[kelly]

Wow! I just put my kitchen (and my kitchenaid mixer- it was HOT when I was through) through it's paces, and I'm doing it again tomorrow! Without a dishwasher!

Today was shopping in a white-out blizzard (it's Minnesota, so there were lots of people out and about anyway, which makes it all that much more exciting! ), followed by making Kringla, Icebox sugar cookies, Brioche and Chateau potatoes- essentially, melon-balled potato, parboiled and then sauteed in butter (that's the tomorrow part).

Tomorrow, it's beef tenderloin, bernaise, the potatoes, Chive corn Chowder, Almond and garlic crusted green beens, brussel sprouts in olive oil and garlic and a nice calming romaine salad.

I really need one of those gel mats for my stone floor!

[zeuss]

Wow, that is quite the menu. You've been without a kitchen for months so I guess it must be quite a shock to the system. What is holding up the dishwasher installation - is it getting customized too?

My mom and I have been trying to cook in our old kitchen that is falling apart around us. With all this Christmas baking and cooking, I'm back at my kitchen plans - tweeking them again.

How are the new appliances working out? And how is the layout performing in real life instead of on plans?

[GardenOfDarwin]

I join Zeuss in being sad about my current kitchen. I need a teardrop on that frowny face. Yesterday I made Sour Cream Coffeecake (recipe below) and a double batch of chocolate chip cookies - James' favorite. Today I made Dulci's Sausage/Cheeseballs - a heart attack on a toothpick and the Spinach Dip from the back of the Knorr's Vegetable Soup Mix. Tomorrow I'll make the hummus which is just a couple of cans of Barganzo beans (in 5yr-old-speak), garlic, salt and pepper, some lemon juice and olive oil. I sometimes top it with a bit of homemade salsa which gives it an extra kick.

It worked, but I still wish I could reach things on the second shelf of my currently ugly and pathetically designed kitchen.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

For Cake:
1 Cup Butter at Room Temperature
1 1/4 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

For Filling and Topping:
1 1/4 Cups Pecans or Walnuts, Toasted and
Broken
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9” Bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, sour cream and vanilla.
3. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture.
4. Prepare topping. Scatter 1/2 the topping evenly over the bottom of the pan. Spoon in half the batter. Add the remaining topping and spoon on the remaining batter.
5. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes before removing from pan.
Note: Coffeecake may be made ahead and frozen before baking. Wrap bundt pan tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil and freeze for up to 6 weeks. To bake, do not thaw. Remove foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 60 to 75 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 15 minutes before removing from pan.

Susan

P.S. I wish I could be there for YOUR Christmas dinner - sounds yummy!

[kelly]

We are so pleased with the layout- it's an absolute pleasure to cook in here! So many great things to say about it- so let's start with how much an IKEA 36" drawer can hold! A LOT!

My new kitchen is swallowing my old kitchen whole, and not even having to unhinge it's jaws.

I had all four of us baking away on two different recipes (the kitchen aid finally has the kitchen it deserves, but I seriously need a new hand mixer) and there was more than ample room for all cooks.

The sink. OMG the sink is awesome. BIG SINK. The faucet is awesome. The disposer is super awesome- it ate the peel os 6 lbs of potatoes (in a few batches- I don't want McGuyver to divorce me just yet) and I could still sing along to the music from the living room- hardly noticed it was on.

The appliances are dreamy, dreamy, dreamy. Here's the brioche--

Re: Cooking my patootie off 

Re: Cooking my patootie off 

Tomorrow we put the french top to work on what it was born to do...bernaise sauce....

[kelly]

Oh Susan(s)!!

Oh no- it makes me sad! GoD, I've been to your kitchen and I know you want a new one, but you've done some really nice things with it, and it feels so good in there. Particularly when you are being fingerprinted.

Zeuss- I'm sorry your kitchen is falling down. I really understand that. I won't ever go into what caused us to replace our first kitchen in public, but I know how hard that is!

And it really sucks when you know what you're missing.

Thanks to both of you, literally thousands of people have new kitchens. I know irony is not the warm, cuddly consolation one craves, but it's got nice large handgrips and you can cling to it successfully for years.

Love to you, and to all the IKEAFANS, Mentors and Mods.

[GardenOfDarwin]

Kelly, I suspect you're getting sappy. Or slap-happy. And you admitted to me (in my ugly pathetical little kitchen) why you reno'd your first kitchen and I can vouch for the falling-down of it.

Susan

P.S. Never, EVER go anywhere without your Orange Soap.

[kelly]

I bet it would have warded off carsickness- IF ONLY I had been smart enough to take it.

[GardenOfDarwin]

I bet that if you asked, Elizabeth would make the Orange Soap bottle into a purse for you so that you could ALWAYS have it with you. Tuck some Pepto into it for good measure.

/OT Who else's patootie is being cooked off?

Susan

[kelly]

LOL! Hooo! Yah! How about if we make the GoJo purse strap out of a seatbelt? Commemorative! Durable! Pepto always "resolves" my nausea, but strangely, never through causing it to recede...

I'm thinking little battery operated fan for those times Kelly can't stick her head out the window for a little breeze.

[zeuss]

I'm glad your kitchenaid is working great. Mine, like my kitchen, is on its last legs. I've sent it once to be repaired but they were only able to make it work on speeds 5-10, no low speeds. So you should see the mess I'm in when I try to blend in dry ingredients! My sugar cookies today ended up with the dough a bit gooey because of my reluctance to add more flour to the dough (and my floors).

Also the pin that holds the main part onto the stand has worked loose and neither me or my hubby can seem to get it lined up well enough to push back. So when I mix away on high speeds it does so in a very rickety manner.

But I want to hold off until I order my new appliances for my new kitchen then I'll treat myself to a selection of these Gloss Cinnamon beauties: (not the Empire red I got for my sister's abstrakt red kitchen, but one of Kitchenaid's new colours!)