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Before Christmas, Todd and I finally broke down and bought a replacement sink and console for our downstairs bathroom. The house was renovated right before we moved in, but the previous owners decided to keep all of the original fixtures in the bathroom.

It looked kind of cute, but the sink was such a pain to use. The mirror doubled as a medicine cabinet and was so tiny that you could barely see your whole face in it. The original tile is still on the floor and we absolutely love it. It is very tiny black and white tiles. All of the doors in our house are black and have all of the original hardware, so we wanted to find something that looked like the rest of the house for our bathroom.

This is also the bathroom that we’ll use when we bathe our little boy. Here is a picture of the bathroom before:

The original sink had a spout for hot water and a spout for cold water. The bathroom also had zero storage, so we purchased the basket in the above picture to hold towels and wash cloths for our guests.

And here is a picture of the bathroom after:

The adorable shower curtain that we had made with my mom’s help at Calico Corners in Dallas.

You can see the new sink and mirror on the right. We also reversed the direction of the door swing so that it opens out into the hall instead of into the bathroom. This gives us so much more space and allowed us to get a bigger sink console without having the door hit it when it was opened into the bathroom.

We’ve been very happy with it. I think we still kept a lot of the charm of the bathroom in our 1930s house, but everything functions like it’s brand new!

We had some friends over for dinner on Friday night, so I used my wonderful Friday off to leisurely grocery shop and plan our menu for the night. I was in the mood for some comfort food and for some of my favorite foods. I had a pork tenderloin recipe from the April issue of Southern Living that I had been saving, so I decided to give it a try. I also used my new cookbook, The Comfort Table, for the macaroni and cheese and the peach cobbler. Though the pork tenderloin took a lot longer than it said it would, everything was so yummy! I know that a recipe is a keeper when Todd says that he can’t wait to have it again. He has put all three of these on the “please repeat” list:

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients
1 (1-lb.) pork tenderloin
1 teaspoon steak seasoning (McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning)
3 bacon slices, cut in half crosswise

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Remove silver skin from pork tenderloin, leaving a thin layer of fat covering the pork. Sprinkle seasoning over pork. Wrap pork with bacon slices, and secure with wooden picks. Place pork on a lightly greased wire rack in an aluminum foil-lined roasting pan.
2. Bake at 425° for 25 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 155°. Increase oven temperature to broil. Broil 5 inches from heat 3 to 5 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Remove from oven; cover pork with foil, and let stand 10 minutes or until thermometer registers 160°.

Makes 4 servings

photo from Southern Living

And from The Comfort Table by Katie Lee Joel:

Macaroni and Four Cheeses

Ingredients

1 pound macaroni (elbow macaroni, penne, farfalle, etc.)

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated fontina cheese

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 roma tomatoes, sliced

1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook according to package instructions. Drain well.

In a large saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter. Add the flour and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While still whisking, add the milk and cook until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in CHeddar, fontina, blue cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir in macaroni. Pour into a 3-quart baking dish.

Arrange the sliced tomatoes on top. In a medium bowl melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and mix with the bread crumbs and Parmesan. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over the tomatoes. Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown. Serve immediately.

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients:

4 cups peeled, sliced fresh peaches (about 4 to 5 peaches)

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3/4 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place the peaches in a 9 x 9 baking pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together 3/4 cup of the sugar, the flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add the milk and melted butter and mix well. Pour the batter evenly over peaches.

In a small bowl, mix the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the cornstarch, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle over the batter. Evenly pour the boiling water all over. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. Serve in individual dessert dishes.

Happy cooking!

guest bathroom: before and after

southern summer supper