberries combined with the creaminess of the white chocolate and the crunch of the almonds is a true adventure in flavor. I can eat only about half a slice at a time.

Brownie Sundaes with a Magic Shell

We had our good friends, Alan and Melissa Duke, over for dinner the other night and I decided to make these for dessert. The secret ingredient is Smuckers Magic Shell topping, which hardens on contact with ice cream.

Brownie Sundaes

1 box brownie mix
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
vanilla ice cream ( my favorite is Breyers Natural Vanilla)
Smuckers Magic Shell topping ( I like the fudge flavor)
fresh raspberries
pecans

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions, and add chocolate morsels. I also add chopped pecans. Bake according to package directions in a glass pyrex dish or muffin tin. Adjust baking time accordingly. Cool. Place a brownie in an individual serving container. Top with a scoop of ice cream. Pour enough Magic Shell over the ice cream to cover it. Top with pecans and raspberries.

You can bake the brownies in individual servings, if desired. I used my new square muffin tin:

Place brownies in serving bowls. These are also great in sundae bowls.

The Magic Shell will harden immediately as you pour it on. It truly is magic.

Top with pecans and raspberries.

A very rich and easy dessert!

Fresh Peach Muffins

There is nothing like the flavor of a fresh peach. They are also very nutritious. A medium peach contains 465 IU of vitamin A, along with B vitamins, folic acid, vitamin c, potassium, and fiber. All that for only 35 calories. A few days ago, some friends of ours were kind enough to bring us fresh peaches from Peach Park in Chilton County. We ate many of them plain and unadorned, but I was compelled to use a few in a batch of peach muffins.

Peach Muffins

1- 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1-1/2 cups fresh peaches, chopped
sugar to sprinkle on top

Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine butter and sugar and beat until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in milk and sour cream. Combine with dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Fold in peaches. Spoon into a greased muffin tin and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Beat ingredients until smooth:

Gently fold in peaches:

I found this fun square muffin pan at Target and decided to try it for the muffins:

Fill to the top with the batter and sprinkle with sugar. I used turbinado sugar which is what I use to top creme bruleé.

These muffins have an intoxicating aroma while baking and have a wonderfully light texture.

Baby Gifts and Showers

Last year I posted a fun way to wrap a baby gift. This is basically the same concept, but with a purchased baby blanket. A thinner blanket will actually fold more neatly around your gift, and I am going to show the step-by step process I used to do it.

You obviously need to start with a small gift. I like to buy baby wipes and add a gift card on top. Gift cards are a real time-saver for the giver and nice for the recipient because they don't have to be returned or exchanged.

Lay the blanket in a diamond shape, and place the gift on top:


Then fold the front corner away from you and over the gift, as shown:

Neatly fold the sides along the gift. This will take 2 or three separate folds to fit snugly around the gift:

Bring the remaining corner over the top and fold. Secure with a diaper pin, a coordinating ribbon, or both.

Scrapbook implements are fun to use to make gift tags. I needed large, white tags, so I used a smaller one as a basic pattern, and cut them out of sturdy scrapbook paper. I punched a hole in them so I could tie them onto the gifts, and I used stickers to decorate them with:

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had a double baby shower at work. This is the gift I did for Leah, who is having a boy:


And this is the one I did for Dawn, who is having a girl:

Here are Dawn and Leah, who are very excited about their shower:

Pam, who is one of our nurses, did this very cute gift centerpiece for our table:

Here is a group picture of some of us who were there. It was a really nice shower.

Have fun with your gift-giving and always endeavor to make the recipient feel special.

Brownie Nuggets

This is a recipe that I have had for many years. It is from the Mrs. Fields' I Love Chocolate! cookbook. The brownie itself is incredibly rich and delicious, and has always turned out perfectly for me. Perfection was not so easily achieved for me with the white chocolate ganache that was in the original recipe, however. To solve this dilemma, I changed it to a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. I decided to make these for a baby shower at work, and they needed a chocolate dessert, so, this time, I made a semi-sweet chocolate cream cheese frosting. I will include the variations in the recipe.

Brownie Nuggets

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate morsels (as always, I recommend Ghirardelli)

1 stick butter

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave. Beat eggs and sugar. Add vanilla and then combine all ingredients. Spoon to the top of 24 mini muffin tin liners. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool and frost.

Frosting

12 oz white chocolate or semi-sweet morsels

1/2 stick butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1 box confectioners sugar

2-3 tbsp 1/2 & 1/2

Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave. Add vanilla and cream cheese. Add sugar and 1/2 & 1/2 and beat until creamy. Add additional 1/2 & 1/2 if needed to achieve desired consistency.

Fill the muffin cups to the top with the batter:

Bake 15 minutes. They will look cracked on the top, like this:

After baking, cool and frost. I like to use a decorating bag and tip to frost them, but it isn't essential.
This was a double baby shower for a baby girl and boy, so I used pink and blue to decorate with. These safety pin decorations are by Wilton and I got them at Michael's. I found this cupcake carrier at Target ($6.99). The panel will flip over to accommodate 12 regular-sized cupcakes or muffins, also.

These are very delectable treats. Don't wait for a baby shower to make them.