Blackberry Cream Cheese Pie

I had this friend in college. Her name was Vella and she made cheesecake. Not Jello-brand-from-a-powder-and-milk cheesecake, but real baked-in-the-oven-in-a-springform-pan cheesecake. Until this point in my life I had only known the former and actually had no idea that real people could even make the latter...So sheltered... Anyway, Vella's ability to make flavor after flavor of real, legitimate cheesecake fascinated me. I've thought about it just often enough over the years to buy a springform pan, but not often enough to take it out of the box.

It's really a matter of patience and commitment. I lack both. If I could just dumb it down and shorten the process, I'd be all over it.

On that note, I give you Cream Cheese Pie (courtesy of my friend Krista who I did not bother to ask about posting this recipe). It's not even close to Vella cheesecake, but light years above the Jello stuff in the box-- and it's so easy! First I'll tell you how Krista makes it, then I'll tell you how I make it. hahahaha

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream whipped on highish until foamy, add 3 oz. of softened cream cheese and mix well, but not too much. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 tsp. of vanilla. Whip until fluffy and pour into a graham cracker crust.

My interpretation was pretty much the same except I wanted it to fill up the crust a little more. So I used 1/2 pint of whipping cream plus about 1/3 cup, the whole 8 oz block of cream cheese (if you use the kind with 1/3 less fat, it's already soft and you don't have to soften it more) and about 3/4 c. of sugar with 1 cap full of vanilla. But then I didn't actually measure any of my extras...

I've never claimed to be a photographer, but I also never make anything if I don't first know what it's supposed to look like, so here ya go:





And just as an added bonus, I had to document something that Seth likes that doesn't provoke itching, vomiting and puffiness. Yay pie filling.

The Big Unveil

I love a good remodel. I'm pretty open about that. But as I've checked house projects off the list, I've started to get bored and restless again. And me bored and restless is an ugly thing. So I started to wonder what else I could possibly remodel...

I met with a plastic surgeon.

Hahaha! Because if you can't remodel your house, why not remodel yourself?! For reasons I won't even go into, that didn't go anywhere. (Sidebar: no one should use the world "flanks" to describe the female human body. Really. Who can feel feminine with flanks?) While you have to admit it's kind of funny, funny doesn't do much to cure boredom and restlessness. If you get your kicks from remodeling, truthfully, nothing else is going to do.

My blog-guru sister came to the rescue. I think my mom might have put her up to it with the hopes that I'd start blogging again, but here it is: the blog remodel! My friend Cami took some pictures, I made a few sketches & pulled some ink pads to create the color palette, Ami worked her magic and waa-waa! (That's voila when you're a kindergartner.) Go ahead and tell us how cute it is. We're all ears.

So now that the blog has been remodeled...?

If Your Friends Jumped Off a Bridge

Even though I rarely get around to blogging any more, I still see life from a blogger's perspective. Stuff happens and I think--Oh I should blog that! Today I got all excited about something...like the kind of excited where you have a secret and can't wait to tell someone...like I had made a discovery that, when shared, had the power to change lives...not like a cure for cancer kind of thing, but close. Another purpose for over-ripe bananas kind of thing. I know, HUGE.

After an arduous day in the pool with the little men, this afternoon was feeling kind of like a gooey warm brownie afternoon. But I was out of eggs. I figured there had to be an easy alternative so I googled it. (Sidebar: Do you even remember the days before "google" was a verb?) Anyway, imagine my ridiculous excitement upon learning that half of a banana mashed up works as a substitute for an egg in things like cakes and brownies!! Yeah, HUGE!! Who doesn't need a use for dying bananas besides banana bread?! I'm trying to convey here how excited I really was about this, but I don't know that I'm getting the point across. Remember that one time I tried pretzel M&M's for the first time? The time I bought myself that fabulous flowered ring for Christmas? The time I had a mid-life crisis and went to Montana to be a cowgirl yogini? Wait. That's next week. The time I designed the most fabulous fireplace ever? Okay, that's how excited I was about this banana-instead-of-a-couple-eggs thing.

My excitement was SOOO misplaced. Long story short...if all your friends decide to jump off a bridge you probably shouldn't try that either.

A Sign

Despite your comments, Facebook messages, texts, phone calls and doorstep pleadings, when I made my last post I had every intention of it actually being my last post. Some of you didn't take me seriously anyway, so I guess it'll come as no surprise that here I am posting. But I had to...I saw a sign...like an-image-of-Virgin-Mary-on-my-grilled-cheese-sandwich kind of sign...

Look what I found when I went to clean the glass on my back door:

I have no idea who it is, but I think it's a sign that I'm supposed to keep blogging. Too bad I cleaned it off. If I left it until after I posted, there coulda been a shrine with people holding candles in my back yard right now. ;)

Announcing...

...my retirement from the blogging world. I'm so serious.

I spent all afternoon crafting a much-requested post for your reading pleasure. It was a rather detailed post relating a simple, kind of silly thing I was really excited about today. Then with one misplaced keystroke I ruined it. The only way to fix it would be to start over again, which I'm too angry to waste my time doing. It's probably more than just that that has me feeling like I'm about to boil over right now, but I need a scapegoat. If I had an idiot to berate or a block of wood to smash some nails into, or an idiot to berate, or some cheap dishes to throw against my cinder block wall (and someone else to do the clean-up), or an idiot to berate, the blog might not be getting the ax. But I don't, so it is.

p.s. I was blogging about the new Pretzel M&M's. Try them. They're my new fave.

Laundry Room Redo

Recently I was talking to a new friend of mine about my well-documented boy drama. She could relate to the situation in a way most people can't: she is about the same age I am and her husband was killed in an accident about a month before Matt. We don't know each other well, but it's amazing how clued-in you can become to someone else's life when you share something of that magnitude. Her parting words to me were: "Well, sounds like you better call your contractor friend and remodel something."

Oh yeah, she's got me pegged. Every bout of extreme boredom and loneliness in the last year and a half has been followed by remodeling or creating of some kind. But I didn't think it was fair to start another project when I still haven't blogged pics of the remodel a very lonely Christmas and New Year brought on. While it wasn't the first element of the last phase of remodeling, I'll start with the laundry room.

BEFORE:

Boring, bland laundry room with absolutely no wow factor and even less storage...seriously uninspiring...

AFTER:

Now I'm not one who needs an incentive to do laundry. For me it is it's own incentive. I like how routine and systematic it is. It relaxes me and I love thinking about how much I'm accomplishing in the day when the machines are actually doing most of the work. But every time we come and go from the house throughout the day, we go through the laundry room. So I wanted it to look more like an entry way, not like a drab utility room.

When I had the crown moulding ripped out of the piano room to do the ceiling in there (another post, sorry!) I had the carpenters move it into the laundry room and powder room. Crown moulding in the laundry room...*sigh*

I had these knobs custom painted for the cabinetry. How fun are those?! Since I took these pictures they have been installed on the cabinets. A friend stopped by the other day and said "These are SO you!" That's one of my favorite compliments, when people see really cute stuff and say it makes them think of me.

I'm not just saying this for the sake of the blog post, but I have to go rotate some laundry now.

Funky Flower Quilt

My friend Krista asked me to make a quilt for her daughter's birthday this week. Having all boys myself, I love the opportunity to do anything girly so of course I said yes. But I am a girly-girl and Krista's girls are funky-girls. So I couldn't get away with a remake of the rose quilt. The pattern we decided on came together quickly and ended up being cuter than I thought it would be.

Krista and the funky girls used to live next door, but they moved last weekend. So instead of being able to pop over to check on my progress, I have to post pictures on the blog for her to see how the quilt has turned out:

Since she chose the fabrics, I'm pretty sure Krista will like it. I'm just hoping it makes the 8-year-old happy!