Yelping Around Town

Something many of you probably don't know about me... I'm on the Yelp Elite Squad here in Indianapolis (for what that means, what Yelp is, or a cool tour of their HQ, check out these links here, here, and here, respectively). One of the best perks of being an Elite is attending fun, free events, and a few of them happened in the last few weeks.

While not an exclusive Yelp event, the first of our adventures was a performance of A Christmas Carol at the Indiana Repertory Theater. Yelp partnered with them for the evening and gave Yelp users a promo code for discounted tickets. We had never been to the theater before and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. It's a beautiful building, fairly small auditorium, and great feel. The show was excellent and a great way to start getting us into the Christmas spirit (even if it was only in mid-November).

Then I attended an event the following Tuesday at a burger joint in Avon. It was a smaller group, only about 16 people including myself, which served as a nice introduction for me since it was my first Elite event. It was, not surprisingly, a lot of fun. The restaurant pulled out all the stops, bringing out appetizers and specialty burgers for us to sample before also letting us order whatever burger and side we wanted. It was a lot of fun and I left there full and happy, taking leftovers, a bottle of their handcrafted soda, and a swag bag with me.

And we followed that with yet another event on Thursday. This event, called "Yelp's Gin Academy," was put on by the Ruth's Chris on the north side of Indy and Hendrick's Gin. We started off with some appetizers and a gin and tonic before moving upstairs to a private room where we were given an overview of the origins of gin and the gin making process that Hendrick's uses (all their gin is handcrafted in small batches using stills from the 1800's - pretty cool stuff). The Hendrick's rep then lead us through making a few cocktails, including a punch, which we were of course encouraged to sample thoroughly. Even Leslie, admittedly not as big a fan of gin, still thought it was fun and liked a few of the drinks we made. They even sent us home with gift bags filled with some Hendrick's info, the recipes for the cocktails we made, and even little mini bottles of gin. Not a bad reward for just writing a few reviews, eh?

So there you have it - some of the adventures we've been having while not working on the bathroom. And, speaking of the bathroom, you'll have to wait a bit for that update. In observance of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, we won't be posting on Friday. Yep, sorry, you'll have to wait until next week. So, until then, have a great week, happy Thanksgiving, and we'll see you later!

Half The Bathroom, All The Fun - Part 3

Things have continued to move along smoothly and we're nearing completion. Or at least functionality, if not completely done. This is our third update on this lovely bathroom remodel, so if you've missed the last two you can catch up with Part 1 and Part 2 now.

We left off last time with the tile being set and just needing to grout. We did that over the weekend and the results look really nice. The grout color goes well with the tile and it all compliments the blue walls perfectly.

The next step was the vanity. I set the vanity top out on a set of horses and connected the faucet and drain. This made it a lot easier to get all the faucet connections attached since I didn't have to do it all in the cramped cabinet. I also took this opportunity to replace the shutoff valves with new quarter-turn valves. We then installed the vanity cabinet and mounted the top without a problem. We still need to get the drain connected, as the new tailpiece is higher up and a different size than the existing piping. Luckily, we're just a few minutes from Lowes, so these problems shouldn't be hard to remedy.

Another important piece of the puzzle was added this week too - the toilet! The old toilet was ok, but we opted for a cool new toilet to match the cool new bathroom. We ended up with the American Standard H2Option Siphonic Dual Flush (seriously, click the link and watch the video, it's pretty cool). It's dual flush, meaning that there are two different flush options - choose between a 0.9 gal flush for liquid waste and a full 1.6 gal flush for solid waste. The choice is indicated by buttons on top of the tank, so it should be pretty easy to figure out, but now you know what to expect next time you use the bathroom at our house.

The old flange was in good enough shape that I was able to reuse it without difficulty. I got new mounting bolts and seal, attached the bowl, hooked up the tank, and connected the water line. Everything works well and it looks cool too (for a toilet, at least). We still need to get a toilet seat, but otherwise the bathroom is on its way to becoming functional again.

We aren't quite wrapped up yet, though - there are a few things that still need to be done this weekend and beyond. We have to mount the toilet paper holder, the towel ring, and various pictures and other wall decorations. We also need to install the T-Moulding at the threshold to transition from the laminate outside the bathroom to the tile inside it. We're also waiting for the mirror Leslie ordered from Menards to arrive so we can get that hung as well. So a few things, but nothing major. Hopefully we'll be wrapped up before Thanksgiving or shortly after.

And that's all for now. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Last Minute Muffins

For some reason I really had a craving for some muffins this past weekend. And not just any muffins... lemon poppy seed muffins. But Leslie doesn't like those... so we compromised and I made lemon blueberry muffins instead. I used a few elements from a few recipes, but the main one I used is here. Oh, and this is our 19th recipe of the year.

The Recipe

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

1/2 Cup Sweet Creamy Butter

2/3 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs, Separated

1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1-1/3 Cups Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Zest of Two Lemons

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1-1/2 Cups Blueberries

Preheat your oven to 330 degrees and grease your muffin tins. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add the egg yolks one at a time, beating between. Next, beat in the yogurt, lemon juice, and vanilla. Combine all the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and lemon zest - in a separate bowl and mix well. Remove a few tablespoons of this mixture and toss it with the blueberries to cover them (this prevents them from all sinking to the bottom of the batter). Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir only enough to just combine - don't over mix! In another bowl, beat the egg whites to form soft peaks. Add this, along with the blueberries, and gently fold it in. Again, do not over mix the batter! Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full and put them in the oven. Once they're in, turn the heat on the oven up to 350 degrees and cook until done (about 20 minutes), rotating halfway through.

The Results

These are very tasty. Our muffin pans, for some unfortunate reason, seem to darken the bottoms and sides of whatever we bake in them (maybe because they're the dark, nonstick kind?). So the bottoms were a little darker than I'd like, but the insides were lovely. I didn't follow the linked recipe exactly and more or less used Alton Brown's "muffin method" basics (check it out on Good Eats, "The Muffin Method Mad"  - Season 7, Episode 4, or his blueberry muffin recipe found here). One thing I might consider changing would be to use ricotta instead of yogurt, as lemon, ricotta, and blueberry combine to form a super-powered team that gives groups such as the Axe Gang and the Avengers a run for their money. I'd also consider using different muffin tins next time... we might have to visit Bed Bath & Beyond after Christmas for some. But these were pretty delicious and I'll probably give them another go next time the urge to bake arises.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Half The Bathroom, All The Fun - Part 2

Sorry I'm getting this out late! Things have been progressing well on our latest project, so hopefully that makes up for it. In case you missed the first part of this lovely bathroom remodel, you can see that here.

We still had some demo work to do, so we finished that last week. I took the toilet out and got the flooring up (both layers!). I borrowed an oscillating saw from a friend at work and used that to cut the laminate wood flooring at the doorway. After removing that I had to scrape up the old vinyl flooring that was under that. Now we have a blank slate to work with when the new flooring goes in.

Leslie finished patching and sanding the walls last week and we thought we were done... until we removed the old light fixture. Turns out they didn't bother with a fixture box or anything else for it, they just punched a hole in the wall and ran the wires through that. (Seriously, I think they just punched a hole. They didn't score the drywall and make a clean break, they just knocked a hole in the wall. It was all irregularly shaped and had bits still hanging on the edges and everything.) So I picked up a fixture box at Lowes, cut the hole out a bit larger so I could get the box in and mounted, and then had to patch around the area.

After getting that sanded and ready to go, we were able to start painting. We primed on Sunday and then painted both coats on Tuesday. Leslie picked a nice blue color and it looks great. Once it was done we were able to install the new light fixture. This was a lot harder than it should have been because there's a receptacle on the fixture. This wouldn't be a big deal if they hadn't placed it directly below one of the holes for the mounting screws. This made it especially difficult to get the screws (which were attached to a bracket which was attached to the fixture box in the wall) to come through the fixture when you tried to put in on the wall. The receptacle would cause the screw to deflect just enough that it wouldn't line up with the hole. I figured out a solution by draping a bit of string over the screw and having Leslie pull down on the string to pull the screw into position so I could get the fixture on. Then, once it was through she could just grab one end of the string and pull it out. Like I said, much more complicated than it needed to be. But hey, it looks great now!

I also got a new exhaust fan installed. The motor on the old one had gone out, as they tend to do, so I replaced it with a cheap one we got from Menards. I kept the old housing in the ceiling and modified the fan we bought so it would work with it. It took a little time, but it works now and, if nothing else, the new cover looks a lot better than the dirty old one did.

The broken old fan

New and improved fan

We picked up the new flooring yesterday (Friday) and got to work installing that. We used a product called DuraCeramic, which is a composite vinyl tile. It is easier to install than actual ceramic or marble tiles but can still be grouted for that tile look. It went down really easily and looks really nice in the space.

And I think that's all we have done for now. The tile still needs to be grouted, so we'll be working on that today and hopefully get most of the other major stuff (install toilet, vanity, etc.) done this week. From there it'll be decorating, mounting the towel ring, toilet paper, a shelf, and other stuff like that.

Thanks for reading and we'll be back next week!

As American As Baseball And Apple Pie

Except I don't much care for baseball.

We had some friends over for dinner a few weeks ago and I wanted to try making a Dutch apple pie - a first for me. I've made a pretty yummy caramel apple pie before, but never tackled the other take on this iconic dessert. This is our 18th recipe of the year and can be found here.

The Recipe

Dutch Apple Pie

1 Pie Crust

5-1/2 Cups Apples (Peeled, Cored, and Sliced)

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

3 Tablespoons Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg

For the Topping:

3/4 Cup Flour

1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/3 Cup Butter (at Room Temperature)

Fit the pie crust into a pie plate. Combine the apples, lemon juice, white and brown sugars, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Place this mixture into the pie crust and then prepare the topping. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and then cut in the butter with a fork or pastry blender until coarsely crumbled. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the pie and then bake in a 375 degree oven until the apples are tender and the crust is golden (about 50 minutes).

The Results

I thought this yielded a good result without a lot of work. I cheated a little and used a store-bought crust (refrigerated Pillsbury pie crust), but it still turned out well. Homemade crust would have been much tastier, but a lot more labor intensive. (If you're going to make a crust, then I recommend the crust Alton Brown makes for a pear pie - it's wonderful. There are lots of other good recipes too, so just search until you find one you like.) I also used a mixture of apples - half sweet and half tart. If I were to make a Dutch apple pie again I think I would use all tart apples... Leslie thought it was a little too sweet.

This recipe was good, but I'm sure there are better ones out there. I'll have to ask my grandmother for her recipe sometime... I seem to remember her making an amazing Dutch apple pie (but, then again, Grandma-food is always the best). In the meantime I think I'll stick to a more traditional apple pie. Or just a different kind of pie in general. I'm really quite partial to blueberry, so maybe that will be next up for dessert. Or pumpkin or pecan... we are getting into that time of the year, after all.

What's your favorite pie? Classy folk will let me know in the comments below...

Thanks for reading!

Dat Chipotle Tho

While the bathroom remodel has taken a good amount of our time recently, that doesn't mean we've been sitting around doing nothing!

Last Saturday we attended a Halloween party as probably the coolest last minute costume couple ever - a Mexican Senor and an American burrito. We found a sombrero on sale at Target that day and it inspired the whole thing. Not bad for coming up with the idea and making it a reality in all of a few hours.

We also resisted turning on the furnace until very recently. We opted to use our fireplace for the first time. It was nice, even if we didn't make s'mores.

Plus we made some time yesterday to get out and see Christopher Nolan's latest film - Interstellar. I liked it a lot, but it wasn't exactly Leslie's type of movie. It was nice to get out and see a movie, though. We don't do that as often as we'd like and I'm glad we took the time.

And that's it for now. We'll be back next week with more bathroom updates and other fun happenings. Have a good weekend!

Half The Bathroom, All The Fun - Part 1

We've decided it's time to begin our next big project - remodeling the downstairs bathroom. This is one of only four rooms that have remained basically untouched since moving in (the others being the two bathrooms upstairs and the rec. room over the garage). Our goal is to get it done by the end of the month, so I'll be updating weekly on our progress. Yep, you get to follow along with us as things happen - how exciting!

This project has been slated for awhile now, so we had already done a bit of pre-work. There was a vanity on sale at Lowes awhile back, so we've had that picked out and sitting in the garage for over a month now. We still had a lot to pick out, so we checked out Lowes again and picked out some other needed elements such as the faucet, towel ring, toilet paper holder, and light fixture. We also found some great flooring at a local flooring store. I did a little research online to find a good toilet and got that picked out too! So pretty much all the components are picked out, which is a great start. I'll go into more detail with the various products when they get installed, so hit up future posts if you're looking for specifics on what type of fixtures we picked and whatnot (because, after all, who isn't dying to know what type of toilet we're installing?!).

Another beginning step is complete - demolition! Leslie stripped the existing mirror, towel rod, toilet paper holder, and ceiling grates. I came in later and dismantled the vanity. We'll still need to remove the flooring and trim, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Leslie also patched the walls where the things she took off left holes. She also got some paint samples, got those put on the wall, and narrowed it down until we had a color picked out. We're going with a light blue and it should look pretty great with everything that's going in. And, in keeping with the rest of the house, the ceiling was that odd cream color, so we put a few coats of white paint on it. We're already doing all this other work - we may as well take a little more time to do everything we can to make the room look great.

So that's where we are so far. Also, to see any "before" pictures, go check out the "The House" page linked on the right. That should help give you an idea of what we're working with. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more exciting bathroom news!