Apple Galette

"J'aime la galette, savez-vous comment ? Quand elle est bien faite, avec du beurre dedans."
("I like galette, do you know how? When it is made well, with butter inside.")

Sadly, alot of the fall baking recipes I've been making in the VB kitchen have not made it to the blog. But, I had to draw the line with this galette. How can you not blog about something that has it's own children's song? {see intro}

I totally winged it on this recipe. Which is to say, there really is no recipe. How can you mess up apples, cinnamon, sugar, butter and pie crust? It's pretty hard. I used a premade crust...so prep time was approx. zero minutes.

I peeled and sliced 4 Gala apples. Tossed them in some cinnamon, sugar and flour. Just eyeball it. I promise it will be delicious.

Put some dabs of butter on there for good measure. Fold up the sides of the pastry dough. Brush it with egg whites and sprinkle on more sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees until golden brown. Try not to eat all in one sitting.

Breakfast Table Gets a New 'Do

I am excited to be back {again} from a hiatus. Well, maybe I've been working on this project for two months. Or, maybe the hours of sanding ust felt like months!

I repainted this set almost two years ago. In decorating years, that's like 17 years. Here's how it has looked since it's last paint job:

So, we dragged it out to the garage for a little TLC. Here's a closer look at the top. Not digging the stain.

So, I took out my BFF (my little palm sander) and, with 80 grit paper, started sanding. And sanding. Then I sanded some more. And it started to look like this.

After about an hour, I had one WHOLE side sanded. At this rate, I'ld be done just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. 

Then, the unimaginable happened. My BFF overheated. RIP little guy.

So, I headed out to Home Depot and got a new BFF.

A BFF with a lifetime warranty.

And, I started sanding again. My new BFF is stronger and much faster. And comes with 60 grit paper.

I got it down to the bare wood. To make it smooth, I went over it again with a 100 and then a 220 grit paper.

At first, I was going to stain the top. But, I've always loved what Layla at The Lettered Cottage did with her dining room table, so I ditched the staining plans and went for paint. I made a whitewash mix of 50/50 water and white paint (Swiss Coffee by Behr is a staple in our house).

Here's what it looked like after a couple coats:

Here's when things got a little crazy. I wasn't really liking this look, so I did a couple of dry brush coats with the Swiss Coffee (without water mix). For dry brush, dip your brush in the paint, wipe most of the paint off and paint away. Then I got out  my little jar of Valspar Antiquing Glaze and lightly painted some on. A little goes a long way!

I did another coat of the whitewash and this is what I was left with. Pure LOVE!

But, wait -- I'm not done!

It was a little harsh, so out came my BFF again and using the 220 grit, I lightly sanded and smoothed out the table. Ta-Da!

I also gave the legs a coat of Swiss Coffee (getting rid of the previous distressing). I love the way it turned out!

My bench and chairs are a bit off, now. I'll be making some changes to those soon. But, I love the new look of the table. What do you think?

Linking up to a few parties this week!

http://homestoriesatoz.com/.