Dining Room Chairs Makeover

Hello Darlings,

This week and probably into next week I will be spending quality time making over some chairs. These chair are all that were left after I gave up a up the huge matching dining table in exchange for fitting my kitchen islands in my apartment. Recently, I purchased a folding table to play table games, which is espresso and black. I decided to do these old dining room chair is the same colors. The chair on the left is still in transition as I have to de-gloss it  However, I believe this stain will mixed with black and I might strip the chair and find color of stain closer to what I am seeking. Or, since the center of the table is black, settle for the de-glossing.

Below is my first video in this project. It shows my current progress with the chair and what is looked like before. Its accents parts needs cleaning up a bit. I used some painter's tape to keep the stain out, but next time I will make the strips wider so the stain does not get beneath it. 

Moreover, I am in a decision stage, because as I stated above this first chair is too glossy and dark for my taste (more black than espresso), so I might just strip it and find a shade of shade closer to the folding table I just purchased. 

Decisions. Decisions.

Since the sun is out now, I wanted to show this chair is a little light. As I stated it still needs work, but you can see where I am going with this project.

Until next time,

Chow

Update 02/16/2018: The espresso stain was indeed tampered with by adding some black stain. I reported it to Amazon, and they refunded my money.  Seeing how is this has happened I decided to strip the chair and stain it along with its mates a different shade. I have purchased my new stain and supplies from our local Lowe's. I also selected a color stain closer to the the wood portion of the table pictured above. Stay tuned for the new post on this project.

Chow, Darlings.

The Dilemma Of The Ball Park Buns?!!

Generic Photo

Okay Darlings,

As some of you may know the following ingredients for making hoagie rolls in a bread maker has been floating around the web for some time.

·         1 cup water (Temp. 110-115 degrees F.)

·         4 teaspoons vegetable oil

·         2 teaspoons sugar

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

·         2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

And that is all. It appears to be nice, simple, and easy on the purse, right?  Hmm. The major problem with this recipe is it lacks the softness of normal freshly baked rolls, and a day or two in the refrigerator, you can use them to bat home runs out of Wrigley Field. This was the dilemma I face after trying this recipe for the first time some months ago. 

Not only did the recipe not make six soft and chewy rolls, the recipe made six small rolls that you could barely use for sub sandwiches.

My Homemade

Okay, since there is only myself and my husband at home now, our needs called for a smaller number of rolls, which is why I selected the recipe. Fixing the size of the rolls was easy. When made correctly, you can use the recipe to make four nice size hoagie roll or hamburger buns. Your choice. However, the problem with the hardness of the rolls was another matter. That is until I ran across a baker's tip on Wiki How. 

Our's Evening meal

To use the above ingredients to make these rolls digestible; you do need to add a few more ingredients. Therefore, below I am sharing my personal adaptation of that web recipe (and it is nearly everywhere) for bread maker's hoagie rolls with my choice of added ingredients.

Hoagie's Bread Machine Made With Vital Wheat Gluten

Prep Time: 10 mins

• Total Time: 2 hrs 15 mins
• Servings: 4

Ingredients

·         1 cup water (Temp. 110-115 degrees F.)

·         4 teaspoons vegetable oil

·         1 tablespoon  honey

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

·         2 3/4 teaspoons vital wheat gluten

·         1 2/4 teaspoons wheat flour

·         2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

For glaze topping

·         1 egg white

·         1 tablespoon milk/water

Notes: dough will be too dry so add enough to make tacky, but too wet. If dough is too wet add flour to make tacky.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Place ingredients in order into the bread machine.
3. Use the dough cycle
4. Before cycle is done I lay out a piece of waxed paper with flour on it.
5. The cycle will beep when done,
6. "punch" dough down.
7. Grease hands or spray with cooking spray as dough is very "sticky".
8. Remove dough from bread machine and place on floured pastry mat, or floured waxed paper.
9. Sprinkle a little flour on the top of the dough and "smooth" it over the top of the dough.
10. Spray a knife with cooking spray
11. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces
12. Place dough pieces evenly spaced apart on a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam.
13. Shape each piece of dough into an oval shape.
14. With kitchen scissors, make a "snip" in the center of each roll, about 1 to 2 inches long and about 1/4 inch deep.
15. Cover and let rise 20 minutes
16. Bake for about 20 minutes.
17. Coat rolls egg and milk glaze while still hot on a rack

These small additions to a well known web recipe made all the difference in the world.

As stated before this recipe can also be used for making hamburger buns. In the future I intend to use it to make  baguettes and garlic bread when fewer servings are needed. Furthermore, the rolls were still soft and delicious tasting right from the plastic bag after four days on the counter.

Using personal bread machines is still fairly new. And we that love to cook, also love the share. So let's do it right.

PDF DOWNLOAD

Until next time,

Chow, Darlings

_{A Widescreen Online Review Recipe Adaptation 01//14/2018}

Saigon Cinnamon Tomato Soup Cake

Hello Darlings,

Below is my recipe for a nice tasty nutritional spice cake that is made with some surprising ingredients. In addition, because the original recipe has a long history, which probably predates the depression era, read my "Baker's Note" as well.

Saigon Cinnamon Tomato Soup Cake

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, or shortening,  softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, well beaten
• 1 can condensed tomato soup 10 3/4 oz size
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 hazelnut meal/flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup fruit juice
• 1/2 cup raisins, optional
• 1/2 cup dates
• 1/2 cup apricot

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. spray a 9" round cake pan, or 9" x 2" with cooking spray.
2. Line pan with a parchment circle and spray again.
3. Cream butter and sugar in large bowl. Add egg and mix well.
4. Combine baking soda with undiluted soup in can. Let foam for 1 minute.
5. Pour soup mixture into butter/sugar/egg and blend well.
6. Mixture will look slightly curdled. This is normal.
7. In a small bowl combine flour, hazelnut meal, baking powder and spices.
8. Whisk well and add to tomato soup mixture.
9. Beat together for 1 minute on medium speed.
10. Add fruit juice
11. Blend well, 2 -3 minutes. Until creamy texture
12. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
13. After 30 minutes test center of cake with a toothpick, if it comes out clean, remove from oven. If it is still moist, bake the remaining 5 minutes
14.  Cool on wire rack
15.  Top each serving with cool whip or ready whip ice as desired.

Baker's Note:

This recipe is a variation on a Great Depression Era tomato soup cake. I learned about it from several YouTube videos and websites. However, after reviewing some of the ingredients in those recipes, I decided to tweak a favorable recipe that called for fewer ingredients.  The most noticeable changes were that I halved the recommended spices as I generally use wholesale spices, which to me are stronger than what is sold in local stores.

In addition, because I like hazelnuts,  I decreased the flour to 1 1/4 cup, and replaced it with a fourth of a cup of hazelnut meal.  This made the batter thicker than it needed to be so I added some fruit juice.  I recommend either Sunny D Original or 100% orange juice.

As for the title of this recipe, it is my personal choice because I used Saigon cinnamon, which is bolder than regular cinnamon, and I like the sound of it.

The trick about many recipes is that  it is fun making them your own. So feel free to add your own tweaks to suit your taste.

Chow!

Widescreen Online Review

PDF RECIPE

Related:

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

A Spicy History of Campbell’s Tomato Soup Spice Cake

Mystery Cake (Tomato Soup Spice Cake)

A Quick And Easy Entertainment Center Makeover

Season Greetings, Darlings!

Okay, you're feeling good because you just brought home your new 49-inch or plus television set, and  you're thinking you’re stuck with an old humongous and now out of favor entertainment center that housed your old 32-inch digital television. 

This was my dilemma.

So I asked myself the following questions:

What should I do with this dinosaur now that I have my new flat screen TV.  Should I buy one of the more popular low-level entertainment centers designed for flat screen TVs and comes with an average height of 22 to 24 inches? Downsize it? Or, should I just trash it?

After doing some research, I learned that these new entertainment centers are just as costly as the dinosaur that I already own. Therefore, I opted to keep it and reseal the back.

As the original  backing  from the entertainment center was removed to place an equally old 32-inch digital TV into years ago. I needed to reseal the back. And lucky me. The new flat screen TV came with a huge cardboard insert that was large enough for me the fill in the back of the old entertainment center, which made it more attractive and useful.

Together my materials were:

• one large cardboard insert
• 1 roll of Self Adhesive Vinyl Medium Walnut contact film, 17.7" x 78.7"
• A good pair of craft scissors
• Staple gun with 3/8" staples
• And the help of my husband, Stan, for the heavy work

Below are the before and after pictures. 

This idea was a simple and quick fix to a problem that did not necessarily need to cost more than the $10.99 for the adhesive film, and fortunately, the Walnut shade and pattern are nearly a perfect match.

Chow Darlings!