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I found this link on the HGTV site 12 volt track lighting

Incidentally, very late last night on House Hunters on HGTV they showed people looking at a 1950s built house that they eventually purchased. It had a dropped ceiling with metal grid and plastic diffusion panels with florescent lights above it in the kitchen and family room that had been installed in the 1970s. Since the man buying the house was quite tall, (and the ceiling was too low for his comfort) he lifted one of the panels and looked to see what was above it and saw that there was a solid ceiling from which the lights and the ceiling grid was hung. The agent said that it would be simple to remove the grid and lights so they made an offer on the house. When they showed the house three months after the couple had moved in, they had removed the grid and light fixtures and installed neat track lighting that was 12 volt, very economical, some on the track itself and some suspended from a single cable from the tracks. The tracks were not straight, they were undulating and looked like they were modular in sections so they could probably be configured in any position. In one section that extended into the family room over a C-shaped counter they had installed, the trac was in an arc that followed the shape of the C. He mentioned that although florescent lighting is inexpensive to operate, the 12 volt system is even less and his wife likes having the pendent lights over the areas where she does much of her work. (They had also installed the same type of lighting in the bathrooms to replace the outmoded "can in the ceiling" spots. He mentioned that the electrician showed him places where those old recessed lights had actually scorched the surrounding material because someone had put in light bulbs that were too high a wattage.) I know this particular episode has aired before but I didn't pay much attention to the ceiling the first time. Just thought the overall look was very spiffy.

My best friend Carol wanted Corian and got it when she had her kitchen remodeled 3 years ago. It is beautiful. However, 2 months after the remodel was finished she had a Christmas party. She has a lot of Holiday decorations, including pottery cookie jars shaped like santa, snowmen, trees, etc. Unfortunately a lot of these have a rough surface on the bottom or in a ring around the bottom and this is to Corian as a diamond is to glass. As they were pushed around on the long counter between her kitchen and family room they dug into the surface and in places it was so deep that it could not be refinished on site. The entire counter had to be removed, taken to a shop and wet sanded, polished and sealed. The cost was pretty steep, almost as much as simply replacing it would have been. Now she has glass cutting boards, not for cutting, but for placing casseroles, clay bakers, or anything that has a rough bottom, anytime she is going to be cooking. It kind of spoils the overall look which was the reason she wanted it to begin with. She says that had she known about this problem she would have opted for granite. She thought the Corian would be "warmer". Oh yes, it will stain, particularly if a ripe tomato happens to roll behind the blender, out of sight and remains there for several days until a general cleaning occurs, during which it has broken down a bit and imparted its color to the Corian. Fortunately the blender lives in that spot on a permanent basis and covers the spot. I plop hot pans down wherever I happen to be or want the pan to be so I need something that will tolerate hot cast iron or whatever.

I have butcher block in much of my kitchen, except right next to the sink. This was installed in '96 and has seen a lot of action. You have a cutting board just about anywhere. When the cuts get too noticable it gets sanded down, rubbed with a bone hone to "seal" the surface then oiled. If I can find the hone, I will take a photo of it. My dad made it for me about 30 years ago when I was doing some wood carving. It is just part of a shank bone that has been boiled, had all the fat baked out of it, dried, then ground down so it is about the size and shape of one end of a French pastry pin, that is tapered and rounded at the ends. My dad told me that at one time that was the way that baseball bats were finished as it made the surface harder or so they thought. It does make the surface slicker and even without the oil, water will bead up on the wood right after it is done. Anyway to get back to the butcher block, although a lot of people think they are had to keep up, I have never had a problem. I like the way they feel and I can set anything down on them without worry. If they get a little scorched, that sands out too, however I just think it give more character. I saw one of the "my kitchen" segments on Food TV a couple of years ago and one of the women chefs said almost the same thing. She showed that everywhere in her kitchen the butcher block counter tops show signs of use but she likes it that way. I have areas that are marble (for pastry) and one area that is stainless steel, with a slightly raised lip around the edge and drawers under it that can be filled with hot packs or ice packs. This is for working sugar. I don't use it much any more but it is there if I need it. Right now it has a bunch of stuff stacked on it. (in fact there is stuff stacked all over my kitchen except right in my normal working areas. I am waiting for another storage unit to be delivered... Granite is ok but I have a lot of cast iron and I learned in my old kitchen that slapping a cast iron Dutch oven down on a granite countertop will chip it........ I was having a little temper tantrum so it was my fault. I wouldn't have laminate. I have ruined a lot of it over the years, same with tile. If I had it to do all over again and an unlimited budget I would still have the butcher block.

Speaking of squash, my gardener called me out to the garden shed so he could show me a few of the squash he cut last week and are now cured enough to bring in to store. That big Turks turban is nearly a foot in diameter. There are some big Hubbards as well as a couple of other varieties out in the garden but they aren't ready to cut yet. There is a tendril right at the stem end that has to dry up before they are "ripe". They almost look artificial, don't they?

Kobe beef, number one on my list. Fois gras truffles Fois gras with truffles, better than - - - sex? can't say, distant memory for me.. however I have had fois gras with truffle recently. Iranian golden caviar - had it once, definitely better than just about anything else. I don't buy much lobster, have a friend who scuba dives up at the Channel Islands, brings back big ones. Spiny lobster, not the big claw type. However if I had to buy it I would.

If you want to keep it in its "native" form, just wrap it in paper towels then put in a plastic bag (don't seal it) and store it in the crisper drawer. I have some in a basket that has been sitting in a corner of my kitchen since it was dug up a month ago. I just looked at it and some of it has begun to sprout and some had dried a little, but unless it gets mold on it, it is still good to use. If you want to keep it longer, get a bag of clean sand (like play ground sandbox sand) at your local home store (Target has it in the nursery department in small bags) put the sand in a pretty flower pot that has a drip tray and moisten the sand a little, not too much. Bury the ginger in the sand and it will keep for months. It may sprout and put up a stem but that is no problem. When you need a piece, just yank it out of the sand, break off what you need, leave it on the counter overnight for the broken spot to "heal" then stick it back in the sand. Or your can peel it as others have said and store it in sherry or wine. Ginger is easier to peel if you blanch it, just as you would a tomato or a peach, then use the tip of a rounded spoon to scrape off the skin which is now loosened. Much easier than using a knife.

I have candied many types of whole fruits. However they have to be small. The one exception is limes. They turn an ugly gray when cooked in the syrup and are not easily candied. I use them for decoration, cut them up as a garnish. I candy the little seckel pears whole, but it is tricky. I have been candying fruit, citrus peel, ginger, citron, nuts, pieces of melon, etc., since I was a child. My family did all of the candying of peel and fruit for fruitcakes, etc. I have experimented for years to get the process to the point where it is easy and works every time. I candy orange and lemon peel in the microwave but have yet to get all my times recorded exactly so have yet to publish my recipe/method. It works for small batches just fine, in fact, I demonstrated it at my office one morning. I also did kumquats as one of our patients brought in a bag full and most of the people in the office have no idea what to do with them. The easiest things to start with are orange peel. However if you want to have something very fancy, you can candy dried apricots and peaches, mango or other dried fruits. This is a long, slow process as you don't want to cook the syrup to the point that it will solidify so that is why a crockpot is so nice to use. I generally plump the fruit first by steaming, then place in the hot syrup. I go by look and feel more than by a set time. When it is right, it is easy to tell. The fruit remains glossy and plump after draining and is translucent. Last year I candied or glacéed almost 10 pounds of apricots and peaches. A friend gave me some of the "printed" chocolate sheets with postage stame-sized designs in gold on the bittersweet chcolate base and I pasted one on each piece of fruit. Everyone loved them. I have been trying to find similar chocolate sheets but so far have been unsuccessful. I could make them but this was so easy. They are made to top molded chocolate candies with a flat top but they were just flexible enough to use on the fruits.

I can buy bags of wet masa, masa for tortillas or masa for tamale at either Vallarta Supermercado, or one of the two independent carnicerias here in Lancaster. However there are other things added to the masa which I don't necessarily want in some of my dishes, so I buy the dried. If I am making a dish in which I want a coarser masa I simply buy the wet processed corn also sold at Vallarta and process it carefully in the food processor until it is the way I want it. I use this in tamale pie and it is very, very good.

A banana peel is the quickest way of ripening an avocado or a dozen or more, in a brown paper bag. Avocados do not ripen until after they have been picked or fallen off the tree. My friends, with whom I spend the Christmas holidays every year in Yorba Linda, have an avocado tree. I pick them early one morning, rock hard, put them in a bag with a banana peel and by the following afternoon they are ready to eat. Otherwise, just sitting on the counter, they will take a week to ripen.

I forgot to mention about the Mandarins. I candy the Clementines because they are small enough to candy well without it taking forever. It helps to pierce them all over with a very fine needle and pre-cook them in boiling water. However you have to have the syrup ready and immediately place the hot fruit into the hot syrup and cook at a low simmer for 4-6 hours, then allow the syrup to cool completely with the fruit in it, then repeat this procedure about three more times. The point of this is that the heat drives out the internal moisture and when cooled down the syrup flows into the interior of the fruit to replace the expelled moisture. However with a piece of fruit of this size it won't happen all at once. It happens in stages. You have to do several at a time and after the third time of processing and at the end of the cooling period, cut one open and see how far the candying has progressed. If it is all the way to the center then it is done. You can tell because the inner membranes become translucent instead of white and opaque. I hope this helps.

I leave all the inner peel when I use Navel oranges. However I do cook them first in three changes of water to remove the bitterness. You can do it in the microwave. Just use one of the 2-quart pyrex measurers, if you have one or a Pyrex bowl of similar size. The easiest way to do it is to top and tail the orange. That is, cut a piece off the top and off the bottom. Then take a soup spoon or spoon of similar size with a rounded tip and work it down between the flesh of the orange and the inner peel and work it all the way around the fruit. Turn it upside down then do it from the other end until the peel is free. Make one vertical cut and remove the peel, flatten it on a cutting board and cut it into the widths you want. Doing it this way will insure that all your pieces are the same size and it is a lot quicker. Place the peel in your Pyrex container, fill with cold water and place in microwave. Microwave on high for 10 minutes - this should be enough time to have the water at a boil. If you have a lower power oven it will take longer. Allow it to set for a few minutes then dump into a colander, drain, return to the bowl and repeat this procedure twice more. At this point the peel should be very soft. Now place in your simple syrup and cook at a simmer (crockpot works great) until translucent all the way through, including the inner peel. Remove from the syrup using a slotted spoon or skimmer, and transfer to a wire rack on a pan or tray , separate so they won't stick together. Place in a dry area, your oven is a good place, and allow to dry until barely tacky. Then toss in granulated sugar. store in a tightly closed jar. If you are going to dip them in chocolate (half-way is good), you still have to apply the sugar so the surface won't be tacky.

Here is the small copper wok with helper handle I have, finally found a pic. here I use this a lot for quick cooking, frying. It is the "tabletop" line and not as heavy as the professional line but is certainly adequate for my needs. The balance is good and it is easy to handle for someone with arthritic hands.

I couldn't find a picture of it right away, however if you take a look at this wok/fry pan by All Clad you can see the type of pan I have that is made by Mauviel - copper lined with SS. Mine has a rounder bottom and I use it on a wok ring. Had I seen this one prior to spending the money for the copper, I would probably had gotten this one. I do have a large wok but sometimes I want to stir fry or fry something that doesn't need to the space of the big wok. I think this is a pretty good buy.

I keep mine on the computer. However what I do while I am cooking, prepping, measuring and testing is dictate what I am doing then transcribe it later. I have one of these which records everything I say. I then play it back and transcribe it later. This way I don't have to stop to write things down and lose my train of thought. There are cheaper ones, and some that are a lot more expensive but I have found that this one works best for me. This way I don't leave anything out - don't forget a step or an ingredient. I edit out all the swearing.............. naturally.

I add masa to chile that is not quite thick enough or has a bit too much fat. The masa seems to take up the fat first and does add a rich note to the taste. Sometimes I add just a little to albondigas that lacks a particular flavor for which I am aiming. I always add it to green chile stew, either chicken or pork. In this case I ladle some of the liquid into a small pan so it is about 1/2 an inch of liquid then bring it to a simmer and add masa, a little at a time, whisking constantly until it is thick like porrige. I continue cooking it, stirring constantly, until it begins to look a bit dry. I remove it from the heat and add more liquid from the stew until it is a slurry with no lumps, then stir it back into the stew. Oh yes, I keep the masa in a shaker just as I do flour. It is much easier to add it to a pot this way, when I want to add it little by little.

Regarding dropped ceilings. Sometimes the only reason is because the owner doesn't like a period accent. One of my friends lives in an old house in Pasadena that had been "modernized" in the early 70s, including every room with a "new" lowered ceiling with that awful "cottage cheese" acoustic stuff, however she didn't know that this had been done until there was some damage to the house. About a year after Gloria bought the house was the Whittier Narrows earthquake and a lot of stuff dropped out of the ceilings. When the contractor doing the repair started in he found that the real ceilings were 18 inches above the new false ceilings which were hung from stringers that crisscrossed the rooms and rested on original molding. The original ceilings were arched, with hand done plaster finishing details and absolutely beautiful. The kitchen had a hammered tin coffered ceiling that was just remarkable. Removing those false ceilings and restoring the originals cost a fair amount, however it increased the worth of the house considerably more than the cost. The kitchen ceiling alone increased the worth of the house a minimum of 8000.00. One would think that if someone wanted a modern house they would buy one, instead of a period house and then screw it up by making inappropriate alterations. Really dumb.

One of my friends had a similar ceiling light problem. They took out the dropped ceiling, removed the florescent fixtures and put in track lights which were quite inexpensive and could be moved anywhere along the track and positioned to put light at the best angle over the counter prep areas and over the sink and stovetop and one that particularly illuminated anything that was pulled out of the ovens. The additional ceiling height allowed her to have an overhead pot rail, not a manufactured rack. It was a piece of U-shaped thick aluminum, made for the top of a hand rail (the open part of the U fits down over the tops of the square aluminum tubes that form the supports) and it was hung from either 3 or 4 hooks, by drilling through the bottom of the 'U' and suspending the rail across the kitchen from the ceiling joists, in a diagonal to get the most coverage. One end, near the prep area and sink, has colanders, choppers, a mandoline, graters, etc., and the other end, near the stove, has pots, lids, cooking utensils, etc. Her husband bought flat aluminum rods, slightly wider than thick, and made a template by drilling holes in a piece of wood and placing a dowel slightly thicker than the rail where the bend that would go over the rail would be and a larger dowel the size of a clothes rod to make the bend where the pots would hang. I whatched while it took him about an hour to make about 30 hooks, bending, cutting and filing the rough spots off. I helped with some of the filing. He made a few longer ones for hanging smaller objects. As I recall, the rail hangs about 4 inches from the ceiling.

I have read this topic with interest. Because I had a somewhat unique perspective. I grew up in a very large house with several black servants. However I had to check with some of my elderly relatives because as a child I had no knowledge of wages and the related things. The situation with my family was quite different from most in the south because we were considered "furriners" by the people around the area because most of the older generation emigrated from England. My grandfather emigrated from England (in 1919) because he despised the class system, in spite of being of the upper class. He hated the system that kept young people of intellect from advanced schooling because of the occupation of their parents. He also felt segregation was an abomination and the separate schools were a particular thorn in his side. His cook, a Gullah woman, was hired away from his cousin in Charleston and along with her family (her mother and children, she was a widow), accompanied my grandfather and his family to Western Kentucky in 1920. Besides the big house there were several bungalows on the farm, all completely renovated after my grandpa bought it and one was the home of our cook. The vet that lived on the farm had another as did the farm manager who had charge of the horticultural part of the farm. My aunt said that my grandfather paid very well, and paid the same scale to both black and white farm workers and the household help, which did not endear him to the whites. In 1938, a year before I was born, he hired a black man, a graduate of Tuskeegee, Univ., who had studied with Dr. Carver, to manage the farm. That pretty much meant that very few whites worked on the farm because most would not take orders from a black man in those days. Even after the war there was quite a bit of bad feeling. My cousins and I stuck together in school because we were often on the receiving end of nasty name-calling. We could never figure out what they were so angry about. The farm was very productive, even during drought years there were good crops. Our cook must have made pretty good wages because when I was little, during the war, she had a little old Ford from the 30s and a year or so after the war ended, she bought a light gray Plymouth. She always dressed herself and her children very well and her house was immaculate. Since most of her children also worked on the farm, they usually had all their meals in the kitchen. However when we had picnics outside during the summer, we all ate together. She was a fantastic cook and also managed the household help. She ruled with an iron hand. She did not read or write more than a minimum, but had in her memory hundreds of recipes, including many elaborate and many-ingredient cakes and desserts. She and my great-grandmother were kindred spirits and loved trying the "old-timey" receipts my great-grandma found. She always called my great-grandma "Miz Fee" (Ophelia) and deferred to her in everything. She was a pillar in the local black church and when they needed a new pastor she went off for a couple of weeks and found one she thought would "suit", and he was installed without further discussion. A powerful woman. It was not until I was several years away from home that I discovered how bad things were in the south in most places. I was shocked and dismayed. I finally understood why my grandpa was so angry about the status quo in the south. I wish that he could have lived long enough to see the changes. Of course he would probably say, it is still not enough.........

Lordy, I have a long, long list. However topping it is an immediate thing, can't wait for Christmas. I would love to be able to hop jet to the UK and join my daughter and her husband next week when they dine at Gordon Ramsay's during a 10-day stay in London then accompanying them for a week in Paris before coming home to California after several months in Inverness, Scotland, all paid for by his company. There is a certain store in Paris, well stocked with tons of copper cookware that is tops on my list to visit. Just not this year. I would like one of the new "well-type" cookers that are sunk into a cabinet so the top is even with the counter top. More refrigerator drawers so I can dispense with the upright one completely - I can no longer get down on my knees to reach to the back of the bottom shelf. A wood-fired brick oven - but that is doable and may happen. A secondary kitchen, semi-outdoor.

I make something similar but with the addition of avocado, it is a sort of inside-out B-L-T with avocado. First I make small dice croutons, so I have about 1 1/2 cups, browned in butter and olive oil, half and half in the oven till nicely browned and crisp. I cut a pound of bacon into small pieces, less than 1 inch (of course it shrinks). Fry or otherwise cook it until crisp - drain on paper towels. I peel and seed very ripe tomatoes and chop into moderately small dice so I have about a cup. Depending on the size I peel and mash 1 or 2 avocados, mix in 2 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice and half a cup of sour cream into which I have beaten 1 tablespoon of sugar. Now mix the crisp drained bacon into the avocado. arrange 20 small fairly crisp inner leaves of leaf lettuce, romaine, Bibb or oak leaf, in a circle with the small end to the center of a plate. If using a square tray, alternate them, wide end to narrow. In the middle of each leaf place a teaspoon of croutons, a generous teaspoon of the avocado/bacon mixture and top with a teaspoon of tomato. Season with salt and pepper The parts can be prepared ahead but the lettuce has to be kept where it will stay crisp until just prior to serving. These are quick to assemble and people like them as they are light, tasty and crunchy.

Back a few years, when I could still work all day and half the night, I used to give my very best friends the gift of the month of me, preparing for them a special meal, once a month or every other month for a year. They could choose the day and time. (Well in advance so I could work around it but they got priority.) These dinners were just for them, not including me. And for the single ones, a guest. I did romantic dinners, anniversary or birthday dinners, sports dinners, to-go dinners packed so they could dine at the Hollywood Bowl, or picnic on a weekend, dinners to have on their boat for those who spent part of their time living in the marina. I still get notes from friends who remember those gifts. How I did it was to give them two identical calendars and together we marked the dates on each one. I kept one and they kept the other. Often there was much anticipation, wondering what I was going to pull out of the hat on the next one. It was a lot of fun for me, and very challenging. Pushed my boundaries.

I do gift baskets. However they are filled with things I make, bake, cook, draw, paint or whatever. No one has ever sent one back..................

I see a lot of possibilities to make this a much "bigger" work space. First of all, if the cabinets in the pantry are not built in, I would take them out, remove the walls between the pantry and the kitchen, as they are probably not load bearing. Then remove the table. You can put in an inexpensive breakfast nook like this, in the corner where the pantry is now. Put floor to ceiling cabinets where the refrigrator is now, even with the upper cabinet and continuing into the pantry space where the wall is now with a step-back end section with open shelves for dishes, handy to the breakfast nook. The opposite wall could have a shallow floor to ceiling storage unit, either open or closed. Take a look at local unfinished furniture stores. They have a lot of modular units made to fit into tight areas with efficient storage solutions. The refrigerator would go on the wall where the table is now. The stove would be rotated 90 degrees and have a countertop cabinet next to it. You can have open or closed wall cabinets above it for more storage of items in frequent use. This would give you the triangle work route from stove to refrigerator to sink. and more counter space. Opening the room up this way would make the space seem bigger and the work flow would be more efficient. The table is in the worst place and takes up far too much space. It is a poorly conceived construction and I don't believe it is original to the house because I have looked at a great many craftsman homes and have never seen anything like that. I have seen several homes with a similar configuration with built in benches on either side of a room like the pantry and with a mission style table in the center. I would make a guess that the original layout was like that. The fact that there is a window in the pantry is the tip-off. A pantry in a craftsman or arts and crafts home would not have a double-hung window. It would have at most, a high window perhaps 12 inches high and 24 inches wide, that would unlatch and swing up, like a transom, for ventilation. Pantrys were designed in these homes to store things away from light. My dad was an architect and studied the work of the designers of the arts & crafts and craftsman style homes and drug me around to look at a lot of these homes in Pasadena and surrounding areas where there are a great many examples. I listened to a lot of lectures about how and why they were designed the way they were.

I buy cake pan liners which are already sized for the various regular size round pans. However I do grease and "flour" the sides of the pan. I do not use flour for chocolate cakes, I use cocoa powder. I don't know the source of this idea but I have been doing it for many years and find it works very well. I have a very thin and narrow "tomato" knife - the very cheap ones found at Wal-Mart or in grocery stores in a blister pack, with a blade slightly more than 1/4 inch wide and very thin. It is the best thing I have every found for going around the edge of a cake. They come with a sligthly serrated edge, however I take the edge down with a hone so it won't scratch the cake pan. Since they only cost about four dollars, it isn't a big deal. It is much thinner than even my thinnest narrow icing spatula.