Urban Homesteader

2008 begins with a terrific improvement here at the Urban Homestead - a new bamboo floor in the office!

Our journey started when I read Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan’s compelling book, “Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure.” Along with some great ideas for simplifying one’s home environment and paring down one’s possessions, the author suggests indentifying the room in our house that bugs us the most; he then gently guides readers on how to “cure” the space. In my case, the room with the most problems happened to be the space where I spend at least 50% of my time — my home office. For starters, the floor was covered with the grungiest, worn, dog-hair and lint-laden, impossible-to-clean shag carpeting. Think I’m exaggerating? Take a gander at THIS:

When our professional carpet cleaner said he simply couldn’t get the scuzzy carpet any cleaner, I decided to have it removed and install a strong, clean, sustainable floor of bamboo. Bamboo is harder and stronger than most hardwoods and is a highly-renewable resource; bamboo is one of the fasted growing plants in the world, and it can be harvested in 3 to 5 years, versus 10 to 50 years for trees. Bamboo also generates 33% more oxygen than trees, and I loved the look of the 4-inch planks.  I ordered the flooring and installation services from my home-away-from-home, Lowe’s.

However, like so many home improvement projects, we soon discovered that this one wasn’t going to be simple. When the carpeting and floorboards were removed, the installer showed me that due to the ground under the house settling the floor had “dropped” several inches on two sides of the room. (No wonder the filing cabinet always opened itself!) What’s more, there was a sizeable gap between the subfloor and the adjacent garage floor, which was leaking cold air into the room. (No wonder my feet were always cold!) To deal with the gap, I lay on my stomach on the floor and carefully sprayed expandable insulating foam in the gap:

Next, Dino from Focus on Floors (who has to be just about the Cutest Floor Guy on the Planet) mixed and poured a leveling compound on the floors. He had to do this process twice, allowing some time between applications for the mixture to dry:

Finally, the subfloor was ready. The new bamboo flooring was installed, we let it dry for 24 hours and moved the furniture back in. This change has absolutely transformed the room, and now I don’t have any excuses — it’s time to get busy and productive in the office!

I woke up in a baking mood today (perhaps it’s the pending snowstorm that’s supposed to hit tonight) and decided to make some gingersnaps. These are an adaptation of the “Elevator Lady Spice Cookies” from “The I Hate to Cook Book,” by Peg Bracken, published in 1960. I’ve always loved Peg’s sassy writing style and unfussy recipes, and my mom, sister and I have been making these cookies for decades.

Once I made a batch with blackstrap molasses because I didn’t have any ‘baking’ molasses in the cupboard. The flavor was so drastically improved, I’ve never gone back. And then I found a bag of Australian crystallized ginger at the little gourmet food shop and tried chopping it and mixing it in the recipe. The result is a nice little crunch in the chewy cookie and a very bright ginger taste that dances in the mouth…definitely a worthy addition.

Last year I read a recipe for “Triple Ginger Cookies,” that also called for minced fresh ginger to be added to a ginger cookie batter. I tried that in this recipe, too, and concluded that the fresh ginger was sort of lost in translation. Plus, peeling and mincing fresh ginger is no walk in the park. But if you want to try it sometime, add a tablespoon and a half of minced fresh ginger to the recipe. One other caveat:  these gingersnaps don’t exactly “snap,” because they’re tender and chewy. Just let me know if you think they’re the best you’ve ever eaten.

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses (you can substitute regular molasses)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
3/4 teaspoon powdered cloves
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
extra granulated sugar for rolling

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix the shortening, sugar, egg and molasses together in a medium bowl until well-blended. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and stir until well blended. Add the chopped crystallized ginger and mix well. The mixture will be somewhat sticky and can be refrigerated for a little while, but it’s not necessary. Roll into balls using a dining teaspoon*. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 3 dozen.

*You can also make these into larger cookies, using a dining tablespoon as your measure. After you arrange the balls on the baking sheet, flatten them a little with your fingers so they’ll spread more easily when they bake. After you flatten them, sprinkle the tops with a little more sugar to replace the sugar that came off on your fingers, and then bake as usual. This recipe will yield about 18 oversized cookies.