Paint, paint, paint....and ice cream :)

Friday over my lunch break, I decided to go have a gallon of paint mixed up for testing purposes. I can’t decide on a paint color based on a two inch square, so I buy samples and throw them up on the walls in various spots to see how I like the color and how it reacts to light at different times of day. I did this inside, but now we’re getting close to outside paint time…so here we go..

The exterior trim will be the same off-white/cream color as my interior trim.
The doors will be shiny black to match the inside as well.

Worried isn’t the right word, but I was..concerned about the color I wanted to paint my exterior siding. I have been thinking about grays for a long time and wanted something a little darker. Gray, to me, is hard because it can tint several different colors while still being gray. Since my roof is a pretty specific color, I wanted to make sure my siding wasn’t going to have a purple, pink, green, or blueish tint to it…I just want gray.

I used a little cutting from a piece of paper my friend Brooke had – I took that to the hardware store, and they matched it exactly using their computer system. I then painted a couple sample spots around the house making sure I hit all four sides and any area that had a different exposure to the sun.

I finally ordered the rest of the siding for the front of the house! More to come..

I know I like the color. It’s definitely gray..no tint. I’m just not sure it’s THE color I want. Maybe just a hair too dark? The only reason I say that is because of the color of the shingles – I think the house might look too monolithic if the siding matches the roof that closely. Thoughts?

I'm thinking a lighter gray color for the garage door - what do you think?

Thursday night, I was clearing the garden and making things look a little better there when I decided I should probably harvest some of my basil for pesto to store in the freezer. When I lived at home with my former “roommates,” my mom-roommate and I would do this. I’ve seen a lot of people online freezing pesto in ice cube trays – when you need some, pop one out and go – and that’s really handy. I don’t have a spare tray at the moment, so I just use a little plastic container. This way I can have garden-fresh pesto all year long!

I had also read about people making ice cream with one ingredient. Apparently if you went to summer camp you know what this is about. For me, however, it was mind blowing..so I had to try it.

The one ingredient is banana. You cut up a couple ripe bananas into medium-sized chunks and freeze them solid. Then, throw the frozen chunks into the food processor and you’ve got ice cream!

I was skeptical initially, but damnit if it doesn’t work. And damnit if it wasn’t AWESOME! There’s enough fat in the banana to give it a smooth consistency, and the flavor is great – truly authentic banana flavor. I’m not even crazy about banana flavor, but this was great!

Three bananas were enough for two modest size servings. I ate the first right away and saved the second in the freezer to see how it would store…would it turn black overnight if it had already been pureed? No need for worry: I’m happy to report, it was just as good the next day!