The hallway bathroom project is nearly done... and it felt time to splurge on a new shower curtain. When I first moved in 18 months ago, I tossed up the shower curtain from my old North End apartment. There was zero emotional attachment to this chevron shower curtain... it was free and houses are expensive. BUT - with the board and batten project wrapping up I knew the time was coming for a new shower curtain. I had done all the labor for this project myself (with help from my dad) so a new shower curtain was a reasonable expense. Goals: don't stray too far from the traditional style of the bathroom bring in some color to the black / white / gray bathroom maybe  be a little bit different than some of my normal design decisions After probably about 2 hours on Target and Amazon, I bought 11 shower curtains. Was this excessive? Yes. Was it a fun way to spent quarantine? Almost. Was this the only way to shop for shower curtains in a pandemic? Also yes. Here are all t...
In the last couple years, I've become more of a dessert person - but not just any dessert. I'm still not choosing a piece of pie after my dinner but I'll rarely push away a piece of chocolate or cookie. Given my lack of self-control, I have removed all of the Reese cups from my house for the last couple months. The seasonal shapes are my weak spot for sure. With the recent shift to a quarantined lifestyle, I have been doing a fair amount of baking. A friend of mine dropped off some of the most amazing chocolate chip cookies of my life. These are not that :-) but they are still quite great and gluten free. So, if you are like myself and accidentally bought gluten free flour from Whole Foods delivery.... you can also make these cookies tonight.  When I made these, I did freeze nearly 75% of the dough for another night. This worked quite swimmingly. I just put a ice cream scoops of cookie dough on a sheet and set them in the freezer to harden a bit before tra...
How many posts in a row can I reference quarantine cooking? The answer is probably a lot - and probably more for the next two months or so. As we prepared to eat more out of our houses and with less trips to the grocery store, I impulse bought a couple cans of tuna fish one day at the local grocery store. It had probably been at least three years and maybe five since I last bought a can of tuna fish. Since then, I have probably crushed a can of tuna each week either in the form of a tuna melt... or these very tasty tuna cakes. I actually got the idea for these from watching an episode of British Home Chef on Hulu. The essential idea of the show is XYZ. In one of the final episodes of season 2, the "rustle up challenge" was to create a meal based on a can of tuna fish. Nearly everyone failed but thankfully the hosts commentary gave good ideas ... and tuna cakes was one of them. Tuna cakes will come together in probably 15 minutes max - including all prep and coo...
I've been making pancakes on Sunday evenings for probably 2 months now... or perhaps more honestly. Sometimes figuring out what to eat for dinner every night can be a lot, so knowing that Sunday is for pancakes makes life a bit easier. Plus it normally means bacon is also on the menu.  Given that I recently adopted a sourdough starter, I've been looking for ways to use it that aren't bread. I love the bread, it's delicious. But it's also addicting. One slice always leads to three slices.  A quick google search lead to a sourdough pancake recipe  from Tastes of Lizzy that used all my extra sourdough starter. I tweaked the recipe a bit to be a little sweeter and saltier - my favorite things. I have never seen such fluffy tall pancakes in all my life. They are perfect for your favorite mix-ins: chocolate chips, blueberries, sprinkles... whatever makes you happy. Here's how it goes. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda,...
Yes, that is a really loaded name for these small donuts... but it is all the truth. Donuts were not on my list of things to make during this quarantine but I had some fresh buttermilk... and I'm trying very hard to reduce my waste. Why the fresh buttermilk? Well, I obviously had to make fresh butter because the store was out of butter and toast without butter is lunacy. Last week I made my mom a batch of butter and split it between three flavors: cinnamon sugar, salted honey, garlic thyme. She has not complained about any of them. The original call for this recipe  (from Nourished Endeavors) was just a simple dip in cinnamon sugar. That was nice. It tasted fine - but then I had a flash of brilliance to do a simple glaze of peanut butter... and then sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. HOME RUN. The creamy peanut butter gives the otherwise cake donut a silkiness and amps up the heavenly level. I'm really pleased with it. For the peanut butter topping, here are some sp...