Marlene's Kitchen Renovation

[Marlene]

I'm in, and the kitchen is pretty much organized. The range works, but I haven't had a chance to cook anything on it. I think Don is actually going to make breakfast in the morning, and I'll be off to the butcher to get a nice prime rib for Sunday dinner, so I can test drive the oven. Pics tomorrow sometime.

[snowangel]

Strikes me that YOU need to test those burners with some fried chicken. Leftovers would make a wonderful lunch to sustain you while you unpack...

Edited March 26, 2005 by snowangel (log)

[Marlene]

I'm pretty sure my cast iron pan is still at the other house. I don't have the energy to do fried chicken! Maybe one day next week.

[Marlene]

Finally. Most of the boxes are unpacked, and I was able to take some time to actually cook a meal in the new house. Before I get into that, I want to show you the other cool kitchen appliance I aquired for the new house. After years of digging in my chest freezer, pulling out everything in there to see what I've got, finally, a stand up self defrosting freezer:

I love being able to look inside and see at a glance, what's in there.

My baby, in it's new home, waiting for me to turn it on:

Easter dinner. Prime Rib. This is a 4 bone, 9 lb Prime Rib. Dinner for three anyone? I've put the potatoes in with the roast. The white blob you see is a bit of lard that I always add when I roast potatoes in the pan with the roast.

Pime Rib:

Roast potatoes:

Broccol with hollandaise:

Yorkshire pudding (not the best I've ever made)

Gravy (of course)

Me, trying to do everything at once!

Ryan wanted a Roy Rogers, but we were out of orange juice. Instead, Don made him a pitcher of some sort of concoction he made up. I think it had, ginger ale, grenedine, tropicana twister and a couple of other things in it. Ryan loved it.

I, on the other hand, felt it was time for a special red wine. A 1998 Barolo.

What can I say. I love this range. Not having cooked a lot on gas before, I was concerned about timing for steaming the brocoli, making gravy and melting the butter for the hollandaise. A piece of cake I found, because I was able to regulate the temperature on each burner.

I used pure convection for the roast. This oven differs somewhat from the KA. With the KA, I used a 300 degree convection roast setting at 22 minutes per pound.

The dacor cookbook recommends pure convection at 350 for 10 minutes then 325 pure convection for the rest of the time. Of course, I ignored that, and set it at my usual 300 degrees., using 22 minutes per pound. I found about an hour into it, that they were right, and I moved the temp up to 325. I did use an oven thermometer to test the temp, and it was bang on the whole time.

I have a new love. It's name is Dacor.

[snowangel]

A toast to your new love. Dacor. I think we have roughly the same granite counters. .

[Varmint]

I'm envious of your kitchen, Marlene. Only 2 more weeks before mine is done -- DONE, I said!

[Marlene]

Thanks Dean, I can't wait to see your pictures! In the meantime, the oven doctor is coming tomorrow since my range's calibration seems to have taken on a life of it's own!

[fifi]

Among friends and acquaintances with new ovens, this seems to be a common problem. I do recall that I had to fiddle with calibrating the oven when I moved into the house. I was able to do it myself after *gasp* reading the manual. Is it some kind of oven manufacturer's rule? Do they take an oath . . . "I will never ship an oven that is calibrated."

[Marlene]

Among friends and acquaintances with new ovens, this seems to be a common problem. I do recall that I had to fiddle with calibrating the oven when I moved into the house. I was able to do it myself after *gasp* reading the manual. Is it some kind of oven manufacturer's rule? Do they take an oath . . . "I will never ship an oven that is calibrated."

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You'd think for the price of this thing, it would be picture perfect upon arrival. I did in fact read the manual. There is nothing to be found in there about calibration at all.

[fifi]

Well . . . my oven was a cheap builder's model. When I get my really good ones, I'm having the service guy out from day one. I am getting pretty paranoid about appliances, thermometers and any such measuring devices' accuracy. I am going to order a set of certified laboratory thermometers and be done with it.

[Varmint]

Marlene-

Check page 11 of your owner's manual under the heading, "Adjusting the oven temperature."

[Marlene]

Well what do you know? I swear I looked!

[Marlene]

Woohoo! The island arrived today! They pulled the power for it earlier in the week. The granite should be here Monday or Tuesday, and by Wednesday the whole thing should be installed and ready to use!

Meanwhile, it's a beautiful day here, and we are going to entertain for the first time in our new home.

Since it's so nice, we'll be doing a bbq. The ribs are marinating, the potato salad, the coleslaw, and the marinated tomato and onion salads are made. I've made cheese straws, and tortilla crisps and I'll do a baked brie in phyllo as well.

I'll even try to take pics and post them later.

[Safran]

Woohoo!  The island arrived today!  They pulled the power for it earlier in the week.  The granite should be here Monday or Tuesday, and by Wednesday the whole thing should be installed and ready to use!

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So how is the island?? And how did those ribs turn out? Are you finding the flow of your new kitchen comfortable? Are you thinking of other changes or adjustments?

[Marlene]

The island is sitting in my kitchen waiting for the granite. I'm given to understand it will be tomorrow (I hope) that everything is completed. They made one mistake when they built in and put in a cupboard instead of a 4 drawers, but that's an easy fix.

The dinner was lovely, but the pics sucked big time so I'm not posting them. I let one of our friends take the pictures that night, and I know this is hard to believe, but they're even worse than the pictures I take.

I love the kitchen. Workflow has been a little tricky when I need to plug something in like my KA or deep fryer. The closest plug to my workspace is a bit far and I'm needing a power bar right now to make it work properly. This will be solved by the island when it's ready, as it's an ideal space to work at. In addition, I'm going to have them run another outlet to just under the breakfast bar to help with this sort of thing.

The dishwasher is a little small. It won't take my baking sheets which causes me no end of grief and I don't think it will take my stockpot either, unless I can take the top rack out. I find I run the dishwasher two or three times a day, especially if I'm in a heavy baking/cooking mode because it doesn't handle as many things as my old one did. On the plus side, it's whisper quiet.

The fridge is also a little smaller than we're used to and since there's room for a bigger one, that is likely on the list of things to replace in the next year or so. This one will go downstairs to act as a holding fridge for food when I'm entertaining.

We are planning a housewarming party in early June, and right now, we are looking at having Ruth's Chris cater it. That should be interesting! As soon as the island is installed, I'll get some pictures up of it and the rest of the kitchen now that it's all put together.

The one thing I haven't had time to do is test drive the ceramic gas broiler. The book doesn't give a whole lot of instructions, but I think that baby gets pretty hot!

[Varmint]

The fridge is also a little smaller than we're used to and since there's room for a bigger one, that is likely on the list of things to replace in the next year or so.  This one will go downstairs to act as a holding fridge for food when I'm entertaining.

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A "holding" fridge??? That's a beer fridge to me!

[Marlene]

I already have two beer fridges

[Marlene]

I'm still waiting on granite for the island, but I've moved in anyway. The stuff you see in the drawers and cupboards here will likely change by next week as I get used to using this space.

The island sans granite. Yes the ugly thing on the side is the outlet.

The side facing into the kitchen. It has a cupboard on one side and a utility drawer and two pot drawers on the other side.

The other side of the island

This is the cupboard that will become 4 drawers

Double sided spice rack. Oh gee, I have room for more.

And two pull outs

A better view of the breakfast bar. We have new barstools ordered to match the cabinets, but they still haven't arrived.

our funky lighting

pop and wine fridges

micowave and second oven

The range again. Just because :biggrin. the contractor took down the valance on the right hand side and shaved a bit off so my coffee maker would fit underneath. Note to fifi. Make sure valances are high enough for coffeemakers and other equipement

This is where I store most of my bakeware:

The far side of the kitchen. The desk area. The cookbooks are the ones I use the most. The rest are up in my office.

The stereo actually has a small tv screen that flips down.

So there you have it. I'll post one more pic when ever I get the granite. It should be sometime this century

In the meantime, dinner for 8 tomorrow. I've got the most beautiful, 5 bone prime rib.

[snowangel]

Wow!

Yes, Ode to Tupperware.

No, as one who is living in an outlet impaired kitchen, that outlet on the island is not ugly. It looks like heaven.

Want to come and help me get more organized?

[fifi]

I am making notes on my blueprints as we type. I am adding power strips everywhere. Especially on the island. Sheesh. Between Marlene and Varmint, you guys have saved me a lot of grief. And I thought I had everything well thought out.

[Marlene]

I had the electrician add an outlet underneath the breakfast bar today as well. You can never have too many outlets!

[Marlene]

Once I get the granite, I'll tell you my contractor stories.

[Marlene]

Wow!

Yes, Ode to Tupperware.

No, as one who is living in an outlet impaired kitchen, that outlet on the island is not ugly.  It looks like heaven.

Want to come and help me get more organized?

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'

You should see my other cupboards where the rest of my tupperware lives. I'll come help you get organized any time!

[snowangel]

Repeat after me. You can never have enough outlets. You can never have enough outlets.

Outlets are not ugly. They are wonderful. Outlets are not ugly. They are wonderful.

Trust me. I went from beaucoup outlets to one four-plex, one duplex. Neither conventiently placed. That's it. It's awful. It's a whole mess of work to rip holes in drywall, run wire, get it plugged into the right circuit, etc.

I gave up countless miles of countertop. Countless square feet of cabinet and cupboard space. For far less.

But, what I miss the most is those outlets that were everywhere that you could imagine. Put in three times as many outlets as you think you need, fifi.

[Genny]

And I get teased for using my P-Touch to label my canisters...I love it Marlene, it is just beautiful. I'm looking forward to redoing our kitchen to, hopefully it will be in this decade!