what brooke does

Lapdog

I don’t know what has gotten into me today, maybe this is what nesting is all about and since I still don’t have a guest room/closet/nursery to organize and decorate I’m just taking it out on other parts of the house, but I spent way too many hours reorganizing the bookshelves in our kitchen just to put everything back the way it was when I started. I was flipping through this month’s Elle Decor and was inspired by the kitchen pictured above. It may be difficult to tell, but the cabinet to the left of the fridges has stacks and stacks of cookbooks piled high in it. We have a cabinet similar to that one that is currently purposed as a dish hutch, but, upon seeing this picture, I thought it might be better used as a cookbook hutch. So I removed all of our dishes and glassware from it, rearranged the shelves so they were all perfect book height, and moved all of our books from the open bookshelves into the hutch. Then I arranged all of our dishes on the open bookshelves, only to find that the shelves are *just* too shallow to hold our dinner plates, which really bothered me. So back everything went to its original spot.

I really can’t explain why I just wasted the afternoon doing that. Have I gone crazy?

We stayed at the Encore while we were in Vegas last weekend and I totally fell in love with the decor of the entire place, but particularly, the use of black trim in the rooms. It accentuated the taupe walls and houndstooth wallpaper so beautifully. I really wanted to paint all the trim in our dining room Benjamin Moore’s Night Shade, but was having trouble convincing Daryn that this was a good idea until he saw black trim in action in our room. I think the black and white stripes in the dining room would be set off so much more beautifully with black trim to outline them. Though I’m still considering the stripes a temporary fix until I can convince Daryn that we should install this wallpaper in black. So far he’ll allow it in the powder room, which I think is a step in the right direction. And while we’re on the subject of our powder room, we had a total breakthrough yesterday when he realized how high our ceilings are in there. He actually approached me to tell me how perfect a chandelier would look in there! Something I’ve been trying to convince him of since we moved in 3 years ago. But I won’t remind him of that, as long as I let him think it’s his idea I have a better chance of actually getting it.

My favorite way to spend a cold winter afternoon is in the kitchen stirring up a batch of my famous baked macaroni and cheese. I’ve been asked dozens of times to share my secret recipe, and the only reason I’ve held out for so long is that my secret is: I don’t have a recipe. I use the same basic ingredients every time I make it, but the quantities are a mystery to me, I just add what feels right. The key to a truly amazing finale is in using the best ingredients you can find. The only two cheeses I’ll ever reach for are the classic Tillamook medium cheddar, or Beecher’s flagship. You don’t want to use anything too sharp or it will separate and you’ll end up with a gritty, oily, and not very cheesy, sauce. And if you’re expecting me to post some magic ingredient that makes my mac n cheese a delicious yet healthy treat, you’re looking to the wrong girl. Don’t let my size fool you, if there’s a way to make a dish less healthy, I’ll find it. My magic ingredient is the half pint of cream that goes into every pot. In an effort to be able to document my recipe here, I actually pulled out some measuring devices the last time I made it and did as little eyeballing as possible, and here’s the recipe I came up with.

3 Tbsp. Butter
3 Tbsp. Flour
2 Cups Milk
1 Cup Cream
1 Pound Cheese, shredded
salt, pepper and nutmeg (optional)
16 oz. Box of Elbow Macaroni

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Start the sauce by melting the butter in a large shallow pot, once the butter is melted, whisk in the flour until smooth. Continue stirring over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes until it turns a lovely golden color. The objective here is to cook away any floury flavor. Slowly add the two cups of milk while continuing to whisk. After all of the milk is incorporated, add the cream in the same manner. Lower the heat to low and continue to stir the sauce until it thickens slightly, feel free to switch to a wooden spoon if you prefer to gauge your thickness by the way it coats the back of the spoon. I prefer to do less dishes so I stick with the whisk. Add salt and pepper generously and, if you like, nutmeg to taste. Once your sauce has thickened slightly, start adding your cheese a handful at a time, waiting for the previous handful to melt entirely before adding the next handful. Continue on this way until all but a handful or so of the cheese is left, reserve this for sprinkling on the top.

Meanwhile, boil your pasta in salted water according to the instructions on the box. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Slowly pour your cheese sauce over the pasta and stir to combine. Pour the cheesy pasta into a buttered casserole dish and sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top. If you like, you can also add bread crumbs that have been doused in melted butter. I personally prefer my top crust to consist of only cheese, so I leave the buttered bread crumbs out. Bake until the sauce bubbles up thickly and the top is golden, about 20 to 30 minutes.

This recipe is just a jumping off point, once you’ve mastered the cheese sauce, the possibilities are limitless. One of my favorite variations is in the addition of cauliflower, simply toss in with your pasta when it has about 6 minutes left to boil. Another delicious variation is substituting fontina and gruyere for the cheddar, and bowties for the elbows, and adding peas and chopped prosciutto.

Stop it Neiman Marcus! I don’t even fit your clothes anymore.

Kekrops in the snow

We’ve been a little lazy in finishing projects that we start around the house. Daryn posted this picture of our freshly demoed guest bedroom at the beginning of September. Today, 2 months later, it looks exactly the same. I’ve decided we need some accountability as motivation to finish what we’ve started. Rather than look at our list of home improvements as a whole, I’ve decided to break it down into smaller goals that will be easier to manage. To begin with, I’ve narrowed my list of home improvements down to the top 3, in order of importance, that I’d like to be done by May:

1. Finish the guest bedroom. This includes installing a new window to replace these two ugly vinyl clad windows. Installing a new window on the east side of the room so we can take advantage of the better territorial view. Closing off the closet in this room and opening it up in our bedroom. Installing a pocket door instead of the regular door. And insulating the outside walls, putting up drywall, and installing new trim work.

2. Fix the powder room downstairs. This includes tearing down the plaster and lathe and the shoddy trim work that the previous owners installed themselves. Removing the stained glass insert above the door. Installing a pocket door. Wiring the ceiling for a pendant fixture. Insulating the outside walls, putting up drywall, including filling in the gap where the stained glass window used to be, and installing new trim work.

3. Paint. This includes the walls, ceiling and trim in the living room, I’m thinking Benjamin Moore’s “Coventry Gray”. The walls, ceiling and trim in the foyer, stairs and upstairs landing, which are currently what I like to refer to as “Masking Tape Yellow”. We’d like these areas to be Benjamin Moore’s “Vanilla Ice Cream”. And our bedroom, the guest bedroom, Daryn’s office, the room that I am currently using as my closet, and the bathroom. I haven’t decided on colors for these rooms yet.

My first goal is to finish 1 by the New Year. This may change to accommodate doing 1 and 2 simultaneously, as much of the same type of work needs to be done in both projects.

A squirrel has chewed through the wire mesh that is covering the vents under our eaves and has decided to make our attic his home. At first I liked the idea of harboring a cute little squirrel for the winter, but waking up this morning to the sound of the beams inside our walls being gnawed at and reduced to sawdust has quickly changed my perspective. As an attempt to scare him away, I had Daryn knock on the walls in my closet while I waited at the hole. When he popped his head out of the hole, I swatted at him with a broom. Unfortunately, I don’t believe this scared him, I think it just made him mad. The next time we step onto our front porch, I’m certain he’s going to be waiting just inside his hole with a pile of acorns to start chucking at us.