Vintage Trunk Makeover

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It appears as though this post just does not want to be written.  Last night I had most of it written out, and then I lost it, man I hate that!  This morning I was having a hard time getting the pictures to move down so that I could enter text, sheesh!  I hope that's the end of the troubles.

So this is what I was trying to tell you last night :)

Years ago I was banned from bringing any more treasures junk home.  Luckily, I have a short memory when it comes to some things.  This piece however, was not added to my stash in one of my forgetful moments, this piece was delivered by a friend, to my husband.  You see he can't say no to anybody but me!  Now, had the friend brought it to me I truly would have refused it, because it was in terrible shape, and  I didn't think it was worth getting in trouble over.  Luckily fate intervened and I ended up with it.

Notice that the lid is caved in, the wood where the hinges were attached was broken right out, and the inside was a mess, and smelled very musty.

                        
I turned the lid upside down on the floor and built supporting framework, slipped it inside and then stood on it to straighten out the top, then screwed it all down.  It worked, a nice flat top!

                 

Each step of the project was a decision, I started by painting it white and sprayed the hardware silver, I had a few ideas about black and white bold designs, but I kept being pulled toward something a little more rustic.

I added some gray, now if my goal was to make an old trunk look pretty good, it would be done, but I wanted more that.

I decided to go with a Railroad theme.  My husband is retiring from the CNR after 35 years of riding the rails.  The names on the trunk represent some of the sidings between Sioux Lookout and Armstrong, Ontario.

I googled CNR emblems and picked this one that would have been in use when I was a kid.

This is a look at the back.

I stripped the paper off the inside, sanded, stained, and varathaned it.  Notice the supporting framework inside the lid, it should be good and sturdy now.  I also stained the outside so it was aged.  No more pristine white.  It is actually darker and dirtier looking in person.  It looks like it's been around a while.

I added a piece of wood where the hinges are attached because the old wood had broken out, therefore support was needed to re-attach them.  

In the end, I'm happy with it, and that, after all, is why I do this, if you like it too, that's a bonus!
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Cabbage Rolls; Croatian Style

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First, let me say that I call these Croatian style because I was taught how to make them by my Croatian husband's Great Aunt.  People from other countries may use a similar recipe, and other Croatians may use a different recipe.  The people that made me cabbage rolls when I was young were Ukrainian and theirs were made with rice and bacon, but no ground meat.

I started this post last year, took all the pictures and posted them, but never got around to doing the write up.  My niece just asked for this recipe so I thought I might as well finish off the post.  I usually just wing it when I make cabbage rolls, so don't worry about following the recipe exactly, because I never do, I will just try to figure it out as I write it down.

1 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

1 medium onion (chopped fine)

3 cloves garlic (or to taste, I have been using more)

1 T salt

6 sliced of bacon (cut up into fine pieces, pieces that are just pure fat I leave out)

mix all of the above ingredients together

1 1/2 cups of white rice (not minute rice)

pour rice into boiling water and cook for 10 minutes, drain

while hot spread rice over the meat mixture

mix into meat mixture, I do this with my hands, but be careful the rice is very hot

1 head of cabbage 

Remove the core from a cabbage and place cabbage in a large pot of boiling water.  As the leaves soften, remove them from the pot and set aside (I pull them off the head with a fork).  Continue until the whole cabbage has been cooked and removed from the water.  Some people prefer to freeze the cabbage rather than cooking it.  Freezing does make the cabbage pliable enough to roll, but I don't like the taste or texture of this method, again, you can try it and decide for yourself.
Some people prefer soured cabbage, you can buy this in the produce section of your grocery store.
Slice the thick vein from the cabbage leaves before rolling, don't cut it out completely, just thin it down to the same thickness of the leaf.

Form the hamburger mixture into a roll sized according to the size of the cabbage leaf.  I tend to make mine large.

Place on cabbage leaf and roll it up, tucking in the sides as you go.  The next several pictures show this step.

Take some of the smaller inside leaves, and some of the torn outer leaves and line the bottom of the pan.  These are absolutely edible, but in case of burning or sticking these should keep the rolls protected.

Layer the cabbage rolls into the pan.

Do as many layers as you need, just don't overfill the pan as you will be adding tomato juice and you don't want it to boil over.  Add at least a 48 oz can of tomato juice. My husband likes them with extra sauce so lately I have been adding either more tomato juice or some water.

I always add more salt at this point because I love salt.

Bake in 350 degree oven, probably 3 hours, covered.  I like the cabbage to be well cooked and limp.  You can judge for yourself how you like them.  The cabbage always take longer to cook than the meat . Mmmm.  Just seeing the photo below makes me wish these were coming out of the oven right now.

Enjoy!

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Always Biting Off More Than I Can Chew; Part VII; Some Before And Afters

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Here are some before and afters, or in some cases before and durings :)

Porch

There was a smell in the porch, so I tore out the gyproc, the floor, and eventually tore down the ceiling.

Then I put it all back together again.

I whitewashed the walls,

and added a closet.  Unfortunately the closet doors will have to wait.

Oh, and don't forget about the floor.

I have since added the trim, but forgot to take a new pic.

Here is what the property looked like before,

and now!  The right side is done, the left side will have to wait until next year since we got a large dump of snow.

On to the bathroom.

Here is a panoramic of the bathroom part way through

 

Entrance from the outside.

Changed the light and the door.  I have trimmed the door too, but not when this was taken.

                  

 Patchy flooring

 

 That's better

Loft before,

Panoramic of the loft, looks like a beehive, ha ha.  Sanded the logs and put new flooring down.

This is one of the bedrooms, just to show how much sawdust was produced in the sanding of the logs.

Right side stained, this was a big wall!

Attic full of squirrel nests, I never used to hate squirrels, now they are the enemy!

After I got the insulation cleaned out, but obviously before I put the new insulation in.  This was a big, messy, itchy job!

That's it for today.  I will post a few more later.

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