Marlene

I use the westbend bread machine. I have a friend who has a son who is wheat and gluten sensitive and we both use spelt all the time. It comes out great in a bread machine. Just cut back by about an ounce on any water or milk you use. Another option for flour is a flour called or made by Hockley Valley. I can get it here in Ontario, but I couldn't swear to other places!

Potato Salad

How wonderful! Enjoy it.

This is the write up on it: The Wine breatheasy is designedto open the wine out and allow oxygen in the air to improve the drinkability of most wines, without harming or introducing any undesirable elements to the wine. It is especially successful with wines which will improve with breathing, but you don't have time to decant and leave for hours at a time. These include wines consumed befor their peak, wine with a pronounced tannin and acid palate or wines which have spent a long time in the bottle. When using the breatheasy in conjunction with a decanter, the wine balloons across the decanter's neck and is encouraged to cascade down the interior walls of the decanter. This increases the surface area exposure to oxygen. A filter fitted to the top of the unit catches any cork or sediment. The displaced air from within the decanter then bubbles back through the wine balloon, further assisting the wine to breathe.

We first noticed the Breatheasy at the Ruth's Chris in New York a couple of months ago. The waiter there said they were just starting to use them. This past Sat I took a large group to the Ruth's Chris in Toronto and they were using them there as well. The General Manager is a friend of mine and I asked her if I could buy one from her since we have been unable to find them in the retail market. She generously gave me one and we love it! They are made in Australia breathing Opinions from wine experts?

Skim milk and fried fish. Any kind. When growing up, my parents went on Weight Watchers. Back then, this is what most of that program consisted of. And even worse, for some reason, they made up big batches of powdered skim milk. Ugh.

In this case, Miracle Whip does work. I know I know. I don't normally use it either, but it fits in this salad. Here's the receipe. Try it once before completely condemning the Miracle Whip. Honest. Reprinted from Ann Hodgman's "Beat That!" cookbook. I"ve adapted it slightly 8 med sized red potatoes, boiled in their jackets 3 oz garlic ring sausage (Keilbassa) 3 slices thick-cut bacon, diced, cooked until done, but not too crispy, and drained well. 1 medium tomato, deglopped and chopped 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped 1 med dill pickle, drained and minced 2 tablespoons minced onion 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives or minced scallion tops salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 2/3 cup myaonnaise 1/3 cup miracle whip In a large bowl, mix everything together except the mayonaise and miracle whip. Add the mayonnaise and miracle whip. For moister salad, use more of these in equal parts. Chill the salad for several hours or up to 3 days, but bring it back to room temperature before you serve it If you can't find garlic sausage in the States, you can substitute salami and add a glove of minced garlic.

I usually use Red potatoes. They seem to hold their shape better, and I don't peel them. I also use bacon in my salad as well as keilbassa. I take tubs of this salad to picnics and potlucks, and there is never any left over.

What a great idea! hmmmm, now where to put them?

It looks wonderful Rachel!

Most of the ones I have seen installed are in the smaller sink. I'd put it in the sink you use the least.

Steak.

Barberians is very good as is Harbour Sixty. Both are open on Sunday

Marlene--I think you should seriously consider getting a different kitchen designer. From what you've said she's not listening to you (#1 sign of a bad designer) and doesn't have much of a clue as far as layout. Has she given you any explanation of why she thinks the sink shouldn't go under the window? Does she have a track record? Did you check her references? Even if she's doing "design only" she should be able to recommend a Silestone fabricator for you. Try calling around to local granite and stone dealers/fabricators. You read my mind! That is exactly what I'll be doing. These people are supposedly well known in kitchen design. However, you're right, she's not listening. (She really hates it when I don't like her ideas). They've been around for 10 years or so and yes, I checked her references. I've paid for the plans,so I've been fighting with the designer to get them the way I want them, since I will be taking them elsewhere. In addition, these people are about $30,000 higher than the people I will likely end up using. The difference? The ones I want to do the work are small, unknown craftsmen (brothers) who make everything by hand. No contest. I've seen their work, and the fit and finish is exceptional. As for Silestone, I have a couple of granite people looking into it. It's widely available in the States but not yet in Ontario. The (current) kitchen designer seems to think I should use granite or limestone.... my one counter will run about 14 ft long and the island is 10 ft. There's no way I can get a single piece of 14 ft counter, (for one thing, It won't fit through the door into the kitchen!) And this is supposed to be the fun part

Of course, I forgot you aren't finished yet. That is also my concern about granite. I'm still working on sourcing Silestone here. Of course at the rate we are going, we'll still be designing it this time next year. ..

It is French Canadian in origin, and I'm one of those who swear AT it. Ugh.

Sounds wonderful Rachel! Kim WB, decorators drive me crazy! I've spent 20 years working with them in commercial design and construction and now, in doing my own kitchen, it's even worse! Some designers are great, but most tend to want to go for that "funky" look regardless of whether it works well in design or not. For example, in the first design plan of our new kitchen, the designer placed the wall ovens on one side of the island and the cook top on the other side of the island, forcing me to walk around the island to get from cooktop to oven to check on things. Not a very efficent work triangle. And she insists on moving my sink. I keep moving it back. I think she's got something against it being under my kitchen window. We are now on the 12th plan......sigh. And I have a huge kitchen with plenty of space to work with here... Rachel, a quick question on your countertop. Is is all one piece? One of my countertops is going to be quite long which means it can't be all one piece granite, so we'll have a seam in it. How visible are seams in granite?

We have a specialty grocer here who sells items not usually available in supermarkets and they make their own stocks to sell as well. I'll use one of thiers in a pinch, when I don't have time, especially for French Onion Soup.

Perhaps I shouldn't mention that I have 3 fridges (ok, we use 2 of them for "beverages" most of the time). I refridgerate eggs, soy sauce, maple syrup, mayonaise, tomatos and salsa after opening. Mustards, relishes, ketchup, and salad dressings after opening as well.

I figure the alcohol is courting liver damage anyway. However, 3 regular asperin will work just as well.

Spareribs baked in saurkraut. Nobody in my family will eat it except me. I always make it when no one is home. For my husband it's creamed corn. He always waits till I'm out of town on business to have his "creamed corn and movie night" fest.

WE have one restaurant here that has started doing the "I need the table back" routine. We've been frequent customers of this upscale (read not cheap) place for several years, but we've stopped going there because of this.

I ate lots of leftovers when I was younger. My mother managed to do great things with them. Now I feel guilty if I don't try to use my own leftovers even though I can afford not to. Of course, often they just live in the fridge for a week and then get thrown away but it's a token gesture at not subscribing to the "consume, consume and dispose" mentality. So did I and they don't bother me. Now, I just try to cook so that there aren't too many leftovers unless they are something I'll eat myself for lunches.

I thought that would work the other way round... I think it's because they ate leftovers all the time. Now that he doesn't have to, he's not going to!

Right now, we have a water cooler at home and we use the bottled water for everything more or less. In our new kitchen design, we are going to install the Moen Pure touch faucet with a button for filtered water, and we'll give up the water cooler. I got the water cooler when I joined weight watchers and had to drink all that water every day. I quickly grew to love drinking water. Filtered or bottled water to me anyway, tastes much better, and makes coffee taste better too.