Re-Purposing #1

My favorite new word is "re-purposing", also known as "shopping your own house". I see this word a lot on blogs that I follow. It means taking something from one part of your home and using it somewhere else. Like taking an end table and turning it into a bedside table (like in Brennan's room). We did a little re-purposing this weekend as part of Spring Cleaning 2009.

Underneath the two sinks in the kitchen the cabinet floors are really beat up. Gross, in fact. When we had the cabinet exteriors painted 4 years ago we didn't paint the cabinet floors. Along with light bulbs, cleaning supplies, and other stuff, we keep our garbage under the sink in the island and the floor was impossible to clean. After more than 4 years, I needed to figure something out.

Water damage and years of neglect.
Under the island sink.
Mats don't help. They shift and bunch up.



Then I remembered I had some oil-based paint left over from when I painted the shelves in the pantry two years ago. With the weather allowing us to open the windows, David got to painting yesterday.


Under the long counter. Sooooo much better.

Glisteningly clean!


I even re-purposed some kitchen baskets I haven't used in forever to keep all the extra lightbulbs. Maybe not as practical as the beat up, dusty cardboard box we had been housing them in, but pretty nonetheless.


And this project was absolutely free! And the difference is so worth it - even if we are the only people who will ever see these cabinet floors.

The Jack Rose

What's in a name? There are numerous stories for where this cocktail got its. Could be from the Applejack brandy and the rose color. Maybe it's for the infamous gambler Bald Jack Rose. Or after the Jacquemont variation of the rose. Or named for Joseph P. Rose - famous mixologist in New York City. Regardless, the Jack Rose is a classic drink, popular in the 1920s and 1930s in the United States.

Ernest Hemingway writes about the Jack Rose in "The Sun Also Rises". And Rachel Maddow mixed the drink a few months ago for The New Yorker. And in 2003 the Washington Post published "Searching for Jack; Two Guys, One Drink, 60 Bars" and the author's quest to find a Jack Rose in Washington, D.C.

I can tell you now that David didn't care for this drink, but I found it to be smooth and understated. I was SURE I wouldn't be able to find Applejack locally. Laird & Company are the only producers of this brandy. It was first made in colonial times by freeze distilling hard cider. It was George Washington's favorite drink and he helped the Laird family start their distillery in Scobeyville, New York in 1780.

David's Swizzle Stick Rating:
2 Swizzle Sticks

The Jack Rose - 3 oz. Applejack, 1 oz. lemon or lime juice, 2 dashes Grenadine. Chill a Martini cocktail glass. In a shaker, add crushed ice and the ingredients above. Shake well and strain into the Martini glass. Garnish with lemon or lime.

I prepared one with lemon and one with lime. David preferred the lime but didn't care for the drink in any event (it's still in the refrigerator after 2 sips). I think I see a trend though. All of his 2 Swizzle Sticks Ratings are pink or fruity!
Bellini, Cosmopolitan, and the Jack Rose.

This one was for you, Mrs. J-B!

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

We had a beautiful day today! I went to Target to look for a good kite but there were only cheapy ones to be found. I had a choice - Hannah Montana or Cars. I knew the only option for the Boatwright house.

This is a video of our kite - the wind was strong and the kite would do all sorts of loops and dives on its own.



Setting up the kite and a few instructions.



Cars Kite


Brennan with the controls


We had a really great outdoor day. We went to a couple of parks and went on a 3 mile bike ride on the People Trails. It's wonderful to be able to open the windows and let the nice breeze in!

Thomas's Model

Thomas had a great time working on this model last weekend. He received it from Grandpa Don at Christmas. It's his first model of this nature and he had a blast with it. Thomas doesn't normally like to miss church but he was recovering from a flu bug on Friday and was still not feeling his best Sunday morning. So it was great timing to get started on the model. His friend Nathan is spending the night tonight so they might do a little work on it, he says.

Thomas experienced his first ISTEP testing this past week. ISTEP is the Indiana state testing for 3rd-6th graders. This one included the typical math but also several lengthy writing prompts. He thinks each day went well. He said yesterday, "I am sooo glad that's behind me!"

Just wait til the SAT's and MCAT's my friend!

Protecting Your Dining Table

My boys receive a lot of arts and craft kits for their birthdays and Christmas. They really enjoy doing all sorts of projects and they are great to have handy to pull out during the cold winters of Indiana.

I keep these projects in a cabinet in the kitchen since many of them have ingredients that I don't want downstairs where we have carpet. But I also don't want to damage our kitchen table with the slime, glitter, glue, gel, etc. that come with these projects. So I have a simple solution.

I have $1 plastic tablecloths tucked away with the crafts. One will last us a year. I just shake it out in the grass and fold it back up, ready to be used next time. And the table is still in perfect condition!

That's what Works for Me. For more great ideas, check out Kristen's site. http://www.wearethatfamily.com/2009/02/wfmw-meal-planning-helpers.html

The Kamikaze

Today we attempted The Kamikaze. There is not a lot of history to this smooth drink. The legend is that it was named during the American occupation of Japan immediately after WWII. The drink was created at a bar called "GI's" on the Yokosuka Base near Tokyo.

David liked this drink because it wasn't overpowering in any way. Shaking it with crushed ice seems to dilute the lime juice's tartness too. The classic Kamikaze uses 1.5 oz. of lime juice but I knew that would be too tart. So I modified it below.

David's Swizzle Stick Rating:
The Kamikaze - 4 swizzle sticks


The Kamikaze - 1.5 oz. Vodka, 1.5 oz. Triple Sec, .75 oz. lime juice. Mix all ingredients in a shaker filled with crushed ice. Shake well and strain into a Martini cocktail glass. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

I'm on antibiotics so just took a sip of this one. It's clean and mild much like the Mojito and Tom Collins so I'm sure I could tolerate it just fine!

Yeah! It's March 1st. Think Spring!