weinoo

Maybe thinner discs and just pan fry them? Otherwise, yeah, meat glue.

Wait...you cooked?

Almost the same!

You know, all this time @Ann_T, I thought you lived in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

Here in NYC, I can usually find some pretty decent quality picked/pasteurized blue crab, which makes for good crab cakes and I imagine would be good for a crab spread. I see it at whole foods; it's perishable (not canned), kept in a refrigerated section in plastic containers. They sell backfin, claw, lump, jumbo lump. Stuff is not cheap. Here's just one source: http://www.lintonseafood.com/maryland_crab_meat_s/21.htm

I'm so tired I just want to go out to eat. But...once it's done...

Starting to look a little more like an in-use kitchen.

I think it's the best tasting crustacean on the planet. Its yield is about the same as northern Atlantic lobsters.

A NORC is a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, first investigated in Boston (I think). NORC

Never plan on selling (why would we leave NYC, with everything we need minutes away (walking or ordered in) and our own little NORC?), so we plan on enjoying it in situ. The bench is constructed of Durock, sealed with some stuff that's used on the lining of pools, and covered with big sheets of the same tile used on the floor, with the edge eased. Originally, the plan was to do a floating, wall-mounted bench, but the wall wasn't going to have anything to do with that! I should say the bench is framed in wood, constructed of Durock, etc. etc.

For the shower/bathroom floor, we used this...Opus tile, 2" x 2". The shower surround is Cumulus stack tile, 3/8" x 2". The design is stacked, to go along with the stacked subway tiles (4.25" x 12.75") in the rest of the bathroom. And the grout lines line up pretty well all the way through. Kitchen subway is 4.25" x 8.5".

Thanks. It was all about the storage, because I have what some might think is too much stuff! The flooring in the shower does look great - and this evening I will take my first shower in there! It's the same as what is used to cover the bench and the threshold, except in 2x2 mosaic. The mosaic on the shower walls drove the tile guys nuts. They must've done certain areas 4 times over...I imagine the prep of the walls was less than perfect, but in the end, even that looks good.

Thank you. I use both mineral oil and the combo product when I feel it needs it - I actually warm the beeswax stuff up first before applying it. It's actually a Kitchen Aid and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. We had an Amana for a dozen years or so, and it never let me down, so I stuck with that line. Significant Eater does not cook. She boils water. Sometimes.

So you're glad I didn't opt for the blue ones .

Because once cooks started to think they were rock stars, they got way too inked. They're not rock stars; they're fucking cooks. Whether or not you can stomach Sarah or Ming isn't the point; they knew how to cook, and weren't involved in food fights.

Gimme a David Rosengarten, Sarah Moulton (who learned at the hands of the master), Ming, any day. And obviously Jacques and Julia. Funny how they could cook without tattoos. I stopped watching Food network a very long time ago.

Some more pix. LED track lights. My pegboard (stainless steel) corner. Designer kept trying to talk me out of pegboard. I found this company online, ordered it, and guess what - he actually likes it (like I care if he likes something or not). Walk in shower. Temporary vanity, only standing on legs, not attached to wall. Dimmable lights; here my designer did a good job by finding these. Custom floating wood shelves. All kitchen stuff, packed into our bedroom (which we are moving back into tonight). Obligatory range shot. Shelf to be added as soon as I can get all that damn protective covering off the riser.

Thanks - please show us that forum.

Thank you! I think the thing about designing a kitchen is that it's very personal, certainly based on the way one cooks. I tend to cook alone, so this works nicely for me. The kitchen is almost 14' long by about 7'6"...we picked up a little space by moving the doorway to the middle, and also when we knocked down the wet wall it was rebuilt adding about 2" width. The cabinets are actually a light grey, and the counter top is Caesarstone's raw concrete, a nice matte. I'll take some bathroom pictures this afternoon; I'm attempting to at least clean enough for us to be able to move back in, though I'm sure the place will get messy when the contractors come back to finish working. At which point I'll really take some pix!

Thanks. I think I did a halfway decent job on the design of the kitchen, especially for its utility. The designers certainly worked their magic with the lighting.

The "still-to-do" list is long, with things like finishing the kitchen tile/grout, fixing the smallish hole in our bedroom wall, which I hadn't noticed until yesterday (it came from the installation of the shower door - the walls in our building suck) and restoring the electricity that somehow got cut-off where it feeds to my desk/office area, but we are finally able to move back into our apartment over the next few days (as it was promised to me by Christmas). So while we won't be totally finished by year-end, which was my goal, we'll be damn close. The punch list (one or two cabinet panels, touch up paint, floor molding, final finish on the kitchen floor, mounting hanging rails, etc.) is what I'd normally expect a punch list to be. By the way, if I ever do this again, shoot me. You'd think one would learn after doing this once with our full-gut reno of an apartment in DC, but it's amazing what contractors can come up with to give you agita (like how do you lose the Franke stopper for the Franke drain for the Franke sink? Morons.) The vanity/washbasin nightmare that exists in our bathroom (vanity arrived damaged from Germany, after waiting for it for 10 weeks) has been temporarily solved, as we got a floor model loaner from the plumbing supply store (and it actually looks ok). The last few days have been crazy; the cabinet/drawer fronts and panels arrived Tuesday, and were installed by Wednesday evening, since no one plans to be here today or during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day (though the electrician may come by on Friday). We still owe a fair chunk of change to our contractors (over 30% of the cost) and "project managers," which won't get paid till the job is done to my satisfaction, so at least I have that going for me - they'll all come back. And I think it will have been worth the wait. Or at least I hope it will have... The perspective of the sink in the top picture is interesting, as the sink is actually quite a bit larger than our old one. And all the LED overhead lights have not yet been installed, nor have they been adjusted to the right locations. That's my trusty 15-year old Miele vacuum, which I think will see a lot of use this weekend. That custom-made 9' wooden shelf in the second picture is gorgeous; it has dimmable LED lighting in a channel underneath, and it will get a hanging rail on the wall underneath it as well. I'm using the Rösle open kitchen rail system, mostly just with hooks. Oh - two things: 1. If I never see a contractor again (at least not once the job is finished), I won't be upset. 2. Wouldn't it be nice if ceilings, floors and walls in NYC buildings were actually square and level? They're not. Merry Christmas!

It had definitely been ground to flour.

Not that this helps answer the question much, but I sometimes shop in a Russian supermarket out in Coney Island. Their bread selection is quite amazing, and the last time I was there, a woman was offering samples and selling bread made with sprouted grains. Took some home, and toasted it was really great.

I actually will not cut/chop much, if at all, on the butcher block - I have a beautiful, end grain, thick cutting board for that, from the Boardsmith in Pennsylvania. And for real chopping, such as hacking up a chicken, I pull out an old wood or plastic board and a heavy Chinese cleaver, and go to town!

This arrived, and is being given some extra tlc before I let it get installed. It's from a woodworking company in Massachusetts, called Sprague Woodworking. Maple, beautiful job they did. Got it when they said I would, just 2 weeks from the date of order until delivery. Quite reasonable. What does everyone think - can you over-oil a board?