liamsaunt

I don't know if it is the height of where the microwave was placed in the island, or my height (I am short), but I don't need to bend down to put things in or take things out of the microwave drawer. It would be kid height though, so I can see that being a concern. Yes! The pantry next to the fridge is a spice cabinet. The lower section has a series of pull out drawers that hold my large spice collection alphabetically. I made labels for the tops of the jars so it's easy to find what I need. The top portion of the pantry holds overflow spices (I buy bags from Penzey's and then decant into jars). The uppermost shelf in that cabinet holds infrequently used items because I can't reach it 🙂 I have a pole gripper to bring stuff down from that shelf if there isn't someone taller around to reach things down for me. I did not capture it in the pictures, but there is a second pantry cabinet on the left wall of the kitchen. It's about three times the width of the spice cabinet and I use it for food storage.

Thank you! I am very happy with it. Ton answer your questions: yes, we replaced the original window which had two smaller windows with a divider with one large window. The view is out to woods so it's a pretty view, at least when there are leaves on the trees. The other side of the island has two regular sized drawers (I use one for silverware and the other for side towels), a microwave drawer (truthfully I did not even know these existed until we redid the kitchen but our designer insisted on it and I am happy because it frees up a lot of counter space). There is also a very deep drawer under the microwave, which I use to store my Breville hot wok, a tall cabinet with dividers where I store sheet pans, racks and silpats, and finally a pull out cabinet where I store clean recycling and non-smelly trash until it goes to the larger bins in the garage. The countertops are quartzite.

Tuesday night we had grilled swordfish sandwiches with yellow tomatoes and roasted red pepper aioli Last night I made a tuna nicoise

I finished a remodel of my main kitchen a couple of months ago. I waited almost five years after buying the house to remodel so I could be sure of how I wanted to use the space and what I wanted to put in it. The first two photos are of the old kitchen, as it looked when we bought the house (these are the listing photos so the stuff on the counters and pot racks are the prior owners'). The second two are of the remodel. You can see that I replaced the eat in area with another wall of storage/counter space and a wine fridge. The eat in area is not necessary as there is a dining room in the room behind the stove. That dining room seats four--six in a pinch. I have a second, much larger dining room in another area of the house that I use on the weekends when extended family and/or friends are eating with us. Old kitchen (Copper backsplash, black appliances, dark wood, green corian counters and evil white tile floor that never looked clean) New kitchen

Sunday I made a tomato, Israeli couscous and chickpea soup from the current issue of Cook’s Country magazine Last night I made spicy turkey lettuce cups with crispy ginger and garlic and smashed cucumber salad, both NY Times recipes

First grilled pizza of the year yesterday. Standard margharita And one with shaved asparagus and truffle cheese

I'm in Cape Ann Fresh Catch too! Hello fellow Massachusetts person! 🙂 Last night, I used my Cape Ann Fresh Catch salmon to make a sheet-pan roasted salmon nicoise salad. The recipe is from the New York Times. Here's a link: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020220-sheet-pan-roasted-salmon-nicoise-salad?action=click&module=Local Search Recipe Card&pgType=search&rank=1 It was simple and quite good. The potatoes, olives, tomatoes, green beans and salmon all get roasted on the same pan (potatoes going in first of course). I especially liked the dressing.

I seared the fish over medium-high heat for about four minutes, then added it to the braised vegetables and cooked everything together over low heat for about 10 minutes or so? I was not really timing it. The original recipe called for searing the fish first and then setting it aside while the vegetables braised, I'm guessing to make it a one-pot dish. I didn't think that sounded like the greatest plan, so I braised the vegetables first, then cooked the fish at the end. It did mean I had a skillet and a pot to wash, but that's no big deal.

Cusk from my fish share, cooked pot roast style (a Mark Bittman recipe from the New York Times)

Unfortunately the recipe does not appear to be online any longer. The cookbook authors do have a cooking blog called the Inn at the Crossroads, but it looks like they took down the recipes that got published in the cookbook. It's basically a standard vanilla muffin recipe that has two peeled and diced apples added to the batter. The liquid used is sour cream. The topping is a streusel made from brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and chopped walnuts. The recipe called for baking them in a jumbo muffin pan at 350 for 30 minutes. I don't have a jumbo muffin pan, so used my popover pans. I will warn you that my pans overflowed and I had to clean burned sugar off the floor of my oven. If you make them, put a baking sheet under your muffin pan!

Saturday was the first warm and sunny day in a long time, so I grilled a big platter of vegetables and served them with grilled bruschetta made from focaccia and topped with homemade ricotta Yesterday I went to my mother's for dinner, but had to get my Game of Thrones recipe of the week in before leaving: apple muffin/cakes. My niece took them all for her breakfasts this week.

chicken teriyaki, rice, and broccoli

Last night, two recipes from Andrea Nguyen's new cookbook, Vietnamese Food Any Day. Rice Noodle Salad Bowl and Crispy Lemongrass Salmon. The combination was really great. I ate the leftovers for lunch today and they were still delicious. I think this is going to be a frequent dinner once the weather warms up.

Last night, sautéed Acadian redfish, macomber turnip-potato puree, and the first of the local asparagus

The rolls are ciabatta rolls and I did dig out the insides. Otherwise I find the sandwich is too thick and hard to bite into. I cut the sausage in half for the same reason. Last night, thin spaghetti with seared scallops, burst tomatoes and herbs.

Friday I made a couple jars of giardiniera We had some of it last night on sausage sandwiches with peppers, onions, and mozzarella Saturday I made truffle pasta with a fresh truffle a friend of my husband's gave him. Some if it got chopped into the sauce and I tried shaving the rest.

Last night we had salmon larb and smacked cucumber salad with rice. My fish share usually gives me a nice thick piece of salmon but this week it was an oddly shaped thin piece so this seemed like a good way to use it Tonight, sole milanese to finish up this week's fish share. They gave me 12 (!) pieces of sole so it turned into a two night affair, even with sharing my fish share with my sister.

Monday night, turkey burgers. Not a huge fan of turkey burgers but I had some ground turkey to use up and was in a hurry. Last night, sole meunière, which was more to my liking

Keeping up the weekly Game of Thrones recipes from the cookbook A Feast of Ice and Fire...the crusty white bread of Winterfell. It was very crusty! The summer greens salad from King's Landing. Very tasty Main course for the beef eaters of filet mignon, green beans and baked mac and cheese

Some dinners from this past week. Salmon banh mi Blackened chicken caesar salad Mushroom, pepper, and arugula pizza

That is a beautiful, spacious kitchen! Lots of storage space too. Is the floor wood or tile? When I remodeled my kitchen I put in wood-look tile. It sort of looks like yours but mine is a blue-gray color. It reminds me of the deck of a ship.

Roasted chicken noodle soup from Andrea Nguyen's new cookbook Vietnamese Food Every Day. This made good use of the leftover chicken carcasses and odd bits of meat from Easter dinner. It had a nice comforting flavor. I think some lime juice and/or fish sauce would have made the flavor pop a bit more. I'm looking forward to cooking from this book.

I only got one picture from our Easter dinner, and it happened to be this week's Game of Thrones recipe. Honeyed Chicken of the North. It was tasty. The recipe suggested serving more of the sauce (apple cider vinegar and honey cooked down with dried fruit) as a gravy, but I did not do that, it would have been way too sweet. Leftovers are simmering away for tonight's soup supper.

It does. Go to your drop down menu under your username in the top right corner, select "ignored users" and you will be brought to a page where you can add the usernames of those whose posts you do not wish to see. Last night we had black bean and roasted poblano pepper enchiladas verde with yellow rice.

My brother dropped off a nine pound bone in leg of lamb that he got from Lobel's and asked me to make it on the grill. I have never grilled a leg of lamb before. I settled on this recipe: https://food52.com/recipes/3851-grilled-leg-of-lamb-with-dijon-mustard-rosemary-and-garlic Hopefully it will be good. I. along with three others who will be at the meal, do not eat lamb, so I am also doing roasted chicken with a honey glaze. Side dishes are all various family requests: duck fat roasted potatoes (father), asparagus (sister), whisky-glazed carrots (niece), and some sort of bread (nephew) and some sort of salad (mother) TBD this evening. My parents strongly dislike appetizers before dinner so I am not making any. No one in my family is a big fan of dessert either so I'm just going to put out a small plate of mini desserts that I already have made in the freezer just in case anyone (the teens haha) wants something. Husband is in charge of the wine selections. I know we'll start the gathering with a champagne toast to my parents, who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today.