muse2323's Profile

Grew up in Ohio calling it "pop" but then my sister moved to North Carolina and for some reason I now tend to call it "soda," even though I live in British Columbia, where it's called "pop." In fact, my husband and I were on a new ferry and he said the interior was done by Americans; I asked how he knew and he pointed to the words stenciled around the upper border in the cafe--it said "soda."

Most often though, I just call it by its brand name. "Do you want a Barq's?" or "A Vernors sounds really good right now."

When this house's previous owners decided to add on to the house, they added a dining room to the kitchen, which is great. But they put in flourescent lighting and made it so we have to replace parts of the paneled ceiling if we want to install a light fixture centered over our table, because they cut holes in the paneling instead of doing the wiring properly. Also, they failed to put a window in the only south-facing wall; there is a door, but that doesn't do anything for my seedlings in the spring. (This year I'm winter sowing and putting it all outside early to see if that works for me.)

I have a glasstop stove, which I was excited about when we moved into the house, but it took all of about three months to become disenchanted with it. It really sucks for making jams & jellies, as my husband tends to let things boil over. I'm hoping when this stove (a Kenmore) kicks it, we'll be in a position to consider gas. I like the glasstop better than the usual coils, though.

My mom has these flatt-ish burners--no idea what they're called--that she feels about much as I feel about the glasstop. Her burners take awhile to heat up and cool down (and the only indicator on her stove that they're on is that the red spot in the middle gets dark), but they're not coils and are much easier to clean. I'd rather have burners like hers than coils again, but I don't think I'd trade my glasstop for them.

I haven't, because I haven't seen it anywhere I've been, but I have seen it used on the food channels and I think it looks wonderful.

They're not dinnerware, per se, but Williams-Sonoma has this set of colorful bowls that my mom has--and I want! They call them ceramic mixing bowls, but they'd be serving bowls for me! (Mom uses the biggest bowl to make fruit an accessible snack in her kitchen.)

LOL--I just have a board titled "Mmmmmm"

hazel8--I sharpen any of my knives if they won't easily slice through softer fruits like tomatoes. Even those handy little $1 or $2 paring knives with the plastic handles get sharpened on my stainless steel sharpener till they're useless little nubs and I have to buy another knife and start over again.

My mom made one and just printed it on card stock (each page is half a sheet of letter-size paper) and put it in a little two-ring binder. She illustrated a different cover for each of us. (Or at least, she's supposed to have. So far, only one of us has cover art.) I love it, because this way it's totally changeable. She can send us new recipes to put in it, we can make our own additions, and also we can reorganize the book as befits our own organizational styles.

I love the whimsy of them--I'd love to have giant Lego boxes stacked in my pantry. They'd make me smile.

Planning or Christmas travel now, and have discovered that O'Hare doesn't have much going for it in terms of food options. Thanks for the snack suggestions!