My Craigslist Table Redo Update....

Remember my Craigslist table I found for a whopping $60?  Well, it's time for the unveiling! First let me say, I have never taken on a project like this before and was a little worried that I had bitten off more than I could chew, but that was all for nothing. This project was pretty easy and with the help of my amazing husband, super quick to do. In fact it only took us half of Saturday and part of Sunday to complete. The longest part of the project was waiting for the poly to dry and cure so we could finally eat on our new table.

The day we picked up our Craigslist find we headed straight to Lowes. I was searching for a reasonably priced sander, not wanting to spend over $30.00, but there were none to be had. So instead I picked up the rest of my supplies, stain, paint, poly, deglosser, and disposable gloves. After we left Lowes we headed to Walmart since it was close, I found a 1/3" Black and Decker sander for $19.99! With the sander we also picked up some sandpaper and headed home to get right to work.

We hauled our table out to the balcony and started to sand her down. I was very surprised it only took us one hour to sand down the top of the table with a 60 grit sandpaper. After we cut through the poly coating and got down to the bare wood, we went over it with a finer grade, 150. That took us another 30 minutes.

To give you an idea of what the table top looked like before:

Mid-sanding

Sanded and ready to go

After we sanded we gave her a good wipe down to make sure all of the saw dust was off. After letting the wood dry completely we started to stain. I like the look of a darker stain with the black legs so we choose Winwax Special Walnut 224. We applied one coat of the stain and the wood just soaked it up. We let that sit 8 minutes and wiped it off and applied another coat, this time leaving it to sit 15 minutes. Wiped that down and achieved the exact color I was going for.

Just a quick note, this stain will look totally different if using another wood.  We used this on our old table we plan to sell on Craigslist and it came up much darker.


Table top completed we moved on to the legs and base. Since I love a farmhouse table I decided I wasn't going to sand down or fill in the nicks, I loved them just the way they were. Instead we bought a product I read about called Klean Strip liquid sandpaper. It roughs up the surface so the paint will stick. I choose not to prime, the reason I choose not to prime was I want the table to naturally distress overtime. This may have been a mistake, only time will tell. We choose Valspar Satin Black latex enamel paint. It took only took 2 coats of paint and we let each coat fully dry before applying the next.

After we stained and painted it was time to poly the table. I gave the table a quick wipe down with a dry lint free cloth to make sure there wasn't any dust that would mess up the poly. For this we chose Minwax fast drying polyurethane satin finish. We applied 3 coats of the poly because we plan to eat off of the table and I wanted to make sure the table wouldn't have any water marks. When we finished all the coats we let the table cure for 7 full days to ensure it was ready to stand up to my families abuse.

Finally after a week of waiting, she was ready for us to sit down and enjoy a family meal.
Isn't she lovely?

My table and chair transformation is not quite complete, and this isn't her permanent home, but I couldn't wait to share how the table turned out.  It's amazing what a little paint, a weekend and some elbow grease can do!


Breakin' it all down:

$60 table from Craigslist
$20 sander
$ 4 in sandpaper
$ 6 Klean Strip Liquid Sandpaper
$ 6 Paint
$ 9 Minwax 1/2 Pint Polycrylic Protective Finish Semi-Gloss
$ 7 Minwax Quart Wood Finish
$ 2 disposable gloves

One "new to me" family table, priceless. :}

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Refinishing my Craigslist table.

I've had a couple people ask where I've been, so I thought I'd pop on here with an update. My daughter wants to know why I am going to blog about Craigslist on my recipe blog, so I told her, you need to eat somewhere right? Recipes, cooking, eating, dining room table, it all fits here. :}

So here I am again with the apologies for neglecting this blog. My reasons are good ones tho, I promise. The summer is here and I've found that my apartment's air conditioner can't keep up with the heat of the day. We live on the top floor and the insulation here is terrible. So, at 4 PM it's 80 degrees in here and if I cook something it heats up even more. I thought living in a newly constructed complex we wouldn't have these problems, but I was wrong. Guess this place wasn't constructed properly.

Lucky for me we are moving in August. Tampa baby, can't wait! The new place will be shaded from the afternoon sun and the AC unit is larger so I won't have these problems. In the meantime, I have been making meals that require little or no cooking. Salads, sandwiches, meals from the freezer like pulled pork and meatballs in marinara I can just re-heat in the crockpot. I am also trying to clean out my pantry and freezer so there is less to move.

So where have I been since I haven't been in the kitchen? I have been lost in Craigslist Land. I will admit it, I am addicted to Craigslist. Since finding blogs where I have read what people are doing with Thrift store and Craigslist finds, I have become obsessed with finding my own treasures and breathing new life into them.

Last year when we moved from Pennsylvania, we wanted to travel as light as we could, figuring we would replace furniture when we moved here. Our large dining room table was the first to go. We had a table that seated 10-12 people that would never fit in our new place. We also had a little table that my daughters used in their bedroom that would seat 4. We figured leave the larger table, take the smaller, we'll get a new one later. Well, one year later and we still use that little 4 seater, and their are five of us living here. Hubby and I eat in the kitchen breakfast bar while the kids eat at the table.

Spending $1,000 for the dining room I want, just isn't in our budget right now. We also knew that we would be moving from where we are in a year so I wanted to wait and see what size dining room we would have at our new place. Now that I have found our new place, and I know the measurements of the room, I decided to hit Craigslist to find the perfect table.

I "lerve" a farmhouse table. I know I live in Florida, far away from the farm in PA, but my taste remains the same. I had to have a farmhouse table. I am not a fan of formal anything. I love furniture that invites you to sit down. A big chunky piece of wood that your family can beat up and it only adds character, that's what I am after.

To go with that table I also wanted windsor chairs. Anyone looking for dining room furniture knows that a good quality windsor chair will cost you well over $100 per chair. In fact, the cheapest I found was $130. Now I'm not talking about the cheaper quality chairs you buy at Walmart, I mean a good quality sturdy chair. After hitting Craigslist for a month, I thought I would never find what I was looking for. Maybe if I still lived in PA it would be easier to find a farmhouse table and windsor chairs, here in Florida not so much.

Everyday I pop on Craigslist to see what is up for sale. I check the three areas that are within 2 hours of my home. Finding windsor chairs of cheaper quality was easy, finding good quality chairs was next to impossible. Finally after three weeks I found someone selling her windsor chairs, and not only were they windsor chairs, but they were captain's at that. I quickly snatched them up, 4 chairs for $100, unbelievably great deal! I can't even buy 1 for that amount.  I know I need 2 more, and I continue to look for them, if I can't find two more I will look for some ladderbacks I think.

So here they are, not exactly the color I wanted, but I can work with them:

Sorry for the dark picture, it's very overcast here.  Now that I had the chairs, I needed a table to go with them.  The hunt was on.  The table was harder for me to find since I had a vision in my head of what I wanted:

This is sort of what I am going for, but I want the chairs to be one solid color and the table top to be a bit darker.  Tables are easy to find on Craigslist.  One that looks like a farmhouse table, with a leaf extension that can seat six, a bit harder here.  It took me 2 weeks longer to find the table I wanted.  But the wait was worth it, the table is exactly what I wanted and it was only $60!!!!   The table definitely needed work but for $60.00 I'm willing to do it.

So here is the table I found:

What you can't see in the picture is the scratches and the red stain on the top, or the uneven colors in the finish.  What you can see is the chairs.  She was asking $100, but I wasn't digging the chairs and I already had my windsors, so she knocked it down to $60.00.  Perfect size, comes with a leaf, looks like a farmhouse table, and it was $60.00!!!!  My obsession paid off.  I can't wait to get started.

Don't they look perfect together?  I know it is to big for this space, but our new dining room is configured differently, and this table's new home will be on our patio until we refinish her and make her shine.

I have big plans for this table.......BIG plans.  Just you wait and see.

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Crispy Fried Chicken

Okay I admit it, I have never fried a chicken in my life, except for wings, I'm an expert at that, if I do say so myself.  The other day my hubby and I were watching Cooks Country, love that show, and they made fried chicken.  My hubby turned to me and said, "mmmm, that looks good, you could do that next week right?"  Ummm, yeah, sure I can do it.  But there was a problem, I've never done it before, lucky for me Cooks Country takes all the guess work out of it, so I felt pretty confident.

In two months my family and I are moving to Tampa, so I am being very economical these days in my choices for meals.  By economical I mean cheap and chicken legs are cheap, especially at $0.89 per pound.  Not only are they cheap, they are tasty, and my kids love 'em.  So onto the menu the fried chicken went.

Cooks Country uses the same method for getting their chicken crispy as The Pioneer Woman does, using a little buttermilk in the flour to get the craggy crispy coating.  It really works well.  This chicken came out juicy and crispy.  I was surprised at how easy it was to fry chicken.

The recipe worked perfectly and I doubt I will search out another.  I will however add my own spices, but this method is the one I will use from now on.  I did tweak it a bit by adding a few more ingredients to the marinade, and next time I will let the chicken sit longer in the marinade as I felt it didn't pick up enough flavor.  I do an oven fried chicken recipe that sits overnight and that chicken comes out very flavorful.  All in all, a solid recipe that my family loved.  One side note, if you are doing a lot of chicken like I did (4 pounds of legs) use separate pans.  I fried one batch and then used that same oil to fry another, and the chicken came out darker than the first batch.  I don't recommend this. :}

On to the recipe:

Start by marinading your chicken a buttermilk salt bath.  I added garlic, hot sauce, and Dijon mustard to mine.

Next add a little buttermilk to the flour mixture, it will look like small pea sized crumbs.  I tried to get a close up, but they didn't come out to well.

Flour the chicken and place on a wire rack set of a sheet pan until you are ready fry.

Put about 4 -5 cups of your fat of choice into a dutch oven, they recommended shortening or peanut oil.  I used peanut oil since we don't have any allergies to it in our family.  They said avoid canola because it gave "off flavors" to the chicken.  Use whatcha like.

 Now imagine you see a great shot of the chicken frying in the pan, mine was accidentally deleted.  After the 8-10 minutes on one side, flip the chicken and fry 6-8 minutes longer.  I used some pretty monster sized chicken legs and they took 10 minutes on the first side and 8 on the other.  They were perfectly cooked.

Transfer to a paper towel to cool at least 5 minutes, serve and enjoy that crispy chicken deliciousness.  Mmmmm, lip smackin' finger lickin' good chicken.

                       Extra-Crunchy Fried Chicken
Marinade

2        cups  buttermilk -- divided

2        tablespoons  table salt or 4 tablespoons kosher salt

My additions:

2        tablespoons Dijon mustard

2       cloves garlic, smashed

2       teaspoon hot sauce, I use Crystal

1       roasting chickens -- (3 1/2 lb) cut in 8 pieces (I used 4lbs legs)

3       cups  all-purpose flour

3/4    teaspoon  dried thyme

1/2    teaspoon  ground black pepper

1/4    teaspoon  garlic powder (I added 1/2 teaspoon)

2       teaspoons  baking powder

1       teaspoon paprika (my addition)

Remove 6 tbsp buttermilk and set aside. To remaining buttermilk, add salt and whisk until dissolved.   Add mustard, hot sauce, and garlic, stir to combine.  Cut chicken in 8 pieces (2 legs, 2 thighs, cut each breast in half). Place chicken in a gallon size freezer bag and submerge the chicken in buttermilk brine. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, thyme, pepper, garlic powder, paprika if using, and baking powder. Add reserved buttermilk and toss with fingertips to form pea-sized crumbs.

Drain chicken and transfer to breading, 2 pieces at a time. If you used the garlic in your marinade remove make sure it isn't on the chicken when you flour it.  Pack breading onto chicken firmly.  The more breading the crunchier the chicken.

Heat 4-5 cups vegetable shortening or peanut oil to 375°F It should be about 3/4" deep in the pot. Place chicken into hot fat, skin side down. The temperature will drop to about 300°F; maintain the temperature at 310-315°F Cover pot and cook 8-10 minutes; check chicken after 4 minutes to ensure even browning, and move pieces around if needed. After 8-10 minutes, turn pieces over; cook another 6-8 minutes until the second side is also golden brown.

Remove chicken and drain on paper towels. Allow to drain and cool 5-10 minutes before serving.

From "Cook's Country by America's Test Kitchen," episode 106, "All-American Picnic."

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