Best. Apple Pie. EVER.

First, a caveat: this isn't really pie. It's more like a cakey danish in a pie plate. But oh my dear is it good. At a Thanksgiving potluck last night, it was declared an "addiction". Apt praise in this crowd, although a bit disturbing. I'm regretting not taking photos, because while it didn't look all that impressive, it did look... comforting. Basically, this is a good dessert to make when you don't feel like dealing with pie crust, you don't want to use store bought, and you want something relatively simple and homey that goes well with vanilla ice cream.

Norwegian Apple Cake Pie

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 cube) butter

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup + 4 tsp sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups peeled grated apple (about one and one half apples, I like golden delicious)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pinch nutmeg

Pinch ground cloves

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°. Cut together butter, flour, baking powder and salt as you would for pie crust. Add 3/4 cup sugar and mix well. Beat egg, add vanilla, and stir into flour mixture—the result may be crumbly. Spread half of dough in bottom of greased pie plate.

Drain and lightly press some liquid out of apple (don’t squeeze all liquid out) and add 4 tsp sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and mix well. Spread apple and spices evenly over dough in pie plate. Cover with remaining dough. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until sides and top are golden brown. Spread thin powdered sugar icing over cake while warm (not hot).

Props to my coworker who made this for a pie content at work and her grandma, who gave her the recipe.

My Favorite Work Accessory

Like most women, I'm almost always cold. Especially at work, where I'm chained to a desk with few excuses to get up and move about. Hence, the technically verboten space heater. And these:



Love Hate Fingerless Gloves from Urban Outfitters, $12

Positively filmic, yes?

Excavating Etsy

My current favorite item on Etsy:

A Useful Government Publication. No, Really.

During my recent review of all things usability, I came across Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines from the HHS department. I ordered the book itself, but you can actually download and print the entire book in PDF format, if you like.

It's basically a compendium of most of what Jared Spool, Jakob Nielsen, et al have written about already, but it ranks individual issues on a scale of 1-5 based on strength of evidence (i.e., research-based or expert opinion) and relative importance—helpful metrics when you have limited time and/or resources and need to prioritize site enhancements. These are well-organized guidelines, generously illustrated and thoroughly cited, that allow you to back up your assertions of what makes a good user interface.

The downside? I didn't get to order it from Pueblo, Colorado.

Early Christmas Shopping

Yes, I'm getting started early. No, I don't want to hear any guff about it. Here are a few things I'd like to buy for someone, but can't figure out who I'd give them to:

Atypyk 'Be Tough' T-Shirt from Charles & Marie, $40.

Gun Flower Vase, Uncommon Goods, $50.

Gun and Dagger Necklace, Erica Weiner, $35.

You can see my dilemma.

i can has midsentchury modurn?

Dunno if they're authentic or not, but I got some Saarinen chairs from eBay. Fortunately, the cat likes them.

Farewell, Bungalow

Yes, I sold it ages I go. Yes, I'm only now getting around to putting the photos up. No, I don't want to hear your guff.

Curb appeal:



Living room:





Dining room:



Upstairs bathroom:



Backyard:



Kitchen:





Downstairs bathroom:





Master bedroom:



I still miss the skylight and seven foot high shower spray in the old upstairs bathroom. Maybe I'll keep writing entries, even though I don't live in a bungalow anymore. Hell, maybe I'll just write about the puppy!

RanchFever, Kitchen Edition

The kitchen is almost done, and while I haven't taken photos since the cool stuff (floor, counters, sink, etc.) came in, I feel compelled to post photos of the kitchen from a few weeks ago, so that the eventual unveiling will be even more fantastic:



Here we see Michael (look at the birdie!) installing the last of the cabinets, the one for the sink, which he had to MacGyver a heating vent/duct thingie into. There was so much MacGyvering going on with these cabinets, in fact, that I was afraid he'd come home one day with a sun-streaked mullet. Fortunately, there was no bi-level action, and I learned an important lesson. The guys who install cabinets for a living definitely earn their pay.

This was taken from the back foyer looking in. Note lovely blue accent wall, cool artichoke lamp and stylin' reeded glass panel which Michael installed to make the entryway brighter.




This is the peninsula, which I have christened Monster Island. Also note Michael's rump in the left side of the frame. Heh. Rump. Anyway, that's the electric cooktop (with big, burly knobs that are easy to grab onto when you're covered in marinara sauce and trying to keep the quinoa from boiling over AGAIN) which also required massive rejiggering of cabinets to make fit. Michael cut those holes out of the wall that separates the kitchen from the gloomy hallway to let in more light and have another opportunity to use, yes, reeded glass blocks. We still have to figure out a way to cement those in there without risk of one of us pushing a glass block through accidentally and crippling the cat.

Much more has been done since I took these photos, and I'm hoping to take more this weekend during Paintapalooza. Stay tuned!

RanchFever, The Bathroom Edition

I finally got a chance to take photos in the new house that Michael's been laboring on for months now. Obviously, the stars of the show are the completely gutted and remodelled kitchen and bathroom—you don't think I'd leave my Dream Bath behind without something better, did you?



The vanity is actually a stand-alone piece of furniture that we picked up at a discount because it had a few nicks in the the top. We used a wood-colored pen, covered the top with glass, and installed the sinks (Kohler Chord vessel sinks, single-hole version) on top of that. Sounds easy, but it wasn't. A lot of careful hole-drilling and plumbing went into this set-up.

The faucets were a bit of an ordeal. I was set on using a more delicate gooseneck faucet, namely, the Elba from La Toscana, which is pretty much a bargain-basement version of the various > $300 versions from Porcher and Grohe. However, no one had it in stock, the wait time kept growing longer and longer, and I finally decided that it was just a lavatory faucet (two of them, actually), not a husband (heh) and the Danze Sonora, while more beefy than my preferred selections, would do just fine.

And now, the shower:



As on the vanity backsplash/shelf, note glass mosaic tile. I think I need an inervention, as I keep indulging in more and more high-end versions of this stuff. The American Olean green blend is more expensive that the Hakatai Carter blend I used in the last bathroom, but it's also more transparent and provides a much more interesting sense of depth. Per the suggestion of the designer we consulted, we decided to have the standard white subway tile laid vertically. It reminds me of bamboo, strangely enough.

Michael's got the glass shower doors ready to install. I'm really glad I'm not the one who has to drill through that tile, frankly.

Okay, time to sell the house now.

Downstairs bathroom remodel is officially finito!



The new vanity and medicine cabinet, scandalously cheap at Lowes:



And the new, refinished tub (worth the $875, IMO) with the very klassy shower curtain Evil Amy gave me for x-mas:



Big ups to Michael for spending the majority of Monday getting the thing hooked up with the new faucet and plumbing.

I saved all my receipts for the express purpose of figuring out how much this cost and posting the result. My only regret is that I didn't take photos of the intact "Before" to contrast with the "After".