Inman Park Festival find

our new chair
Originally uploaded by frannylue

Our first piece of "new" furniture for our house! A vintage leather and wood recliner complete with an articulating ottoman. Very comfortable and modern. M found it at City Issue's booth at the Inman park festival. After sitting in it and thinking about it some more, we knew we couldn't pass this one up.

Sorry for the poor pic, but we had to get it back to the apartment somehow. Eventually I will post a better pic of it, most likely with M or the kitties in it.

Sugar High Fridays - Sweet Without the Wheat

Yup, it is my turn to host SHF created by Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess. Little did I know that when I signed up for this, I would be down a kitchen for the first part of the month. Hopefully M and I will shortly be moving into our new home with a fantastic kitchen. The anticipation of the double ovens has me itching to bake something...if only I could find space for all of the stuff currently being stored in our apartment kitchen.

Anyhow, on to this Month's theme:

SWEET WITHOUT THE WHEAT

So, here is the deal, you can create any dessert you want, but it cannot contain any wheat whatsoever. This means no All Purpose flour, no Self-Rising flour, no Bread flour, and definitely no Whole Wheat flour. The idea here is to give all of us with that pesky intolerance or allergy to wheat a chance to make and taste your fabulous desserts, without dealing with the headaches, and stomach issues that come with eating wheat. Be creative, try a pavlova, ice cream, or venture into the world of alternative flours and try working with rice, corn, tapioca or the many other varieties of flour out there.

So here are the rules:
1. Entries need to be submitted by Monday, May 25th, Memorial Day here in the States, and I will post the round-up on Friday, May 29th.

2. In your entry please include:

• a photo of your fabulous dessert (no larger than 500k in size, please)
  
• your name, the name of your blog and a link to it
• a brief summary of your dessert
• any other information that you would like me to share
  

3. What if you don't have a blog?... Please send the same information to me along with the recipe. I'll be more than happy to include it in the round up.

4. So where do you send all that information to... Zilla.CTW@gmail.com

Please remember to send your entry to me by Monday May 25th. I look forward to reading all of your fabulous entries and making some new desserts!

Gluten-free pizza!

Gluten-free pizza!
Originally uploaded by frannylue

Yes you read it right....and from a restaurant too!

The Veg had checked out this place called Z Pizza on a recent trip to Austin and gushed over the fact that they had tons of vegan offerings. Including soy cheeze, which as far as this Wisconsin girl is concerned is a complete abomination, but she also happened to mention that they have gluten free options.

It just so happens that there happens to be a Z Pizza by the mothership. So we headed out to see if it was worth the buzz.

Let me tell you, it was.

First off, you could get essentially anything on the menu gluten free. Including pizza, pasta, and dessert. It took me at least 10 minutes to decide what to get. I just stood there and stared at the menu. I finally decided on a pear and gorgonzola pie and a brownie for dessert. The pizza arrived on a cracker thin crust and was truly delicious. The brownie was decadent dark chocolate. Very awesome.

The best part...there is one in midtown too. No need to go OTP to get my fix!

Got Purple?

Got Purple?
Originally uploaded by frannylue

Yup, Bitter Chocolate sure is bitter...when it turns purple on your window trim!

Quincy, at the Sherwin-William's store, says it will be truer to it's bitter chocolate color, with more coats. But, I don't think M and I are willing to risk it. So I had Quincy match the paint to the gutters. It looks brown to me now...we'll see what it looks like on the windows after today's predicted thunderstorms pass through.

We also decided that the dark brown is a little too dark for the light stucco, but should look great with the dark stucco and the cypress.

Stay tuned for more house progress. Any guesses on the day we will move in???

Floors and cabinets!

April 3, 2009 - kitchen
Originally uploaded by frannylue

We are definitely seeing progress now!

Both the hardwood floors and the cabinets were installed this week.

M and his dad also took the week and worked hard on completing other tasks. M's dad built deck panels for our roof deck and M spent the week prepping and staining the cypress siding and I am getting to help with that all weekend long. Luckily, we have a pretty good rhythm going now.

The cypress is supposed to start going up on Monday and we will be spending our evenings next week working on the counter tops. We hope to have those finished by the end of next week!