Once the depression eased off, it left a massive wake behind it. Angus and I have suddenly had bottles of Red Bull strapped to our backs as we go into Super-Hyper DIY mode. Finally, our university-style living room disappeared (a shame, as we've had guests who had to witness the utter styling horror or, as has been named by Statia, the "early fuck" phase) and in it's place is a completely different room.

It took a lot of work to get it to this phase, so if it looks easy, then...well...it wasn't.

Here's the living room now (and it occurs to me I don't have any "before" pictures of the living room to show, mostly because the living room was not a place we were proud of). It has new couches, the TV on a new wall, and purpose built shelves holding up our DVDs. The dog toys in the center of the room are standard, of course.

This is the view from the back of the room, where we've kept the old couch as a "reading space" couch, and also? It has a pull out bed and Angus' extended family are staying with us over Christmas, so that baby will get pressed into use.

And if it seems weird to view a TV side-ways on, here's what it's like from a user perspective-not difficult at all, especially when Elf is playing for the tenth time.

And here is what it's like in the evenings-it's been very cold here recently, so the fireplace has been broken in. The dog (and his toys, which no matter how often we tidy up they just get dragged back out again) and Mumin love the fire.

So our living room is grown up now. We did it all ourselves. I love the space, I love the feel of it. I relax right away.

The kitchen also got tackled. If you've been following in Flickr, you might have seen that the green? She's gone. And before the green? The red went, too. Now the kitchen is painted a cool shade of blue, and Angus has hung a number of lights in the kitchen-there's only one window in the kitchen and it's a very long room, so it tends to be very dark in there. So we hung up the lights we bought from the Orient Express day, the ones from the 1930's.

(The cables over the sink have fallen-Angus is going to fix that this week. Pretend you don't seem them hanging there.)

This is the back of the kitchen, where the other plasma hangs and where Gorby's kennel still remains. He doesn't need the kennel but he honestly likes it and finds comfort in it sometimes, so we leave it up with the door open and if he's feeling insecure, he heads in there.

There's the house, then. A lot will change when the extension is built on, and the entire kitchen will be gutted and stripped out (the cabinet top is tile. TILE. It has to go. We hate the kitchen.)

And last night I cooked, again in the extended version if you're interested.

-H. Butternut squash risotto with crispy sage!

Ingredients
1 large butternut squash
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
about 15 sage leaves, chopped
flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large knobs of butter
1 large onion, chopped
400g/14oz arborio or other Italian risotto rice
2 glasses white wine
1 litre/1¾ pint hot chicken or vegetable stock
good handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
75g/3oz pinenuts, to serve

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Cut the butternut squash into 6-8 wedges, remove the seeds and place in a roasting tray. Pound or chop the garlic and add a generous glug of olive oil, half the sage leaves, sea salt and pepper. Tip into the tray and rub over the butternut squash with your hands. Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes until softened and becoming golden in colour.

3. Once the squash has cooked, cool slightly, then scrape the soft flesh away from the skin into a bowl. Lightly mash with a fork or potato masher until it is fairly chunky in texture. Scrape any sticky juices left in the roasting tray into the bowl and keep warm while making the risotto.
4. Heat the olive oil and a good knob of butter in a deep, heavy-based frying pan or saute pan. Gently fry the onion until softened. Add the rice and stir for about a minute until the grains are coated with the oil and butter. Pour in the wine and stir continuously until it has cooked into the rice. Add a good ladle of hot stock and the remaining sage and season well with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down so the stock is simmering gently. Keep adding ladles of stock as it cooks into the rice, stirring and moving the rice around in the pan. After about 15-20 minutes the rice should be soft but still have a bit of bite left in it. The texture of the risotto should be thick and creamy, but not too loose. Add extra stock if necessary. It may seem tedious standing and stirring but the end result will be worth it.
5. Remove the pan from the heat and gently stir the roasted butternut squash into the risotto with the parmesan, the remaining butter and seasoning to taste. Add any extra stock if the risotto seems particularly thick. Cover with a lid for a couple of minutes as this will give the risotto an even creamier texture.
6. During this time, place the pinenuts in a fairly hot frying pan and toss around until golden. Spoon the risotto into warmed bowls and scatter with the pinenuts and extra parmesan.

It was excellent, I can't recommend it enough.

(as found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/roastedbutternutsqua_67878.shtml)

Also? Muffins, of the apple cinnamon variety.

1 egg
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 c. grated apples
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Grease 12 muffin cups with shortening. Blend egg, milk, oil and apple with a fork. Blend dry ingredients, add to apple mixture and blend with a fork until flour is moistened. DO NOT OVER MIX and fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Yield: 12 muffins.

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 10:14 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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