Roe Deer Horns

 

I love decorating with roe deer horns . Here is a few I hung above the oak wall.

 

 

 

Blackberry Cobbler 2

Filling

7 cups Fresh Blackberries
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch

Topping:

3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cups Butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups boiling water.

Turbinado Sugar, (or sugar in the raw)

Preheat oven to 425

In a large bowl, combine together the blackberries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch. Set the bowl aside to allow the berries to macerate in the sugar and release some of their juices, about 10 minutes.

 For the topping, in a large bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using a whisk, mix the ingredients together to distribute them evenly within the flour. Then put the flour mixture into a food processor bowl, add the butter to the food processor and pulse the mixture together until looks like coarse crumbs with the small pea sized pieces of butter. Place the mixture back in the bowl and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Place the blackberries in a baking dish, making sure to get all the collected juices. Bake the berries in the oven for 10 minutes. Then remove the baking dish and set aside while you finish the topping to the prepared topping mixture, add the boiling water. Mix together until it is all incorporated. Then drop spoonfuls of the batter over the blackberries. It will spread quite a bit when it bakes. Sprinkle the top of the batter with turbinado sugar and continue to bake for an additional 25-30 monutes, or until the topping is cooked through and golden brown.

Blackberry Cobbler

Blackberry Cobbler

I went to my local home improvement store a few years ago and they had blackberry plants for 2.00 so I grabbed about 15 of them and planted them in my garden spot. They grew and grew and before I knew it they were making runners all  over the yard. I gave some to my dad and left brain has been running over them with the lawn mower. I want to share a blackberry cobbler recipe I made with them the other day .

 

 

 

 

place 5 cups blackberries in a 9x9x2 inch pan

 some of these  looked like they were in the refrigerator longer than they should have . They were turning reddish.

 

 

 Mix together

2 Tbsp flour

3/4 cup sugar

5 cups blackberries

 

 

 Carefully stir the flour sugar mixture in with the blackberries

 

 Next , make a blackberry topping

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg beaten

1 stick unsalted butter , melted

sprinkle blackberries with flour and sugar mixture. Drizzle butter evenly over crumble topping

.

 

 

 Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes

Good with vanilla ice cream!

 

This cobbler is Yum but it is sweet. You can cut back on the sugar if it is your desire.

Strawberry Pie

Gotta Love summertime and all the fresh fruit coming out of the garden. My strawberries didn't come out of my garden , unfortunately, because they all died because of the 102 degree summer we had a few summers ago. I watered, I tried , I begged them to stay alive but they didn't listen. Here is a simple strawberry pie recipe I made .

1 9" pie shell, baked and cooled

1 quart strawberries, washed and capped (you can leave them whole or slice them, whatever you prefer)

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 Tbs. cornstarch

1 (3oz.) box of strawberry gelatin (Jello)

 

 

In a saucepan over medium heat, mix the sugar, water and cornstarch.  Stir until it just boils and turns clear and thickens.   Add the strawberry gelatin to the mixture and cook for about a minute stirring constantly and making sure it's smooth.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

 

Arrange the strawberries in the baked and cooled pie shell. I cut mine in half or you could leave them whole.

 

 Carefully pour the gelatin mixture over the entire pie. .  Place in the refrigerator and chill for at least a few hours. 

Slice and serve with whipped cream or cool whip

You can also cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup and use sugar free Jello to cut back on calories and sugar

Scissors

I spotted these large scissors on an online website and fell in love with their large scale look and color. They now hang in my kitchen/living room .

My Pantry

    

 
I chose to do the pantry in Oak and not Poplar because oak is a harder wood and I was going be putting quite a bit of junk on the shelves.  Poplar will work just fine but I like to push myself a little and I wanted a stained oak pantry. Yes,   Poplar is easier to work with because if you mess up on screwing in the nails you can easily sand,  putty and paint . Oak is  a lot harder to hide the mistakes. You can put wood putty on your mistakes and stain but you can usually see the mistakes after you try and stain. If it doesn't bother you than don't worry about those extra holes.

 We cut the 1x2s and drilled the predrilled and countersunk the holes where the studs were on the wall

I cut some oak baseboards for the closet

 

we marked the studs first and stuck a straight pin in the drywall and nailed to make sure we were going to be hammering into a stud.i used painters tape to keep the boards on the wall. Next we marked the holes in the 1x2s then drilled with a drill press and countersank the holes using a drill press. .we made the holes before we put stained and wipe on poly on because I didn't want the finish scratched and you always have to sand after making holes.you can see the screws in the corners. we had to go in at an angle to get away from screwing in the ends of the oak boards. If you pop a nail with a nailgun or screw at the end of wood it will split.I will not screw or nail any closer than 1 inch from the end of a board. I also glued a piece of trim over the screws and you can see in the picture there are no screw heads. This allows for a more finished look. (I know what you are thinking "You cant even see that with the stuff piled onto the shelves") I just couldn't leave all those screws showing

 we cut the shelves for the pantry out of 3/4 inch plywood and also stained with a dark walnut and wipe on poly finish. do not use anything smaller than 3/4 inch because when you weigh down the shelves they will sag.

      I always use SPAX screws . I love SPAX! I have a house that has some really dried out old boards in the walls and I drilled the 1x2s on the wall and the regular screws broke a few times. and then I discovered SPAX.


 

 

In this photo I glued a piece of decorative shelf front on the front of the 3/4 inch plywood  to cover up the rough end of the shelf. Next, I glued another piece on the top end of the shelf and bucked it to the front piece so it will form a ledge . This ledge will prevent things on the shelf from falling off and damaging anything below and gives it a more trimmed out look.

 

 

 

I applied a natural minwax stain on the drawer and about 7 coats of wipe on poly sanding between each coat . I was trying to make the drawers shiny and smooth like a guitar. I also added some trim on the drawers.

In this photo I had my cabinet maker build me a spice cabinet

 

I put a door on the spice cabinet

I purchased these corbels off ebay for around 18.00 a piece. If you are in need of the corbels check ebay first it will save you a lot of money. I also put up crown molding . This was a closet and I took down the door and trimmed it out on the inside with decorative trim so it stays open. I will probably add a curtain later and swing the curtain to the right so I can easily get things in and out. There is a door on the left that swings in front of this so I could not handle closing one door to open another .

I used Loctite glue to glue the front pieces and top pieces on the shelves to make the ledge. I also used Loctite all purpose glue to glue the corbels on the wall . I always put superglue on anything heavy that I am gluing with Loctite so it will hold the corbels in place until the glue dries. On the 1x2s that hold up the shelves I also went back and glued a piece of decorative trim over all the screws that I countersank to hide everything. Its an extra cost but it makes the look flawless.

I did all the refinishing work myself with Dark Walnut stain and Wipe-On Poly.
When applying the Wipe On Poly use those lens cleaning pads you buy in the package you will have less lint coming off. I usually apply 5 coats . Always run a fine sanding pad down it one or two times between coats. I never run the sanding sponge until after the 3rd coat  because it will take the stain off. Always stay away from nailing or screwing at the end of oak as it will split. I usually never screw or nail from the end any closer than 1 inch. I had the cabinet maker make the spice cabinet and cut out the shelves.

 

A Decor House Tour

 

These are just a few things hanging around my house.

 

 

 

I installed this crown molding and hand built all the blocks .

cartouches in the "Blue Room" I love this Pottery Barn color "Woodlawn Blue" I think I am going to use it in the bathroom whenever I finish tiling in 2014 I hope.

This opens up to store keys and I have never even put a key in it 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Colby the Cow. Doesn't he have a sweet face. you can find him on Wayfair in different sizes

 

 I looked everywhere for a pretty sunburst mirror and after 3 years I found it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I found this for 75% off at a local shop . I cant wait to hang it to cover the hole in the ceiling where I swore there was a light fixture previously installed

 

 

 

 

 

I have a cookbook addiction. if you need a recipe just email me. I promise you I have it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and we are still under a remodel that seems like it will never end. Have I told you that if you rip out all of your house yourself except for 1 toilet it will take you forever to put it all back together?