EllieA's Profile

I keep big serving bowls, a fish poacher and some terra-cotta bakers on open glass shelving because I like the look of it. Above the cabinets I have kept baskets and still have some rarely used Mexican pottery and large cooking vessels.

The glass shelves are dusty within a week in the winter, a day in the summer. But I just live with it until it is too evident and then wipe it down. Above the cabinets are much more rarely cleaned - one can only do so much - and that cookware all has to be washed before and after use. C'est la vie.

My counters and backsplash are stainless and full of scratches.

If you are obsessively clean and can't bear marked counters, you'd go mad in my kitchen. Me? I just let it go and try to keep the surfaces I use for cooking carefully wiped clean. Ditto for the cookware I need.

Do you know the designer of the chair facing your daybed? I have apair identical on loan.

Sharing our pleasure in rural New Mexico with dear friends from NYC inspired a spate of pie baking, lamb grilling and bread making that always ended with my love exclaiming "Wasn't today so much fun!" each night as we climbed into bed, tired but oh-so-happy.

I rarely comment, but must say that the new table is just too small for the space. Why call it a dining room, when breakfast room might be more appropriate? Why put a bookshelf in with only one book? Why keep a dull old rug? Why not paint the old console and replace the hardware, is the new one that much cooler? And what is up with the fruit picture in a frame that has nothing to do with anything?

I am lucky enough to have a smallish apartment (60 sq meter ~600 sq. foot) with a tiny 28 sq foot kitchen in Paris. I do keep a toaster and a citrus juicer out but use a press for coffee, just like at home. A four burner/one oven stove, small apt. refrigerator, clotheswasher and dishwasher take up all the undercounted space except under the sink where all cleaning supplies and trash bit are located. Pots hang and other equipment sits atop the cupboards. I have to use the step stool hanging off the back of the kitchen door often. But it works well if the meal is well planned, and one always has many more resources to put together a great meal without having to prepare every bit of it at the local charcuterie, bakers, markets and specialty shops.

I made this several years ago and it was a HUGE hit with vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Who can resist melted cheese, cream and garlic given some substance with bread and squash all in its own lovely "package". Try it, you'll like it.

When the French "curl" a fish back on itself, so it looks as if it is biting its own tail (usually a trout, usually in Alsace or inspired by Alsatian trout), they call it "mad" as in crazy. Like the poster above said, you have to put it on its belly to make it work, so the pink thread stitching would be indespensible, Sarah.

Like jenh718 I use whatever chicken bones and bits (leftovers from meals of roasted chicken, whole or parts) and more rarely, like DCarl1, boney parts from the grocery. I prefer to roast to render the fat and add the flavor and dark color roasting adds to the stock, but if I'm in a rush, hey...

The absolutely BEST stock I have EVER tasted or used as a soup base, for a very special soup for a special crowd comes from THE GIVF OF SOUTHERN COOKING by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. Called "Miss Lewis's Very Rich Chicken Broth" it calls for a 2.5-3 lb. whole chicken, salt, 4 TB of butter, 1 small celery stalk, no leaves and 6 cups of water (preferrable bottled-I used the big drinking water gallons from the supermarket). You rinse the chicken well, chop it up into 2 inch pieces with a cleaver, rub cut surfaces with with salt and set aside.

In big Duthch oven, melt butter until hot and foaming, add chicken pieces and stir well to coat. Cook, stirring until the skin is golden but NOT brown. Reduce the heat to very low, add celery and cover tightly. Check every 5 minutes and stir well again. After 20 minutes the chicken has released its essence enough so that liquid comes up near the top of the chicken pieces. Add water and bring to a GENTLE simmer. Cook slowly for 20 minutes, skimming often. Strain the broth and discard the chicken pieces and celery (flavorless by now).

Cool and refrigerate to separate the rest of the fat after it has congealed.

Fabulous, but then all Miss Lewis's recipes are.

Engstroms. Always.

Sally305 is right. You are a color person. Go for it. Just change the one you don't like. Why not re-choose a warm tone to paint the ceiling and then paint the walls a complementary color? Use the color of the dining room as a starting place - get the LR color to agree with it. Why leave the ceilings white, in other words? But I'd agree with PrettyKitty, find the sofa fabric you love and go from there.