Eau de Toilette... errr a new bathroom

When we moved into our home in 2004, the bathroom had a cutesy, teddy bear border up that I’m sure if Lila had been around, would have insisted it stay.  However, since it was just Cam and me, we decided it had to go.  We redecorated with a lodge feel, including some authentic deer antlers and feet in the décor.  I crafted faux rocks from foil and joint compound and painted them to look like “real” rocks.  Then, I mounted them one of the walls.  It looked pretty cool, I think.  Sure, it wouldn’t be for everyone’s home, but I live with a hunter out in the country.  I think it worked.

            However, as the years went by, the “rocks” did not hold up too well to little hands.  I removed those a couple years ago.  The border I put up with the silhouettes of moose and deer was starting to peel as well.  But, the thing that broke the camel’s back was that when Maggie came along, we all started spitting on each other at teeth-brushing time.  One sink was just not enough for four people to share.  (We do have a second bathroom that’s actually quite nice, but it’s in the basement and none of us really want to go down there for our grooming.)  So, I convinced Cam that we needed a second sink in the bathroom.  Actually, that part wasn’t hard.  It was the convincing him that we needed to redecorate while we were at it that took a little more smooth-talking.

However, after several months, he got on board with me and helped develop a “look” for the bathroom.  We now have a lovely, barn-themed bathroom.  Barns kind of have a special place in my heart.  Cam and I bought some property together before we were even engaged and built a large barn on it, mainly just the two of us working every weekend in rain, bitter cold, and wind without electricity and sleeping in a tent!  It was our first big project together and something we both took a lot of pride in and learned a lot about each other while doing it.  When we moved to our home, Cam designed a barn to house the livestock we planned to raise.  I honestly didn’t help much with that barn.  I’m going to say I was pregnant or something, but it might have just been so darn hot.  But, I’m sure I held at least one board and hammered in a nail or two.  Our third barn is down at “Old Glory”.  It’s the hay barn.  With two babies underfoot, I again was much less involved in this barn, but helped out when I could.  Anyway, I love the look of barns.  The smell of them (most of the time) is very pleasant.  The light can be really beautiful.  Plus, it’s just cool how they’re put together.  

I am so pleased with our new bathroom!  We used old barn lumber that our friends had offered us to make the walls look like post and beam framing.  Cam built a cabinet for the sinks from the same lumber.   

We found this great lighting in the “outdoor lighting” at Lowe’s for $20 a piece.  Similar fixtures I had seen on a “barn lighting” website were upwards of $150 each!   

The splurge was the great faucets.

 But, I couldn’t *not* get them.  I mean, they’re perfect for a barn bathroom.  I couldn’t find anything I liked in the way of shower curtains, so I made one from burlap and stenciled the name of our farm on it to look like a feed sack.   

We also put up corrugated metal around the shower and on one wall, which I didn't get a photo of. Overall, I'm just tickled.  It's been super handy to have the second sink, and it's a pleasure to go into a pretty bathroom!

Ravioli!

I made ravioli from scratch!  Sometimes I even amaze myself.  =)  I stumbled on a recipe for it the other day and thought, “I could make that!”.  I decided I would try my hand at make the ricotta as well.  We have Alpine Goats here on the farm that produce an abundance of milk.  Up to this point, Cam has done all the cheese making around our house.  I watch him spend several hours, or even days in the process and it's never appealed all that much to me.  Heck, with aged cheeses, you can wait years before you taste the fruit of your labor!  But, amazingly, ricotta is super easy to make!  It’s like the easiest cheese ever!  And, you can try this at home!  You can use cow’s milk, too.  I only had a quart of milk on hand and that made about a cup of cheese.  All you do is raise the temperature to 185, add a Tbsp of apple cider vinegar per quart, stir, and drain into a colander double-lined with cheesecloth.  That’s it!  After 20 minutes of draining, you have ricotta cheese ready to use!  Aghhh!  How could it be that simple!? Are you as excited as I am!?  Probably not.  Anyway….  So, I followed a recipe I found in Hobby Farms magazine of all places, for the dough.  The hardest part about that was rolling out the dough. 

 

After tasting our ravioli, I decided I should have rolled out the dough thinner.  Live and learn.  I rolled out the dough, scored it, scooped in my filling of homemade ricotta, garlic, onion, and some fresh chopped spinach, and put the other layer on top.

 

I cut the squares using a pizza cutter.  I don’t have any fancy ravioli equipment, so I just used a fork to pinch the edges of the squares together.  

  I boiled them for 8 minutes and, voila! Ravioli.  So, to recap, I made the cheese, pasta dough, rolled it out, filled it, cut it, pinched it, boiled it.  Then, I’m a little embarrassed to say, after all that, I poured on a JAR of RAGU spaghetti sauce.  But, it was really tasty!