robyn

Everyone is different. My house is mid-century modern. Everything in the kitchen is white except for the floor. So granite won't work from a design point of view. I used Corian with a full bullnose (my third Corian kitchen job). Love the look (but that is of course a personal thing). I installed it about 7 years ago. Don't know if Silestone was widely available then (don't think so) - but if I did a new kitchen today - I'd compare the two. I don't have kids and I am pretty neat. I don't put hot pots directly on the counter or cut on it. The one time I made a mess on a Corian counter (dropped a pile of dishes) - I found a great repair guy who fixed the hole I made. I can get any stains out of the white Corian the morning after (curry powder - red wine - whatever) with a little light scrubbing using a bleach cleanser like Comet. Whatever you use - make sure you have a decent matching backsplash. Don't under any circumstances use marble. It is extremely porous and a total pain in my opinion. I have never used it in a kitchen - but had the misfortune to use it in bathrooms. Never again - anywhere in any house where I live. In this house - I used a flecked gray Corian in the bathrooms. Exactly the look I was trying to get - very low maintenance. I have used integrated Corian sinks in my bathrooms. But - in the kitchen - all I ever want is a big old stainless steel sink which can take lots of abuse. If you have a good kitchen installer who makes a good tight seam - a wipe once a day will keep the crud away. Robyn

I don't like to add fruit to the batter because of the water content - but I put it on top. Especially like sliced strawberries that have been dusted with some confectioner's sugar to make them juicy. And what would pancakes be without some nice crispy bacon? Robyn

I am not sure why you think Pinot Grigio or American wines like Pinot Gris made from the US grapes are lousy. Perhaps some of them are - but a lot aren't. And they don't - like most of the over oaky Chardonnays that are on restaurant menus these days - overpower the food you're eating. I - unlike a lot "wine people" - have a funny philosophy about stuff you drink with food (whether it's alcoholic or non). It should complement it - not dominate it. I don't know much about zinfandels - but I wound up drinking a riesling which I wouldn't have ordered on my own (it was recommended by staff) at Alain Ducasse - and it was fabulous (at $130/bottle - it should have been fabulous). I will reserve the more dominating wines to be drunk alone - or perhaps with a bit of fruit and cheese. And some really extraordinary wines - like some really big whites - should only be had on special occasions like when you're eating the best appetizer in the world in a 3 star restaurant in Paris. In more pedestrian circumstances - please tell me what's wrong with a King Estates Pinot Gris? Robyn

I forgot some emoticons in this post and don't have time to do a complete edit this morning. Will post later this weekend when I have the time. Robyn

How big is yours ? Mine is - default - 8 quarts - for 8-16 ounces of dry pasta. Never timed it - but I think it takes about 20-30 minutes to boil. I'll use a larger pot for things like lasagne noodles - but that's not what we're talking about here. By the way - I forgot in my last message to recommend boxed Parmalat chopped tomatoes. They make a nice sauce base. Very low salt content. Hope the company doesn't go out of business after all this financial accounting nonsense - don't know what I'd do without their milk and tomatoes. Robyn

You're right that the determining factor is how long it takes to get a big pot of water to boil. Fastest meal I can put on the table is pasta with pesto - and it never takes less than 30 minutes to boil the water and cook the pasta. I make fresh pesto during the summer and find that it keeps ok in my refrigerator for about 6 months if I seal the containers with a bit of olive oil (sometimes I grow some mold which I scrape off). You need gobs of fresh basil to make lots of pesto - but basil is easy. All you need is heat and water and sun. Try pots anywhere outside if you don't have a garden - even on a fire escape if you live in New York. I also use the pine nuts from Costco. If you want something faster - my husband and I buy the Freschette pepperoni (sp?) pizzas from Costco (3 for about $12). While the oven is heating - we cut up onions - peppers - mushrooms - whatever is in the refrigerator. We can usually finish the cutting by the time the oven is heated up. Throw them on the pizza and cook the pizza. This will take about 30 minutes start to finish - including heating the oven - but it's a good pizza - and all you have to clean is your cutting board and knife. Robyn

I don't know if it's relevant in North Carolina - but you can add smoking bans as a factor too as far as I'm concerned. I used to spend a lot of money in independent restaurants (hardly ever ate in chains - still don't) - and - once I couldn't smoke in a restaurant - not even at the bars in the restaurants - I decided to cut back. My restaurant bills are down over 50% this last year. Robyn P.S. Smokers tend to drink - which is where restaurants make a lot of their money.

I have eaten traditional Cuban tres leches many times (if there's a Mexican version - I'm not familiar with it). Are you trying to make the traditional dish - or just doing a variation on a theme? Note that the traditional version is very very much too sweet in my opinion. Robyn

Is it essential to keep the eating counter? (I don't agree.) Or is what you're saying is you'd like to keep a sense of "openness" between the kitchen and the living room? (I think that's relatively important - especially when you have kids.) No matter what - I suspect you're willing to have people here play with the plans and toss around some ideas. Robyn

I am thinking very much along the same lines. I can't say that my kitchen is anywhere near professional - but one thing I learned looking at a lot of restaurant kitchens is how tight the space is - and the concept of the "line". Now my husband and I are just two people in the kitchen - so we don't need a "line" per se - but working in a relatively small space definitely helps rather than hinders. When the two of us are doing mise en place - we are almost shoulder by shoulder. Only time I ever had a big kitchen is when we were renting a house while we were building this house. It was big - but it wasn't efficient. And if a galley kitchen is "doable" - I'd like to take that big space on the left and put in an eating space. It's much more contemporary in spirit - people sitting in the kitchen before, during and after meals. And since meals with company seems to be a fairly regular event in this kitchen - the table could perhaps be somewhat rustic and double as a work prep area - and triple as a serving place for meals served in the dining room. I am not as keen as you are on glass-front cabinets (or open cabinets for that matter). When you have a busy family - you're not going to take the time to arrange everything all pretty behind the glass doors the way they do in magazines. In terms of having things all out in the open - it works ok if you use everything that's out in the open every day the way they do in restaurants. Otherwise - the stuff you don't use every day just winds up being covered with a thin layer of cooking grease and gunk. Opaque cabinet doors hide a multide of housekeeping sins . Robyn

OK - here is something radical to consider. Do away with the eating bar. And put a kitchen table in the left side of the kitchen. Will need some other changes - but the general idea is a galley kitchen on the right - with an eating area on the left. Might not work - but think about it. Robyn

I think that I was whining about the cost of dual fuel ranges, and someone pointed out Viking makes an all gas range with a self cleaning oven. Of course, that wasn't much less expensive than the comparable dual fuel! Ultimately (or rather, at least, currently), it appears that the most prudent route is to go with a gas rangetop with two electric wall ovens. By the way, I've learned a lot about cooking appliance terminology during this process. Cooktop, rangetop, oven, radiant, convection, sealed burner, open burner, dual fuel, BTUs, simmer level, continuous grates. That's just for starters! I don't know much about gas because I've never lived in places where there were gas lines. But "sealed burners" in an important phrase whether or not you're talking about gas. I have an electric sealed burner cooktop and I love it. Yes - sometimes when I'm trying to adjust temperatures - I have to lift the pot/pan off the stove. But to clean up - all I need is a sponge - and - if I make a really big mess - a glass scraper. I am a lazy middle-aged woman - and you're a younger guy with a big family. Is ease of cleaning important to you (it is to me)? Robyn

I keep looking at the plan that Dave the Cook drew up. You have perhaps twice as much space as I do (my kitchen is 10X14) - but my kitchen is more functional (although I did have the luxury of designing it from scratch for the way I cook). Can you give Dave the Cook enough information so he knows what's lurking beyond all those hallways and doors so he can draw up a somewhat enlarged floor plan. You have more than enough space - it's simply an issue of arranging it logically. By the way - I am getting confused with the numbers. At one point you mentioned that your appliance budget was about $8000 for appliances including $200 for ductwork. At another point - the total budget was $10000. At another point - you mention that you have to run a new gas line - and there's a wall with electrical stuff in it (which may well have to be changed/updated). Let's work backwards. Is $10,000 the entire budget for now? And - if it is - what are the most important things you want to accomplish at this point? Robyn

I am planning a trip to London. I signed up with ticketmaster.uk to get some theater tickets (wound up buying them elsewhere) - and they sent me an email coupon from Virgin wines which I believe is good for 20 pounds off a 50 pound or more purchase. It is for first time buyers only. I won't be using the coupon. So if anyone is interested - just send me email or a private message. I'll send it to the first person I hear from. Perhaps the person who gets the coupon can host a party for other forum members here and you can see whether you like Virgin wines. Robyn

As a lawyer - I feel competent to do contracts. I don't feel competent to act as a GC. Too many hassles with permits (the building department gives amateurs a hard time and I don't blame them). Worker's comp is also a huge problem (don't know what the law is there - but here - if you act as your own GC - you're responsible for all the worker's comp that a GC would have to provide). It would probably cost me more to place a policy than to hire a GC. Robyn

For what it's worth - I think a lot of people use the phrase "particle board" when what they're really talking about is "not wood". There are non-wood cabinets made of things like MDF that can be very high quality. And composite materials like MDF are frequently more stable than solid wood products in parts of the south (where one day it might be 80 and humid - and two days later it's 45 and the heat in the house has dried everything out). By the way - I am a big fan of humidifiers -you might try one to get your humidity above zero (it's cost effective - you'll save on heating and hand lotion ). As far as local carpenter/cabinet guys are concerned - I know that no one has discussed any of the legal stuff involved here yet. But - unless the laws where Varmint lives are kind of strange - you're dealing with the following areas at a minimum: building permits and inspections; contract law; and mechanics liens. Unless you know what you're doing - you want to deal with a general contractor who's responsible for everything. And - even if you use a GC - you have to make sure you have a decent contract and that you as the owner comply with your end of the mechanics lien law (which involves filing a notice of commencement, getting releases of liens when you pay draws, etc.). An owner who doesn't comply with the mechanics lien laws runs the risk of paying for his job twice - even if it's never finished. Because of the legalities involved - I am generally wary of dealing with small subs that I retain on my own (I have done it - but I'm a lawyer with some expertise in construction law - I don't need to hire a lawyer to make sure all the legal documents are done properly). Anyone who isn't a lawyer should retain one unless you're talking about a very small job. Robyn

As far as I'm concerned, you were hanging out with some weird people. I haven't known any New Yorkers who expressed those attitudes to me. Ever. Maybe a little "the chickens are coming home to roost," but none of the rest of it. I don't know anyone in New York who thinks we deserved it, and I certainly didn't know anyone who thought the atrocities were just an inconvenience. Isn't that what I said? Very well, perhaps we should get back to food now? How are your opinions about food different from those of a similarly situated New Yorker? I won't go into any more details. IMO - it's a real red state/blue state thing. As far as food is concerned - I can point out a couple of things. First and foremost - people from New York are willing to acccept really bad service/attitude in return for being in trendy places. Wouldn't care so much if this only poisoned places in New York (because I'm not there that often). But it also poisons a lot of otherwise good places in Florida that New Yorkers tend to frequent. I'm sure you know the routine (yes you had an 8 pm reservation but we just seated 15 people without reservations who are trendier than you are so you'll have to wait an hour). Or expensive places where the servers have spent more time learning how to get a good tan than learning how to be good servers. And then there is the dual level of food problem. The kind that Ruth Reichl pointed out in her first review of Le Cirque 2000 many years ago (when you're a nobody - there are no chunks of lobster in the lobster risotto - but you get a whole lobster's worth of chunks when you're a somebody). IOW - if you are a somebody you get this - but if you are a nobody you get that. To be sure - New York's not the only place you'll find these things (Paris comes to mind too) - and they are not universal - but they are a total turnoff when I run across them. Robyn

i'm fairly certain that this isn't some sort of blanket statement about all, or even most people from NY. yes, of this i'm fairly certain. I don't know because New York City has a lot of people. Most I know rarely venture outside of NYC - except perhaps to go to their weekend places a little bit outside NYC (a majority don't even know how to drive). And - when they do venture out a bit more - it's mostly to go to Miami. Your mileage - I hope - varies . Robyn

That's not true at all. I can't talk specifically about you (because I don't know you - and can't remember all of your posts) - but some peoples' opinions about certain things are simply more informed and more valuable than those of other people. Just to give you a silly example - I am a chocolate addict who knows a lot about and spends a lot of money on chocolate. I suspect my opinions about chocolate are more informed than yours. Maybe you know a lot about something else that I don't know about (could be a food thing - or nuclear physics). In that case - your opinions are more important than mine. Cultural relativism is not a good (or valid) thing in my opinion. Robyn

I live in the south - and a southern brisket is the worst thing I've ever encountered! Point cut - with every trace of fat cut off. You try to braise it - and it winds up tasting like old shoes. So I don't know what everyone is being snobby about . Robyn

His family members up here were a bit surprised when I mentioned that Dreamland was featured on a "BBQ Road Trip" segment on NPR and that he'd been interviewed for national radio broadcast. He was always known in the family as "the one with the BBQ place" - not thought of as successful. It's okay - I still like the ribs I mkae in my own smoker better than any I've had elsewhere. Add me to the list of folks who don't like tripe, tendon and the like. I ordered the "beef stew" version of Pho once at my local Viet restaurant and was truly disgusted, not realizing in advance what the contents would really be. I do like sweetbreads however.... I suppose there never is any accounting for taste. When it comes to offal these days - it's not simply a matter of taste. My husband and I love offal - and used to eat it frequently when we traveled. But since it's a relatively risky food now (compared to muscle meat) - we avoid it. Robyn

There's a difference between being friendly to regional cuisines - and being friendly to the people who live in the regions where those cuisines come from. Robyn

Well - if you want a point of view from someone who lives outside NYC and who has spent a lot of time there. My most indelible impression was on 9/12 (my husband and I happened to be in NYC on 9/11 - 9/10 was our anniversary) - sitting in a restaurant with an outside patio on the upper West Side for lunch. And with the WTC smoldering in the background - many of the people at that restaurant were saying that we deserved it - we had it coming to us. Most of the others simply considered it to be a massive inconvenience - like a bad snowstorm. I found the whole experience quite incredible - and strange - and disconcerting. I suspect even Steinberg would have been turning over in his grave had he been privy to what we heard. I was happy to arrive home a few days later - where the people weren't so weird. I heartily recommend that you and other New Yorkers take the time to see (and listen to) the rest of the country (a fair number of non-New Yorkers like me have seen most of it). Robyn

So far you haven't made an attempt to differentiate among the different kinds of people you might encounter here. There are all kinds. I am probably representative of one kind. My husband and I are close to 60. We are retired and well off. Neither of us is fat - but we're not thin either. My husband takes a lot of drugs for high blood pressure. At our age - we have to "eat healthy" to stay reasonably fit. So - if we're going to eat rich expensive food - which we can't do very often for health reasons - it had better be very good/great. And we're prepared to spend the money to eat that way. On the junk side - I like fritos - but they are a once a year perhaps on New Year's treat. If I wanted to be thinner - my diet would be more extreme. You can't compare people like me and my husband with people 30 years younger than us. Different point in life in terms of money - and metabolism. Certainly we aren't the same people we were 30 years ago in terms of food. Simply stated - we have more money - but less ability to consume. So we get increasingly picky about what we eat. Perhaps other people in this thread will tell us where they are in terms of life's continuum. Robyn

Look at Elkay. I have one large sink because I have lots of large things that need washing. Would have liked another smaller prep sink but I didn't have room for it. Robyn