Porthos

My wife and I ate what the whole family ate growing up. Our 2 now-grown daughters were raised, at home, on mostly freshly-prepared dinners, made from ingredients - not boxes, which we all ate. They did havew a weak spot for boxed mac and cheese but they only got that every 4-6 months. And yes, they were served home-made mac and cheese also. We ate burgers and fries out. Between my wife, myself and my wonderful mother-in-law they were exposed to many different cuisines at home as well as at various restaurants. I still mourn the closing of Papdakis Taverna in San Pedro. The best Greek food I have had. I have eaten at other good Greek restaurants but none have matched Papakakis. We cherish the soup bowl from there. So knowing how to eat healthily was engendered by example. They are both married now and they also cook from scratch. I choose not to consome very much food with highly refined flours or sugar but I don't completely cut myself off from them. An occasional donut is a treat as is an occasional bowl of ice cream. Sourdough bread, while made from highly refined flour, is much more acidic than "white" bread and as such digests more slowly so every now and then I have a slice of sourdough toast, This level of moderation was also patterned for our children. LocavoreT, I do hope we hear from you again. Edited to add: I just found these words to help explain our approach- we did not have "forbidden fruit" foods. We did discuss nutrition with our daughters as they were growing up so that they understood why some things were not a regular part of our diet.

Lior, I apologize. I did not look carefully enough at your information.

LocavoreT, I hope we haven't scared you away with the various opinions expressed here. I still hope to hear of the ages of your kids and if you are urban/suburban or rural. That will help greatly in giving you specific suggestions that relate to your children.

If you google "chrome wire shelving Ireland" you will find several hits. Here is one: http://www.superiorstoragesolutions.ie/products/chrome-wire-shelving.php

Lior, I don't do chocolate but let me weigh in on the shelving being talked about. Without casters it is 72" high. it is 48" wide and 18" deep. It has 6 shelves and the shelf heights are adjustable (when you assemble it) in 1" increments. In a volunteer cooking setting I use one of these for my pantry shelving and another one holds the prepared food prior to sending the meal out(think catering). I can not recommend these enough. As I look at the sheer quantities of supplies under your table I think, unless you are desperate for every last bit of table space you have, that you would benefit greatly from having one less table and the shelving I and other are speaking of. Best of Luck.

My Fridigaire has a 16k power burner and the speed bake (convection) function. We are very happy with it. Edited to add: the one down side is that even with the speed bake on we need to rotate baked goods half way through to get the most even results.

What are their ages? Are you more urban, suburban or rural?

I try to use gloves when doing dishes and such. I have trouble with the skin near my finger nails cracking and bleeding if my hands are in the dishwater too much. I buy Playtex or whatever brand strikes my fancy and have never seen then sized larger that Large. They barely fit my hands. I keep baby powder in the kitchen to heip with slipping them on and off but it only does so much. Does anyone know of stores that carry a size of Playtex-style gloves that come in a size larger than Large?

Did you hand select the potatoes or did they come in a bag? I'm wondering about some older potatoes mixed in with fresher.

rotuts, if I could change one thing in our kitchen it would be to just make the counter that starts at the dishwasher go straight along the wall to our sliding glass door and add an island. Small appliances would go on the counter and the island would be the prep area. That being said, after 30 years we still like this kitchen very much. I do get to "design a kitchen" every spring when I lay out the ren faire feast kitchen. I have no pictures from this year. A 10 x 20 canopy garage from Costco is the indoor space (tables for counters, pantry shelving, serving bowls and platters shelving, a kitchen range) and then the coolers, Camp Chef camp stove, and my 8-burner event grill are placed outside.

Franci, how does the sink in the corner work for you?

I don't pretend to understand the hospitality industry. I like being an engineer who sits in his office and interacts with a computer. That said I have a question. Was this assnine behavior a one-time deal or is this typical of how he behaves? Aksing someone to stop patronizing your business is risky but so is having someone in your dining room that makes the other customers uncomfortable. Several years ago while in the waiting room of my physican an patient was being incredibly rude and abusive to the staff, being very demanding. When the doctor heard the commotion he came over and told the man that he was not to treat the staff in such a manor. The man decided to make the doctor his next target at which point the doctor told the staff to return the copay to this man and told him to leave. I think the doctor made the right decision.

Thread with discussion about the Berkey filters: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/136349-do-brita-type-filters-work/

Martin, I can't stand not to be organized. Every knife in my knife block has a place and I want the handles such that when I pull a knife out it is already oriented to how it is held. I refered to our utensil forest. There are 4 utensil holders and each one only gets the items that belong in it. My bowls are also set up this way. When my younger daughter was a teenager and she was doing the dishes she kept shoving the bowls into the cabinet any old way. I took photos of each shelf's bowls and put them on the insides of the door to try to help. That only worked so-so. The lids for the pans I use most are here and here. In other words, I can't stand to have to hunt for the things I use on a regular basis. That is why I am the one who now does the dishes - so that I can put things away where they belong. edited to add: Credit the TV show Ultimate Kitchens for the idea of using towel holders inside of a door to hold lids.

My initail reaction to this was thinking about how well suited to the hospitality industry this server is. Just a voice from the consumer side of things ...

Kerry, I forgot to mention that I really liked seeing Cambro stuff in someone else's kitchen.

Your comment (this is a good thing) made me take a look at what all is on the pot rack these days. I took down the 2 pans I most rarely use and then noticed a rolling pin sitting on it that I have no memory of putting there (but I know I did) that I took off. That took 4 lbs off of it. The 16 qt stock pot stayed because of no other good place to keep it.

Mitch, I see the scale in the coffee area. Is that just a good place for it or do you weigh you beans and pack your espresso to a certain pressure?

Yes, it is a lot on that hook. Interestingly it has survived many earthquakes. I am gentle when taking things off and putting them back on.

Blether, is it just you using the kitchen?

Yes, I did clean the kitchen. No, not just for these pictures. It needed cleaning to be ready for having my daughter, son-in-law and his boy over this Saturday night. Tract home about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Bought it new in 1984 as a starter house with the intent to move on in about 1989. Still here. 1250 sq foot but the kitchen was why we bought it. There is a floor-to-ceiling pantry. As much as I crave storage I wish it was not as deep as it is. Things get lost in the back. Next to that is the adult beverage glassware above, the junk drawer below the microwave and metalic bakeware below. The refrigerator was bought in a time of need instead of planned for. It is a piece of junk. The Oster Convection Toaster Oven is a dismal failure for toast but very handy for roasting vegetables or roasting smaller amounts of meat. This is our 3rd stove. I wanted it for 2 features. It has a 16K power burner and a convection oven. I also like the solid grill surface. I can get something steaming quickly using the power burner and then slide it over to another burner to keep the steam going. The door to the right of the stove is where some of our pots and pans live. That knife block is for my wife's knives. Also, our utensil forest lives on that counter. Coffee, mixer, food processor and my knife block. Finally, the main counter, pot rack, and some of the storage cubes. Two people cook in this kitchen easily, three with a little bit of coordination. When we moved here we loved the large amount of cabinet and drawer space and never imagined we would fill it all up and then some. Cheers, Porthos

gfweb, I am now suffering serious range envy. I can see my DW making pancakes on the flat top.

For most of my life I did very little steaming - just had one of those little metalic "flower petal" inserts. In either 2003 or 2004 I got tired of the time it took to boil 5 lbs of vegetables in the ren faire kitchen, came across an S/S 8 qt steamer at an outlet mall up in Barstow for all of $10.00, bought it and have never looked back. When we replaced our cookware several years ago I kept the steamer that was part of that set for our kitchen. It was last year here on eGullet I first heard of steaming potatoes, in that case for potato salad. I haven't boiled a potato since - and we steam 10 lbs of potatoes every morning of ren faire. The only vegetable that I don't care to steam is Brussels Sprouts. Those get roasted. So the idea that eggs could be steamed seemed reasonable but I wanted to see the results for myself. After yesterday's success with the small batch I have had to beat down the urge to go buy 5 dozed and see how they do, after a week of aging, in the big steamer. Edited to add: I do still simmer asparagus - or cut them up and saute' them. I have never got steaming them right.

Costco eggs for me or from WinCo. Same producer: Hickman Farms. I have been given eggs from friends who have chickens. For my purposes I prefer store-bought. Quick explanation. Each morning during the ren faires I am parts I send out 5 dozen HB eggs as part of a "conteninal" breakfast - muffin bits, crossiants , orange slices and HB eggs. In the spring I need an extra 5 dozen on Sundays because a guild member makes deviled eggs for part of our feast. I like to hard-cook all 15 dozed before going out to faire site just to save my time at faire for other tasks (yay for 8 qt Cambros - they hold 5 dozen eggs). During spring pre-faire (when we participants are creating the faire environment over 4 weekends) our group sells sandwiches as a fund-raiser. That's another 5 dozen per weekend day. That is why a consistent, more efficient way of getting the eggs hard-cooked is so appealing to me.

This is one of my 13 minute eggs. The yolks are fully set but there is no beginning of the grey-green darkening at the outside of the yolk. Peeling eggs is not normally a concern since I age eggs first before hard-cooking them.