weinoo

NYC apartments - as you know, you gotta use every little nook and cranny and square inch.

Now that the kitchen is done, I'm actually doing a bit of cooking again. I don't know what came over me, but this is a vegan meal we had a few nights ago. That's a saffron tinged fried rice, with mushrooms and peas. Next to it, a salad, dressed with a homemade avocado based dressing, that we also dipped steamed artichokes into. And tonight, we had... Tuscan white bean soup, using Rancho Gordo beans, of course. Served with some CSO roasted broccolini. There's a tiny bit of ham in that soup, and it was dressed with parmesan - I'm not totally nuts.

Absolutely. I will not do myself harm. Everybody else should simply stay away from the knives. Yes, both fridge doors open to their maximum. The fridge extends beyond the depth of the wall just far enough for the doors. The wall on the other side is actually 6" away; I wanted that space to keep my step ladder! Here's the right side fridge door, fully opened. And here's the niche for my step ladder.

You know it...and I still use it practically every day.

for all intents and purposes, the project is finished. I have not yet paid the final bills for either my designer/architect nor contractor, as I'm waiting to get the final signed off document from our Department of Buildings. I'll need that to show the coop, which will also get me my deposit back. In any event, a few pics; I've not yet settled on where everything goes (that's gonna take a while), and I'm only a little aggravated about a few things. Like the above. Note the height of the shelf to the left of the range, and the shelf on the range itself. Wolf sells that riser with shelf - it's a 20" riser with shelf. So I figured the shelf would be at 20", which is the height of the shelf to the left of the range ( and nowhere on the documents or drawings was this made clear). Obviously, it's not, and though I could retrofit the shelf to sit higher on the riser (by drilling a few new holes into the riser), I'm just going to get used to it as it is. From the opposite side: I really like these custom inserts, and at some point, everything will be in its proper place. I could be really anal and get all matching spice/herb jars, but really? And a bit of the other side... Starting to come together. The drawer inserts are all from a company called Drawer Essentials, and they did a very nice job.

Ya think?!

Just think of it as your hands are providing you with free velcro.

Your wish... "Puff pastry and other layered doughs have their own imported rolling pin that does a masterful job of spreading the chilled butter beneath the dough. It has 3/16-inch grooves running lengthwise on the 4-pound plastic roller and is made by a French firm, Tutove. It is very expensive, but worth it if you are deep into puff pastry. The twenty two rounded ribs separating the grooves push the butter ahead as the pin is rolled. With it there is less wear and tear on both the dough and the butter. The butter always seems to be better behaved under its influence." (weinoo - and who doesn't want to see butter better behaved!)

Just to throw a monkey wrench into this discussion, I've added some microfiber non-dish towels into my towel drawer. With so much stainless steel in our new kitchen, and after reading a bunch of stuff about how best to keep it (somewhat) clean, I purchased a stack of these. They're great - I've used them on the frigde, on the surface of the range, on countertops, etc. Miraculously, they appear to clean with only water - who knew? So they've earned a place alongside my tea towels (ok, I don't have any of those), dish towels, hand towels, and all other towels located in my kitchen towel drawer. What's nice is that they come in a variety of colors, so they're easily distinguishable from the real dish towels, and quick to grab. They do, however, suffer from shrinkage, when drying in the clothes dryer....

I usually remove most of what fell there might be, and I'm a big fan of lamb neck for stew. Also, I remove any obvious weird veiny stuff, but cartilage, etc. all adds to the body of said stew, in my opinion. In the absence of neck, shoulder is my next go-to cut, and there is nothing quite as delicious as a slow roasted lamb shoulder.

Just to assuage anyone's fear... Turns out I have plenty of room with all the new drawers, Above, at least 2 dozen towels of varying quality. At the bottom of that pile, some very nice, practically new cotton flour sack towels. I only use them to dry and store greens. Below, overflow in the drawer below - at least another dozen towels. And 3 or 4 aprons.

I too believe it's the quality of the chicken. There's a big difference, in my area, between what I can get at the grocery store(Perdue) vs.when I go buy a fresh killed bird at La Pera Poultry. But barring that drive, I can usually get a good Bell & Evans product closer to home, and if I'm desperate, a kosher bird will suffice.

I love my egg slicer. I have a vintage-ish German one. But I use it to slice eggs and use them that way; for egg salad, I usually mush up the eggs with a fork!

Do I have an issue with my Steam Girl?? The other day I cooked up 4 chicken thighs, on the steam bake setting. After 20 minutes, they were sitting in a pool of liquid, at least 1/2" high. This is not the first time that's happened recently, when cooking stuff on steam/bake. My CSO is 4 years old, and has seen a lot of use. I'm wondering if it is malfunctioning; and if so, has it bought the farm?

Also, the allegedly baste themselves. When I lived in San Jose, with a backyard, Weber and a beautiful Char-Broil wood-fired grill, that had a rotisserie. Anything you made on that, with real charcoal and/or wood. was pretty damn delicious.

No, not necessarily any downside. But in my case, there is a storage space issue. Our apartment would probably not contain all of @andiesenji's towels . And our beach house...oh right, it's non-existent.

I would think there are splatters from any rotisserie. I mean, there are splatters when cooking a whole chicken in the oven, not on a rotisserie.

Yes - don't all of these damn things splatter grease? I was unable to sleep last night - that Phillips piece of crap is all over the TV infomercials.

I definitely use dish towels to dry dishes; even coming out of the dishwasher, my dishes can have a little water or dampness on them. And the stuff I wash by hand generally gets washed, dried and put away fairly quickly. Stuff such as knives, wooden spoons, the pots and pans which don't go in the dishwasher, etc. etc.

But I buy dish towels to really be dish towels. Yet I can't seem to throw them away!

Okay, another banal topic. But as I'm unpacking boxes and boxes of kitchen stuff, in order to reset my kitchen, I see that I have more than just a few dish towels. I mean, I didn't justpack a bunch of dish towels, I literally used them as packing material as well. I have dish towels that are older than some members here. They look filthy, even after being washed. I have dish towels purchased in Paris, at the Marché Bastille. (They shrunk to half their original size, after a run through the washer and dryer). Dish towels from when I was in cooking school (though they may have been called side towels then). Dish towels from Italy. Dish towels from Spain. China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (though not from trips there). So - how many dish towels does a normal person have? And, for how long does that sane, normal person keep them? Like, what's the final straw when you decide the dish towel is ready for the garbage, or some other unfortunate fate?

Nice!

Funny, I always feel like I'm going to spill the stemless glasses. And I don't really like the fact that if you're drinking a properly chilled white, or a cellar temperature red, the hand warms both up.

At our niece and nephew's shop (Pop + Dutch) in Provincetown (now closed for the season), they sell a house made pimento cheese. And they were happy to offer the recipe here: So, this is a gigantic proportion, but: 5 lbs. sharp yellow cheddar, shredded in the food pro 2lbs. roasted red peppers, diced 3.5 cups mayo ½ Tbsp. cayenne ½ Tbsp. Tabasco I'm pretty sure the mayo is Duke's, too.