Furniture & A Recipe

It's been an exhausting search for the right china storage, but we're finished!!  Sort of.  We've been looking for something low (around 41") with glass doors that we could put under the pass-through; that's been difficult because most glass doors are on a hutch, which is the top portion of the china storage, which is too tall for putting under the bar.  We found low-lying furniture, though... we just didn't want to pay out the nose for it, especially since we don't have a permanent dining room table and would eventually like our table to match our china storage. 

The solution to our storage problem!

Knowing all that, we moved our furniture around so that we could use something tall and narrow.  Have you tried looking for a narrow china cabinet?  It's not the easiest thing in the world to find.  At all.  We found linen-holding furniture, but that stuff isn't deep enough.  We found media-organizing furniture, but that's definitely not deep enough.  Finally, we found this great cabinet at Ikea.  It was perfect!  Glass doors, not too wide, not too tall, it even has drawers so we don't have to display everything in the cabinet. 


So we trekked all the way to Ikea in Frisco, found the cabinet we were looking for, found where to find it once we got downstairs, and then we thought to measure it in real life instead of just trusting the measurements on the description.  How fortunate--and frustrating--for us!  The cabinet, though it's definitely deep enough according to the written specifications, they gave the outside dimensions, and the inside isn't deep enough to hold our plates.  So we had to start our search over.  Again.

Not wanting to have wasted a trip to Ikea, we continued to look there at their multiple storage options.  We found the BESTÅ system and measured it and designed it and planned it and priced it.  Perfect!  We have creative say in what the front looks like, and we planned it out to hold our china and some kitchen appliances, displaying the china and hiding the appliances.  :)   

What our cabinet will look like...sort of.  :)

We had a hard time finding the bin and aisle numbers for some of the pieces, but we eventually found them!  Yay!  It's real!  We have a solution!!  Then, we went down into the warehouse part place thingy to find all our pieces.  OH NO!  They're out of our doors!!  Curses.  We asked, and the doors should arrive back in stock in 7-10 days.  So, we bought the pieces we could and took them home, and we'll go back at a later (and soon??) date to pick up our doors.  When the pieces are all delivered, our cabinet will look (roughly) like this picture on the right.  I had to put the picture together using paint, and I'm not exceptionally skilled at that.  Yeah, I could have/should have used photoshop, but I don't have that program on my computer; Jay has it on his Mac, but I'm not crazy about Macs and I've never used PhotoShop anyway.  So I cut and pasted.  And when we have all the pieces, I'll post a picture of what it looks like in real life with our plates and stuff inside.  It's gonna be awesome!

So, that's all over with (almost) and I am very relieved.  I'm ready to have my dining room look like a dining room (thanks, Mom, for agreeing to let us put our bikes at your house so we can get them out of my dining room!!  You rock!!).

Oh, that reminds me, if anyone knows any affordable way to store our bikes outside that will protect them from the elements, we'd happily take your thoughts.


And finally, the recipe from the last post.  It's very very rich, and very dense, so it may be best to make small cupcakes or to share them with a friend.  :)



Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes  recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired IDeas for Everyone's Favorite Treat (2009)

Makes 12

Ingredients
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Peanut-Butter Filling (recipe follows)

Peanut-Butter Filling
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.  Whisk together flower, baking powder, and salt.  Put butter and choclates in a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pan of simmering water (Christine's note: if you have a double boiler, use it; if not, then set a bowl over a simmering pot of water, and make sure no water ever gets in the bowl of chocolate); stir until melted.  Remove from heat, and let cool slightly.
2. Whisk granulated sugar into cooled chocolate mixture.  Add eggs, and whisk until mixture is smooth.  Stir in vanilla.  Add flour mixture; stir until well incorporated.
3. Spoon 2 tablespoons chocolate batter into each lined cup, followed by 1 tablespoon peanut butter filling.  Repeat with another tablespoon of batter, and top with 1 teaspoon filling.  Swirl top of cupcake batter and filling with a wooden skewer or toothpick.
4. Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 40 minutes.  Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes.  Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in airtight containers.

Hope you enjoy!!  :D

As always, thanks for reading... especially since this post has been so long!!