Paint brush in hand & Zucchini Gratin in Oven!

Our Michigan summer has been beautiful and crazy hot this year!  After spending much of the winter potty training Pierre, I am not complaining!  It has given me time to take a good look at a few area of the house while enjoying air conditioning, however, that could use a bit of attention! 

My living room is looking like Army barracks with all the olive green going on!  I'm not sure what exactly happened, I just kept accumulating green stuff!  So, my first order of business was to give it a boost of color.

Otto got attention today while Pierre was napping!

I took a small white bookcase that was stuffed with *duh* books and got to work!  I went with a Valspar paint called "Copper Glow" in a satin finish.  It works well with the olive tones I currently have everywhere, and I tend to prefer warm colors to cool colors. 
I think you'll agree it turned out great!  I will be stopping at an import store this week to pick out some cool knobs for the drawers.  Maybe copper metal with a verdigris finish?   

I also picked up a new lamp with a fun base and neutral shade and a huge purple jar.  I'm not sure the jar is right for me....but I have other places in the house it could work.

Will commit and remove plastic shade cover :)

I FINALLY finished up the bookcase makeover from months ago.  I twas tough going through those bottom 2 shelves full of magazines!  I organized by color, which seems to be so popular these days, and kept other decor items to a minimum on the shelves.

Whoops-will take and post photo soon!

While I was busy with all that, Pierre was busy with this:

Of course that 4am potty run really took it's toll on the little dog!

As we are inundated with zucchini, so I threw this Zucchini Gratin together while decorating and cleaning.  I demonstrated this at the last cooking class and we've all agreed it's fantastic and fairly quick!  I am giving the amounts for a whole batch, yet I consistently make only a half batch and it feeds 3 comfortably.

ZUCCHINI GRATIN

6 Tablespoons butter
1 pound onions, sliced thin
2 pounds zucchini, about 4, sliced ¼ inch thick, yellow and green look great together!
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup hot milk

1/2 cup heavy cream
¾ cup bread crumbs
¾ cup grated Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large sauté pan, melt butter and sauté onions until very soft, but not brown over low heat. 
Add zucchini and cook covered about 10 minutes until tender.  Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and cook uncovered about 5 more minutes.  Stir in the flour and hot milk and cook over low heat until a sauce forms.
Pour into 8X10 baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs and Gruyere and sprinkle on top of zucchini mixture.  Bake about 20 minutes until bubbly and brown.

Be prepared to fall in love with zucchini again!