Dulce de Leche Chocolate brownies . . . . . . . what to give your neighbours when they won't accept gifts!

I think I have had a pretty good run with garden maintenance for the majority of my life. I have lived in many rental properties but have only recently mowed my first lawn. Kind of shameful for someone who likes to ignore gender rules and get my 'handyman' on (in a non-dirty way....!)

I have been blessed with either my Dad or brother mowing the lawn, have had no lawn, lawn maintenance included in rent or neighbours that have mowed the lawn. I have lived where I currently live for nearly a year and the neighbour has mowed our front lawn once a fortnight (or a week in summer) without being asked and then for a while also mowed our back lawn. Myself and my flatmate greatly appreciate his efforts and tried to thank him with beer (which he refused to take) so now we are going the baked good route. 

I don't know my neighbour and his family's food tastes all that well, so thought that something chocolate always goes down well. I have made these Dulce de Leche Chocolate brownies many times and they never disappoint. They are also very simple to make and only use own bowl to mix up and cook in 30 minutes (not counting if you cook your own caramel.

So, if you need to say thank you to someone but they won't accept gifts, try this on for size. Who can say no to a baked good that has been made especially for them? Someone without a soul, that's who, and then they don't deserve them!

I have had a fondness for dulce de leche / cooked sweetened condensed milk since my childhood when all Christmas's and family occasions included delicious caramel tarts made from a a sweet biscuit heated into a tart shape and then the caramel spooned in and occasionally cream on top. DELICIOUS! So I am all for using this same caramel in other recipes.

You can of course use caramel in a tin for this recipe, but I really prefer cooking my own.

Dulce de Leche Chocolate Brownies

(recipe from the master David Lebovitz, altered slightly)

• 8 tablespoons (115g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (i used 45%)
• 1/4 cup (25g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
• 1 cup (140g) plain flour
• 1 cup Dulce de Leche 

1. Day before or at least 3 hrs before cooking brownies, prepare dulce de leche. Place unopened can in a saucepan full of hot water, bring to boil with lid on, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 2.5 hours. VERRRYYYY IMPORTANT. Do not let water evaporate from saucepan. You will need to check on water level every 1/2 hr or so and refill if needed. If the saucepan boils dry, the can can be at risk of exploding. When 2.5 hours is up, run cold water over can for a minute, take can out of saucepan, place on a plate and then put in the fridge. If you open the can whilst it is still warm, the caramel may spurt out and burn you. If this is all too much work, skip this step and buy a can of caramel top and fill instead!

2.Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Place butter and chocolate in a saucepan and melt, stirring the whole time, over a low heat. 

Yep, forgot vanilla, but I liked it without. Feel free to add!

3. Turn off heat and sift in cocoa. Stir until there are no lumps. Add in eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition. 

4.Stir in sugar until combined, then flour.

5. Line a 20cm x 20cm square pan with foil and rub with butter or spray with oil, whichever floats your boat.

6. Place half of batter in bottom of pan. Plop spoonfulls of caramel randomly on batter and then run a knife through to break up the caramel a little. Place second half of batter on top and repeat with caramel and swirls.

7. Place in oven for around 30 minutes. Check after around 20 minutes as you want a bit of moistness in the middle.Makes for a delightfully chewy brownie once it has cooled down.

8. Cut and deliver to neighbours (what will fit into your chosen container of course, you don't want to overwhelm them with your kindness).

[DIY] Tufted Ottoman . . . . . a tufting initiation

I have been lusting after a number of tufted items recently. Tufted ottomans, chairs, bedheads. If it has a button on it, I have lusted after it.

I am making a tufted bed head soon so thought I would start on a smaller project to have a bit of a practice go.

There are a  heap of tutorials online for ottomans that reuse coffee tables and the like, I was more interested in a larger, rounder, close to the floor version (this week anyway).



I couldn't really find any comprehensive tutorials about making an ottoman from scratch so I thought I would add my contribution to the mix!

Disclaimer: as this piece is so low to the floor and doesn't have a heap of framing / reinforcement, I wouldn't use this for seating (except maybe for littlies).

First step, find someone with a large car or trailer to help you get a sheet of ply. My ottoman was around 800mm diameter, but you can change this to your own preference. The ply I got was 15mm thick.

To create the circle draw a 800 x 800mm square on the ply. Find the middle point of this square i.e. measure up 400mm each side and draw line across so lines intersect at centre, This intersection is the middle. 

Tap a nail into this intersection, lightly, as it will be removed later.

Knot a piece of string around nail, measure 400mm from nail to end of string, wrap extra string around pencil and make sure string length measures 400mm once wrapped.



Rotate string around nail to create circle. This circle is never going to be 1 billion percent perfection, as your hand is changing angles. I found this method was fine for my needs though.



Cut circle shape out with a jigsaw.



Place circle of ply atop foam (I used foam that was medium density and approximately 6cm thick).



Trace around circle with a marker. If the width of the foam is less than the diameter of the circle, patch up edges with extra foam as needed. 







Now to drill holes for the button tufting. I decided to do a 4 x 4 pattern (16 buttons in total). I measured them out evenly from the centre point that I had nailed in the ply and then drilled through.

Now to drill the holes for the feet plates. Using centre point and the lines you would have used to map out the tufting, mark where holes will go for the feet plates and then drill holes depending on the hardware you have chosen

At this point, I made a frame for the bottom as was going to use some different feet, I decided to remove it when covering though.



Place batting on the floor and place foam and ply on top. Tuck each edge of batting up and staple (whilst pulling firmly on the batting) and staple where north, south, east and west would be. 


Starting on one quarter, pull batting up and fasten with staple, pulling batting tight as you do so.



Once batting is secured all the way around, trim off excess.





Iron fabric that you are using and place on clean surface and fasten with staples like you did the batting. The circular shape can be a bit difficult to staple down and you may find that you need to add a pleat every now and then.

Trim off excess fabric.

Attach feet plates (I used the Leggz brand of legs and plates from Bunnings).


Now for the tufting! There are many tufting examples out there that explain the process a lot better than I ever could. 



Getting a long upholstery needle with make the whole process a lot less painful. Insert long needle up through tufting hole, thread through button and then thread back down through foam and out through same hole. Once both threads are out the bottom of the ply, staple gun in a haphazard pattern until the thread doesn't budge. Complete this with all tufts, making sure to check that the tuft depths are the same when you staple the threads.

I decided to neaten the bottom with some hessian. I just folded the edges under an stapled. 



I then found the feet plates and made a small hole on the hessian for the feet threads to screw into the feet plates.

AND DONE. I just need to Scotchguard it so sticky little fingers (or paws) get to it!



Not quite sure about furniture placement now either . . . I think a rearrangement is in order.

  

[DIY] Chalkboard catalogue drawers . . . . . for those who wish to draw on their furniture!

There are those who say that chalkboard paint has had it's day with furniture and DIY's, I say to those people . . . .NEVVEERRRR!

The original piece with a pile of yet to be completed projects to the right!

I found these drawers at a vintage furniture store in pretty gross condition but they immediately reminded me of library catalogue drawers which I love. The prices can be somewhat prohibitive though. I saw some about 2-3 times the size of these at a 'fancy' vintage furniture store in Sydney for $2000, and they had not been refinished / restored.  The drawer pulls on these were ok, just a little boring and not particularly memorable.

There are some examples below of how the library catalogue style has been used in homes.

image via HomeJelly

image via Designsponge

Having a number of different hidey places for all your treasures, along with the ability to label the individual drawers for organisational purposes is my idea of heaven. I long to be one of those perfect organised people and figure that good storage is a great place to start.

I have pinned a heap of chalkboard images in the past but this is only the second one I have actually completed. The first was a Ikea Lack table that I painted for my nephews birthday. I cut out a few safari kind of images from contact paper, adhered them to the table, spray painted blackboard paint on top and done. It was enjoyed, but I don't think it lasted too long!

So for the drawers I needed to sand back the body and the drawer faces and do a little rehab on the middle supports that had come undone. Nothing too drastic. 

The sanding took quite a while as the wood had been stained a dark kind of chestnut colour. I am not sure what kind of wood it is, maple? I don't think it is cedar. I think the piece might be handmade actually, and not commercially. There is not a heap of precision on the inner structure, almost as if the person has built the outside, then measured and cut the innards as needed. I quite like that!

So after a marathon sanding effort and puttying up the original drawer pull holes, I put a coat of oil based clear varnish on the body. The drawers got treated to a primer and the chalkboard paint. 

The delicious shiny, shiny top

Stella loves it too . . . . 

Then measured the holes for the new drawer pulls and done.

I tend to love furniture a lot more when I have refinished it or restored it and place a lot more value in it and keep it a lot longer. 

I love it. I am not sure whether I am going to draw so much on the chalkboard, but I love that I can if I feel the urge!