A LITTLE UPDATE || and a sweet treat recipe
/So sorry for the leave of absence last week!
It was a busy week with design clients, getting the cottage ready for a long term guest, and life with my two little ladies and one big man! But, I thought I would post a few photos of the latest happenings here at our home. And a cream puff recipe that is so easy, you will want to whip up a batch 'just because'!
I finally ordered furniture for the living room! We have about 4 weeks until it arrives so I am hoping to have the living room painted and ready when the furniture arrives.
Matt is patching cracks and repairing an old ceiling leak. The bonus of living with a contractor who is also a perfectionist…..the cracks get fixed before painting.
I am more of a 'i-just-want-paint-in-the-walls' kind of girl. I would have this room painted during one nap time. Now, it wouldn't look nearly AS good, but I would feel good about having paint on the walls. Matt's approach is more along the lines of….puddy every hole, patch + texture every crack, cut in perfectly, paint the ceiling…..you get the picture. I am slowly {after almost 12 years of marriage} learning that his approach is actually better than mine and always results in a great finished product. So, the living room may actually take me closer to 4 weeks to paint ;-)
There are some built-ins in the hallway. They provide excellent storage! They all had brass knobs that were in great shape. I painted the knobs black and I love how a simple change can make such a big impact!
See what I mean??
The bedrooms are all connected by this great {long} hallway. I have been busy touching up paint, caulking and scrubbing.
Won't this hall look beautiful with all of our new black doors?!? Matt is ordering the doors this week, I will keep you posted! Matt replaced the lights for me and it instantly changed the look and feel of the hallway.
Here it is now with the new lights, painted hardware and some plates on the walls.
I am working on some family photos to hang on another wall in the hallway.
So, as you can see, the list of projects is pretty long. But, we love having little projects and we really love our new home!
Now, to keep my sweet husband going with the list of projects seems too long, I often bake him something sweet. A couple of weeks ago I made a batch of chocolate cream puffs. A friend reminded me how easy {and tasty} they are, so I found an old recipe I had and give them a try. Sure thing….they are so good!!
Chocolate Cream Puffs
Ingredients
1 cup water 1/2 cup butter (one cube) 1 cup all-purpose flour 4 large eggs Bavarian pastry cream Melting chocolate
Directions
- Mix the dough. In a medium saucepan on medium-high heat, place one cup of water and one stick (1/2 cup) of butter. After the butter is melted, turn off heat and add one cup all-purpose flour all at once. Stir until the dough forms a ball and flour is absorbed.
- Place dough ball in your stand-type mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until the dough starts to cool, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs all at once and mix on low speed until the dough absorbs the eggs and the dough becomes very sticky. This will take about 8 to10 minutes.
- Bake the cream puffs. With a large spoon or ice cream scoop (1/4 cup), spoon mounds of evenly spaced dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down to 350 degrees for another 10 minutes. You can also use a small cookie scoop as shown in the pictures. You'll just need to lower the baking time to 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then turn down to 350 for another 7 minutes.
- Fill the cream puffs with Bavarian cream. If you are using a scratch recipe, make a horizontal slit in the edge of each cream puff and slip a large spoonful of cream into each cream puff. If you are using professional Bavarian cream, insert the tip of the plastic bag into the edge of each cream puff and squeeze.
Melt the chocolate. Melt your chocolate in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time until melted. Do not overheat the chocolate. You can either dip the tops of the cream puffs into the chocolate or spoon chocolate over the cream puffs. Let the chocolate set before serving.
Enjoy!
