pearmelon's Profile

Beautiful home, and adorable dog!

Your 20" oven will probably not be big enough, but I would highly recommend cooking a whole fish in a salt crust. Leave the scales on as this protects the flesh from becoming too salty. Once cooked, the skin becomes slightly leathery, and just peels off to reveal moist, meltingly tender flesh. Serve outdoors if possible - you will get salt everywhere when you break open the crust.

Most of these seem carb heavy, so not light in my book. For me, light means lean meat or fish with greens/salad - it's more satisfying too.

Use free range organic eggs, lots of butter, salt and pepper in a non-stick pan, and take eggs off the heat whilst still soft.

Intensely flavoured or highly aromatic ingredients such as capers, olives, anchovies, fermented black beans, parmesan cheese, saffron, truffle oil, zeresk berries, sun dried tomatoes, dried mushrooms - the list is endless! No need to worry about calories as you only need very small amounts.

I find it easier to shop every day, and cook according to what is fresh/seasonal/on offer or to satisfy a sudden craving for a particular food. I find that this allows for greater variety in our meals. We don't tend to plan social activities either, and often find ourselves doing things last minute so it's easier not to be tied to a rigid meal plan.

I like the combination of the dark, smokey grey with cool white marble and stainless steel in numbers 2 and 10. I love having grey in my kitchen, it's very calming.

@Braisenwoman Try Remodelista.com for great house tours

Rice (all varieties) is OK for 48 in the fridge. Any longer, and it becomes hard and dry, not to mention issues of food safety. It takes about 20 minutes to make a pan of fresh rice on the hob.

I'm worried that I'm turning into my MIL. She has given us lots of furnishings (not all to my taste, but some very nice pieces), and is inclined to tell us how to arrange our furniture, even where to hang pictures! It's not too much of a problem because I'm pretty useless at knowing how to best place furniture and artwork. She's also a neat freak, borderline OCD, which I will never be no matter how hard I try.