Rescue mission aka Apothecary chest of drawers

After moving out from the huge villa into this tiny little cottage, we had to get rid of some furniture, especially the bigger pieces because, quite frankly, there was no space to put them in. But then I wouldn't be an old furniture junkie that I am if I didn't get this sad, eaten through and falling apart piece of trash.

That's usually how it goes - the worse condition they are in, the more I want them... It may have sth to do with confidence. I mean, if it's already garbage, I can't really spoil it - much less pressure on the renovation process.
I always admire people who attempt those "Ikea hacks" etc. on brand new stuff. Sure, it doesn't cost much, but if you completely ruin it, it's just wasteful. But with my odds and ends, I feel free to try all sorts of stuff and in the worst case scenario - no harm done.

We got this chest of drawers on a yard sale (Goa being very much season-driven has a lot of those pre-monsoon) and it turned out to be a termite nest. It's quite common actually, termites are quite a local plague! So, obviously, the first order of business was to move this party to the "better place". I had a similar problem with the trunk I did quite a while ago, so I used the same poison and let it do its magic.

It was pretty straight forward from there. I had to refill the bigger and most noticeable termite holes as well as remove weird resin piece someone used to repair the surface.

I decided on apothecary theme  - I don't really know what was it originally used for, but I like to imagine bunches of dried herbs, powdered roots and brown glass bottles and vials full of potions, elixirs and cordials. Plus I knew we will store our cosmetics and perfumes in there since my vanity was turned into a changing table...
While my wood refill was drying, I taped and painted all the drawers white.

I have to mention that I had very limited resources for this renovation. First of all, nearly all my crafty supplies are still in boxes and second - the shopping was done by my husband, so instead of sending him on a hell run through stationary and art shops, I just settled on good old hardware store - can of oil paint, turpentine and wood varnish.

I got some botanical prints  for my first furniture decoupage attempt (that's where the junk aspect of the furniture came in handy - I would never try it on a new piece). I imagine it works better if you use tissue paper and not a simple printout, but, on the plus side, I got the laser print so the color didn't bleed.

After sticking my herbs and flowers on, it became painfully obvious that the paper is whiter than the paint. I burrowed through some boxes, got to a few tubes of paints and played with the drawers a bit to make them less print looking. A dub on the leaf here and on the flower there, plus, I tried to hide the edge of the paper as well as the color difference. If you look closely, you can still see it - after all, the paper has its thickness, but otherwise it looks quite uniform.

The next step was the top of the chest. I used a stencil I found on Pinterest. Well... actually I just used it as a visual and sketched the whole thing.

Then - and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with common sense - I realized I don't have any oils paints and proceeded to paint the "apothicaire" sign with black acrylic paint on the surface painted with glossy oil paint. Don't get me wrong, it can be done, but it will cost you... few white hair and two years of your life most likely.

After this nightmare was over, I covered the whole thing with transparent art varnish (the one you use for oil paintings, not furniture). I finished the drawers the same way because, as it turns out, only "transparent" wood varnish you can get around here is actually amber color.
I ended up using a very thin coat of it on the top surface, but, for some reason, applying art varnish under it makes it less noticeable.

When everything was nice and dry, I screw on the knobs I bought about hundred years ago because, well... they were so pretty that I simply had to have them. I just knew they will come in handy and  boy, was I right!

The flat the meringue and the best lemon curd

I think, I already mentioned that we finally bought a flat (YAY!!). That just shows you can never predict how things are going to turn out.
All this time, we were planning to get a place here - in Goa. We even made a downpayment on a flat, but then change our mind about the location so often that the project we landed on will be ready in about hundred years.

And then we went to Poland - completely preoccupied with the whole baby-having affair. Of course, the topic of us coming down more often came up, and with it the question of a place for us to stay (other than my parent's). Honestly, we didn't make any declarations, just randomly mentioned that we will one day, maybe, who knows - buy a small flat. But the cogs in the machine started moving and before I knew it we were picking tiles and paint colors and... I still can't believe we did it!

It was the first time when we hired people to do the work, made inspiration boards followed by lots of shopping and generally speaking - spent some money on the renovation. Even though I have a soft spot for interior "before and after's", I could hardly believe what a change it made. I said it before and I will say it again - paint is a very powerful tool!

Anyway, we are back in Goa and finally managed to move to a darling little cottage. Now, I know that where I see charming, countryside and rustic, others may see a bit of a ruin, but it has so much potential and I love being back in my DIY shoes.

Plus, there is something about this place that makes me want to wake up at 5.30 in the morning, bake bread, make cottage cheese and attempt cooking things I usually just pick up in the store.
So, last night, I made lemon curd. It is absolutely delicious and not at all difficult to make. I don't think it took me more than 20  minutes - start to finish.

This recipe makes 1 jar full (plus few spoons to lick in extasy or proudly present to whoever is near you when you finish)
100g butter ( I used slightly salty)
1/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon juice

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg yolks - one at the time, until well incorporated. Continue mixing, while adding lemon juice slowly until everything is well combined.
Now warm up the mixture over boiling water (boil water in a pot, place mixing bowl on top of it so that it touches the water but not the bottom of the pot) whisking energetically - you don't want scrambled eggs!
First, its gonna melt, but after about 5 minutes it will start coming together. Curd is ready when it reaches the consistency of a thick sauce. It will thicken after refrigerating.

It is recommended to strain the curd before putting it in the jar to remove all the lumps. Quite frankly, after all, the mixing and whisking I didn't get any lumps but I had quite a few lemon seeds! So. Strain you curd! Whatever the reason.

Now, for the egg whites... meringues, obviously! I don't make them too often because then I', left with all the egg yolks, so I wasn't about to pass the occasion!

Side note: on one of my fav blogs with recipes that always work, I saw curd made using whole eggs, so you can still make your own curd,even if you have no use for leftover egg whites!

4 eggwhites
pinch of salt
200g sugar
1 tsp potato starch (I used cornstarch)
juice from a small lemon

Mix egg whites until just foamy and add salt. Now turn your mixer to high speed and mix until stiff. Turn to medium speed and add sugar one spoon at the time, until well incorporated. Still mixing, add starch and juice.
Place cookie size blobs (with a spoon or confectionery sleeve) on parchment paper and bake in 120 degrees for 70-80 minutes. Meringues should be dried more than baked - that's why they stay white or white-ish.
You can eat them as they are or with lemon curd, or, better yet, with lemon curd mixed with some mascarpone. Yum!!

chocolate cravings and banana bread

For some reason, I had close to none pregnancy cravings. It was lucky, I guess, but I was always curious about it. I mean, let's be honest, I do get cravings on a daily basis, so having a legitimate reason for once would be nice.

Anyway, one day back in Europe I woke up and decided: today is the day when I make banana bread. And that was the extent of it.
Normally I don't like bananas in anything but banana shakes - no banana pancakes, banoffee pie, and no banana bread. So I chucked it to a pregnancy craving, picked a random recipe from Pinterest and got to work. Of course, it turned out delicious and, of course, I didn't keep the recipe...

And here we are, a couple of months into motherhood, not pregnant in the slightest but the cravings continue. My latest thing is chocolate - shocking, I know. The thing is, I was never too much into chocolate cakes. Not that I don't like them, but I usually go for sth with whipped cream or butter frosting or caramel...
Once again, I opened Pinterest and picked "the best ever, oh so delicious, ah-mazing brownie" recipe. Well... it wasn't. It was too sweet, too oily and too flat with crystalized sugar on the top. It was nicely chewy though so we still ate half of it, but it wasn't satisfying chocolate experience at all. And that's when I started to think about that banana bread...
I went through like 10 different recipes trying to find the one I used before. In the end, I kind of mixed and matched and it turned out even better!

It is chocolate all the way! You can't taste bananas in it at all - great for me, cause, as I mentioned, I don't like bananas in cakes. (If you do, I would recommend adding some banana chunks to the batter.)
It's dense, not very sweet with a very deep, intense chocolate flavour from dark cocoa and coffee. I think I'll try it with a dash of chili next time!

Normally I would add chocolate chips and nuts (as mentioned in the recipe), but this time, I decided to utilize the not-so-ah-mazing brownie. I smashed it with a generous dose of dark rum and folded the crumbs into the batter - you can actually see it on the picture - the darker, denser dots. It gave the banana bread a kind of truffle quality and I absolutely loved it! Maybe not the point of screwing up another brownie just to put it into this bread, but if I ever have any stale cake left - I know what I'll be doing with it!

1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
2/3 cup unsweeten cocoa powder

3 -4 ripe bananas ( I used 6 Goan micro bananas)
60g melted butter
1/2 (or less) brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup super strong coffee

2/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 banana sliced (optional)

Sift flour, salt, soda and cocoa powder and set aside
Mix bananas, butter, and sugar with a blender. Add egg and coffee and whisk together. Add dry ingredients and stir until combine. Add chocolate chips or nuts or banana chunks (or all of the above) and fold it into a mixture.

Bake 40-50 min in 180. I like it more brownie-like, a little fudgy, so I start checking it with a toothpick around 30-35 min. It should have moist crumbs sticking to it - not a liquid batter. But if you prefer well-done bread - wait until it comes out clean.