Welcome back to the continuing saga of my quest to become a proficient halfway decent baker. Let's jump right in! This week I undertook something that my disgustingly talented big sis has had mastered for a while now. Love you, Heather! :-p Bread! My logic was that , since I overworked the cupcakes last week, maybe I should do something that actually needs some extra working. Here's what I did:



Pull-Apart Garlic Buns

2-1/2 to 3 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 pkg (1/4 oz) active dry yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup 2% milk

1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp shortening

1 egg

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 Tbsp sesame seeds



In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a saucepan, heat the milk, water and shortening to 120°-130°. Add to dry ingredients; beat until moistened. Add egg; beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.



Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces. Shape each into a bun. Combine paprika and garlic powder. Dip each bun in melted butter, then in paprika mixture.



Place six buns in a greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans; sprinkle with half of the sesame seeds. Top with remaining buns and sesame seeds. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.



Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool. Yield: 1 loaf (12 buns).

Tomorrow is 30 days at the gym. 30 days since attending my first Zumba class and 30 days since I sat in that sales guy's office and signed over some of mine and hubby's life.

Yay me!

You wonder what we're doing to celebrate? We're going to Bertucci's! Yep lots of carbs!

Who cares, I walked a mile in 17 minutes 31 seconds on Monday, and then on Tuesday I jogged a mile in 15 minutes 21 seconds. Yay! I actually jogged! My knees didn't collapse. My calves were on fire (forgot to stretch, doh!) but I survived.

Then I survived Zumba - the calves were more achy after that class, but its progress!

No more weight loss, but I'm getting thinner and more toned, and people are noticing my new skinny-ness!

HELL YEAH!

So back at the end of July, I got the chance to guest post over at Creating My Way to Success and I'm going to share with you guys today the post that I offered up over there. ;)

So there tons of posts, books and articles about how to finish your furniture, and I'm sure there are probably almost as many about stripping your furniture, but that's what my post is about today. Stripping your furniture.

I'm working on a console that needs to be brought up to date. I am only going to be stripping the top, because that's the only thing I'm going to be staining. The rest of the piece will be painted, makes it slightly easier on me. :)

Its an older piece that has an oak veneer and an awful stain color.

Its been super nice here in VA the last two days, so I moved the big heavy console out into my driveway to work. No problem with ventilation here! I also vacuumed the console to remove any debris, cobwebs, etc.

Next I gathered my supplies. I like to use CitriStrip, but I ran out of it during this process and I also used - Motsenbocker's Lift Off Paint &Varnish Water-Based Stripper. You can get these products at your Home Depot or Lowe's.  I can't tell you which worked better, but the Motsenbocker's is soap and water clean-up so that's really nice.
Anyways, you're also going to need a plastic bag, paper towels, a plastic stripper tool, chip brush, stripper pad, a plastic container and gloves.


Pour some of your stripper into a plastic tub and then liberally brush onto the surface you want to strip. Its kind of hard to see but the gel is on there. For the CitriStrip, it says to leave the gel on for 30 minutes, but for the Motsenbacker's only 5 to 10 minutes.
After the proper amount of time has elapsed, you're going to bring out the plastic stripper, and scrape in the direction of the grain. It's a very goopy mess, but the results are worthwhile.
I scrape all of the stripper into a pile towards one end of the piece.
Then I bring up the plastic bag and push/scoop the goop into it. I use the paper towels to clean my scraper, because its a sticky business that likes to gum up the scraper blade of the stripper tool.
There's the first bag of goopy mess.
For curved or moulding pieces, you'll need a stripper pad, which I did not have until the 2nd coat. You know, since I ran out of stripper and this piece ended up being needed to hit twice because of how well the original finish was on, but you can see above how the gel holds to vertical and curved surfaces. Now for the CitriStrip, you will need to wipe down your piece with mineral spirits and then let dry for 24 hours. The Motsenbacker's is a wipe down with warm water.
 So here's the top after the first strip session. So much better! Don't you think?

Here's the final stripped top after sanding and being moved inside.
 So that's it! Now my top is ready for stain. You'll also notice in the last picture that the rest of the piece has been scuffed up in prep for paint.

I hope you guys enjoyed today's tutorial, and you'll be able to check out the rest of this console's make over at Straight Stitches. :)

See you guys soon!

So as most of the news has probably reported today - there was an earthquake in Virginia. A 5.9 one.

This is actually my third earthquake, although I feel like my 'first' one doesn't count because I don't remember it. I was with my dad at UVa in one of the labs when it occurred.

The 2nd was my junior year of high school. Sitting in my last class of the day, Physics, and it sounded like someone had dropped a desk on the 2nd floor. It was a 1.2 and it made headlines for 3 days in Manassas.

So today was a little more scary. It happened I'd usually have been in my sewing room working on a project, but instead Stephen and I were sitting at the kitchen table, finishing up a late lunch when it started.

It started off sounding like one of the big dump trucks that frequently go through our neighborhood (the back section of our subdivision is still under construction) but then it didn't stop. It got worse, almost like a contraction.

We ran upstairs for the kids. Harrison was asleep, Dev in his room playing on his computer.

Short story shorter - everyone is fine. Harrison slept through the entire thing. Dev asked why everything was shaking and we explained it to him.

So now that I'm back from the dentist - I know I'm the bravest of them all - go to the dentist after an earthquake - I'm going to keep working on my projects that I didn't get to today. :)

Well 4 weeks is here, and I've lost a total of 8 pounds.

I've gained back 2 pounds, but we're going to call that muscle.

However, I am looking skinnier, and while that makes me happy, I do wish that I've lost more weight.

I have noticed though that my stamina is improving along with some of my muscle tone.

Today I power walked 2.25 miles, which felt good, because a month ago I could barely do a quarter mile. Oh how far I've come, but still so far to go.

See you guys later!

I like quests. I like them a lot. It's probably why my two biggest hobbies (besides cooking) are reading fantasy novels and playing RPG (role-playing games) video games. A quest is not a sport, it is not an activity, and it is not to be taken on lightly. A quest is a story-in-action, and this story is about me trying to learn to bake. And not just bake, bake well. Remember the bread debacle from May? Yeah, I want to be able to bake a loaf of bread and eat it too. Over the next few weeks, I will be trying my hand at baking different things. I will not rest until I can stop saying, "I cook. I don't really bake."



First up! Cupcakes!



Earl Grey Cupcakes

Makes about 12 regular cupcakes



125ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature

4 Earl Grey teabags

110g unsalted butter, at room temperature

225g granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

2 large eggs

125g self-raising flour, sifted

120g plain flour, sifted



Preheat the oven to 350F/gas mark 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tray with the appropriate size cupcake cases



Heat the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add the teabags. Cover with clingfilm and leave to infuse for about 30 minutes, then discard the teabags.



In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth, which should take 3-5 minutes using an electric hand mixer. Add the almond extract, if using, and the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.



Combine the two flours in a seperate bowl. Add one third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one third of the infused milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.



Carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake bases, filling them to about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until slightly raised and golden brown. To check they are cooked, insert a skewer into the centre of one of the cakes - it should come out clean.



Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before carefully placing on a wire rack to cool. Once they are completely cool, you could ice the cupcakes with the lilac coloured vanilla buttercream and sprinkle with a little extra granulated sugar and sugar flowers.



What's the first thing you notice about this recipe? Depending on where you live, you may not notice anything unusual about this. If you're an American like me, however, you probably noticed (with horror) that the measurements are all in metric. My sweet, English friend Sally sent me this recipe from Mother England. Think of Sally as the wise sage that initially sends me on my quest. Yeah, sages are usually pretty cryptic in some way, shape, or form about the quest, and this is no different. I don't even know what a gram is! Luckily for me, I have a handy-dandy digital map, erm, scale.