A Fresh Look for the Patio Chairs

Spring, spring, spring!  Actually, I guess it's almost summer, isn't it?  Oh well...I'm just so happy to be out of the house and in the garden and the yard.  I'm working on quite the farmer's tan right now.  And the garden is growing nicely, the flowers are in bloom, the birds are a-chirpin' and the air smells fresh from an overnight rain.

But hold the fort! That patio set that we've had for years is looking a little tired - especially since the roofers scratched  some of the chairs by dropping shingles on them.  So I thought, why not give them a little facelift?

Painting the Table and Chairs

This set has an enamel finish from the factory and it was in decent shape (no chipping paint or rough spots).  I never really liked the color, though ,as it's a light beige and I always wants a dark bronze or black iron set.  This is the perfect opportunity to set things right with some Rustoleum spray paint.  I started by powerwashing the chairs and table and letting them dry for a good 24 hours.  If you have a set that has chipping paint or a glossy finish, you'll also want to lightly sand the entire chair\table with either sandpaper or steel wool first.  Perhaps the most important part of the process is the prep and it's absolutely necessary that the surface be structurally sound and completely dry.

While the chairs were drying, J. and I were standing in Strasser's Hardware agonizing over which color paint to use on them.  Our house is a darker beige with white trim and black accents.  We finally decided that black was too dark and picked Rustoleum's hammered bronze paint and bought a couple of cans to test with.  The nice thing about the hammered finish paint is that it's very forgiving about overspraying (drips) and uneven surfaces. 6 cans later, we were finally done spraying and the table and chairs looked like new.   You'll see them in a picture further down this post.

Now on to....

Recovering the Seat Cushions

I'm really picky about fabrics and I searched all over for cushions that I liked when we first got the patio set.  When I finally found some that I liked, they only had 3!  And they couldn't order a 4th because they were closeout cushions.  Just my luck.  So one of our chairs hasn't had a cushion for years.  These were really nice cushions with a zipper in the back - a nice feature because you can remove the cover and wash it or replace the padding if you need to.

Which brings us to...

Step 1. Remove the existing cushion cover.
 
I suppose could just cut the ties off and leave the existing cover.  But the primary reason for doing this is so that you can use the existing cover as a template for the new one. 
 

My old cushion.  I like the pattern, but the brown is kind of boring.  Did I mention that I hate brown?

Step 2.  Measure for your fabric and gather supplies

My chairs just have bottom seat covers, so this was pretty easy.  If you've got the larger cushions that cover both the back and seat bottom, make sure you flatten out the paddding so that you get an accurate measurement.  In my case the cushions are 18" deep by 20" wide.

If you don't have cushions and want to make some, just measure your seat depth and chair width.  If you're making full cushions for both the seat and back, you'll need to include the chair height as well.  And remember, when you fold the cushion to put it on the chair, you'll love some length.  I'd add a couple of inches to the length of the cushion to account for that.

TIP FOR THOSE STARTING FROM SCRATCH:  The easiest way to determine your fabric size is to cut your foam padding first. My foam is 1.5 inches thick.  If you're sewing a full cushion, you don't want to go any thicker than that because it will be hard to sew through.  Place your foam on the chair, fold it to contour with the chair and then trim it to fit.  Now you've got a template to work with for the other chairs and you can determine your fabric sizes by measuring around your foam piece.  (Just be sure to add a bit to the length and width, to account for the thickness of the foam.)

For my 4 bottom-only seat cushions, I had the following shopping list. 

• Outdoor fabric - 2.5 yards (always give yourself a little extra!)
• Extra strong thread in coordinating color (1 spool was enough)

TIP:  Make sure you buy OUTDOOR FABRIC that has been pre-treated to withstand the weather. 

 

So off I went to Joann's.  I had spotted some gorgeous red swirly outdoor fabric the week before but it was gone by the time I got back there.  I even had them call 3 other stores and all of them were out.  Agh!  So I settled for the same pattern in chic black instead. With several 50% off coupons, the total came to just over $20 after tax.

Step 3. Measure and cut the fabric for the cushions.

I  wanted to rectify the missing 4th cushion situation, and a discounted cushion for $4 at Home Depot was just the ticket.  This one didn't have a zipper in the back, but the foam was the same size as my existing cushions.  So I ripped the back seam out of the cover, turned it inside out, and used it as the template for cutting out the fabric for my new ones.

Fold your new fabric in half and then pin the old cushion on top of the new fabric so that it stays in place while you cut around it.  Make a note of the seam allowance on the old fabric.  Mine were 3/8".

TIP:  Notice how the corners are rounded?  You can leave the corners straight, but then you'll have very pointy corners in the stiff fabric and it won't look right.  If you're creating new cushions from scratch, fold the fabric in half and round off two corners at the same time.  Then fold it in half the other way and use the rounded corners as a guide for the other corners.  That will give you 4 corners that are exactly the same.

Step 4.  Cut and sew the fabric for the ties.

Next up, I used the leftover fabric scraps to cut strips for the ties.  The ties on my existing cushions were 12" long, but I wanted them to be a little longer. So I cut the remaining fabric down into 16" long strips, then turned the fabric 90 degrees and cut it into 2" strips.  Each chair takes 4 strips, so I cut a total of 16 of these. 

Outdoor fabric is stiff and really hard to sew into a tube and then turn right side out.  So, instead, I folded each strip in half lengthwise and pressed it.  Then I opened it up and folded each edge in toward the center fold and pressed again.

Then sew the strip closed on the open edge.  What you end up with is a strip that is about a 1/2" wide.  Then fold over one end of the strip by 1/4 inch and then again by 1/4 inch and sew it into place.  You only need to do this on one end per strip, as the other end will be attached to the cushion.

Step 5. Sew the covers together.

Now go back to the cushion fabric and remove one of the pieces.  Place two of the strips in the middle of the rounded corners on the back of the cushion so that the strips are facing in toward the middle of the cushion and the edges are lined up with the edges of the seat fabric (as shown below). 

If you're starting from scratch, you'll have to look at the chair to determine the best place where you can tie the cushion on. The bottom ties should sit right above where the fold of the cushion should be.

Now you're ready to sew the cushion together.  Replace the top piece of fabric, make sure everything matches up, pin everything together so that it doesn't move around as you're sewing, and then sew along the edges.  My original cushions used a 3/8" seam, so I did the same on the the new ones.  Remember to leave the back open so that you can put the padding in.  I started sewing about an inch before where the ties were pinned, continued around the cushion, and then stopped about an inch past the 2nd set of ties.  When you're done, flip the cushion inside out and it will look like this:

Step 6.  Assemble the cushions and final sewing.

Now stuff the padding into the new covers and adjust it so that it fits nicely.  Then fold the edges of the opening toward the inside by 1/2 inch and hand-stich the opening closed.

TIP:  If you're doing a full cushion, you're not quite done.  You'll need to find where the center fold should be and do a straight-stitch across the middle.

And here's one of the "new" patio chairs sporting its shiny new paint job and new cushion!

I think it needs a pop of color, don't you?  Maybe a red or orange pillow.

This project was "sew" simple and (not counting waiting for the chairs to dry) it only took me a couple of hours to do the painting and covers.  The total cost was just $48 ($20 for fabric and $28 for paint). In fact, it was so easy that I wish I had done it years ago.  If you're tired of looking at those old patio chair and cushions and don't want to spend a fortune on new ones, why not try your hand at making them beautiful again?  If I can do it, YOU can do it.

And now I'm off to make a girlie drink and enjoy the new patio. That is, after I finish up a carrot cake for J.'s niece.  It's her 19th birthday tomorrow and she' requested pizza dinner, so we'll be joining them for that this evening.  I hope she likes the carrot cake - I'll be posting my recipe for that later this week so you can make it and enjoy it also.  It is THE best carrot cake recipe ever.  I promise.

Later, gators....

I'm sharing this with the Clever Chicks, Sunday Showcase, Sunny Simple Mondays, Ready,Set, Pin, Making the World Cuter, Masterpiece Monday, Made By You, Keeping It Simple, Creative Bloggers Party, More the Merrier, Craft-O-Matic Mondays, Make the Scene Monday, Make It Pretty Monday, Tutorials and Tips Linky Party, Get Your Craft On, Monday Funday, and Mop It Up Monday blog hops.

The Day the Gadgets Died

/rant on

Okay, does anyone else think we have too many gadgets in our lives?  Let's look at the lowly quesadilla maker.  Personally, I just make quesadillas in a skillet.  Is that not socially acceptable any more?  Am I just not "with it" if I don't have a separate machine that doesn't make quesadillas? Seriously...at what point did we decide that we have to have a separate gadget for every single thing we do?

And why do entire families go out to dinner and spend the entire time on their phones rather than talking to each other? Anybody else seen that spectacle?

And don't even get me started on the new CFL lightbulbs that require a hazardous waste suit to dispose of if they break in your house.

/rant off

I'm just ticked today because a gadget tried to ruin my life yesterday.  I ran off to work and was on a conference call when I received an email from J. that scared the poop out of me.  He was getting ready to leave for work after me and noticed that the back was popping off of his Samsung cell phone.  The battery was swollen a little bit and he tried to force the cover back on.  That's when flames started shooting 3 FEET OUT FROM THE PHONE.  So he did what every sane person would have done to keep from burning themselves and dropped it.  On the carpet.  Which then started to catch on fire.  He said he stomped on it to try to get it out but it just wouldn't go out.  (Lithium ion battery fires are notoriously hard to get out.)  The good news is that he finally got it out and he wasn't hurt.  The carpet?  Not so much.

Thank goodness he didn't forget his phone when we he went to work, as we easily could have gotten a call that our house was on fire.

Guys, batteries bulge when they are defective or overcharged.  I actually knew that because we had one happen at work, and I should have told J. that.  Folks, don't overcharge your phones.  And, if you see a bulged battery, get it out of your house and take it to an authorized disposal spot.  THEY ARE DANGEROUS. Just watch this or read about this poor guy, this woman or these people - they would tell you the same thing.

On top of that, our dishwasher has decided to go on strike.  Everything works except the start button.  It did this about 6 months ago and we got it back up and running by flipping the breaker off for a day and then waiting for a day or so.  I guess it just needed a vacation, because it's worked fine since then.  J. says it's a control board issue so there goes several hundred dollars. Pbbbbbtttt!

Now I have to wash dishes by hand.  Oh the humanity!  And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Just kidding....  But I know lots of folks in today's society that would just die if they had to.  Me?  I think life would be a lot better if we didn't have all these gadgets.

Signing off the Internet to go to my high-tech computer job.  A very, VERY.....

Ants Are Farmers Too?

Carpenter ants can be really destructive in your home or the wood pile but they don't really destroy trees unless they are already dead or dying.  But, when I spotted a conga line of ants going up one of our containerized apple trees, I decided to take a closer look to see what they were up to.

This little guy decided to wave hello.

Or maybe he's giving me the finger because shortly after I took that picture, they converged on me and attacked my fingers.  Turns out I was disturbing their tending to their livestock.

Ants watching over their aphid herd like cowboys watching their cattle.

Apparently I wasn't the only one entranced by these industrious little insects as, with a little research, I found that the ants actually use chemicals in their feet to tranquilize and subdue aphids, which are in the same category as cicadas and grasshoppers.  They're also called "plant lice".  Ewwwww!

 

You can see the fat little green aphids on the underside of the leaf in that last picture.  Believe it or not, the ants actually herd these aphids like we do cattle.  They bite their wings off so they can't fly away, they move the aphids up to the choicest part of the tree, pick them up and groom them, and move them to the juiciest part of the leaves.  Then the ants "milk" the aphids by stroking their abdomens with their antennae.  And then they suck their butts.  

You read that right...they suck their butts.  So much for the family rating on this blog.

From what I've read, the aphids suck the nutrients out of the leaves and then poop out a sugary honeydew, which the ants eat and carry back to their colony.  It's a dedicated food source for the ants.  In exchange, the aphids get protection from their natural predators like lacewings and this little lady that was spotted not far away.

Needless to say, the ants and their little aphid farm can't stay where it is and they really aren't welcome in the garden AT ALL.  The aphids are easily sprayed off the leaves with a hose, which disrupts the ants activity.  We sprayed them off last night and will keep an eye on the situation because aphids can and will chomp on other types of plants, including just about anything in the garden.  

If drowning them doesn't work, we may have to look at some other options.  You can pop them between your fingers, or use organic spray like Neem Oil or insecticidal soap or (what I think we will do) dust the tree with Diatomaceous Earth.  I've also read that planting sweet alyssum in conjunction with garlic may repel the ants and attract the insects that normally prey on the aphids.  Anybody have any experience with that?

Yeehaw!  Get along little aphids...   

Anywhere but on my apple trees!

I'm sharing this with this week's HomeAcre Hop, Green Living Thursday and From the Farm hops.  Go check them out!

Fruits of Our Labor

One of my fondest childhood memories is of my grandfather and I driving the dusty country roads together.  It was just restlessness - I think, like me, he didn't want to live in the city and was happiest when we were out driving.  Sometimes it was just for the heck of it, but we often went out morel hunting in the early Spring.  And he knew all the "secret" places where the wild blackberries and raspberries grew on the fence lines off these quiet roads.  We'd go home loaded with berries, chiggers and ticks, but neither of us cared. 

Those wild berries can be hard to spot and their flowers are teeny.  But look at the flowers on my Triple Crown blackberries.  They must be a good 2 inches across.

Who knew that blackberry flowers could be so beautiful? 

That's one of the new plants that I just added a couple of weeks ago.  The existing blackberry plants are growing like crazy and covered in berries.  We'll be rolling in the blackberries this year, I think. 

It's going to be a good year for strawberries also.  Here's one of the little plants blooming it's little heart out back in late April.

The whole bed is now bursting with strawberry plants and runner.  Oh, and berries.  Mmmmmm!

We harvested a pound and a half last night alone, and J. cut them up and enjoyed them with some milk and sugar.  These are Ozark Beauty berries, but he's taken to calling them "Ozark Tasties".  I think he might be on to something.

In other fruit news, one of the silly Honeycrisp apple trees that we dug up and put in a container now has our first little apples on it!  I think there are about 6, so we're not going to have a bumper crop but we definitely welcome our first apples here at Cranky Puppy Farm.  I can't wait....

It was while I was looking at the tree that I noticed that another farmer has taken up residence on the farm and is herding his livestock on my land without my permission.  Stay tuned, because I'll have pics and more on that for you tomorrow.

Shared with: Homestead Barn Hop and Tuesday Garden Party

Another Centenarian Lost

It's been raining all morning with the occasional grumble of thunder so I didn't really think about the low rumble until I realized it had been going on for more than a minute.  I turned off my sewing machine to get a better listen.  Still hearing it, I went to my window and this is what I saw.

They're tearing down the house across the street from us!  This is the one that caught fire last fall.  The house was built after ours, but we still think it was about 100 years old - a centenarian.  We had hoped that the owner would renovate it and they did pull the permits in mid-April to do that.  But they must have decided it would have been too much work or money and the permit changed to a demolition permit in early May.

Note the onlooker.  This attracted quite the crowd!

We've been watching a steady stream of utility companies come out over the last 3 weeks as they turned everything off.  That included the water department digging up the street and capping off the water pipes.  Then came the folks to take out the old mouldings, fireplace mantels, pipes, wires, window glass and anything of value.  Hopefully, they will be reused somewhere else.

If you've never seen a house torn down before,  I can tell you that it's really an interesting thing to watch.  Since there are houses on either side, the Cat operator has to be careful about how he takes everything down so that he keeps all the debris in a nice neat little pile.  Kinda like a jigsaw puzzle.

At one point, we saw a rat scrambling around on what remained of the roof.  I'm sure he was forlorn about his home being torn down.  I hope he doesn't decide that our house looks like a nice replacement!

This was the perfect day to tear this down, as there was a steady rain to keep all the dust down.  I'm sure there's asbestos and lead paint in there, given the age of the house.

 

Later on, they'll come back with a big bulldozer and scoop everything up and into dumpsters to be carted away.  That's 100 year old wood in there being thrown into the landfill.

Our view has changed (for the better) but it's sad to think that several somebodies could have saved this house over several decades and they chose not to do so.   And now there's nothing left but the urban vultures picking over her bones for anything valuable.

The Urban Vulture, Kansas City's official bird

Watching this, J. and I decided to put in an offer on that house that I posted about earlier.  We can't bear to see it come to the same fate.  We'd also like to buy this lot.  Look at that beautiful old walnut tree in the backyard. Wouldn't this be a great place for an orchard?

The Brave and the Fallen

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

--John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

Back in 2002, J. went along with me on a trip to D.C. and it's so long ago that I can't even remember why we went in the dead of winter.  It was magical, though....the snow laid thick on the ground and the cold nipped at us as we walked around the National Mall until we couldn't feel our legs.   All the way out to the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials to the Capitol where we found the Missouri Christmas tree.

Looking at all the white crosses so neatly lined up at Arlington Cemetery caused us to pause before moving on.  I'm not sure what J. was thinking, but I was thinking about all those brave men who fought and died so that I could be free.  Think about what that really means.  It is truly a solemn place.  Going just a little further, I was brought to tears by the sight of J. saluting the fellow Marine who guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

It's Memorial Day.  Let's celebrate and remember all of those heroes that have sacrificed to make our celebration possible. 

Happy Memorial Day!

Our Next Project?

Sitting on the front porch the other day, I turned to J. and said "You know, I should have warned you when we first got together that I'm an old house lover. I restore old houses...it's my lot in life, I think." It's true. I've never lived in a new house and, given how they're thrown up now in a matter of days with substandard materials, I will never live in a new house. At least not one that I haven't built myself. 

Old houses have character. They feel "lived in" and loved. You can feel the history in their floors, their walls, the notches on the door trim where mothers marked the progress as their kids grew up. I have a bug and it's name is renovation. And, so, I'd like to share with you what may well be our next project with a little bit of luck.

She's a beautiful true brick house built in the late 1800's - I'm not sure of the exact date and haven't had time to research the history yet.  To the left of the house is an elementary school, so the location is great.  And it's so close to our house that I can see it from our front porch.  In fact, here''s the view of the back of the house when I walk down my street about half a block.

 

 The empty lot in that picture comes with the house.  It could be a nice big backyard, or you could build a garage.  

When you get closer, you'll see that the porch has seen better days.  It will need to be completely rebuilt.

And the addition on the back has termite damage and, at a minimum, would need new siding.

Yikes!

The addition is weird to say the least. That door leads to small laundry space that's not accessible from inside the house.  Who wants to go outside in the winter to do their laundry?

The inside has some issues also, but they are mostly cosmetic.  The kitchen is a wreck and needs to be completely redone.

There's a small bathroom on the right-hand side of the picture and then the entry to the addition even further right.

The kitchen may be a wreck, but the original ornate plaster ceilings and corbels are all there and in perfect shape!  This is the dining room.

And here's a closer look at the plaster ceiling in the bow window. Beautiful craftmanship and it's rare for these to be in such great shape.

There are two original hand-painted cast iron fireplaces in the house.  The first is in the dining room and it features 3 inset tiles: a boy on the left hand side, a stag in the middle, and a girl on the right.  All of the tiles on the floor are still there and not cracked. That's unheard of...

Off the dining room (and to your right when you come in the front door) is the parlor.  The hardwood floors are beautiful and were redone about 10 years ago.  Just some cleaning is all they need.

The entire house is full of these ornate plaster mouldings.  Why the heck would someone spray paint this vintage light fixture?  Ugh....I bet it's brass underneath.  Nothing that can't be fixed.

Here's the second fireplace in the house.  Again, hand-painted and cast iron.  The house was broken into and someone tried to remove the fireplace, presumably for scrap iron.  They did break one side (which is fixable) and thank goodness they weren't successful in stealing it.

Right behind us are the entry and the stairs. They're covered in ugly carpet, but all the trim detail is still there and they're begging to liberated from all that ugly white paint.  But I am the stripping queen!

I'm pretty sure there was a stained glass window in there originally.  Wouldn't that look pretty?

When we get upstairs, we have a second small bathroom and 4 bedrooms.  Here's the master.

It's in great shape except for some missing plaster where the roof was leaking.  They put a new roof on in 2008, but never fixed the ceiling. 

It looks like the parents let the kids paint their own bedrooms.

The fourth bedroom is teeny, but would make a great baby's room or home office.  

Okay, so let's look at the positives:   this house is all brick, foundation is solid, has all new windows, and a 5-year-old roof.  The negatives are: somebody stole the furnace and AC, and cut and stole the wires and plumbing in the basement.  Other that that, it just needs some lipstick.  

The house has been vacant for several months (which is when it was broken into) and is in short sale.  The owners haven't been approved by Citi for a short sale, so this could turn into a real nightmare.  Particularly since they bought the house for $90K 10 years ago and now have it on the market for $25K.  Yep, you read that right. 

Now I just have to convince J. to make an offer  :-)

And God Made A Dog

This is for all you dog lovers out there.

Domino is looking at me intently as I type this.  I think he may have planted this on YouTube in an effort to guilt me into giving him some bacon. Or ice cream. Or pie. Or Reddi-Whip straight out of a can.  Or maybe a belly rub.  It's not working.

 

Really.

 

Okay.....

 

In the Red

 

After several days of warnings about being in the red zone for severe weather, we're very lucky to have not been hit with anything other than a couple of nasty downpours and a 10 minute episode of 60-mph winds that drove the rain horizontal on Sunday.  That always freaks me out.  It really freaked me out when the house started groaning under the strain of the winds.  Fortunately, we didn't get any hail on our new roof.

But the weather missing us means that it went and hit someone else and my heart absolutely pours out to those folks in Oklahoma who have lost family, friends, property, and have had their world turned on end. I was happy to turn on the news and see that the number of fatalities has been revised down significantly as they pull people from the rubble.  Thank goodness for small miracles.  Actually, it is indeed a miracle that anyone survived that monster Tornado.

The sheer power of Mother Nature is amazing, is it not? 

In other news around here, our buddy Zinger (the bird that sleeps in the porch light at night) has gone missing.  I'm choosing to think that he's found a Mrs. Zinger and is off making little sparrow babies  that's much better than thinking some foul deed has been visited upon him.  Like the neighborhood cat treating him as an appetizer.

And, speaking of birds...While the roofers had the downspout disconnected, some enterprising sparrows apparently built a nest in there.  It then clogged the downspout when it rained.  And some silly Starling either dove in or fell in and I could hear him struggling all the way down the downspout on Sunday.  Since the downspout connects to an underground drain, the poor thing couldn't get out.  The only option was to rescue the poor thing by disconnecting the downspout from the drain and, upon removing the last screw, out popped a full sparrow's nest, followed by one tired and upset Starling!

Oh, and one more thing about birds.  Have you seen this crazy video?

The Night the Lights Went out in KC

J. and I were out watering late last night when the neighborhood went dark.  I heard a pop and saw the back of our house go black.  No street lights, no nothing.  Do you know how disconcerting it is to be in the middle of the hood in a big city and it's pitch dark?  So I finished watering the new trees while J. called the power company and then we sat on the front porch and enjoyed the nice weather while we waited for the power to come back on.  Honestly, it was such a nice night that I was tempted to just go to bed and open up all the windows. 

 

So that kinda threw my idea for a blog post last night out the window. No power, no laptop. 

*sigh*
 

The power did come back on right before we were getting ready to go to bed and, by then, I was too tired to post.  While you're waiting for me to get my act post together today, how about having a laugh at something my sis-in-law sent along in email?

Can I get an Amen?!

Monday Minutiae

J. got a new book today and the title just cracks me up.  This guy used to have a website called HogOnIce.com where, of all things, he made fun of Nigerian email scammers.  Really funny stuff.  But it's defunct now and lives only in the dusty annals of Google's wayback machine.  I'm looking forward to flipping through the recipes and getting a good laugh.

 

BTW, if you want to see someone else getting silly scammers to do funny things and take pictures of themselves doing it,check out 419eater.com.  That link goes to the pictures, but the stories are funny also.  It's amazing how easy it is to scam the scammers.  Since I deal with this crap every day at work, I do get some satisfaction out of knowing that they might be on the receiving end of a scam once in awhile.

 

But anyway, I digress.  Back to eating what you want....

 

And what do I want to eat? 

 

That strawberry.  It's the first of the year!

Dreamy, Creamy Mac and Cheese

For years, I've been in pursuit of the perfect macaroni and cheese recipe and have just never gotten it quite right.  Some folks do cottage cheese (yuck!), or add eggs (who wants scrambled eggs in their mac and cheese?) or use only Velveeta (good, but not perfect).  To me, the perfect mac and cheese is insanely cheezy, the cheese sticks to the macaroni, and is oh-so-creamy that it just makes you melt when you eat it.

Well, folks, I think I've finally found it.  We made this last night and J. kept going back for more.  And I'm not going to tell you how many helpings I had.  Like all good home-cooked recipes, it does take a little bit of time to put together but, trust me, it's worth it.

Here we go...

Dreamy, Creamy Mac and Cheese

Total Time: About 1 hour 20 minutes (Prep:  45 mins, Cook:  35 mins)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or 1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper, to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 

3 cups whole milk *

1 cup heavy cream *

2 8-ounce packages sharp cheddar cheese, shredded and divided   **

1 8 ounce package extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded  **
1 16-ounce package macaroni, cooked

4 ounces Velveeta, cubed in small cubes

 

* If you don't have heavy cream, you can substitute 2 cups milk and 2 cups half-and-half for the milk and cream ingredients
** I use 1 Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp and 2 Vermont Sharp White Cheddar so that it's more white than yellow.  You don't have to use these, but do make sure you  use high-quality cheese and not just the pre-shredded stuff

Directions:

1. Put some water on to boil and prepare the macaroni as you would normally.
2. While the macaroni is cooking, shred the cheese either by hand or in a food processor.
3. In a big skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat.
4. Whisk the flour in slowly and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth.
5. Cook and whisk continually for 2 minutes.
6. Add in salt, pepper, cayenne, and garlic; stir to combine.
7. Gradually whisk in milk and then cream (or milk and half-and-half).
8. Cook and whisk continually until mixture is thickened (about 8 to 10 minutes).
9. Add in half of the sharp cheddar cheese; stir.
10. Add in all of the extra-sharp cheddar cheese; stir until smooth.
11. Add in the Velveeta; stir until smooth.
12. Add 1/2 of the noodles to the bottom of a greased 9x13 inch casserole dish.
13. Add 1/2 of the cheese mixture onto the top of the noodles and mix it all together so that the noodles are completely incorporated into the cheese.
14. Add the remainder of the cheese and noodles and repeat.  It will look like it won't all fit in the dish, but trust me, it will.
15. Sprinkle with the remaining sharp cheddar cheese. (Optional: if you like a crunchy top, consider topping this with some crushed crackers or crispy onions.)
16. Bake in a 350° oven for 20 minutes or until the top is slightly browned.

I used rotini noodles because all the folks on the noodle do a better job of capturing all that yummy, cheesy goodness.  And fair warning:  this makes ALOT of mac and cheese. 

If you try it, let me know what you think.  And if you "kick it up a notch" by changing the ingredients or adding something, I'd love to hear about it.  Hope you enjoy this recipe!

I've shared this recipe with this week's HomeAcre hop and Homestead Barn hop.

Henrietta's Little Secret

It seems there's always something happenin' around here and today was no different. After giving the girls' coop a nice Spring cleaning, I was tidying up the yard and realized that I hadn't heard or seen hide nor hair of Henrietta (or is it feather?)  Normally, she's out in her pen telling me all about her day or the latest gossip but she was nowhere to be seen.

I'll confess, all manner of dark thoughts crept into my head as I got closer to her house.  Did a racoon or possum get in?  Is she dead?  Oh, please, don't let it be.  I can't lose two birds in one week.

I can't quite make it out.  What IS that?

So I crept even closer and found her sitting just inside the house under her roost.  She wouldn't budge or "talk" to me when I called to her, which is odd for Henrietta.  I think she's the most talkative bird I've ever known - second only to Kermit, the official spokes-hen for the flock.

I finally got Henrietta moving by giving everyone some mealworms.  And that's when I discovered her dirty little secret.

That little stinker has started laying eggs again!  We had given up on her, as she hasn't laid since she was badly pecked back on March 29, 2012.  I guess she is feeling comfortable in her new house, because that little chicken was sitting on 12 eggs.   

This calls for a celebration!  Anybody have a recipe for mealworm cake?