Stacey Ballis's Blog, page 5

Cabinets!

Chickens-
We are back to kitchen land!  If you missed the post about kitchen design, you can read it HERE.
Once we got the basic design down, it was time to make the next big decision…cabinetry.  I know that some of you might be surprised that we didn’t shoot straight to appliances, but actually, cabinets are the second most important decision you make once you have a layout design.  The cabinets dictate the style and feel of the space aesthetically AND they are the most important functionality decision as well.  So while, yes, I cannot wait to tell you about all the shiny toys, I'm trying to keep this linear, and for us, we started with function.
As I mentioned, as a short person destined to get shorter, I wanted to try to do a kitchen with no upper cabinets.  Poor Charming Suitor is already in charge of being tall all over the house with light bulbs and high shelves,  I wanted to see if we could manage the kitchen with just lowers.  Also, from a design perspective, we knew there would be a lot going on in this space.  We have twice the usual number of appliances of a home kitchen going in there, so leaving uppers out of the equation would help give some visual breath to the room, and keep it feeling open.
While I’m sure many of you will be surprised that we did not immediately begin sourcing antique cabinetry to salvage and install, we actually began looking in the completely opposite direction.  
Our commitment to this home has been to restore where possible, salvage and repurpose original items, and renovate where necessary.  This has meant some decisions that eliminate original materials to ensure the future of the house. (yeah, goodbye ancient steam radiator system and scary boiler and hello central forced air system!)
A perfect example was the flooring.  Most of the house retains the original hardwood floors.  They were originally kept light, with just a varnish coat, which has yellowed a lot over the years, but they are in pretty good shape and we are refinishing them almost everywhere.  We had intended to do this in the kitchen as well, but when our contractors went to look at them, bad news.  Half of the space was oak, and half was maple.  Not so good for staining and making cohesive.  And the floor had sagged slightly between the joists.  Not enough to really tell just from walking on it, but enough that it would have made installing cabinets a nightmare.  You really want to start with level floors whenever possible, it is an infrastructure thing that is really worth investing in, because even though cabinets usually have some sort of leveling mechanism, it is never really perfect, and over the years, if the floor isn’t level, cabinet drawers can stick, doors can stop closing flush, and it can weaken them structurally.  So while we would be able to simply refinish the floors in 75% of the second level, including the kitchen library and pantry space, which just get shelving, the kitchen itself would need a new floor.   We salvaged the good pieces of oak when we did the demo to use for patching other floors throughout the house.  The flooring went really well…
my office!
large bedroom
the hallway
hallway in process, so you can see the original floor and stain side by side
KITCHEN!

kitchen library, this is the original maple, they did a great job matching the color

With level floors in a lovely mid-tone walnut finish, cabinets would now be able to live a long happy life.  But which cabinets?
We did some research into cabinets that are known specifically for function.  We knew that there were enough antique and vintage details planned for the space that we did not have to be concerned about companies who had antique looking door and finish options.  In fact, the more we discussed it, the more we wanted to move away from that look.  It may seem incongruous to our usual design impulse, but the reasons are purely practical.  Antique looking design has a lot of details, which are beautiful, but notorious for trapping grease and dust and sticky stuff.  We wanted a kitchen that was very easy to keep clean, because it will get a tremendous amount of use, and because, let’s be honest here, I am both a klutz and a messy cook.  I drop whisks covered with batter, and send clouds of flour up out of my kitchenaid mixer, and make spattery sauces.  Keeping the faces of our current cabinets clean is a constant battle, and not one I want to fight for the next 40 years. 
Once we knew that clean and contemporary lines would be okay, we could focus on the function.  We are mostly desperate to clear the decks a bit, our current kitchen requires that a lot of our stuff is out taking up countertop space, all our knives have to be on magnet strips on the wall, which considering our collection, isn’t so much a design feature as a creepy ‘why do you guys have so many knives’ situation.  We have horrible lower cabinets that even with some slide-out drawers, essentially require that we empty them all onto the floor to find the one thing we need.  We did a bunch of looking around, talked to some friends, including a couple of chef pals, checked with the architects, read a bunch of reviews and one name kept coming up.
Poggenpohl.
A German company that has been around since the late 1800s, they are known for clean visual lines, and the highest level of precision, as well as amazing organization and function details.  Everything everyone said to us let us know that they might be a good fit for us.  All the stuff we saw on their website looked really cool, but we worried it might be too modern.  We also knew that we would have to see them in person.  So I made an appointment to meet with one of the designers at the Chicago showroom.
This is where Marcy entered our life.  
We met her at the showroom, and before we even opened one cabinet door, she sat down with us to chat about our needs.  She really listened to what we were trying to do, how we intended to use the space, the way we want to live our lives in our kitchen.  She looked at the floor plans, she looked at my Pinterest board.  And then she took us on a tour of the showroom.
And that?  Right there?  Was when we fell in love with Marcy AND Poggenpohl.
I mean, CS and I are pretty sophisticated folks; you aren’t going to woo us with a soft-close drawer and snazzy handle.  But when you show us not one, not two, but THREE options for the dreaded notoriously unfunctional annoying corner cabinet situation that all WORK?  And work well?  That starts a sparkle.  CS must have opened and closed the corner cabinets a dozen times, I think waiting for a shoe to drop.  It didn’t.
Door opens with baskets attached, and this mechanism pulls the other baskets
out of the hidden corner and into the front of the cabinet!
Charming Suitor's fave, these full extension shelves that slip back into the corner!  
The lazy susan spins completely around and is still soft-close!

You have a drawer that is designed to go AROUND the kitchen sink with ample space to put all your sponges and little sink accessories and get them off the counter making it all cluttery?  


We’re listening.  Everything we opened had a treasure inside.  Beautiful wood and metal in-drawer holders for foil and plastic wrap, so that you never again get the open cardboard lid caught in the drawer.   In-drawer knife holders with magnets built into one side so that they don’t rattle around getting dull every time you open the drawer.  All sorts of bins and dividers for anything you can imagine.  




That 5 inch wide space between the range and the corner cabinet that you figure will just get a filler strip?  How about a pull out section instead with two metal trenches perfect for bottles of oil and vinegar or canisters of utensils.  The toe-kicks all attach with magnets so that you can remove them to vacuum underneath! They even have a step stool that can hide in the toe kick.  Amazing. Seriously, either go to the Poggenpohl Website or get their really cool free App to see all of the various organizational tools and accessories, it is mind-boggling.  
Marcy recommended we go with almost all drawers for the space, which would eliminate the need to ever get down on all fours to reach into the back of a cabinet.  Since we didn’t want uppers, she suggested their rack system for plates and bowls, which store in the deeper drawers with handles that mean you can pull the whole stack of plates out and walk it over to the table for easy setting. 
these come in three different sizes, and each one is slightly expandable so that you can find one to fit your dishes.

Marcy said she had some good ideas for us, and that she would do a couple of designs based on our plans.  We gave her our budget and she promised to stay within it.  This, by the way?  Is KEY.  Get this promise ahead of time, whoever you choose to work with.  There is nothing that feels worse than someone showing you something you fall in love with and then telling you it is extra-budgetary.  Awful.
Then we looked at some of their finishes, since with a cabinet this modern in a house this old, the choice of finish is key.  Marcy had a few suggestions, but the one she liked best and the one we fell in love with was lava teak.  A striated slightly textured matte wood finish in a muted palate of gray and brown, the colors would work well in the space, the flat panels would be easy to keep clean, but the wood grain would be good friends with the existing woodwork in the home.  While it is a contemporary look, it is also sort of timeless, and we all believe that in ten years no one will look at the kitchen and think “Hello, 2015, how you doin’?” 

lava teak
Here is the finish in a kitchen design!

Within two days, Marcy had sent us a few sample plans of how the cabinets would lay out.   With some minimal tweaking, we felt like we had a good plan in place.  Marcy came to the house to do some serious measuring…a process that would repeat FIVE TIMES.  Poggenpohl is all done custom, there is no such thing as a standard box, and did I mention German precision?  Marcy measured once before demo, once after demo, once before the new flooring went in, once after, and then a final time once both flooring and drywall were completed.  That old adage, measure twice, cut once?  That, as Mike Holmes might say, is a start.  And to be sure, since they are building these things over in Germany, you really do want to get it all just right!
Marcy made the whole process, for lack of a better word, safe for us.  She kept to her promise, and never showed us anything that wasn’t in our budget, so we were able to just embrace the design process without worry.  There were things we thought we really wanted that she talked us out of, based on her experience of how people have used their kitchens, and always had at least two alternate options ready for us to think about instead.  She sent plans in both layout floor plan version and full 3D elevations so that we could really get a sense of how the space might feel.
She was the one who informed me that the perfect table we had purchased for the eat-in part of the kitchen was lovely, as long as I didn’t want my dishwasher door to be able to open.  Oops.
Your Polymath is good at many things, but ironically, MATH is not one of them.  Don’t let the moniker fool you.  I am not in charge of measuring things anymore.  On the upside, the table looks really good at my family’s weekend place, and my folks really love it as much as we do, so win/win.
Here are the elevations we ended up with:
Here is the whole layout.  And yes, we did do one of each of those three corner cabinet options!
Here is a whole view of the U shaped section with island
Looking from the back of the U at the other side of the kitchen.
the L shaped baking section of the kitchen
Your takeaways from this portion of our process?
1.     Start first and foremost with the function you need, and not the look you want.  Unless your kitchen is 100% for show and you eat takeout 3 meals a day, you are going to use it in some way, figure out what that looks like for you, and make a list of what you need your cabinet system to do for you.
2.     Research both online and by talking to a combination of professionals and personal contacts about how they like their cabinets, what works, what doesn’t, what they are glad they chose, what do they regret not doing.
3.     Go to a showroom.  Do not ever make a decision purely based on something you see online.  I know the discount cabinet places feel like such a good idea, especially on a budget, but kitchen reno is one of the hardest things to live through, you do not want to choose something and regret it later because it looked so much better online than it does in person.
4.     Look at construction before you look at the aesthetics.  A pretty cabinet that feels flimsy, shelves that bow or drawers that slide off their tracks is just a waste of money.
5.     Start your conversation with any designer with a firm handle on your budget and insist that they only show you options within that budget, ALL-IN, including accessories, tax, shipping, installation, etc.  Whether that means they are offering you a discount to use their products, or just keeping you solidly within the product lines you can afford.  And if they agree to do that and then show you something more expensive or try to nickel and dime you to death with extra fees?  Walk away.  There are many many companies who would like your business, any designer who doesn’t respect your budget is getting off on the wrong foot, and this process is stressful enough.
6.     Once you have a designer you feel comfortable with, be prepared to listen to their advice.  There are at least four different choices we made that we thought originally we would be wedded to that we changed our minds because of Marcy’s sage advice.  They know their business, so take heed when they make suggestions.
7.     Don’t be afraid to tweak and work on the design a few different times to make sure you get it right.

 Falling in love with Poggenpohl yourself?  Follow them on Facebook and Pinterest and Twitter!  I do :)
Next time…cabinet install!
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath

Kitchen Design

Chickens-
I hope you are all recovering from Carb Bomb Weekend 2015.  We had a wonderful time full of yummy and family and funny dogs and relaxing. 
The feast!
Julia Child's Turkey recipe...GAMECHANGER! Herb and Onion Stuffing cooked under the bird. Balsamic Braised Cippoline Onions Cornbread Dressing with Sausage
  [image error] Green Beans with Lemon Chive Oil
Bourbon Pecan Hickory Nut Pie
Doggie nephews all tuckered out.


It was also a monumental milestone, because it was the last Thanksgiving that I will ever produce out of our own kitchen.  It was, in fact, the 23rdThanksgiving to come out of this kitchen, officially moving me into the “Cooking Thanksgiving more than Half My Life” arena.  And they have all been good.  Many have been great.  The cooking experience, not so much.  This kitchen has served me well, but it is not a great space to cook in.  The stove and burners are electric, the counterspace minimal.  The water pressure in the sink is just a hair above a trickle.  The linoleum floor is so old and decrepit that not only does it never look clean, as much as you scrub, the nails of the subfloor have worked their way up thru it, so if you don’t wear shoes, it’s like walking on Legos. 
The refrigerator does not fit in the room, and is in the back hallway.  Which is too narrow for the door to open completely.   Yeah, process that for a moment.
Today we have the first official New Kitchen Post.  It will not be the last. 
When Charming Suitor and I sat down to plan the renovation of this home, we were in total agreement about some key things. 
One, we would spend the serious money on the infrastructure and systems, and be creative about finishes and fixtures with what was left in the budget.  We want this old girl to go another hundred years at least, but for sure another 40 or so with us in it, so while it is fun to think about splurging on beautiful tile and woodwork, we knew that our first priority needed to be what lives behind the walls. 
Two, we would not over-improve the property beyond what the market would bear for our neighborhood.   One never knows what is coming down the road, and while we plan to live out our natural lives right in this spot, we needed to know that if at any point life required us to sell it, we would be able to do so without taking a hit.
Three, the only space we WOULD over-improve would be the kitchen.
Let’s be clear.  Renovating a house for yourself, as smart as you ought to be in considering resale value, should still contain the things that make your dreams come true.  For Charming Suitor and I, that meant a KILLER kitchen.  We are both cooks, and we love to cook together.  We both love the entertaining that we do, and want to do more, and neither of us has ever had the kitchen we really wanted.  So we plotted very rationally our completely irrational kitchen!
It will take many posts to fill you in on this project, the most complicated and important of the whole house, but we are going to start with layout and design.
The kitchen was the hardest space to design in the whole house, and the only room that needed five tries to get it right.  Again, this is the space we designed for US and how WE live.  We are not in any way recommending this style of kitchen design for people who don’t cook, or families with kids, or people who never entertain.  This is not a “hub of the home” kitchen.  This is not an eat-in- kitchen slash family room slash office slash homework kiosk slash arts and crafts space.
This is essentially a zoned fine dining restaurant kitchen with a chef’s table.
What does that mean?  Let me show you.


The U-Shaped set of cabinets incorporate two distinct cooking zones.  On the right side, the gas range, gas wall oven, rotisserie .  On the peninsula on the left, induction cooktop and inset counter steamer.  They share prep space on the island between them, and cleaning space on the window wall with a sink and dishwasher.
The separate L shaped section across the room is predominantly for baking.  The wall oven on this side is electric, instead of gas, for consistency of temperature.  There is a second sink and second dishwasher in this area.
The curved window wall will get a built in banquette, with an oval table for seating.
Instead of following the “triangle” approach to appliances, we worked with a professional kitchen layout, with the small food pantry and the kitchen library ( see this post for Kitchen Library) flanking the refrigerator/freezer.  This puts small equipment and all food centered between all three of the cooking zones. 
What does this do for us?  It allows up to three people to cook at the same time without getting in each other’s way, with a fourth potentially cleaning.  It means that there is plenty of counter and prep space.  It means that if I’m working on delicate pie crust, I’m doing it far enough away from the primary cooking area that the heat and moisture from things cooking in that space won’t screw up my pastry.
It means that Charming Suitor can check the temp on the Thanksgiving Turkey and I can check on the rolls in the oven and neither of us will get an elbow to the face.
But just because we went all “professional-inspired” doesn’t mean it isn’t still a home kitchen.  It is a space that will allow up to eight people to eat comfortably at the table.  The peninsula has a bar where four people can sit and chat with whomever is cooking without being underfoot.  There is going to be a TV on the wall in the baking section across from the dining table, which will be on an extendable arm so that on Thanksgiving the people doing the food prep can still watch the game.
It is an unusual and very specific design, that we believe will suit us and our lifestyle to a T. 
The takeaway for my Chickens?  You have to make your lists.  Must haves, want to haves, would be nice to haves, and splurges.
For us, our original list looked like this:
Must haves:Plenty of counterspace and thoughtful cabinet design with good ability to organizeNo uppers or minimal uppers (I am 5’3” and will only get shorter from here, and I do not want to be an 85 year old hobbit lady needing a footstool to get to my plates)Two people at least able work together comfortablyTwo ovens, preferably on opposite walls, at counter height (I hate a stacked oven, one is too tall for me, the other requires bending to the floor.  We knew if we couldn’t do opposite walls, we would at least do them side by side)Room for a table for at least 6 people Gas stovetopPowerful hoodHuge fridge/freezer, deep enough to hold large plattersSpace to recreate kitchen library
Want to haves:Two dishwashersTwo sinksIsland with built-in butcherblockPlace for people to sit and chat with cooksBanquette seatingTV
Would be nice to have:Warming drawersOne gas oven, one electric oven (roasting vs baking)French door ovens (I’m forever burning myself on the open door of the oven trying to deal with things inside with my short little arms)Totally separate area for bakingDecent sized pantry that is just for foodUndercounter wine fridgeCheese fridge in pantry (more on this later)
Splurge:Built-in wall rotisserie (more on this later)
Once you have your list, which may very well include things like space for arts and crafts and homework and home office, etc., you can look at your kitchen and prioritize how to allocate the space.  Then you can take a look at what is most important to you in terms of your budget.  Are you a purely functional cook, and not a passionate one?  Then don’t waste money on commercial style high-end appliances; you’ll never get the real benefit of the features that make them so expensive.  Does your family spend all of its time in the kitchen getting underfoot?  Consider a peninsula or island arrangement where you can have them on the other side when you are working, but still right there with you.  Do you have a lot of kids, serving essentially a small soccer team two to three meals a day?  You might want to give up a little section of cabinet space in favor of two dishwashers.  Does your family go through bottled water like they are trying to fill a reservoir somewhere?  Put in a filtered water faucet system at the sink and buy everyone their own refillable bottle. 
We were fortunate that because we are just two people and the house is a large one, we had enough space to do exactly what we wanted with the design.
For those of you who have gone through a kitchen redo, please put your best tips and tricks in the comments for everyone!
Stay tuned…next post CABINETS!!
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath 

So Very Thankful.

Chickens-
It's almost here!  My favorite holiday of the year, and rest assured, I am prepping and shopping and planning as we speak.  And one of the things I am thankful for is that just in time for the holiday festive spirit, my publisher is doing a special promotion for Big Delicious Life!

 For anyone new, this is my digital cookbook, over 150 of my best recipes, including dozens that are perfect for holiday entertaining!  Thru 11/22 it is just $.99.  And since it is digital, all you need to gift it to someone is their email address.  So think on this...the cost of a holiday card PLUS the cost of postage is MORE than sending someone your festive greetings with a whole cookbook!  The simple, easy to use digital format means that it is the perfect thing to have on your phone or tablet when you head to the grocery store and are facing down yet another packet of weeknight chicken.  Heading out of town to stay with friends or family or to a vacation rental?  This puts a serious cooking resource right in your back pocket, saving you from only making sandwiches and reservations.  CLICK HERE to get your copy, or to send to the cooks in your life.
Now for the serious stuff...
(I have posted this piece, adjusted slightly year by year, since 2009.  The essentials don’t change much.  The sentiment changes not at all.)
As a passionate home cook, Thanksgiving is my grail, my marathon, my Everest.  The ability to pull it off well is a source of pride, and no moments of my year are as purely pleasurable as the brief silence around the table when everyone tucks into their plates, followed by gradual exclamations of rapturous delight.   And while there is always something a little bit new or different every year, the basics stay the same, and I’ve gotten a lot of it down to a science. 
But science doesn’t mean clenched perfectionism. 
With all due respect to Martha, you don’t need twenty-four matching turkey shaped bowls for the soup to taste good, you don’t have to grow your own cranberries, or even make your own pie crust (or pie for that matter) for this day to be wonderful.  Good food, prepared with love (or purchased with love), and served with a smile is all anyone needs for the holiday to be sublime…to each at the level of their own ability. 
For those of you who are thinking of tackling the big day, I’ve got some tips to help you out.  The most important thing about Thanksgiving is right there in the name, be thankful.  If you burn the turkey, make PB&J and laugh it off.  And if at all possible, set yourself up for success with some simple advice and simpler recipes.
Whether you are having a huge event with five generations, a gathering of your best pals who aren’t able to be with their own families, or just a small dinner with you and your sweetie, there are ways to make this day less stressful, and more joyous.
Firstly, know thyself.  Do you regularly make your own puff pastry, serve towering flaming Baked Alaskas, and finish your sauces with homemade demi-glace?  Then find any challenging menu that inspires you and have at it.  But if you burn the toast four days out of ten, this isn’t the time to try anything complicated.  Keep things simple, and don’t be afraid to get help with the hard stuff or fiddly bits.  People love to participate, so let guests bring something to take some of the pressure off you.  If you’ve never made piecrust, buy a good quality frozen crust.  Look at local prepared foods sections of grocery stores and see who is offering side dishes and do a tasting the week before.  If Whole Foods is making a killer stuffing, there’s no shame in serving it.   Does gravy make you nervous?  Add five or six whole peeled shallots to the roasting pan along with your bird, and simply blend them into the de-fatted pan juices to thicken it easily without all that tricky flour business.  
Secondly, know thy audience.  You might be a major foodie, but is Aunt Marge?  No point in fussing over individual pumpkin soufflés cooked in hollowed out roasted quinces unless the rest of your guests will think it as cool as you do, and not wonder dejectedly where the Entenmann’s Pumpkin Pie with Cool Whip is this year.  You can take the essentials and just make them with the best ingredients you can get, and know that you have improved, even if you haven’t monumentally altered.  Or think of it as a retro meal, all the rage these days, and revel in the kitschy quality of making the recipes the old way. 
Thanksgiving is also a great time to connect with your family members who cook…call Mom or Uncle Al and ask for advice and recipes, they’ll be flattered and you’ll be amazed how many great tips they can give you.
So, if you’re getting ready for the big day, here are Stacey’s Thanksgiving Commandments:
1.  Thou shalt buy a fresh turkey from a butcher, and dry brine before roasting.               I know Butterball seems like a good idea, and awfully convenient, but they are so filled with preservatives and water and other unnatural stuff, they don’t really taste like turkey.   Call your local butcher and order a fresh turkey for pick up the Monday before Thanksgiving.  The bonus will be that you won't have to thaw it!  Take it home and dry brine for two days, essentially giving it a good salting and slapping it in a large Ziploc bag to hang out.  I recommend the Food52 recipe for this.  Then cook as you usually do.  You’ll be delighted with the moist, well-seasoned results.
2.   Thou shalt discover how easy it is to make awesome cranberry sauce.            Cranberry sauce is not just the easiest part of the meal; it can be made up to a week in advance.  It’s the perfect thing for even a reluctant cook to offer to bring to someone else’s meal, or an easy addition to your own.  (and yes, I know some of you love that shimmering jiggling tube with all the ridges, and if you must, have some on hand…but do at least TRY homemade…you can always serve both)
3.  Thou shalt not be ashamed to make the green bean casserole with the Campbell’s Condensed Soup.            Sure, I’m a foodie-slash-crazy-person, so I make my cream of mushroom soup from scratch before assembling the ubiquitous casserole…but honestly, it’s a tradition for a reason, the original recipe is pretty comforting and delicious in its own way, and easy to make, so even if you consider yourself a major gourmet, pull out the processed food version and serve with a smile.  Ditto sweet potatoes with marshmallows.
4.  Thou shalt not overdo the appetizers.            And by overdo, I mean serving any if you can help it.  You’re going to spend at least two days cooking for this meal.  Let your guests be hungry when they get to the table.  Keep your pre-dinner nibbles to small bowls of nuts or olives or pretzels or the like, think basic bar snacks…you just want your guests to have something to nosh on with their pre-dinner drinks, but if they fill up on hors d’oeuvres you’ll all be sad when you get to the table and can’t manage seconds.  (this is good advice for any dinner party…either plan heavy hors d’ouevres and a light supper, or vice versa)
5.  Thou shalt not bother with salad.            I know it always seems like such a good idea to make a fresh green salad.  But frankly, it takes up valuable space on a plate that should be devoted to fourteen different starches, and you’re just going to throw most of it away, since it will be all wilty and depressed by the time you go to put the leftovers away.  No one will miss it.  Seriously.  Stop even thinking about it. 
6.  Thou shalt not count calories, skimp on ingredients, or whine and pout about how bad the food is for you.            We are all very sensitive to healthy eating these days, and more than a few of us are dealing with the need to lose a couple of pounds.  Or a couple of dozen.  THIS IS NOT THE DAY TO DO IT.  Thanksgiving is, at its very core, a celebration of food and the memories that food invokes and the new memories created at the table.  You do yourself, your host, and the day a disservice if you think of it as anything else, or deprive yourself of the sheer joy of this meal.  If you’re the cook, don’t alter recipes with low fat/low salt/low taste versions of things unless you have a guest with medically prescribed dietary restrictions.  Don’t skip meals before, so that you aren’t blindly starving by the time you get to the buffet, and if you’re really concerned, fill your plate anyway you like, but either don’t go back for seconds, or on your second round, stick to the less gloopy veggies and turkey and the cranberry sauce.  Any nutritionist worth their salt will tell you that one meal cannot derail your overall progress, especially if you get back to your program the next day and maybe add a workout that week.  And any counselor will tell you that the surest way to be cranky is to deprive yourself while all around you are celebrating.  Give yourself a break…you’ll be amazed that if you give yourself permission to have everything you want, how easy it is not to overdo it. 
7.  Thou shalt not stuff your bird.            I can hear you crying about it now….you are used to the bird packed with stuffing, you dream about the really crispy good part in the front over the neck, why can’t we stuff our turkeys?  Here’s why….one, a stuffed bird is the best possible way to get food borne illness on the agenda.  If the stuffing doesn’t get up to at least 180 degrees internally, it can breed bacteria, not fun for anyone’s tummy.  Two, in order to get the stuffing to 180, you are going to overcook the crap out of the turkey itself, especially the breast meat.  Three, all that moistness you love in the in-the-bird stuffing?  That is all the juices from the meat that are getting sucked out by the huge stuffing sponge, and you not only dry out your bird, you have many fewer juices with which to make gravy.  Make your stuffing and bake in a separate dish, and if you really miss that dense moistness, buy a couple of extra turkey wings and lay them on top of the casserole as it bakes, and/or melt a stick of butter in a cup of chicken stock and pour it over the stuffing ten minutes before taking it out of the oven.   And get over it.  Stuffing that wasn’t actually stuffed is always going to be better than food poisoning.
8.  Thou shalt not test more than one new recipe for this meal.            Thanksgiving is a wonderful meal to add to, but don’t do everything at once.  I know that the cooking mags have all sorts of new-fangled versions of things, but they have to reinvent the holiday menu every year.  Experimentation is good, but if you change the whole thing up at once, people are going to miss their old standby favorites.  Pick one dish that you think is ready for a revamp, and throw in that curveball. If you love it, add it to the repertoire.  But don’t do the chipotle rubbed turkey, sweet potato tofu bake, barley stuffing, green beans with fresh ricotta, and sherried fig cranberry coulis all in one meal.  Someone will weep openly, and everyone will have to run out the next day and make a few traditional items to get them through to next year.
9.  Thou shalt not be a Thanksgiving Dictator or That Annoying Guest.            If people want to help in the kitchen, let them.  And don’t criticize the quality of their small dice, or the way they wash the pots.  Ditto assigning specific foods to guests who want to bring something…if someone offers to bring a dish, ask them what they love to make or what they crave most about Thanksgiving and let them bring that.  Who cares if you have two kinds of sweet potatoes, or both cornbread and regular stuffing?   On Thanksgiving, more is more, and abundance rules.  Besides, you have a three-day weekend that needs quality leftovers. If you are the guest, offering to bring something, be clear about what you are capable of, make sure to ask how many people you are expected to serve, and DO NOT BRING ANYTHING THAT NEEDS ASSEMBLY OR COOKING ONSITE!  Do you have any idea how supremely annoying it is for someone to arrive with a grocery bag full of ingredients to begin making their dish while you are doing a kitchen dance that is just shy of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics?  Or with their frozen or chilled item that they they need to wedge into the one oven?  If your dish is to be served warm, bring it warm in an insulated container, or in your slow cooker so that you can plug it in somewhere unobtrusive till it is time to serve.  Speaking of serving, my best trick for holidays and dinner parties alike is to bring my offering on a serving platter that doubles as my hostess gift.  Target, Home Goods, etc. all sell very inexpensive serveware, and it is a very big relief to your hosts for you to hand off your contribution, already on or in its final destination, and say "The platter/bowl/basket is our gift to thank you for your hospitality."  Nothing is more annoying during dishwashing than making sure everyone's serveware gets cleaned so they can take it back home.  Ditto Tupperware.  I'm just saying.
10.  Thou shalt be THANKFUL.            We are all very blessed in our own ways.  Even if you are going through a rough time, there are those who have it rougher.  The times in which we live are a little bit scary and sad, and we all deserve a day to focus on the good.  Take a few moments to think about all of the gifts you have in your life, the family and friends who surround you, all of the wonderful things you may take for granted in the hustle and bustle of your day to day.   Close your eyes, be joyful, and in all sincerity and humbleness thank the universe for your life.
I am deeply thankful for each and every one of you for reading, supporting me and my work, and being kind and gentle ears in the world for my words.  So know that next Thursday, you'll all be in my heart.
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath

Here are some of my go-to turkey day recipes.  Follow to the letter or use as a springboard for your own touches…  All recipes are designed to accommodate 12-14 people with leftovers.  And if you have recipes of your own to share, be sure to leave them in the comments section!
Cranberry sauce
2 bags cranberries1 ½ c port1 c sugar1 t salt5 T orange juice1 ½ t cornstarch1 t ground mustard1 t lemon juiceZest of 1 orangePinch ground clovePinch fresh gingerZest of 1 lemon½ c dried cherries-rehydrate in ¼ c port
Cook cranberries and port in a saucepan over med-high heat 10 minutes, until cranberries burst.  Add sugar and salt.  Whisk OJ, cornstarch, mustard, lemon juice in a bowl and add to berries.  Stir to combine.  Add rest of ingredients, cook 5-6 minutes more, cool.
Mashed potatoes
10 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes (peeled, cubed)2 sticks butter, cubed1 pt. whole milk, warmed (or half and half or cream, depending on how rich you like it)1 pt. sour cream1 tub whipped cream cheese with chives (or plain) at room temp1 bunch chives, chopped fineS&P to taste
Boil potatoes till soft. Drain completely.  Put potatoes through ricer, or just use hand mixer to mash.  Add butter first, then cream cheese, and then milk to just shy of your preferred texture.  Once the potatoes are almost there, add in the sour cream and chives and season well.  Hold in double boiler to keep warm…this is the dish I make while the turkey is resting, best when fresh.
Stacey’s Green Bean Casserole
3 lbs fresh green beans, trimmed, blanched 90 seconds in boiling water, dried thoroughly (I often buy the microwave in bag pre-washed beans, and follow cooking directions, setting time for the lowest time listed (4 min per bag), then dry)
1 lb asst. sliced exotic mushrooms (I use 4 oz each oyster, crimini, chantrelle, and either morels or shitake, but use any combination of mushrooms that are available and you love)2 shallots minced (or one small onion minced fine)4 T butter 8 T flour2 c chicken stock (homemade if possible)2 c heavy cream16 oz mascarpone cheese, room temp  (can substitute cream cheese or soft goat cheese)½ cup buttered breadcrumbs (1/2 c breadcrumbs sautéed in 2 T butter)-optional1 large can French’s fried onions
In a large wide saucepan with high sides, sauté shallots and mushrooms in butter until moisture is released and evaporates completely.  Sprinkle flour over mixture, stir in, and cook 1 minute.  Add stock and simmer 2 minutes.  Add cream and simmer about 15-18 minutes until very thickened and reduced.  Take off heat and stir in mascarpone, taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper.  Mix beans with sauce and pour into buttered pan 9x13.
Mix buttered breadcrumbs and fried onions in bowl and set aside.
If serving right away:  Cook 425 degrees 15 minutes, top with onion breadcrumb mixture, cook 10-15 minutes till top is lightly browned and crispy.
Can be made up to two days in advance…take out of fridge to come to room temp 90 minutes before cooking.  Put in 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until bubbling around the edges.  Top with onion mixture and cook additional 15 minutes. 

Basic Stuffing
1 XL loaf country bread or French bread cubed and toasted till totally dry  (2 lbs.) (or 2 lbs of the plain crouton cubes from the store)1 pkg soft egg rolls or hot dog buns torn coarsely2 ½ sticks butter1 ½ c finely chopped onion1 ½ c finely chopped celeryCelery leaves from 2 heads, chopped¼ c chopped flat leaf parsleyDried sage, thyme, marjoram (1 T each)S/P to taste4 lg eggs, beaten1 32 oz box chicken stock…add as necessary to moisten½ c toasted bread crumbs
Saute veggies and herbs in 1 ½ sticks butter.  Toss with bread.  Add stock slowly till moist but not overly soggy.  Taste for seasoning.  Stir in eggs and mix well.  Put in deep foil pan.  Drizzle with melted stick of butter and sprinkle of breadcrumbs.
400 degrees for 25 minutes covered, then 20 uncovered.  If you want extra turkey flavor, lay the pieces of 2-3 turkey wings on top of the casserole for all but the last 10 minutes, and for extra moistness, melt another 4-8 T butter in 1 c chicken or turkey stock and pour over top when you uncover the stuffing, then continue cooking.
Can be made up to two days in advance, and reheated in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes before serving.
Sweet Potato Casserole
8 large sweet potatoes1 stick butter½ c brown sugarCinnamon, nutmeg, s/p3 eggs
1 bag mini marshmallows
Roast potatoes till soft.  Mash with butter, sugar, and cinnamon, s/p, nutmeg.  Mix in eggs.
Bake 350 for 25 minutes, add marshmallows to top in one layer, put back in oven for 10-15 more minutes until the marshmallows are golden brown.

Pumpkin/Butternut Squash Soup
If you want this soup all pumpkin, replace the butternut squash with fresh or frozen cubed pumpkin.  If you want it all squash, eliminate the canned pumpkin and add another 2 lbs of cubed squash.
4 small or 2 large butternut squash (or equivalent in fresh cubed or frozen…about 2.5-3 lbs after peeling, de-seeding and cubing)2 large cans pumpkin (29.5 oz organic…not pumpkin pie filling!)3 quarts chicken stock (or veggie stock if you have vegetarians coming)1 pt. heavy cream2 med. (or one large) yellow onions1 stick butterFresh ground nutmegs/p
Prep squash if necessary by peeling, de-seeding and cubing in large chunks.  Sauté onions in butter till soft but not browned, add squash and pumpkin.  Pour in enough chicken stock to cover the vegetables by about 1 ½ - 2 inches.  Cook over medium heat till very soft, about 35-45 minutes. Blend with immersion blender or in batches in regular blender till very smooth, for extra velvety soup strain thru Chinois or fine mesh strainer.  Add cream and season to taste with salt and pepper and fresh nutmeg.
Freezes beautifully pre-cream, I often make a double batch and freeze half without the cream in it.  Is also delish without the cream if you want to be healthier J
Toppings:
½ c heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks8-10 amaretti cookies, crumbled but not powderedBlend together right before serving and garnish each bowl or cup with a generous spoon.
Have also topped with:
Crushed gingersnaps and mini marshmallowsCrème fraiche mixed with crystallized gingerCandied orange zest and toasted pine nuts Toasted gingerbread croutonsCaramel cornWhipped cream blended with cranberry sauceCrouton with melted asiago cheeseFried sage leavesCurried nuts (pumpkin seeds, pecans, walnuts)

Balsamic Cipollini Onions
2 lbs cipollini onions, peeled  (blanch in boiling water one minute, shock in ice water, skins should slip right off)3 T olive oil3 T butter 1 ½  T sugar 6  T balsamic vinegar 1 T chopped fresh parsley
Preheat oven to 500°F.   Place onions in medium bowl; toss with oil. Arrange onions on baking sheet or in roasting pan.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast until onions are brown and tender, rotating pan in oven and turn onions once, about 35 minutes (they will caramelize and be quite dark in parts but, if you have coated them well with olive oil, will not have a 'burnt' taste).  Meanwhile, melt butter in heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.  Add vinegar. Return to heat.  Simmer until mixture thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Pour over onions and continue to cook in oven 10 more minutes.  Sprinkle with parsley before serving.

Pickled carrots  (great pre-dinner nibble!  A bowl of these and a bowl of nuts are all you need.)
1 large bag baby carrots (2 1bs)1 bottle apple cider vinegar1 large jar honey4 T mustard seed1 bunch dill   Combine vinegar, honey and mustard seed in saucepan.  Add carrots and cook over med-high heat till carrots are cooked but still crisp, 5-8 minutes.  Store in pickling liquid in fridge.  Before serving, drain liquid, add chopped fresh dill.

Congrats!

Connie, you are the winner of a signed copy of Dana Bates fabulous new book, Too Many Cooks.  Please email your mailing address to Dana (dot) a (dot) Bate (at) gmail (dot) com and she will send you your signed copy!
In other news, dear Chickens, I am delighted to report that I have finished final rewrites on my new novel, Wedding Girl, and as such, I am taking a brief hiatus to let my brain cells recharge.
I will return in about 2 weeks with some really amazing and exciting house updates, including:
Second floor paint decisions! (We are thinking of some bold choices)Kitchen design!  At long long last....And TWO super special bathrooms that couldn't be more different from each other.Plus, my annual Thanksgiving post.
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath

Guest Post with Giveaway!

Chickens!
There is much to share, and some fun news coming this week, but in the meantime, my friend and fabulous fellow foodie fiction girl Dana Bate wanted to share some thoughts with you, and I thought you would really enjoy that while you are waiting!  Her new book, Too Many Cooks is just a delight, she was kind enough to share an advanced copy with me and I absolutely devoured it!  I know you are going to love it too.  Dana is giving away one signed copy to a lucky reader, so be sure to comment as per her instructions in the section below to be entered by 11:59 CST Tuesday Nov. 3 to win!  I'll have the winner randomly chosen and announced on Nov. 4!
Yours in Good Taste, The Polymath

Take it away, Dana....





Thank you, Stacey, for letting me hijack your blog for the day! *virtual hug*
So, if it’s okay with you and your lovely readers, I’d like to talk about breakfast. Why? Because it’s my favorite meal of the day. And most nights as I fall asleep, I get excited about what I might eat the next morning when I wake up.
Basically, sleep is a time machine that transports me to pancakes.
Granted, pancakes are a special treat. On your average Tuesday, I’m more likely to be eating a bowl of oatmeal or a piece of toast. But even those seemingly mundane options fire me up because I know they don’t have to be boring.
Want to make killer oatmeal? Try swirling it with pumpkin puree and maple syrup and topping it with toasted pecans and a hefty splash of milk. And toast? How about slathering it with fresh ricotta and drizzling it with honey? These are the kinds of things I think about as I drift off to the land of nod. (Which probably makes me sound like a huge weirdo…but, well, if it walks like a duck…)
As much as I love breakfast, some mornings I don’t have the time or the energy to get fancy. And that’s why I love making a big batch of something delicious on a lazy Sunday afternoon, so that I can enjoy it all week without having to put in much effort in the AM.
Case in point: this granola recipe, which has become my favorite. I can whip up a batch, store it in a canister, and then sprinkle it over yogurt and berries without having to turn on my brain (because if you’re anything like me, there is a distinct and somewhat lengthy period of time between “opening eyes” and actually “waking up”).
But I’m always on the lookout for new weekday breakfast ideas, so tell me: what is YOUR favorite weekday breakfast? I’d love to know! Share your thoughts in the comments, and you could also win a *signed copy* of my latest novel, TOO MANY COOKS! I think it’s my favorite book so far – Food! London! Hollywood! Romance! -- and I’d love to share it with you.



Dana Bate's Favorite GranolaMakes ~10 cups
3 cups rolled oats2/3 cup sliced almonds2/3 cup pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds)1/2 cup coconut flakes1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamonPinch of freshly ground nutmeg6 tablespoons olive oil1/3 cup honey1/2 cup chopped dried figs1/2 cup dried cherries1/2 cup chopped prunes
(Note: You can use any combination of dried fruit that you want. Just use 1.5 cups total.)

Preheat oven to 325F. In a large bowl, mix together the first seven ingredients (oats through nutmeg). In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil and honey. Pour the oil mixture over the dry ingredients and mix until everything is coated. Spread evenly onto a sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through, until everything is lightly golden. Remove from the oven and transfer the baked granola onto a long sheet of wax paper and let it cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the dried fruit on top and toss to combine. Let the granola cool completely before storing it in an airtight container.

Winner announced!

Hilary with the exploding soup, congrats!  You have won your own copy of Recipe for Disaster.

Email me your shipping address to staceyballisinfo (at) gmail (dot) com and I will get it out to you.

The Polymath

Imperfection

Chickens-

It's Fall!  The chicks are back in school, or so I gather from the book of face, the football is about to begin in earnest, and I've begun looking at my boots with longing.  I'm also baking up a storm over here, testing recipes, feeding contractors, and generally having a grand old time.  I think the fact that the new kitchen is really truly underway in a manner that isn't an ephemeral "....someday..." but is in fact "HOLY CRAP I'M ORDERING APPLIANCES!!!" has made me all nesty and inspired to the kitchen.

And if you follow me on Twitter @staceyballis, or have liked my Facebook Page (which if you have not, I hope you will) you have recently seen a bunch of mediocre photos of what I've been up to...  like these:

Milkbread Rolls
Nutella Babka
Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Cornmeal Pound Cake
Cornmeal Pound Cake again, all Bundty

All yummy.  And a hit with the recipients.  I realize that mostly here, that is what I talk about...the successes.  But please know that I leave crushing perfectionism to Martha, and for every "nailed it!" moment, I do certainly have some epic disasters.  Such as this morning.

Now my mornings, thanks to my job, are pretty easy.  I do not have little ones to drag crankily out of bed, to get washed, brushed, breakfasted, backpacked and off to school. My Charming Suitor is far more proficient at mornings than I, and as a capable guy, gets up at the crack, makes his own coffee and toasts his own english muffin, smooches me goodbye and goes his merry way.  Leaving me to rise when I'm no longer tired and get about the business of my day.

But sometimes, I need to be up and at 'em.  Making stuff happen.  Today was such a day.  And I failed completely.

This is a big and busy cooking week.  We are hosting a dinner party for 10 on Friday night, attending a dinner party at friend's Saturday for which we are bringing an appetizer, and Monday is Rosh Hashanah, and I'm in charge of matzo ball soup and dessert.  Which is no problem at all, I've done more in less time, so I was looking forward to the process.

We scheduled a house cleaning for today, so that the place would be spic and span for the guests tomorrow, and being a smart girl, and knowing that most of my cooking, while delicious, is also enormously messy, I wanted to get as much of the really disaster-making stuff out of the way ahead of time.  So last night, in anticipation of cleaning beginning today late morning, I pre-prepped the ingredients for three different recipes, getting my mise en place all en place, putting out all the necessary butter to be at perfect room temp, and set my alarm for 7:45, which is a normal, almost late time for most people, but is very early for this night owl.  I had enough time to make the first recipe, get it in the oven, get the batter prepped for the second, get the first out of the oven and the second one in, and then get the third done while that was baking.  And it totally would have worked.  Had I not had a major screw up kind of morning.

I was starting with sticky toffee pudding, dessert for tomorrow night.  I love this stuff.  Rich and moist and dark and complex with a killer caramel sauce, it is a crowd pleaser.  It is also a messy prep that makes a lot of dishes.  I got up, put the dates that I had minced in the food processor last night into a saucepan with water and set it to heat.  I took the well-softened butter and dark brown sugar and creamed them into fluffyness, and then added the eggs one by one.  When the date mixture came to a boil I turned off the heat to let it rest.  And this?  Right here?  Is when everything went sideways.

I thought I would get a head start on the caramel sauce, so I mixed some milk into the corn starch I had prepped last night, and set it aside.  Turning back to my date mixture, I reached for the baking soda I was supposed to add, and discovered I had mistaken it for the corn starch, and made a slurry with it.  I laughed at my stupidity, dumped the little ramekin, and went to the pantry for more baking soda.  I glanced quickly at the recipe, measured 4 tablespoons, and dumped it into the date mixture, spoon at the ready, since the baking soda will make the dates foam up, a whole chemistry thing that I'm sure Alton Brown would explain but I won't.  Let's just say it foams up rapidly.

Which it did.  Beyond any stirrings ability to quench.  Up and over the top of the saucepan, sending sticky hot date liquid over the stove.  I ran to the sink, watching a veritable volcanic eruption of date lava cover everything in the sink...filled to capacity with dirty bowls, measuring cups, the food processor etc.  Spattering a thick gooey mess everywhere.  Fearing I was losing too much volume to salvage the recipe, I grabbed the batter bowl, and just dumped the foaming insanity in, and started stirring like crazy.  Now the foaming has taken on a life of its own, threatening to overrun the batter bowl, and I'm stirring like a madwoman and swearing like a sailor.  This had never happened before, and I've made this recipe many times.  I was doubling it, to be sure, but that should not cause this explosion.  When it finally ends its migration over every surface of my kitchen, I look back at the recipe.  With my morning eyes I had read teaspoons for tablespoons and had added literally three times the proscribed amount.  Rendering everything I had so thoughtfully prepped and organized completely useless.

The now-ruined batter got dumped.  I ran to place a fast order (thank God for Instacart) for new dates, more brown sugar, more eggs.  I took a new stick of butter out of the fridge and onto the counter to start to soften, and then set about cleaning the date holocaust that my kitchen had become, because I do not want the cleaning lady to think I am some filthy beast.  I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher with the contents of the sink and set it for Tough.  I wiped down every surface, the floor, the cabinet fronts, the stove, and my slippers, and changed into clothes that were not bespattered with sticky, all the while laughing like a hyena, since I know that the general perception of food writers is that we spend all of our time making perfect food without a hair out of place.  I took a deep breath and went on to make the second recipe, which thankfully went just as planned and is now baked and cooling on the rack while I await my delivery of new ingredients, hoping upon hope that I can still get this thing in the oven before it is time to have the kitchen cleaned.

Or I should say, cleaned again.

The whole thing reminded me of my last book, Recipe for Disaster, where the heroine is teaching herself to cook, often with horrific results.  And one thing is for sure, while recipe successes result in delicious dishes, recipe disasters result in delicious stories, as long as one keeps her sense of humor.

So, a quick Fall giveaway!  Share your own favorite kitchen disaster in the comments below by 11:59pm Sunday night September 13, and one lucky reader will receive a copy of Recipe for Disaster.   Winner announced next Monday.

Yours in Good (usually) Taste,
The Polymath

Movin' On Up!

Chickens-

How is your summer going?  Things here have been quite lovely...I turned in the manuscript for my new novel, WEDDING GIRL, which will be released next May, and I'm really happy with it.  The best thing about delivering a new book is the blissful weeks that follow, when your editor has not yet sent rewrite notes, it is as close as a writer gets to summer vacation.  Which is very sweet when it actually coincides with Summer!  Charming Suitor and I took a short break to visit friends in Maine (if you don't have friends in Maine, I seriously recommend you get some) and recharge the batteries.  This involves CS eating his weight daily in various crustaceans, and me taste-testing every grilled cheese sandwich in a forty mile radius, and our jointly depleting the local antique population.

Now that we are home, it is back to construction, and with the basement finished, we are finally on to PHASE 2!  22 months into this renovation, we have shifted up to the second floor!  When you are living in your construction project, phasing becomes essential to your mental well being, because if you don't plan carefully, you end up without basic needs or with all your stuff covered in dust daily and it makes one all stabby.  Since our first priority is to finish this home and live in it TOGETHER for the rest of our natural lives, it was awfully essential that we plan things so that we don't end up crabby and snippy and bickery.  Luckily, our aesthetics are very much in sync, so we don't quibble about design choices, no one is going to the mat over a doorknob or paint color.  But we do need to make sure that our living environment itself is not a constant source of stress, so while it might have made sense to work our way up from the basement floor by floor, since the first floor is where the living room, CS's dressing room/mancave, dining room and kitchen live, we decided to hunker down on the first floor and in the basement, and let the noise and dust shift upstairs to the second floor for this phase so that our lives are minimally disrupted.

To refresh, here was what the second floor used to look like:




















And here is what it looks like now...




















GACK!  I know, I know, some of you are saying...Um?  Stacey?  That place looked really fine, even quite lovely, WTF???  Why would you turn it into a disaster?

So, here is why we blew up the second floor.  As I mentioned way, way back, this building was never converted to apartments, it was always built as three units.  As such, there was no easy way to "deconvert" to an original floor plan, it is already in it's original floor plan! This meant that as we approached each level, we had to think about how we were planning on using the space.  This second floor started, it should surprise no one, with the dream kitchen.  There will be many much bigger more specific posts about he kitchens, since that is the biggest project of the whole house, and we are full steam ahead in there, but the short version is that in 1907 no one ever heard of an eat-in kitchen, let alone one that is a joy to cook in, and so we needed to blow out some walls to make a 2015 kitchen that would work for us.  Since cooking is literally a big part of my job, not to mention that CS and I entertain with pathological regularity, we needed some real space.  So the new kitchen incorporates what used to be the kitchen, butler's pantry, food pantry, dining room, and the back bedroom of the second level.

In addition to the big kitchen, this level will have two guest bedrooms, a bathroom, a den, and...MY OFFICE.  Oh, Chickens.  You cannot imagine, after all this time of working on the ottoman in the living room, what an office means to me.  I can barely stand it.

Of course, when you open a few walls and ceilings (as one must for things like upgraded electrical, plumbing, HVAC duct runs, insulation etc.) you find some unexpected things.  Like a steel beam smack where you think you are going to send all of that plumbing and ductwork.  Ooops.  Nothing like renovations for some surprises!  After much debate, we finally decided to follow the old adage:  if you can't fix it, feature it.  So we cut holes directly into the original steel beam which is hidden in the ceiling, and then added a new steel beam directly below it to pick up the weight, which we will leave exposed as a design element in the kitchen.


New duct going thru the old beam.

New steel!

Our contractor designed these lovely custom support brackets
so that the exposed steel looks great while holding up the building! Our other snafu was the flooring in the kitchen.  We had fully intended to simply refinish the original hardwood floors.  Only one problem.  When a building is 108 years old?  There is some sagging.  (let's be honest, I'm only 45 and there is sagging aplenty, so I can't blame the old girl for the effects of time)  While we are fine with things not exactly being level or square or perfect in most spaces, the kitchen?  Needed a level floor.  Not a good idea to install beautiful custom cabinetry and expensive appliances on a non-level surface.  It is a recipe for disaster down the road.  So, while it broke our hearts a bit (and the budget a bit more), we pulled up the old flooring in the areas of the kitchen where the cabinets and appliances will live, and the boys leveled the crap out of it.  We were able to leave the original flooring in the new Kitchen Library space, so that was good, but the rest of the space will get new flooring that will hopefully be a good match for the rest.  
In addition to the second floor demo, we also have demolished the bathroom on the first floor.  Since the first and second floor baths are stacked right on top of one another and share all the same plumbing, we needed to treat the two bathrooms as if they were one big project.  While we do still have a quarter bath on the first floor, (yes, a QUARTER bath, just a toilet in a closet with no sink), I had no idea how much time I spent in the now-gone bathroom until it was an empty shell.  On the upside, I get a lot more Fitbit steps running downstairs to the bathroom!  
You are now up to date on the next adventure, stay tuned, because we have some really fun and cool design stuff to share...I'm super excited about the two bathrooms, which I think will be lovely, and the kitchen is going to BLOW YOUR MINDS!
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath

A New Addition

Chickens-

Today is a good day! Remember a gajillion years ago, when I told you that as part of our dream house project, Charming Suitor was finally getting his very own Wine Cellar?

Well, the time is finally here.

After months of prepping the space, and working closely with Vinotemp on the complex design for the two-room space, with literally hours and hours of really tedious measuring and re-measuring to be sure that every single area was plotted out to the tiniest variation....

This happened:



























 So here are the important bits:

Vinotemp does a truly amazing job of taking your measurements and the layout of your space, and maximizing the useful storage.  I know it is hard to tell, but these racks have been custom designed to hold a variety of sizes and types of bottles...Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Riesling, half bottles and even some spaces for larger format bottles like Magnums and Double Magnums.  The racks were built to order, and then sent to Quality Control to make sure they were all perfect, and then packaged up.  35 crates, each labeled with a code that matched the code on the drawings, with all of the fasteners and trim pieces included.  Key pieces were also individually stamped with the same code, to ensure that installation would be as easy as possible.  Which doesn't mean that it is easy.  While I absolutely believe that regardless of the space you have available for wine storage, that tiny nook under the stairs, or that huge corner of your basement, and everything in between, unless you are a very skilled and confident and patient DIYer, it is very much worth the extra expense to have the cellar professionally installed.  You'll be so glad you did, and if you aren't lucky enough to have a contractor onsite like we do, Vinotemp can help you find a local installer in your area.

As much as we love the racking, and the perfect cool humid environment that Vinotemp has helped us create?  The real magic of this space is 100% credited to our King Konstruction team.  Patrick latched on to Charming Suitor's desire for a space that honored the structural elements of the building, and came up with little details that have made the cellar very very special.  He and Dennis salvaged tons of the lath that had been removed during demolition, and cleaned up every piece and clad the whole ceiling, the soffits, and other odd nooks and crannies with it.  He created wainscoting on the one little bare wall using salvaged wood that used to be the stair risers from the section of staircase we had to demolish, and installed them so you can see the marks of the saws that were used to rip the boards, as well as the signatures of the contractors who installed them back in 1907.  The wainscot and door are trimmed out with wood that was also salvaged from the house, which makes it look finished, but not polished...rough and rugged, just what CS imagined.

It is so gratifying when you work with people who really embrace the feel you are going for, and bring their own creativity and expertise to the table.  We could not have had a more perfect team for this cellar than Vinotemp and King Konstruction!

Today, the wine is being carefully removed from the storage unit, and will be brought to the house, where we can use the Vintotemp drawings to carefully nestle every delicious bottle in a place specifically designed to keep it safe and drinkable.  And yes, I can promise you that tonight?  There will be a little bit of drinking!

In other news, I have just finished my ninth novel, Wedding Girl, which will be out in May 2016.  As such, I'm sure you can understand, my brain is total mush.  So I'll be taking a brief blogcation until after the holiday weekend.  I wish you all a terrific next week, and hope that your celebrations are full of everything delicious, and I will be back after July 6 to give you some more exciting updates as we leave the basement and head up to the second floor!

Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath

To Xfinity And Beyond!

Chickens-
So it’s been all AV Club up in here, and let me tell you, that is no small feat.  Let’s sum up:
The building is from 1907 and a lot of the electrical had not been upgraded since the mid-seventies. Our commitment to the building was always that we would bring infrastructure up to 21st century functionality and quality, while still celebrating the parts that are old world.
This makes for some fun details.  For example, while we will be using the latest technology for internet, phone, cable and home security, we are not creating a “smart home”, so lights go off and on from the flip switch on the wall, and our intercom system is officially the restored set of speaking tubes that are original to the building.
We also have the additional complication of living in the space while under construction, so we can’t upgrade everything at once, since we are only opening walls where we don’t inhabit the space daily. 
This has been a Comcast home since I moved in in 1993, and I’ve always been mostly satisfied with the service.  I’ve been bundled with phone, internet and cable forever, and in general, any problems I’ve had have predominantly been area outages, the equipment and service inside the house has always worked well and they’ve been good about periodically swapping it out for new when their systems upgrade.
Not that it’s always been perfect.  About five years ago, when upgrading the system, they brought me their DVR box.  I’d always been a TiVo girl, but I was game to see what their equipment could do, since it came free with my service.  In a week, I sent it back and re-installed my trusty TiVo.  The functionality of that box was clunky and complicated and not intuitive.  The search function took forever to type in shows, and it was difficult to manage priorities, and the storage capabilities were minimal.   By comparison, my TiVo was light years ahead, and we used it happily, only bemoaning the fact that you could only tape 2 shows, and couldn’t watch anything else live if two things were taping.
When we started talking about the renovations in the house, we realized that we were going to seriously upgrade the whole media experience.  We had only ever had two televisions, one in the living room and one in Charming Suitor’s mancave.  But we were adding a designated media room, as well as an exercise room and two guest bedrooms.  And I know two things:  If I’m going to walk on a treadmill to nowhere, it goes a lot faster if I have a Real Housewife or two to keep me company, and that I wanted our guest rooms to feel like wonderful little hotel rooms, so that meant televisions.
I called Comcast and explained my situation, and they sent over a supervisor, to talk to me about our needs and our complex building, and do a walk thru with my contractors.  We decided to temporarily run the two floors we are occupying as separate entities, since we had the opportunity to run new cables in the walls in the basement, but would have to continue to use the existing infrastructure on the first floor until other areas of the house were ready and that floor is unoccupied.  A plan was designed, they recommended we do a special panel to run the whole house, which we added to the scope of work, and we laid out the plan.  Comcast sent over bundles of the right cables to our contractors so that the electrician could install them in the walls when running all of the other power. 
And last week, we were finally ready for install!
The team from Comcast was amazing.  We were putting in two DVRs, one to run all of downstairs and one just for the upstairs living room TV.  A new modem, to upgrade our internet speed and run our landlines.  Three terminals in the basement for the exercise room and guest bedrooms, so that those televisions have cable.
We also had the additional complication of needing to set up some boosters and extenders to ensure that both floors have great Wifi coverage in every room.
But as complicated as it appeared the system would be, the actual install and getting us up and running was amazingly smooth.  Our main glitch was that while we were installing, you might have noticed a little bit of weather in our fair city, so there was an outage in the area.  Not ideal.   So we knew that things were running as best as we could get them on the day of installation, but we also set up a follow-up appointment just in case some things weren’t working properly once the area outage was fixed. Our technician called us the next morning to say that everything in our neighborhood was back up and running and he had us check our system.  Sure enough, we had a couple of things that weren’t as they should be, so they came back to reboot the system and get us on our feet.  Essentially, since the area was down, our new modem had not fully activated to our account, so the ultimate fix took less than half an hour! 



And let me just say, as nervous as I was to lose my beloved TiVo, and worried about the functionality of the DVR, this X1 system they have created is AMAZING.  Everything I didn’t like about the functionality before, is not just fixed, it is insanely easy to use.  Totally intuitive, I can tape up to four things at one time AND watch a fifth.  Anything we tape in the media room DVR can be watched on any of the other televisions, or get downloaded to our phones or tablets for travel.  The search function is so quick and easy that I was able to set up nearly 40 television shows to tape as season passes in about 20 minutes.  On Demand is right at your fingertips, as well as some apps that allow you to quickly check the local weather, sports or traffic! (Or even your horoscope, if you are so inclined…)
I haven’t even begun to really play with the mobile apps, but I know that I can stream live TV, watch On Demand programming and download shows and movies to my devices really easily, as well as manage my account.


Script officially flipped.  I’m now a total X1vangelist.
And if that weren’t enough Comcast love?  On Monday, I was called to Jury Duty down at 26th and California.  A long day, and me on deadline.  I got to the Jury Room and set up my laptop in hopes of getting some work done.  While they were making the announcement about there being no Wifi available except in the law library, which we would only have access to during our lunch break?  I was connecting to one of the eight gazillion Xfinity hotspot towers they have installed all over the city, and in no time I had four bars and was internet and email ready.  I was actually able to get some decent work done while providing my public service.
Our experience has been nothing but terrific, and while I know that many of you may have had issues with the company previously, from my experience, they have really been listening to the frustrations of customers and are very actively working to make improvements in every area.  I think it is nice that they acknowledge where they have fallen down in the past, and every member of their team that we encountered is really focused on changing the customer experience.  We are absolutely delighted, and as such, have decided to work with them on the home security system when we are ready to get that organized!
I’m going on a little bit of lockdown, as the new book is due to my editor in twelve days, but when I come back, I will be able to bring you up to speed on some more improvements!

 Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath