Persimmon Cookies

D came home with  persimmons from a job and with my sister visiting from Oregon and an invite to see presentations by some of my former students, I thought it was a great time to put the persimmons to use.  

I found YouTube videos which talked about how to prep the persimmons and after browsing through a few cookie recipes, I went for it.  

Here is what you will need for the cookies:
1/2 stick of butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg 
puree of 2-3 persimmons
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup oatmeal, ground in blender 

Here is what you will need for the frosting:
1/3 stick of butter
1/4 cube of cream cheese 
1/2 tsp vanilla 
2 tbsp milk or half & half
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Prepping the persimmons:

According to my YouTube education these are fuyu (pronounced foo-you) persimmons, also called Japanese persimmons, and are in season between October and February.

After I rinsed the persimmons I turned them upside down and cut them in half, but not all the way through, then turned them right side up and tore off the flowery top - sounds mean but it has to be done. 

One of the persimmons was so ripe that I just used a spoon to scoop out the inside, but the rest of them I cut into slices then removed the inside from the peel.  

Also, I ate some persimmon chunks because...yum.  

I blended the persimmon chunks until they were about the consistency of apricot jam, that fuyu goo is like sweet, mushy gold I tell ya.  

Next I preheated the oven to 350 and then mixed the butter and sugars. 

Then I added the baking soda to the persimmon puree and let it sit while I mixed the dry ingredients.  

This stepped turned the puree into a jello like substance.  

Then I added the egg and puree to the butter and sugar mix, looks a little gross. 

Since this was my first time making this recipe I didn't add any spices to the dry ingredients so I could incrementally add them at the end. So at this point I added the flour and salt mix to the egg and puree goo.  

After a little taste of the batter I decided to add the spices - I went light (relative to the recipe posted here) on the ginger and cinnamon and a little heavier on the cloves.

This is what the batter looked like for me and also when I decided to add the ground up oatmeal (bass) to the cookies to make sure they were thick.  

That ground up oatmeal packs a big punch.  

I dropped the cookies onto the baking sheets and ended up with about two dozen.

My oven is a little odd so I baked the tray of cookies on the top rack for 10 minutes and the tray on the bottom for 11 minutes.  

While they were cooling I tossed the butter and cream cheese in a bowl and microwaved it until it was soft.  Then I mixed it along with the vanilla and milk until it was smooth, lastly I incrementally added the powdered sugar until the texture was no longer runny.

Here they are, yeah I ate one!  

I was a little nervous to have my sister be the first taste tester (she used to be a sweets baker so her standards are high!) but I brewed some coffee, woke her up and we got to sip on some beans and enjoy some warm cookies for breakfast together.  The first thing she said about the cookies was "they taste like Christmas", yay tastes like victory to me!  

After breakfast I went to campus with the rest of the batch of cookies to watch the presentations, my heart was so full of pride and joy watching the students.  After the presentations I got to quickly catch up with them and share the cookies, they all seemed to love them (probably can't trust the taste of starving college students) but it sure was amazing to see all of them!  

Today I made another batch of cookies to give to some of our neighbors for Christmas. 

A few notes: 
- Most of the recipes I saw added nuts, raisins and other unholiness to the cookies.  No.Thank.You.
- The recipes showed pretty flat cookies, but I'm all about that bass so I tweaked the recipe to make mine big and puffy, my "secret" (if you can call it that) is to add oatmeal that has been blended in the blender, it gives the cookies a quality that people can't quite put their finger on. 
- I added a cream cheese frosting glaze to these, again if that isn't your thing, just leave it out.
- A few of the recipes I saw sprinkled powdered sugar on top instead of doing a frosting glaze.

I feel so incredibly blessed to have had my sister here visiting for the week, students to be proud of and neighbors to bake for, this has always been my favorite part of the year, and this year, I am overjoyed that I get to spend it with so many wonderful people. 

I hope you all are enjoying this season, especially the moments spent with the ones you love the most! 
Merry Christmas!
~D & H

Sweet Sweet Chili

Football season at our house can get kind of tense - my hometown team is the Seattle Seahawks and D's bay area roots keep him faithful to their division rival - the 49ers.  Yeah, like I said, it can get kind of tense.  The light at the end of this rivalry tunnel is our agreement on football food - especially this versatile chili which is a staple at our house for the entire season.  

Originally I made up this recipe because I had Thanksgiving turkey coming out of my ears, over the years it evolved into this simple, sweet & hearty chili.  

FYI all of the ingredients can be thrown into a crockpot and the chili can be made that way, I am going to show the stovetop version which usually takes me about half an hour to make.

Here is what you will need:

1 lb ground beef 

1 lb sausage

1 white or yellow onion (I like yellow)

1 cup (ish) ketchup

1 cup (ish) BBQ sauce (I love Sweet Baby Ray's but just choose your favorite!)

1 can sweet green chilis

1 large can of kidney beans (drained)

3 cans of chili (pinto) beans (not drained)

chopped garlic

salt 

pepper

Tapatio 

Chop the onion and add the meats, onion and garlic to a 6 qt pot and cook. 

As you are cooking the meat smash it into small pieces.

Shameless plug: I love this angled Kitchen Aid spatula/smasher thingy, perfect for getting the meat into dip chip sized chunks! 

Next, add the beans and chilis. 

Now it is time to add the ketchup, Tapatio and BBQ sauce. 

This is always where I just keep adding BBQ sauce.  Just a little more.  Eh maybe a just a touch more.  Okay, one more blob more...

Then it is time for a taste to see how much salt and pepper I should add, also this is when I typically throw in a few more glugs of Tapatio to give it just a little more kick. 

Done and done. 

Typically I serve this with sour cream (or cream cheese) and avocado with cornbread or Fritos.  

A few variations of the recipe:

-My "garden use" variation:  I picked some bell peppers and green tomatoes from our garden, chopped them up and cooked them in a little olive oil, then I added the meat, onion and garlic to that veggie mix and started the recipe from there. Rating: Good  

-My Thanksgiving leftovers/clean out the fridge variation: Chopped up turkey meat instead of ground beef .  Rating: Good 

-My "let's try a healthier version" variation: Ground turkey instead of ground beef.  Rating: Bad.  (The ground turkey is dry...no thanks!)

Hope you all are enjoying this football season and give the recipe a try at your next gathering, we'd love to hear your variations on it!  

We are so thankful for the (much needed) rain and the time we get to spend enjoying football games, good food and even better friends!  

~D & H 

The Entryway

For us our dream entryway would be a subtly elegant, warm & welcoming place for happy hello hugs, where our guests can toss off their coats & shoes and feel right at home...instead it was a stark square of blah.

Yep, blah.

No lights. No lightswitch. Subfloor paired with yellow paint in the closets.  Oak door with gold hardware. Buh-lah.

Enter a craftsman husband and some Pinterest inspiration.

Dream.Come.True.

Now for the process photos...

D ripped out the closets which exposed a second beam in the entry and yanked out the drywall so he could add wiring later. 

That yellow is just...wow. 

So the box in the pic is the back of our pantry.  Initially we were thinking that framing around the pantry all the way to the top of the ceiling would look really clean, but once he exposed that beam and we saw how open it was, we decided not to add the additional framing and wall.

Time to fend off a nosy wife and dog so he can get back to wiring.  He cut into the subfloor to run a wire from the location of the light switch, which he was going to add, to the second light.

Once he ran the wiring for the lights and the switch he hung the drywall.

Also at this point I primed the door and we started experimenting with the color.

He also patched the spots in the closets where drywall was missing.

At this point our paint trials were on both walls, I think we tried at least ten colors.  Let me tell ya, the color samples look SO different on the wall & SO different in the lighting of our home than they did on the paint swatch. Trial and error people, trial and error!

After hanging the drywall he added a skim coat, then textured the walls about halfway down.

Everything up until this point in the process felt like it took FOREVER. I mean FOREVVVVVER. The next steps were SO gratifying since each one was a noticeable improvement.

We chose the color Dawn Gray from Behr Marquee for the door and D painted it - http://www.behr.com/consumer/ColorDetailView/MQ5-28

D changed out the hardware on the door, he chose this entry set in flat black along with the matching hinges, it took a couple of hours to install and was absolutely worth every moment - http://emtek.com/Tubular-Entrysets/lausanne

At this point he put in the floors, we chose the Enderbury Hickory laminate flooring since it was the closest match to the flooring we had - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Enderbury-Hickory-8-mm-Thick-x-5-3-8-in-Wide-x-47-6-8-in-Length-Laminate-Flooring-25-19-sq-ft-case-367551-00089/203139509

Then came installing the lights, we chose these lantern style lights - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Designers-Fountain-Cape-Cod-Wall-Mount-Outdoor-Bronze-Lantern-HC0303/202937476 

I really like to add manly touches to keep our home comfortable for D, I think it is important that our home looks and feels like a reflection of both of us (Tangent: If you are obsessed with candles like me, but want your husband to not fake sneeze every time you burn it, check out this candle, it is AMAZING - http://www.amazon.com/Decoware-Richly-Scented-Tobacco-2-Wick/dp/B00FZFLU8G)      

We caulked and primed the ceiling then painted it with Behr's Swiss Coffee flat paint - http://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-Premium-Plus-1-gal-Swiss-Coffee-Flat-Zero-VOC-Interior-Paint-101201/202761504

We chose Behr's Dolphin Fin flat paint for the walls - http://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-Premium-Plus-Ultra-8-oz-790C-3-Dolphin-Fin-Interior-Exterior-Paint-Sample-790C-3U/202182496

We really wanted some rustic finishes and decided to trim out the door and the opening with reclaimed wood.  I found a lumberyard out in Placerville, Ca which worked out perfectly since D had a job out there, he chose some great pieces that came from an old barn - http://www.millwoodreclamation.com/

The guys at the yard power washed some of the pieces and left the rest with chipped paint.    

We played around with the side to top ratio on the trim, for the large opening we went with 6" on the top and 4" on the sides.  

Lastly he built the board and batten wainscoting - he used 1/8" backing board, primed 1x4's for the boxes, 1x2's for the cap on top, 1x6 for the base of the trim, a doorstop to separate the base of the trim and the boxes and 3/4 round base shoe.   

All of the trim was painted with the same color used on the ceiling, except in a semi-gloss finish - http://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-Premium-Plus-1-gal-Swiss-Coffee-Semi-Gloss-Enamel-Zero-VOC-Interior-Paint-301201/202761528 

A couple of my favorite details are the smooth texture that he added to the ceiling beams (filled in a huge gap in the one on the left too!) which gave the beams a clean smooth finish, the vintage light bulbs and lastly the shelf D added in the bench opening, I just love the pop of the rustic wood against the clean, white trim. 

What we splurged on:
The lights, bulbs, lock set, reclaimed wood and the doorstop

What we learned:
Be flexible.  Our overall vision for the entryway stayed the same but some of the details changed - definitely for the better!  It was actually really fun getting to toss around different ideas to decide on a design that we both love.  

What I learned: 
Be patient.  These things take time, in our case, this took about seven weeks start to finish.  

What now: 
A break.  That man put in some work, it is time for him to sit down with a cold one and catch up on some football and hockey!  We are still on the hunt for the perfect bench, but it might just have to be something we make.   

Also, Christmas!!!!! 

We are looking forward to enjoying this entryway by filling it with friends and family during this wonderful season! 

Hope you are staying warm and inspired! 
D & H  

Smashed Potatoes

This mashed potato recipe stemmed from me realizing at the green age of 16 that if I was cooking the potatoes, they should taste exactly how I dream they should.  And yes, I dream about potatoes, but only around the holidays. Unfortunately for my guinea pig siblings and hubs, the recipe wasn't just there, it took me a while to get it right.

So here they are, my dreamy and buttery potatoes, just in time for Thanksgiving. Now just to warn you, these potatoes aren't healthy, so if you're on paleo (I'm sorry!), maybe come back to the blog in January and we can chat about fauxtatoes (made from cauliflower, actually really good!) but here at D & H for the holidays, we don't like to worry about all that.  

Here is what you need to make about 6 cups of mashed potatoes:
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon 
1 tablespoon chopped garlic 
6 peeled potatoes (I just got the cheap-o ones from Costco)
1 stick of butter
8oz cream cheese 
salt to taste

Fill a 6 quart pot about 1/3 full of water, add the garlic and bouillon and crank up the stove heat to high.

Chop the potatoes. 

Dump the potatoes into the pot of seasoned water. 

Oh, you know what, I threw some thyme into the pot to make sure that the growings of our garden were put to good use.  (Side story: D and I installed a drip system into one of the raised garden beds in our backyard.  Fabulous idea, worked out beautifully except I planted vegetables that neither of us really like to eat and I don't always cook with (doi right?), not the desired outcome of a DIY project, let me tell ya!  So anytime I can use things from the garden, it is a happy day here!)

Bring the water to a boil and let the potatoes cook in the boiling water until you poke them and they fall apart (like me every thirty days or so), the potatoes should cook in about 20 minutes.

Drain the water.  Chop the cream cheese and butter into chunks and add it to the potatoes. Did I mention that this isn't a healthy recipe?   

I then used a whisk to mix in/melt the cheese and butter and to smash the potatoes, you can also you an electric mixer for this, I needed to work on my triceps anyway, so I went the elbow grease route.  I also added about a teaspoon of salt to the potatoes as I was mixing them. 

Voila. I turned into Forrest Gump for a minute before this post, "I ate some". 

A few notes: 

1) I am a potato purist.  I don't want crunchy, herb-y or any unidentifiable objects in my potatoes, I want them smooth, flavorful and fluffy.  Often flavorful and smooth don't mix but if you use the boiling water as the method for seasoning the potatoes, I think you get the best of both worlds.  So you like rosemary but don't want to feel like you are eating pine needles? Throw the rosemary in the water as the potatoes cook, pull it out when you are done cooking them, BAM ZOOM, good to go!  My non-negotiable item in this recipe is using chicken bouillon, it gives the potatoes flavor that is noticeable but not overpowering.  

2)The gorgeous cutting board shown above was actually scrap granite from a job D was working on, he sanded the rough edges and we stuck some felt pads to the bottom of it.  I leave it on the counter all the time, so useful having a cutting board at the ready and it protects the maple countertop!  I'm so glad he keeps his eyes out for cool "scraps" like that!

Well I hope you all have a fabulous week and are having as much fun planning Thanksgiving and enjoying this wonderful snuggle weather as much as we are!   

All the best, 

D & H

Fall Flower Wreath

With Thanksgiving mere days away and the inspiring colors of Autumn brightening the cool air like a roaring fire, it is time for our fall wreath to go up.  

Last year I made this pine cone wreath - my gorgeous, prickly little thing.  

After we moved the wreath was mangled beyond recognition (packing is not my strong suit), so I thought I should remake it as a fall flower wreath, but I have to be honest, now that I see the pine cone wreath photo, I wish I would've just remade the same wreath. 

Now that is just not something I say everyday - less flowers, more pricks.  

But oh well, this is about the flower wreath.  So here is what I used, all of which came from Michael's, the total cost (since I already owned the hot glue gun) was just under $25:

3 "statement" flowers

1 twig wreath

2 hydrangea flower bunches (different colors) 

1 sprig branch

mini hot glue gun

bag of mini glue sticks

I started by ripping off all the green leaves from the flower bunches.

Then I glued all of those to the wreath. 

Next I added one of the hydrangea colors.

Then I started to add the other hydrangea color and realized I wanted to place the "statement" flowers.

Next I added the rest of the hydrangeas. 

Not looking that impressive, I know.  Time to add variety to the wreath - here come the sprigs. 

Yeah, those will do.  

The wreath was still looking kind of boring to me so I added a pine cone (I should call this post "pining for pine cones") to see how it would look.    

That definitely added some dimension, so I glued on a couple more. 

There it is - done & done.   

Yep, we have an orange fence (painting is for the spring), still think I should've stuck with the pine cones, lesson learned; always stick with what works! 

Hope you have a great week and take some time to stop and enjoy the flowers...or the pine cones! 

~D & H