MelissaH

We finally got to it on Monday night. And yes, it was amazing, and will be making repeat appearances on our table at some point! I let my husband make the mashed potatoes (one advantage of waiting for a night he was home) and I made a warm brussels sprout slaw (thinly sliced the "little brains," as my husband calls them, sauteed them in a touch of olive oil with S&P, added the zest and juice of a blood orange, and served) and some green beans to go with. It was a very nice birthday dinner for me, although not even close to the last birthday dinner you cooked. MelissaH

I'll do that. But then again, we usually make a point of buying the "select-a-size" versions of paper towels, because that makes it very easy to use only a little bit. And if you just need a small piece, say to wipe off a little dribble on the floor, there's no reason to waste a large piece. If you need more, you just take more! One of my husband's older relatives didn't particularly care for or appreciate the select-a-size, though: they asked for a paper towel to clean up a biggish mess, and someone brought them one select-a-size piece, which is about half the width of a traditional paper towel. They got upset at the person bringing the paper towel. I find that hilarious because that person was only following (inspecific) directions! ETA: My husband also will use only the amount needed for the job. Great minds think alike, ghostrider! MelissaH

I finally made a batch of butter-braised beef. The house has smelled heavenly all day. As I graded exams, I daydreamed about eating it later this afternoon, when my husband gets home from his conference this afternoon. I have green beans to nuke and potatoes to mash. I also have brussels sprouts, which my husband thinks he doesn't like so I'm planning to turn them into a sort of hot slaw with ginger and OJ (since I have a blood orange, that's what I'll use) to go with, so maybe he won't be totally repelled by them. And then my husband called about an hour ago...he's stuck in National Airport because his flight was cancelled. The next plane heading this way doesn't leave until 9 PM so he won't be home in time for dinner, and I'm thinking if he's not going to be home to share it with me, it might be a good night for takeout. What's going to be the best way to keep the beef till tomorrow evening, when we can both enjoy it with all the proper accompaniments? MelissaH

So that begs the question: what's the difference between a great cupcake and a great slice of a bigger cake? How do you tweak a recipe to optimize for one or the other? MelissaH

When we were in Amsterdam in January, we visited the Heineken brewery. "We" in this case means me and my husband, as well as our colleague Jeff and his oldest daughter Erinn. My husband and Jeff will be teaching a course on fermentation science during the second half of this semester, and the course will have a study-abroad component. This will be the first time they've taught the course, and the trip (which will take place just after the end of the semester) will be to Belgium. Our trip in January was to scout out locations, and most importantly get the lodging set for the class trip in May. But it's much easier to get flights to Amsterdam than to Brussels, hence our visit in January. The brewery open to visits is not currently used for beer production, since that's all been moved to a facility outside of town somewhere. This building has been turned into a museum of sorts, and of all the beer facility tours we did, this was the most fun, if a little commercialized. It reminded me of what would happen if Disney ever got a hold of a beer factory...oh wait, wouldn't that be Busch Gardens? Make no mistake, this tour is all about beer. You enter and pay your 10 Euros, and in exchange you get one orange drink token, two green drink tokens, and a white prize token, as well as the opportunity to walk through the facility. Early on, you see this diagram of the beer-brewing process. And you get walked through the beer-brewing process in general, although with a Heineken-specific slant: the Heineken water, the Heineken yeast, the Heineken grain, the Heineken hops, the Heineken logo, the Heineken label, the Heineken bottle.... One room was wallpapered with print ads from over the years. Another wall was covered with bottle caps. We particularly liked the water room. Heineken is proud of their low (relatively speaking) water usage for a commercial-scale brewery. The architecture in the room where they talked about water (everything on the walls was printed in English and in Dutch) was really neat: there was a suspended ceiling made of plexiglass, filled with a thin layer of water, with lights above the suspended ceiling. Above the lights (so you wouldn't see shadows) were a series of nozzles that slowly dripped water into the ceiling, and the lights would then cast shadows from the waves (constructive and destructive interference!) on the floor and ceiling. I could have done without the audio "drip" effects, but the visuals were way cool, something we briefly considered doing in our kitchen when we remodel, but decided would probably be better in the wet bar area of the family room. The old copper brew kettles are still intact, and they use them for all kinds of demonstrations (with small TVs mounted in holes cut in the sides). Our favorite part of the first half of the tour was a ride, in which you got to "be" a bottle and go through the bottling line. The seats shook and jiggled in synch with the video, but we didn't get blasted with water the way the bottles on screen did. We all thought, though, that a bottling line would be a terrific inspiration for an honest-to-goodness rollercoaster, though: you get shaken up, spun around and upside down, several times, and in an amusement park you could even include the jets of water! (We decided that although you might find something like that at Busch Gardens, you'd be unlikely to find anything as beer-related at Disneyworld.) The first half of the tour concluded in a room with many of these copper kettles, but that wasn't the highlight of the room. See the staircase going down that's blocked off with a velvet rope? At the bottom of the stairs is the stable! Anyone who's watched a Super Bowl in recent memory knows about the Clydesdales that pull the Bud wagon. Heineken is associated with Shires, a different breed of draft horse. They're big and black with white blazes on their faces, and about a dozen of them live right there in the old brewery and get taken out every day. Erinn's a horse lover, and this room was a real highlight for her. After we watched the horses for a bit, we went to the bar in the middle to redeem our orange drink tokens. One token gets you one drink, and you have a choice of beer or something non-alcoholic, 25 cL of whatever you choose. Immediately following the bar in the middle, there was a setup where you could take photos or even a short video of yourself, and e-mail it to people around the world. We were there at a slow time, and were able to spend plenty of time having fun. The second half of the tour was less about beermaking and more about entertainment. We did another ride, this one "delivering the beer" on a horse-drawn cart through the cobbled streets of Amsterdam. We sat in special chairs with audio and video, and watched vintage Heineken commercials. And we played in the party room, at the DJ bench running the music and lights. Finally, we went through the gift shop (had to get through that before you could leave) and then spent our green tokens at the bar at the end (same choices as before). Finally, we claimed our gifts at the end: it turned out to be a 25 cL Heineken glass. Educational? Sure, especially if you've never seen a large-scale brewery before. Fun? Absolutely! A good deal? Yes, especially if you're a visiting American and the thought of getting three (small) beers plus a glass to take home for the equivalent of about $12 (at that time) seems like a good deal; it was also a great couple of hours of entertainment if you don't mind being bombarded by ads for one specific beer. It wound up being a perfect break from the other more "serious" museums we visited, and is well worth a visit. MelissaH

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! It looks like I won't be short of ideas, at any rate. I do have one more question, which hasn't been addressed before because I didn't mention it in the first place: what about breakfasts, or late® night? I'll be leaving home on Friday evening in the late afternoon, and supposedly arriving on the ground a bit after 9. My committee is feeding me breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, but I'm fending for myself on Monday and Tuesday mornings. My flight out is a bit after noon on Tuesday, and I'd like to get enough food in my system that I won't need to worry about anything else until dinner. You guys are amazing! MelissaH

Oh, man! The hotel we stayed at was right near Rembrandtplein, and we somehow missed out on this! Guess this means we'll need to return to Amsterdam, in the not-too-distant future! MelissaH

Any chance this might be suitable for a group (30ish people) dinner? I'll be subjected to one of those, and the last few haven't been anything to write home about. MelissaH

The clementines we ate in Belgium and the Netherlands in January. Something changes when they're carried across the ocean from Spain. MelissaH

We've hit a possible snag, and definite frustration. Last night we were looking at the kitchen plans, both A and B, as well as the not-fully-fleshed-out C and D, discussing cabinetry in detail. We were coming to the conclusion that with the way things were set in Plan B (which we much preferred over Plan A), we'd be headed down the road towards multiple semi-custom or completely custom cabinets. We based that on the IKEA catalog and also the Kraft-Maid catalog my husband found on line. But then my husband noticed something odd. We still plan to keep our existing refrigerator, which is not a cabinet-depth refrigerator. And in Plan A, which I haven't posted plans for, the cabinets around the refrigerator were specifically moved out from the wall to give us a 30 inch wide countertop, so the front of the cabinets would be more or less even with our fridge. But in the drawings for Plans B, C, and D, the refrigerator is also set to be even with the cabinet fronts, but the countertop is just 24 inches wide! This in itself isn't a huge problem to us: so the refrigerator sticks out a few inches in front of the cabinets. The bigger problem is that in Plan B, which we liked in general, the refrigerator is directly opposite the range. According to the GE Monogram catalog that I had handy, the 36-inch range is also about 30 inches deep, which means that the range would also protrude slightly from the front of the cabinets. And with the refrigerator and the range directly opposite, each sticking out half a foot in front of the cabinets, the walkway between the two is narrowed by a full foot, to only about 3 feet. This seems like a really narrow space to us, especially between two appliances that would likely get relatively heavy use. But worse, the refrigerator is about 33 inches wide. I'm concerned that we wouldn't have enough room to open the fridge door without bashing the oven handle. And that's a huge problem! We've e-mailed our designer, to be sure we aren't overlooking something. And until we hear from her, we've come up with a workaround. Our workaround is to move the refrigerator to the other side of the kitchen, so that as you walk in the side door to the kitchen the refrigerator is immediately to your right, where the tall pantry cabinet was in the original drawings. Then, next to the fridge heading back into the corner, make the countertop next to the refrigerator 30 inches wide, so it's more or less level with the front of the fridge. We also considered relocating the dishwasher to the other side of the sink, so it's closer to the dining area. In this rearrangement, between the edge of the refrigerator and the front of the baking area, there's enough room for a 12-inch-wide base cabinet. That's not a problem, per se. But if we lower the countertop in the baking area, we'd probably end up with a dead corner space or an expensive custom cabinet. Furthermore, with the six-inch-wider countertop on the refrigerator side, to accommodate the refrigerator depth, we'd have to shorten the baking area's lowered countertop by half a foot. And I'd be worried about having my rolling pin bash into the non-lowered part of the counter if it got shortened. So I went looking a little more, and found this post from Dave the Cook's kitchen renovation thread, which describes the "rule" for countertop height: measure the distance between your bent elbow and the floor; subtract 3 inches for normal tasks and 6-7 inches for kneading and rolling out dough. So I had my husband measure the distance between my elbows and the floor last night, and we came up with 39 and a half inches or so. This means that a standard 36-inch counter should be fine for normal tasks (and it is), but for kneading and rolling I should be a couple of inches lower than standard. I was in bare feet at the time we measured. But my favorite most comfy clogs add about an inch and a half to my height, so if I put those on before I roll out my dough, I'd supposedly be very close to the "ideal" counter height. (Hmmm: might need to try that recipe for potato-stuffed parathas in Mangoes and Curry Leaves this afternoon and see how it goes. Part of my current rolling issues come about because my rolling surface is a wooden board that I put on top of the counter; it has a lip to grab the front edge and also a built-in backsplash; it makes the surface about 2 inches taller than the countertop itself. Maybe I should learn to roll in stiletto heels? ) But this got me thinking: maybe the baking area countertop would be just fine at standard height, especially if I wear shoes to roll my dough. (Shoes in the kitchen probably aren't a bad idea in any case.) And if we put the baking area counter at standard height, we'd be able to put in a non-custom corner cabinet next to the fridge and not lose the entire corner space. The tall refrigerator would also serve the same purpose as the tall pantry cabinet in the original design: blocking the view of my potentially-floury dark blue stand mixer and food processor, which would live in the corner of the counter when they weren't being used. We'd still have landing space countertop next to the fridge. An added benefit of relocating the refrigerator to the end of the kitchen is that we wouldn't have to worry about whether or not the baseboard heater could be removed: if it needs to stay put, we just bring it forward to the toekick of the cabinet. And that would work even if we put the dishwasher to the left of the sink (rather than the right, where it is in the drawings). We don't see a real problem in having the range and dishwasher directly opposite each other: for one thing, the dishwasher is standard depth, so you have an extra six inches of aisle space compared to the fridge. And it's unlikely that we'd be doing anything at both the dishwasher and the range at the same time, especially compared to the likelihood of using both range and fridge at the same time. And another big bonus: by relocating the refrigerator, it looks like the space got juggled enough that we'd be able to use mostly stock cabinets, from either IKEA or KraftMaid, which will help us stay within our budget. We're working on the assumption that our appliances (range, hood, DW) will cost on the order of $8k. We're also working on the assumption that the cabinets (without countertop) will run on the order of $5-6k. And those are the big things that won't be easy to change out afterwards, so we want to get them right from the start. In playing around with things, we've discovered that we should have the room to put a wine fridge under the counter to the right of the stove (if you're standing at the stove cooking), facing out to the dining area. This is a fun idea, if the budget allows! The original plan didn't explicitly show a place for the microwave. We use the microwave for two things, mainly: reheating leftovers for us, and heating up the cats' afternoon portion of canned food after it comes out of the fridge. (Yes, they're pampered.) Other than the fact that we need to plan for leftovers (this semester, both of us get home late on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means that dinner on those nights is leftovers, nuked and eaten at whatever time each of us gets home), we think we could manage quite nicely without a microwave. So it makes sense for us to put the microwave down near the dining area rather than the cooking area. And we're considering a location facing the dining area in the cabinets on the sink side of the kitchen. We haven't quite worked out the details, particularly whether the existing microwave will actually fit down there, but we're hoping to do so. First, we need to see what our designer has to say about the refrigerator depth issue, and her ideas for workarounds (if it is, in fact, a problem). In the meantime, we've compiled a list of cabinets we'd need from IKEA, and an equivalent list of cabinets we'd need from KraftMaid. This will enable us to do an apples-to-apples price comparison, and should let us know whether IKEA is a viable possibility, especially in light of the long-distance vs. local factor. We'll try to talk with our local KraftMaid people this week, since IKEA's easy to do ourselves on line. MelissaH

My one experience with fresh water chestnuts convinced me that the best thing to do with them is leave them in the grocery store. Their taste and texture weren't much different from jicama, which is much easier to peel, slice, and use in general. MelissaH

I'll second what Klary said about the goat sate, as we helped her eat it that night! One of the things we most enjoyed on our trip was eating poffertjes. On Klary's suggestion, we stopped at the poffertje place that was by the skating rink set up on the Museumplein. (I think; correct me if I've got either my geography or my Dutch incorrect.) We ate them with just butter and sugar, and they transported all of us back many many years. For my husband, they reminded him of the aebelskivers served in the town he grew up in, which has a large proportion of people with Danish ancestry. For me, it was like the way we'd sometimes eat regular American-style fluffy pancakes, when we didn't have any maple syrup. And for our friend Jeff, it was like when he was a kid in Milwaukee and visited the woman in the apartment upstairs. Absolutely transporting, and we agreed that we could have easily demolished at least twice as many as we did. This was our lunch, after doing the Heineken tour and spending an hour or so in the Rijksmuseum...but that's another post! MelissaH

I"m wondering just how one can have both 'no fragrances' and 'no stinky sweat' at the same time?[...] ← Try rubbing alcohol on your underarms after you shower. Seriously. ← Obviously, you've never shaved your armpits! MelissaH

Anyone who gave me a Borders card would be at the top of my list! No experience with Costco here; they don't exist in this neighborhood. But we do have a choice of warehouse stores. Last year, instead of renewing our Sam's membership, we defected to BJ's. I liked the idea of putting the money into someone else's pocketbook, and I haven't heard the employee horror stories about BJ's that I have about the Walmart empire. Furthermore, of the two stores in our area, the BJ's locations are nicer to shop in, and have more of the products we get on a regular basis. Because of that, when the time comes, we'll probably stick with BJ's. I have been to a Costco: the one my sister in Tucson uses. Their selection of produce was to die for, compared to what we see here, but that's possibly more because she's in Arizona, closer to where it's all grown. MelissaH

Hey, if it's got great food, it's miles ahead of either Anaheim or Orlando as a conference spot, in my book! Those two have nothing remotely interesting within easy walking distance: just Chain Food Hell. Fair enough. I usually try to do that in any case if there's more than just a couple of us, and we have a destination in mind. These all look possible. But Baraonda gets marked down in my book for gratuitous noise on their Web site, with "on" as the default! While these are all probably great dining opportunities, they're out of the budget. I'm no longer a graduate student, but I still tend to eat like one at a conference. Many of my likely dining companions are graduate students. Quality is important, but most of us would like to be able to afford more than one meal every two days. Actually, though I wouldn't personally recommend the Sundial for a meal, the bar is a great place to visit, particularly at sunset: the bar rotates (about 45 minutes for a complete turn, if memory serves) and offers great views of the city and surrounding area. You have to buy a drink, of course, but it's a pretty good deal considering. ← This is a definite possibility. You're ordering good weather for us, right? MelissaH

Gosh, I guess I should consider myself lucky. Our local dairy store, Byrne Dairy, carries mostly normal pasteurized cream. They're barely a mile and a half from my house, and I don't even think about getting cream elsewhere. MelissaH

All the ones I've seen during my last few sojourns have been renamed "Buffalo Wild Wings." I guess the Weck is no more, and they're now only BW2? MelissaH

I've done this walk, when I was in DC for a conference last August. It wasn't a bad walk, but as Rochelle says, Rockville Pike isn't a pleasant road if you're on foot, unless you like sucking exhaust. It's a much easier walk if you leave the Metro station on the proper side. Rochelle, nice to see you blogging again. MelissaH

Well, after reading through the two threads, it sounds like I'm going to be in less of a culinary wasteland than either Orlando or Anaheim. I'm relieved. As far as specifics: I think we're going to be downtown. At least, that's what the GWCC Web site keeps referring to the area as. And I think we'll be near a MARTA station. I'm happy to hear that Watershed is accessible by public transit. They've been on my radar for a while, and I'm thinking that may be a good option for Monday, possibly at lunch. Would I need a reservation for either Monday lunch or dinner? I never know how many people I'll be eating with until we actually walk in the door of wherever. But I'd like to hear other options, since I'll have other meals and I don't think the budget will support more than one meal there. I should probably mention that while I don't mind walking, I've been accused in the past of leading people on death marches. The food's usually good when we get there, but my short distances obviously don't match other people's short distances. Keep it coming; eG hasn't steered me wrong yet! MelissaH

Hi everyone, I'll be in Atlanta for the national meeting of the American Chemical Society during the last week of March. My schedule for this meeting is working out such that I'll need to find dinner on Sunday and Monday. I'll also have Monday morning and early afternoon (including lunch) to myself, unless something comes up in the meantime. I'll probably have a few people with me on these days, since I've somehow (can't imagine how ) gotten a reputation as the person on my committee who always knows the good places to eat. I'm definitely on a budget, and I like to try and find things I can't get at home (which doesn't rule out much). My transportation will be limited to my feet and whatever public transit is available. The meeting will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center, so that's where my activities will be centered around. Any suggestions for restaurants? Or my morning to myself? Historically I've gone to a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, if there's one in the area, to get the stuff I can't get at home for a reasonable price. I know there isn't a TJ's in Atlanta, but is there a Whole Foods or other fun or ethnic shopping within reach? At that point we'll also probably be finalizing the plans for our kitchen renovation project so if there's somewhere I can get to that has fun stuff, that's an OK substitute for food this trip. Of course, if any other eGulleteers are also chemists who will be attending the national meeting, please yell! MelissaH

Three cheers for all our quitters! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! You've all been incredibly gutsy for doing this in public, and letting us see it all. (And it's been fun rooting for you from the peanut gallery.) Great work, terrific job to everyone, and many wishes for more successes of all kinds, big and small. MelissaH

The "boil in can" method is only dangerous if you let the water boil away so that the can is no longer completely submerged in the water. At atmospheric pressure, the water temperature can't get above 100 degrees C, or 212 degrees F. However, steam can get much hotter than that, which is where you run into problems. I suppose it's also possible for the bottom of the pot to get hotter, which is another reason to put a dishcloth or trivet in the bottom of the pot. If you're careful to be sure that the water level stays well over the can, just as many of the early posts in this thread say, boiling in the can shouldn't be a problem. The safety note in the link that ruthcooks points to looks like a CYA kind of link, as in "We don't recommend you do this, because it may be unsafe if you don't do it properly, and we don't want to be sued." I like the crock pot idea. Might need to investigate that one myself. MelissaH

Nutella. On a spoon, straight out of the jar. MelissaH

Comments on our kitchen storage: Looking at the list, I see some weird inconsistencies. For instance, the coffee cups and mugs, which could be used interchangeably for the most part, get stored in at least three different cabinets and five different shelves. And why is the electric frying pan permitted to live in the kitchen, but the waffle iron banished downstairs to the utility room? If anything, the waffle iron gets used more consistently. The grill pan gets a bunch of use, but it's kept in the hallway pantry closet rather than the kitchen...and the panini press brick is under the oven, where it gets in the way of anything in the horizontal storage stack! The cooking implements aren't stored efficiently. For one thing, the lids just get thrown into the cabinets wherever they'll fit, since we don't have a good place to keep them. And our pots wind up in giant stacks because if we didn't, there wouldn't be enough room for them all. We have a lot of gadgets and gizmos. And most of them get at least some use on a regular basis. Even the three sets of steak knives all get some use: each set has a different handle and a differently shaped blade, which makes them good for different tasks. Yet some of the gizmos that get regular and frequent use, such as the wine vacuum sucker and its tops, wind up in the bottom-most drawer in the entire kitchen. I'd like to find a way to better show off the bowls my mom made for us. I'd like to be able to get at my 3-quart saucier without needing to first move the pasta pot out from in front. I'd like to be able to use my stand mixer without having to first move the pasta pot out from in front. I'd like to be able to get at any of my pots without having the lids clang onto the floor. The cabinet under the cooktop is a disaster! I'd like to be able to fit my giant slicer knife in the same drawer as the others. I'd like to have room in the kitchen for all my cake pans. I'd like to have a place for my dollar-store plastic serving trays where I don't need to worry about the klutzy cat exploring the top of the refrigerator, moving on to the cabinet, and knocking the trays to the floor, where they shatter into a zillion sharp pieces. I'd like to be able to easily get at whatever cutting board I want, not whatever cutting board's on the top of the stack. Ditto to the rectangular glass baking dishes. I'm sick of keeping my spices on a teetery lazy susan, high enough up that I can't see what's what without a stepstool. And speaking of lazy susans, if we have any in the new kitchen I want ones that stay adjusted and spin open in both directions. I'm quickly concluding that while some tall storage areas are nice, in most places for us it would be much more efficient to have more shorter areas in the same space. MelissaH

I've made a list of everything that's stored in the kitchen, plus a few other places that currently hold stuff I wish we had room to store in the kitchen. Here's the list. (I'm putting it here mainly so I have access to it anywhere I have Internet access, not because I thought you would all enjoy reading it: I'll save the commentary for another post, to follow immediately. MelissaH ---begin list--- Top of cart: butcher block cutting board, stack of ceramic platters made by my mom, large hundred-year-old wooden butter bowl holding large metal wedding gift serving bowl, currently containing apples, limes, and an avocado Left drawer of cart: 2 sets of 8 steak knives, a few slate trivets we made by gluing felt onto the bottom of some slate slabs we collected, a variety of cat treats Right drawer of cart: the last set of 8 steak knives, the cheese knife assortment, some sheets of cheese paper, and a dried turkey wishbone waiting for a good reason to be broken Top shelf of cart: large food-service-sized roll of plastic wrap which we used instead of the expensive stretchwrap when we moved and have since been using in place of the puny rolls of traditional grocery store rolls, the napkin basket (full), small watering can for when we haven't killed all the houseplants, mini chopper, and 2 Korean ceramic bowls for making bibimbap Bottom shelf of cart: ceramic tureen not made by my mom, ceramic teapot made by my mom, motor, top, and dasher to the ice cream maker, bottle of homemade vinegar, box of Australian placemats which we should use more often Cabinet left of shelf: Top shelf: 10 wine glasses, 2 beer tasting glasses, 4 shot glasses Middle shelf: 6 water glasses, 5 beer glasses Bottom shelf: 10 hand-blown glasses, 2 Heineken glasses from our tour of the Heineken factory On counter left of sink: water boiler, dish drainer on towel, ring/watch holder Drawer left of sink: 10+ cutting boards of varying sizes and materials, box of toothpicks Cabinet under drawer left of sink: Top shelf: rice cooker with appliance timer for those nights we aren't home to turn it on, blender, blender-on-a-stick, crockpot Bottom shelf: electric frying pan with lid, food processor with metal blade in it Behind sink: cans cleaned but still too wet to go in the recycling drawer, soap pump which we keep filled with dish soap Under sink: Left side: trash can, ant traps, sink trap Right side: garbage disposal, sink trap, fire extinguisher, bleach bottle and other cleaners, extra grocery bags in a holder on the door Right of sink wall cabinet: Top shelf: stack of ceramic bowls made by my mom, 3 coffee cups in a stack, ceramic cow from Delft brought home by my sister, 2 chip-and-dip wedding gift sets, ceramic pitcher made by my mom, gravy boat Middle shelf: 3 stacks of 3 coffee cups each, 2 quart glass measuring cup with lid, stack of small ceramic bowls made by my mom, stack of 12 dessert plates which get regular use on top of 12 saucers which we never use Bottom shelf: 12 wide shallow bowls, 12 cereal bowls, stack of 12 small "lunch" plates which get regular use on top of 12 big "dinner" plates which get some use but didn't fit well into the dishwasher in our last house Counter right of sink: any dishes not yet washed, toaster oven, roll of paper towels, often a bottle of wine or non-perishable stuff that needs to be put away properly, microwave Drawers right of sink: Top: sharp knives, each in a cardboard sheath if it didn't come with a plastic sleeve 2nd from top: box of surgical gloves for kitchen use, roll of nonskid material, 2 rotary graters which don't get as much use now as they did before microplanes came to our house 2nd from bottom: apron, flour sack towels and cheesecloth, a slew of chopsticks, bamboo skewers, paper muffin cups (large and small), 48 tartlet pans (each 1.5 inches in diameter, stored in a plastic margarine tub with a lid), a squeeze bottle for when we get into Bobby Flay moods, single-edge razor blades, T-head pins, a shell-shaped chocolate mold Bottom: more cheesecloth, metal skewers (half given to me by my grandma, topped with animal shapes, brought back from Greece many decades ago), 2 wedding gift serving spoon sets, bamboo sushi-rolling mat, another slew of chopsticks, 3 silpats (each rolled and stored inside an empty paper towel cardboard roll core), wine bottle vacuum sucker and tops, wing corkscrew that doesn't get much use, chopstick rests that were a gift from my MIL, sugar cube grabber because my grandma declared that we needed one and gave it to us, garlic peeler tube gizmo, lemon zester that takes off the long strands but gets little use since we got our first microplane Middle drawer: silverware (big forks, salad forks, little spoons, big spoons, 12 of everything except more little spoons because they always seemed to get used up and we had a few get eaten by the disposal), measuring spoons, nutcrackers, cake tester, garlic twister that's worth using only if you need dozens of pressed cloves, wooden pie server, engraved napkin rings given to us by the agent who helped us buy our previous house, ceramic ginger grater, serving spoons that won't ever need to be polished, 2 dishers for making cookie dough balls, churchkey, bottle opener, can opener, waiter's corkscrew, teaball, 4 microplanes of varying types, digital thermometer probes Right drawer: mess of implements including ladles, wooden spatulas and spoons, plastic pancake flippers, cheese planers, the silicone spatulas not in the crock on the counter, the tongs not in the crock on the counter, melon baller, lemon and lime squeezers, 3 carrot peelers and extra blades for the one that's replaceable rather than disposable, cherry pitter, cocktail strainer, metal pie server with serrated edge, pastry brushes for savory use, timers, clothespins, dental floss, skimmer Cabinet below middle and right drawers: Top shelf: hand mixer, torch and butane, roll of cotton kitchen twine, mandoline stored in its box, rubbermaid leftover storage containers, shoebox of lids to rubbermaids, 3 rolling pins, electric spice grinder Bottom shelf: 3 containers of various kinds of flour, white sugar, brown sugar, confectioner's sugar, second stand mixer bowl from my sister engraved with our names and wedding date, stand mixer pouring shield, food processor bowl with outfeed spout that came with the thing but hasn't ever been used to my knowledge, 2 bench scrapers, box of cookie cutters, shoebox of baking implements including showercaps, mixer beaters for hand and stand mixers, pastry brushes for sweet use, large offset spatula, few more cookie cutters, pastry blender, plastic hand-held scrapers, food processor blades and the plastic stalk they snap onto, cut pieces of nonskid to go under cutting boards, Even Bake strips, few disposable piping bags, piping bag tips Middle wall cabinet above: Top shelf: 2 stacks totaling 7 stainless steel bowls, sizes ranging from 5 quarts to about 1 quart Middle shelf: ceramic ramekins made by my mom, stack of ceramic bowls made by my mom Bottom shelf: stack of flatter ceramic bowls, some made by my mom, about 20 glass custard cups, a few smaller ceramic custard-cup equivalent bowls made by my mom Rightmost wall cabinet: Top shelf: plastic 2 quart measuring cup, mortar and pestle Middle shelf: defatting pitcher, cocktail shaker, plunger 2-cup capacity measuring cup, tall ceramic mug that didn't seem to fit elsewhere for some reason Bottom shelf: 2 Tupperware measuring cup sets that include the 2/3 cup and 3/4 cup sizes, 1 set of metal measuring cups that don't include those sizes, Pyrex measuring cups in 1 , 2, and 4 cup sizes Wall cabinet lazy susan: in-use spices and herbs, molasses, balsamic vinegar, shaker of confectioner's sugar, extracts On top of microwave: scale, bread Base cabinet lazy susan: Top shelf: potholders, coffeemaker and insulated carafe, coffee grinder and container of in-use beans, 4 loaf pans Middle shelf: in-use pasta, rice noodles Bottom shelf: stack of 2 bundt pans in a removable-bottom tart pan, a ring pan in a springform pan, angel food cake pan Wall cabinet right of lazy susan cabinet: gelatin, salts, peanut butter jars (1 chunky for me and 1 creamy for my husband), tube of hairball goo for the cats On counter between microwave and cooktop: crock of whisks, crock of spatulas and other implements, ceramic dish to hold peppermills, spoon rest Cabinet over cooktop: pearl sugar, package of fake sugar for our carb-counting friend, cornstarch, baking powder and soda, cocoa, regular old refined cornmeal that doesn't get stored in the freezer, tapioca, assortment of crackers On the hood: at least one digital timer/thermometer body (others on the fridge) On the stove: kosher salt pot Under stove: Top shelf: microwave bacon cooker, stack of pyrex pie plates and pyrex bowls with metal steamer basket, stack of colanders and strainers, mini-muffin tins, square pyrex dishes, round pyrex dishes with lids Bottom shelf: 2 spatter screens, 2 stacks of pots, the lids to the pots, stack of frying pans, stand mixer with a bowl, another stack of pots, the pasta pot with its strainer Cabinet over oven: Top shelf: MSU engraved rocks glasses, Pullman pan, all tall mugs (made by my mom and otherwise), empty beer can to put flavorful liquid in and cook bird on, glass serving bowl Bottom shelf: food mill in its box, potato ricer, hand-cranked pasta machine in its box, short mugs (made by my mom and otherwise), gigantic root beer float glass mugs I won in college by answering trivia questions at the Josh and John's ice cream shop on the Hill in Boulder Cabinet under oven: Stored vertically: 4 half-sheet pans from the restaurant supply store, 1 other cookie sheet, 1 round pizza pan, 6 cooling racks of various sizes, metal 9-by-13 pan with vertical sides and sharp corners and its lid, 2 normal-size muffin tins with 12 cavities each Stored horizontally in a stack, listed from top to bottom: V-rack, metal pie crust shield, 5-by-7 glass pan with plastic lid, 7-by-11 glass pan, 2 glass 9-by-13 pans, the roaster that we bought specifically to be large but still fit into the mini oven in our previous house In front of the stack: a foil-wrapped brick which gets used as a panini press in the grill pan Top of pantry cabinet: chip bags, cheapo fun plastic serving trays from the dollar store that we use at big parties or when we bring stuff places Pantry cabinet, top section: Top shelf: large wooden salad bowl with wooden "finger" servers, bottle of dried catnip with tight lid Bottom shelf: roll of heavy-duty foil, roll of parchment, roll of freezer paper, gallon-size ziplock bags, variety of hot chocolate mixes imported from Europe, boxes of cereal Pantry cabinet, bottom section: Top pullout drawer: slicing knife wedding gift with 18-inch blade (that's not a typo!), a few packets of Koolade in the kiwi-lime flavor we haven't been able to find for a couple of years now, a few single-serving packets of hot fudge sauce, roll of non-heavy-duty foil, roll of waxed paper, smaller ziplock bags Bottom pullout drawer: vinegars, oils, sauces that don't need refrigeration Top fixed shelf: malted milk powder imported from Michigan because it doesn't exist locally, roll of Parafilm, plastic bin with Asian noodles, plastic bin of other Asian drygoods Bottom fixed shelf: tall bottles of oil, tall bottles of vinegar, some bottles of liquor, plastic bin of dried chiles, plastic bin of chocolate, 2 box graters, jar of tahini On top of fridge: juicer, wine rack, salad spinner, plastic pitchers, vase, cat dishes On the table that serves as additional counter space: usually only things that are waiting to be moved elsewhere but act as stuff to block the cat's way on top of the fridge Under this table: the plastic 3-drawer cabinet that holds our recyclables and redeemables after they've all been rinsed and allowed to dry, plastic container filled with dry cat food, stacks of cans of wet cat food In the pantry closet, other than the food: oval 4-quart Le Creuset dutch oven, cast iron skillet and grill pan In the utility room: waffle iron, cake pans (3 each 9-inch and 8 inch rounds; 2 9-inch squares), 4 mini-loaf pans, 1 quart mini-crockpot, assorted stockpots that don't fit in the cabinet under the stove, assorted cast iron pans