Project 365

I've joined Project 365, a group of people exploring photography by pledging to take one photo a day for an entire year. I am so looking forward to this project. Believe me when I say I need to learn how to use a camera.

Yep...I own three cameras! Two of which are new and I think I've used them, maybe two times each and I've never read the Owner's Manuals! Huge fail!!

If you'd like to follow along on my photo journey, I've uploaded my first week of photos on my Spend-A-Buck Farm blog or you can click on Big Black Dog's Project 365 badge in the sidebar.

If you are interested there are two groups on Flickr that you might consider joining, Project 365 Flickr Group and Project 365 Food Bloggers Group. The Groups are open to anyone with an interest in photography or even if you just want to browse!

And I already learned a little bit! See my Project 365 Badge, well I made it. Designing is not a problem for me, I've designed logos for years but not on a computer which is a whole different ball game!



All Rights Reserved 2008-10 © BigBlackDog

Pomegranate Cupcakes

OH MY...this has been a rough Christmas as far as weather! It snowed earlier in the week and we had about 6" of the squishy white stuff on the ground. But on Christmas Day it started raining, sleeting and then into freezing rain for about 24 hours. It was miserable but the rain did melt most of our existing snow and being it was Christmas we all just stayed inside where is was warm and had fun all day!

But then on December 26th, the temperature dropped and it started snowing.....and snowing.....and snowing. It must have snowed for the better part of 18 hours and it was a fierce blizzard. I took the below picture at about 4 pm on December 26th and measured the snow. At that point we had a little more then 15" of new snow. It continued snowing until about 9 pm but I did not measure until the next morning for a grand total of 17" of new snow. We are buried but it's so pretty!




And the next morning this is what I found. Isn't it gorgeous!





Sometimes you just need something tangy and sweet on a cold, snowy winter day and what could be more perfect then Pomegranate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!

The recipe Just Plain Good Cupcakes is my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe. It is a small batch recipe and only makes five cupcakes but you can easily double it. And it adapts beautifully with any flavoring, fruit or filling I've tried. I like to bake these cupcakes until the tops are just slightly browned. The little extra caramelization adds so much flavor not to mention the crunch with every bite.





Just Plain Good Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from "Small Batch Baking" by Debby Maugans

Makes 5 cupcakes (isn't that a hoot 5 CUPCAKES!)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Yolk of 1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I use 1/8 tsp vanilla)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

My additions:
2 tsp Pomegranate Molasses **See Note

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 5 muffin cups with baking cups and set aside.

Combine the buttermilk and baking soda in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Add egg yolk and vanilla and again whisk until thoroughly mixed.

Place the flour, sugar and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl and mix. Add the butter and half of the buttermilk mixture. Beat with a hand-held mixer on low speed until the dry ingredients are blended. Increase the speed to medium and bet until the mixture is slightly increased in volume, about 45 seconds, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in the remaining buttermilk mixture and beat on medium speed until well blended, 20 seconds. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Spoon the batter evenly into the 5 baking cups. Put a little bit of water in the rest of the empty cups in your Cupcake Tin to prevent the cupcakes from scorching. Bake the cupcakes until a tester comes out clean, about 20 to 23 minutes.

Remove from the oven and as soon as you can remove the cupcakes from the pan and let them thoroughly cool on a cooling rack.

**Note: Pomegranate Molasses is quite thick and very potent. But if you want a more tangy Pomegranate taste you can add a little bit more but make sure to taste the batter first.


Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe adapted from Sprinkle's Cupcakes

8 ounces cold cream cheese
1 stick butter, firm but not cold
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine butter, salt, and cream cheese in mixer and beat on medium speed 2-3 minutes. Add sugar until just incorporated. Don’t over mix. It should be thick but not fluffy. Add vanilla.







All Rights Reserved 2008-9 © Big Black Dog

Metamorphosis Monday - Sprinkles, Jimmies and other Confections

Since we're having such a rainy fall I decided to get a jump on my closet organizing which I usually do in the dead of winter.

When we were remodeling the basement many times we had to build soffits or closets to hide heat ducts and other unsightly necessities. And right at the bottom of our basement stairs we had a heat duct and some electrical cable connections that needed to disappear so I had the closet built with double doors and very deep, wide shelves. The closet was one of the last things built which means I was construction weary, facing surgery and to make things even more hectic I was called for jury duty! So when the shelves were finally installed I just piled stuff in with no organization at all. And what starts out with no organization just gets worse...and worse...and worse.

In half the closet I keep light bulbs, candles, lanterns and flashlights and this side is actually pretty well organized. But the other half of the closet is where I keep all my confections for cookies and cupcakes, infrequently used small appliances, candy making equipment and large tupperware-like containers for storage and it was a horrible mess.

I mean really look at these shelves!







So I totally emptied the confection/baking side of the closet and put it all in the middle of the basement floor.






I know I have a lot of confections but I do bake quite a bit and I love to sprinkle. So I organized all the confections, sanding sugars, nonpareils and jimmies per holiday or season and then by color.

This is about half of my stash of confections. It was nice to organize them because now I know I'm low on 4th of July and St. Patrick's Day sprinkles and almost completely out of orange jimmies!

Sugar Confections will fade if exposed to light. So make sure to store them in a dark closet or in a lidded box.








I'm going to blame my bulk store for feeding my obsession because they have the most wonderful assortment of decorations for every season and holiday imaginable. There's easily 100+ bins of different colored sugars and decorations.







After I organized all the confections, it really did not take me long at all to put the closet in order. And look at all the room I have!






I feel so much better now!


Next on the list is the other large basement closet which now contains all our wine and my hiking gear plus all the dogs hiking gear. Should be interesting..LOL!







Metamorphosis Monday is hosted by Between Naps on the Porch. Please visit Susan's site and you'll find some fabulous ideas freely shared by many gracious and highly creative people.



All Rights Reserved 2008-9 © Big Black Dog

Metamorphosis Monday - Kitchen Details Part 2

Over the past two weeks for Metamorphosis Monday I've posted the construction of my kitchen and last week Kitchen Details Part 1. And this week is my final post on my Kitchen...whew! When I look back at all the work that was done, no wonder I'm still sleeping in every morning!


I know I've had several questions on the material I used for my kitchen ceiling and I'm happy to announce I FOUND IT! After going through all our receipts for 2007 and coming up empty handed I started calling my suppliers and thankfully Greg at Alexander Lumber tracked down the ceiling material!!!! Please click on Moulding and Millwork Catalog and scroll down to Page 43, under Wainscot, M&M# 5834M; 5/8"by3"by16' Ultralite.


Although I have a Recipe Program, Home Cookin, I have many cookbooks and handwritten recipe files. So I needed bookshelves and some kind of cabinet space for all my files. Since I have three large breed dogs that shed, open lower shelves were out to the question. Can you imagine the dust and dog hair problem I'd have with low, open shelves!

So I designed 2 cabinets with bookshelves and to keep the books upright and neat I also had fixed wooden book dividers custom made to support the books. All my handwritten recipes files store neatly in the lower cabinet with doors.

I love to listen to the radio when I'm in the kitchen so I have a narrow, fixed top shelf for my radio which has a remote.








I also had a TV cabinet installed above the double ovens. My husband did not want a TV in the kitchen but actually he uses it more then I do!






The Communication center also have bookshelves and landline phone. Lower storage is for phone books and other odds and ends. I had electrical outlets installed in the lower cabinet so I could charge my cell phone and label maker inside the cabinet and this solves the draped electrical cords. Finally, all my recharging can be done out of sight!





In the drawer you can see my cell phone recharging.








We did need an outlet for the landline cordless phone and my electrician installed an Leviton Out of Sight PowerJack! No more ugly outlet next to the phone! Yea!


The bank of cabinets facing the eating area in the kitchen is narrow but perfect for the liquor cabinet! The end cabinet of drawers is where I keep all my table linens.





Lighting is one of my favorite things to do...LOVE IT! I can never have enough lamps, chandeliers or sconces!

Lighting in a kitchen is extremely important and knowing I was going to be spending hours baking I needed light fixtures that could take, minimum 100w light bulbs. The chandelier over my island has 3-100w bulbs...I love this fixture! And the two pendants over the clean up sink area also take 100w bulbs.









I've always wanted an antler chandelier and since this was probably going to be my last chance at one, I had one installed over my square oak table in the eating area. It is not real antler so the cost was very reasonable and I love it!






Since this was a remodel I did have to contend with existing stairways which was not so much a problem except for the basement stairway. I did not want the entrance to our basement stairs to be in our dining room. So I designed a Butler Pantry which not only gave me much more cabinet space and enclosed the entrance to the basement stairs but allowed me to have a broom closet/pantry too!

The Butler Pantry is where I store all my serving dishes, cake plates, small appliances, dessert dishes and on and on and on. At one end of the Butler Pantry are the basement stairs visible in the first photo. And at the other end is the door to my pantry.
















In the broom closet/pantry I had deep shelves installed for small appliances and my large serving platters. I also have small, narrow shelves for all my home canned goodies. And on two walls I have peg board for all the brooms, dust pans, etc. I also had enough room for the Tub-o-Flour which is on wheels and holds 50 lbs of flour!! Love my flour tub!














When designing my kitchen peninsula with the large, farm sink and the dishwasher I only had room for small cabinets on the ends. I love these small cabinets! One cabinets fits odd shaped baking pans of which I have MANY. And since I have an equal amount of cutting boards, some for serving and some for actual prepping, I can store all the boards together! YEA!

I was not sure just what I was going to use the small cabinet for so did not have dividers installed. But I put small spring rods to divide and support the cutting boards and they are working out very well. I think I saw the spring rod tip on Martha Stewart years ago.





I made some mistakes in my kitchen, most due to my own inexperience and some the fault of my cabinet designer. But what's done is done and there's no changing it now!

Door Spice Rack: First of all it does not save space because in order to accommodate the door spice rack, the cabinet interior shelf is smaller. Plus if the shelf is full of bottles the door is heavy and it does not completely close and we've adjusted it MANY times. I even tried using plastic bottles and the door still does not close properly.





Under Cabinet Lighting: I NEVER use it. I think I've had it on maybe twice in 2 yrs.

Garbage Disposal in Island Prep Sink: Never used.

Canned Ceiling Lighting: I call canned lighting Ceiling Acne! I really don't like canned lighting so chose to get the smaller canned lights which were expensive. Never used.





Pella Windows and Doors: We replaced all our windows with Designer Series Windows, and exterior doors with Pella and we've had nothing but problems. First of all the doors were pre-finished and the finish peeled off within about 2 months and the windows were horribly drafty.

My office in on the east side of our home and in the winter I could feel a steady draft on my back while sitting on at desk. The draft was not coming from the window install but from the actual window. The Pella Representative told me I needed a special mini crowbar to lock the windows because our windows had the old lock design...all 63 new windows had the old lock! An old lock design on new, rather expensive windows??? I could not help it but I just started crying right then and there. Eventually Pella replaced all our window locks with the new lock and I didn't need to use a crowbar to lock the windows any more. But they damaged ever single one of windows during the repairs and I shed more tears.

And to add more problems the screens are not a tight fit leaving a small gab at the bottom. The gap is just big enough for bugs to crawl though and I have wasps flying around my house weekly. We've replaced all the windows and doors in two other homes before this project. We did use Anderson for our other homes and I had no problems what so ever and one of the homes we lived in for 12 more years.

Of course Pella guarantees their products but with window repairs and replacing doors SEVERAL times, it has been a total inconvenience to me. And our heat costs due to the drafty windows were ridiculous. I would never buy anything from Pella again.


Microwave: Advantium
Built-in Oven: GE
Range: Wolf 6-burner, double oven with griddle
Dishwasher: KitchenAid
Faucets: Brand: Perrin & Rowe; Finish: Polished Chrome
Main Sink: Herbeau Luberon
Island Sink: Extra deep copper bought on Ebay
Garbage Disposals: Insinkerator
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero Built-in
Tile: Ceramic 12"
Countertop: Soapstone
Cabinets: Brand: Monarch; Style: Shaker; Stain: Colony; Wood: Hickory


Metamorphosis Monday is hosted by Between Naps on the Porch. Please visit Susan's site and you'll find some fabulous ideas freely shared by many gracious and highly creative people.


Links of Interest:
My Kitchen-The Beginning
Kitchen Details Part 1





All Rights Reserved 2008-9 © Big Black Dog

Metamorphosis Monday - Kitchen Details Part 1

Last week for Metamorphosis Monday I posted the construction of my kitchen. But the fun part of any kitchen construction is deciding the details. The cabinet hardware, trim, backsplash and all the other little things that bring out the personality of the owner...that's me! And did I have fun or what!

First of all I am not a matchy/matchy person. I've seen people agonize over making sure that the finish of their faucets matches the finish on their cabinet hardware and the finish on their appliances. Well I like to mix it up, including mixing up hardware on the same cabinet!



Larder; A cool area for storing food prior to use. Larders were commonplace in houses before the widespread use of the refrigerator.

I've always wanted a larder in my kitchen. And since I tried to design my kitchen around our Craftsman Architecture, I knew this was the perfect time for a larder!






Here's the hardware on my larder. You see I really did mix it up! I used a fancy brass and wooden Victorian Teardrop pull with a heavy, cast iron pull! I also have a fancy glass knob on the small door which was difficult to photograph.







And here's the hardware on my kitchen cabinets, again totally a mix of this and that and what I liked! All the cabinets and drawers have either a plain square wooden knob or a reproduction cast iron pull.





I wanted a cast iron fireback installed above my range. I love cast iron and I found this wonderful reproduction of an original 17 century pineapple design. The pineapple is a symbol for welcome and hospitality and it is a very important symbol in our family. So to find my fireback and a pineapple at the same time..well I was thrilled. The fireback is the very first thing I bought for my new kitchen and it was finally installed two years later!


Here's Steve installing my Pineapple Fireback.





Since I was trying to design my kitchen to look as old as possible I wanted the backsplash behind the stove to look like a chimney. So I had my mason install rock as the backsplash. I love how the rock looks with the cast iron fireback and the big Wolf.





Here's my Wolf in work mode, I was canning and making dinner at the time and it's the same photo I used for my blog header picture. NOTE: On the right side of the photo you can see my latte which is never far from my reach!








We use our toaster daily but I really do not like looking at small appliances on my countertops and frankly I did not have the room. So I had a special cabinet installed in the island for the toaster. And since the toaster does get hot, it is on a sliding shelf so when we need to use it we just pull out the toaster, toast our bread, let the toaster cool down which just takes a minute and then slide it back into the cabinet and shut the door. I love my toaster cabinet! NOTE: You must have a power source inside the cabinet to plug in the toaster!






We also have a restaurant style Bun Coffee Maker which is tall and required a custom cabinet. Since we have to add the water from the top, I again designed a sliding shelf for the Bun. Just pull out the shelf, pour in the water, close the shelf and viola...it's coffee time!





I have oodles of kitchen towels, every color and design imaginable including designs for each holiday. I swap out my kitchen towel daily and so designed my sink cabinet to have a hook for my kitchen towel.





Here's my main clean up sink for the kitchen. I love having a nice big sink and because it's a little bit lower then a top mount sink, it's so much easier for me to use. I love this sink and my faucet.









If you're wondering about plumbing access for the kitchen cabinet. I designed access from the back of the cabinet and it's hidden inside this row of cabinets which face the kitchen eating area.





In live in an area with very hard water and so for my island sink I wanted something I did not have to worry about iron stains. I found this wonderful, extra deep, heavy copper sink on Ebay for $50! I love this copper sink!









Since I am a baker and bake almost daily I designed a small hanging shelf for my rather large variety of flours. And you can see it is packed with jars of flour. Some of the jars are vintage jars that I've collected over the years.











One of my favorite jars in this old Crisco Jar. I've had this jar forever and I think I picked it up at a garage sale while I was in college. I rarely had a quarter to my name while at school, the jar was probably $.10 at the most.





Here is one of my many blue Mason Jars with a porcelain top. And I bought three of these green jars years ago at a local garage sale, 3@$10. Someone had painted all the tops purple but I sort of like the purple tops!






Another vintage favorite is the old kitchen scale. I did not think I would be able to actually use the scale thinking it would not be true. But I took it to the post office to compare it to the PO scales and it's surprisingly accurate! Cost: $3





Microwave: Advantium
Built-in Oven: GE
Range: Wolf 6-burner, double oven with griddle
Dishwasher: KitchenAid
Faucets: Brand: Perrin & Rowe; Finish: Polished Chrome
Main Sink: Herbeau Luberon
Island Sink: Extra deep copper bought on Ebay
Garbage Disposals: Insinkerator
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero Built-in
Tile: Ceramic 12"
Countertop: Soapstone
Cabinets: Brand: Monarch; Style: Shaker; Stain: Colony; Wood: Hickory


Metamorphosis Monday is hosted by Between Naps on the Porch. Please visit Susan's site and you'll find some fabulous ideas freely shared by many gracious and highly creative people.



I thought I would be able to post my kitchen remodel over two weeks but I think I'm going to have to add a third post for next week. I still have the Butler Pantry, lighting and several custom cabinets to reveal and my list of mistakes I made.

I know some had questions about the material I used for the kitchen ceiling in last week's Metamorphosis Monday. We installed the kitchen ceiling in April '07 and I'm pretty sure we ordered the material in March of that year. But I've gone through every bill for the entire year and I'm sorry to say I can't find the invoice. I am planning on speaking with my carpenter this week and I will ask him if he remembers the ceiling material and if I find out I will post the kitchen ceiling information next week in my final kitchen remodel post.


Links of Interest:
My Kitchen-The Beginning
Kitchen Details Part 2





All Rights Reserved 2008-9 © Big Black Dog