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Sunday, December 23, 2012

What Are You Doing Today?

So far, today has been a very productive, very relaxing day.  The Husband and I spent a good part of our morning in the kitchen baking.  All of our friends and family have enough 'stuff'.  We really like making gift bags full of homemade goodies to give as gifts instead. 

Baking was sort of a tag-team thing.  He decided what to bake, read the recipe and added the ingredients to the mixer, and I did anything that needed extra preparation ... like grating lemon zest, and stuff like that.  Two of the things we made were based on a new recipe from Pinterest, Lemon Blueberry Bread, and it was a winner.  (Click HERE for the recipe.)

Here it is as small loaves of Lemon Cranberry Bread.  (using dried cranberries in the mix, instead of blueberries)

 
 
Next, we made it with blueberries that we picked and froze last summer, but baked it as muffins.
 
 
 
I finished up the muffins while watching football ... Redskins vs. Eagles.  (Redskins won ... Wooo Hooo!!)
 
As the last of the muffins were baking, I cut a roast into cubes and it's simmering on the stove.  I think I will make beef stew out of it for dinner.
 
 
 
At least one of the cats is around whenever there's something interesting to see.  Here is Alice watching me cook.  She's not really supposed to be on the counter like this, but it's the high counter, away from any of the cooking ... and she's not hurting anything, so I let her stay.
 
 
 
The rolls of ribbon in front of Alice represent the last Christmas thing left to do ... wrapping presents.  I plan to do that while we watch the next football game ... the Giants and Ravens ... go Ravens!
 
In between all of this, I have been working through the steps and scheming a paint treatment for the vanity we are using in a mini remodel of our master bathroom.  (Put on a coat of paint, ... do something else while it's drying ... another coat of paint ... bake something ... a bit of wet distressing ... more baking ... a quick coat of wax ... ooohhh, pretty.)  I'm calling this finish 'black cherry', and it's been a lot of fun to create.  After the first of the year, when The Husband has time to give me a hand with the plumbing part of the job, I hope to get started.
 
This is my test drawer front.  The photo doesn't look nearly as cool as this does in real life.
 

 
It's your turn ... what has your day been like?