marie-louise

Glad to read all the good reviews-we're going there on Christmas Eve.

Dave-one of my friends has a black Marmoleum floor-it might look nice w/ that granite. She must have Nomad, Lava, or black. they will send you samples for free. Lookie here- click on Marmoleum sheet, then Greydations to find the black patterns. http://www.themarmoleumstore.com/websites/...sf?OpenDatabase Edited to add-If I understand you correctly, you can put a shallow cabinet to the right of the subzero unit? I'd suggest a glass-front pantry unit (think China cabinet look.) Handy for storing lots of wine glasses, vases, seldom used serving dishes-things you could arrange that would look nice. You could even put a light in the top of the cabinet & have the shelves be glass. Bookshelves for cookboks would also look cool.

We had a similar experience when we built our beach house-the custom-made cabinets by a local cabinetmaker were actually cheaper than ordering them from a company, plus we got exactly what we wanted. This thread is so much fun. I love spending other people's money.

Glad to see that counter lined up! If you don't have enough marble for the whole baking area, I'd like to suggest laminate in a coordinating color for the rest of that area. It's wonderful for baking-you know you are starting on a clean surface, and it's easy to clean up afterwards. Edited to add-I assume you can put hot pans directly onto marble? Otherwise, you want tile right above the oven... Check out Marmoleum by Forbo. I have a few friends that have it and it looks terrific. PS 45 inches-that's a big sink you have there!

I highly recommend that. I kept giving them away when I got tired of them-but then I wished I'd had them back. Now I store them in the basement. (Oh, and I also got a bigger china cabinet this year. )

Hey, I live less than a mile from the Hayward fault & I still buy lots of dishes! I figure, enjoy them while you have them-they may or may not break someday.

Yes, then he could have one of those nice gas ceramic broilers! Gas ovens heat faster & cook moister-good for roasting. It would be ideal to have one of each. Make sure your pans fit in THAT oven-interior size varies, I believe. Marble baking area-that sounds nice. Okay, when do 'ya start-I want to see the finished pictures!!!

I like all your changes. You can never have too big a pantry! I still wish you'd make that peninsula deeper-so it lines up w the edge of your Sub-Zero on the inside of your kitchen. That way, you will only have to pivot from the stove to get your mise-and the living room side can be set for eating at the same time as you are cooking. A very deep counter is such a useful thing to have in a kitchen. What did the contractor say about the support beam in the middle of the peninsula? Can you strengthen the ceiling so it's not required? That baking area is looking good! Now that you moved the pantry wall and shortened the DW counter, it looks like it belongs there: you've got a main cooking area and another area for baking. Inspired! This would be a nice place for granite.

only if she keeps kosher ... ← Perhaps "need" was the wrong word. Since I'm Jewish, do you think I'm allowed more dishes than gentiles, even if I don't keep kosher?

Among the many colors of Luna I have is Grape-similar to the purple in your picture. Asian stir-fries over white rice looks particular beautiful on this color. So does salmon. Perhaps you need a few more plates?

There's another old thread about this too. I recently posted to it, and despite no one offering me advice to my question, I managed to place yet another order! Here's the thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=6111&hl= Anyway, I have lots of dishes, but my favorite are my pottery by Luna Garcia. I have lots of different colors-I mix and match them like Fiestaware. I also have a set of square black plates for times I want a dramatic presentation. The pictures don't do it justice, but here you go: http://www.lunagarcia.com/index.php?cPath=23 I do own a set of plain white French china (Revol) when only white will do. And then there's my set of Gorham Ariana china for 16 I've had for 25 years. It's fine china but looks relatively casual. Great for Saturday night dinner parties. I have more but that's enough confession for one day. Edited to try & post a picture of Luna Garcia right into my post, but no success. Sigh...

Where do you live? Do you have access to fresh fish? Fish always seems appropriate on NYE-gravlax, oysters, Dungeness crab, etc. I'm thinking of doing one of two things this NYE: the seafood platter from Bouchon (but it's just the two of us-that would get mighty expensive for 30) or an assortment of items from the Trader Vic's article in this month's Saveur Magazine (we used to eat there, including on our wedding night.) Check out the magazine-it would lend itself well to a festive party. You could do the chicken curry as a main course, and the others as appetizers.

Their ice cream could be a little better, but it sure hits the spot after a long hike. My latest obsession after a hike is a Jamba Juice, though. The PERFECT post-hike meal. I am slowly but surely learning the nearest location next to every park in the entire Bay Area.

Yet another possibility: At its heart, America is a Puritan society. eGulleteers aside, I think many people are uncomfortable with pursuing the sensual pleasure of eating on a daily basis. It seems so...WRONG somehow to put food in your mouth that makes you moan with pleasure. Especially at lunch (it's DAYLIGHT, for God's sake.) Better to have an energy bar or a quickie at McDonald's and get back to work. Spending an hour or two eating great food a few times a day seems so...French. Hedonistic. But yet, what is naughty interests us. Therefore, the Food Channel, cooking magazines, etc. BTW, I of course have no idea whether this is even remotely accurate. I just know that I think eating is a sensual pleasure, and I do know that by and large, Americans are uncomfortable with sexuality. It seems plausible.

I have lots of spices that I use infrequently, but still want to keep around. Every year I faithfully reorder all of my spices from Penzey's. While I keep things like whole nutmeg and saffron from year to year, everything else gets tossed once a year. I've been doing this for a few years, and it does indeed make a difference in the finished dish to cook with fresh spices. Now that I'm familiar with how much of a spice I use in a given year, I find that the smallest size of most things is enough to last the whole year. Since the smallest size of most of Penzey's spices cost $1.00-$2.00, I don't feel guilty about using them infrequently and tossing a mostly full container in the trash. I think my entire order, including shipping, was about $100. this year. I think that's a reasonable investment for a year's worth of cooking and baking.

Lucky you. He'll get enough practice at the party so you can eat them as appetizers often. (help keep his skills up.) I hate to admit that anything tastes better outside my beloved California, but Washington oysters are the best. I spend a weekend in Seaview WA a few years ago, God those oysters were good!

My [multi-ethnic] department recently had an ethnic potluck. You were supposed to "bring something from your culture to share." Now, I wasn't there, so I can't personally vouch for the quality of the food, but people are still talking about how much fun and interesting it was, so I guess the food was pretty good. I mean, it does cut down on the chips-and-dips or diet soda offering-kinda embarrassing to say that is representative of your family's cultural heritage.

But the wasabi peas are always what's left at the bottom of the bowl of Japanese snack mix. ← I must be the only one in the world who likes them then. Soba ← No-I love them too. I think that's an inspired addition.

God, I haven't had this in a decade or so and now MUST HAVE NOW!!! PS The website you posted has lots of variations. Some of them are scary. Edited to add-I dug up my old recipe for this. I used 1 box (7 cups) each kind of the three cereals, some pretzels, some nuts, and this for the seasonings: 1 cup margerine (I must have substituted butter, though) 2 tbsp. Tabasco 1/4-1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce 2-3 tsp. chili powder 1 tsp. salt That must make it nice & spicy, although I don't remember it being too hot. I wonder what a little Chipotle powder at the end would do? Fresh rosemary, perhaps-I make some spicy nuts that use fresh rosemary. Or is that just too modern? I'm going to try it w/ all pecans.

Ah, I don't go to Costco. I was thinking prices at Safeway or the local butcher/ neighborhood store.

I assume you're fast at shucking oysters, otherwise that's a LOT of people to be serving oysters for. How many are you planning to buy? I'd be cranky shucking that many oysters; I'd probably serve a lot of cold poached shrimp w/ a dipping sauce or two instead. Now, if I was your guest I'd be a happy camper. I love oysters. I like to make my mignonette sauce w/ part wine & part wine vinegar-it mellows it out some. (Your whole menu looks wonderful, BTW.)

I wasn't thinking so much of the recognition as much as, was your meal "typical" of what I might expect to experience if I went there w/ my husband? We've talked about this on the general board before-is there such a thing as a "VIP meal," or is the quality of the cooking the quality of the cooking, period? In your case, with 14 people eating different meals, I'm wondering if that was hard enough for the chef that some of the courses may have suffered, no matter who you were. It is truly amazing to me that he could serve this meal to all of you, cook for I.R., not to mention our very own tanabutler, and who ever else was in the restaurant at the time.

I am always amazed how much more things cost in CA. I think we had a thread a while back on milk prices, and CA milk costs another dollar or two a gallon. Sigh... living in paradise ain't cheap.

Wow-that's cheap! I think that large producer whole chickens are closer to $2/pound here. The organic ones I buy are $4/ pound, but [compared to other cuts of meat] I still consider that a bargain-you can get 4-6 servings from a nice 4 lb. roast chicken. A good roast chicken makes a bargain meal for company, along w/ lamb shanks & white beans or braised chicken thighs w/ legs attached.

Those are my two favorites too-and I have about a dozen vegetable cookbooks, since I belonged to a CSA for many years and needed to learn how to cook a wide range of vegetables. I'll check out Heidi's book, but I am soooo behind on reading the cookbooks I've bought this year that it may be a while.