basement

Sorry y’all, we concocted the most daunting to-do list ever and we failed to put ‘blog’ as an entry. We’ve been wonderfully busy with the house though and blogging is back on the list, so hopefully you’ll be hearing from us more frequently.

Now that the basement is freed up (i.e. we moved upstairs), we can start turning it into the recreation room. It has some great potential and it’s nice to be starting with a somewhat finished space.

About the basement: as far as rowhouse basements go, I think we hit the jackpot here. It’s ugly, but a good sized space and most of it has reasonable height (none of it is the standard 7’). As you can see in the pictures, there is an elevated wood floor on one half that pushes the headroom to a danger zone – about 6’2”. Not ideal. This side will be a lounge / TV / fish tank area, so it shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Dancing and grooving will be allowed despite the risk of head injury.

I’ll do a post about the fish tank when we put it up… I talk so much about those dogs that I failed to tell you all that keeping a big fish tank is by far my favorite hobby.

The wood floor is in terrible shape – TERRIBLE – we’re not refinishing it, but because of what’s under it, we can’t remove it [easily]. Some exploring exposed unevenness and surely other yet-to-be-discovered problems. The other half of the area is linoleum on concrete and this is about 6’6”. We’ve decided to just carpet the entire space to unify and warmify.

The side with the taller ceiling is where the kitchen was. You can see some kitchen leftovers in the pictures. Our plan is to reuse a few of the cabinets and put a wet bar in the same corner with a beverage center. We’re leaving the range gas hookup in case we (or a future owner) ever choose to turn the basement in to a full apartment. The pool table will also go in this space (Thanks, Rosa!).

There is some storage and utility stuff in a separated area. Our latest thought is that the washer and dryer should be moved up to the second floor and this will open up room to put a full bath to really have an actual suite. You hear that, Mothers-In-Law?

Excuse the mess:

Does this green remind anyone of Nickelodeon? It’s ridiculously bright. It looks much brighter in the pictures than in real life – that is a COMPLETE lie. This is just the beginning and I’m not at all worried that it will be terrible when we finish, but it is a bit crazy looking right now.

The built-in closet unit on the left side was “finished” wood, but it was way too dark and in poor shape.

Priming begins:

Chocolate Walnut Brownie

I've got two favorites brownie recipes that I've baked for years. This chocolate brownie I would like to introduce here was made by 100% cocoa powder whereas another brownie recipe will made by 70% dark chocolate which I'll introduce another time. Both are delicious! The secret of making brownie is, never over cook it. You don't want a skewer insert and come out clean and that makes perfect brownie. I found pecan and walnut gave better texture for the brownie or you could add dried cherry to give a bit of sweet and sourly or topped with almond flakes etc.

I afraid this brownie would be slightly bitter for children as the cocoa really strong as I've added some coffee in it but you could just ignore the coffee if you made for children. As for adult, the coffee added really gave the brownie a wonderful aroma. You will like it!

Recipe:

115g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

120g caster sugar

2 eggs

40g plain chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)

55g pecans or walnut

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp instant coffee granules

2 tbsp warm water

1 tsp baking powder

55g plain flour

55g cocoa powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare the cake tin. Grease an 18cm/7in square cake tin and line with non-stick baking parchment.
2. In a clean bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
3. Chop the chocolate and put to one side. Chop the pecans, if using. Gently fold the nuts and chocolate into the butter and egg mixture. Add the vanilla extract.
4. Dissolve the coffee granules in two tablespoons of warm water and add to the mixture. Mix together well.
5. Add the baking powder, then sift in the flour and cocoa powder. Mix well; the mixture will be quite wet.
6. Spoon the brownie batter into the prepared tin and level out the top with a spatula.
7. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Don't over bake, you may have a skewer insert into the cake and come out not clean.
8. Allow to cool in the tin for ten minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool.

Announcing Microwave Easy Cooking Event

Microwave Easy Cooking (MEC) event stops at Kailas Kitchen for the month of February. Thanks to Srivalli for giving me the opportunity and this is the first event I am hosting. With the MEC event, I have utilized my microwave oven much beyond re-heating and few basic cooking which I used to do. I am sure many of you will agree with this. And here is the theme for the month of February- MEC : Puddings.

(Thanks Srivalli for the logo)

Here are the participation details :

1. Cook kheer/payasam/pudding for the event. The entire cooking has to be done in the microwave. You can use food processor for grinding and the like. But no stove top cooking to be done. Please post only vegetarian recipes for the event.

2. Entries posted from 1 - 28th Feb,2009 is acceptable.

3. Send me your entries to kailaskitchen@gmail.com with the following details

Subject - MEC:Puddings
Name
Blog name
Recipe name
Recipe URL
A photo of the final dish

4. Please use the event logo and its not compulsory. Your entry post should contain the link to the event announcement and Srivalli's MEC Announcement.

5. Multiple entries are welcome. If any of your previous posts qualify for this theme, you can send them too, provided it is re posted with the link to the event announcement.

6. Non-bloggers are invited to participate in the event. You can mail me your recipe and a photograph of the dish to the mail id mentioned above.

Looking forward to delicious entries. I shall post the round up in the first week of March.