Kitchenplasty



My corrections of the first sketch by Rachel  Stietzel
of Our House, LLC  (all rights are owned by Our House, LLC)



My corrections of the first sketch by Rachel Stietzel
of Our House, LLC (all rights are owned by Our House, LLC)

Second sketch  of  the sink wall by Rachel  Stietzel of Our House, LLC
(all rights are owned by Our House, LLC)

Second sketch  of stove wall by Rachel  Stietzel of Our House, LLC 
(all rights are owned by Our House, LLC)

         For months I was editing sketches and I was trying to save money for the huge overhaul of my 1985 kitchen.. As I said in my March 30th post you never can save enough money for a kitchen remodel. There is much more than cabinets, paint, stainless shelves, granite counters, upper lighting, underneath cabinet lighting, contractors, plumbers and what is going to be your new kitchen. You need to remember to: always calculate a remodel of 0 to 15% of your house or condo's value, to budget for unexpected expenses, to have a place to store all of your items to be installed, and what you are going to do for food and refrigeration while your kitchen is a big money pit without a sink!

        Living in a 600 square foot condo and then having to store all of my kitchen items/ kitchen appliances/cabinets/doors. and two month kitchen remodel while being on night shifts was hard. But my contractor and designer Rachel and Drew Stietzel were great in the process. Rachel found space and nooks while transforming my kitchen beyond my wildest dreams. She also though outside the box and with cost saving ways as well. For an instance she put a bottom cabinet above my fridge because she knew I wanted a cabinet that stuck out as much as the fridge so that it would be used. She also suggested heavily IKEA and after looking at the competition IKEA was the best bet. Thomasville was beautiful wood cabinetry but I would have been 40% of my condo's value just on cabinets alone. I think because of her and Drew's team I was able to be a better cook and baker inspired by my new kitchen. I have room for pantry items that roll out and above my cabinets!

      There were a lot of bump and bruises on the way during our kitchenplasty. Like a Nose job or any plastic surgery before there was improvement it got ugly. Please enjoy the pictures of the updated kitchen that were mostly taken by my camera phone so I could get more of the kitchen in the shot.

Above the fridge storage for platters, baking sheets,
and cutting boards

Up close of the platters, etc above the fridge

Fridge with too many magnets! 

Yeah I have been waiting for my new fridge so
I can put up all my pretty magnets.

Door to the slide out pantry

The slide out pantry. Why yes we have dog and
a huge box of milk bones!

Finishing up on  the cook book nook
before the peg board came in.

The cook book nook while we were waiting to gain
back our living room but still had no sink so we could
not really use our kitchen yet because the dishwasher was not
hooked up and it is not clean if you wash it i the bath tub!



Still at one point no sink. We then got the sink and it was
too large for the original plumbing. This was
everything BUT the kitchen sink and Alanis Morissette
singing"isn't it ironic" in the background for two weeks
after the rest of the kitchen was done.



My IKEA Hjuvik faucet

My stainless steel dishwasher that actually works!

The magnet that is on my dishwasher
"Why do dishes when you can do daiquiris?"
I am so glad I no longer have to do dishes!

My Fancy glasses cabinet

Cabinet above the microwave just for pasta!

The cabinet above the coffee station

The coffee station without the coffee maker, yet.

The stove wall with the upper cabinets and microwave

The Microwave with pasta stock above it in it's own special cubby.

Before the sink came in I slowly put my kitchen stuff in the kitchen.

Welcoming the new kitchen via chalkboard... Still no sink.

Breakfast bar with the drawers open.

Right hand side of the stove wall's glass cabinets.

left hand side of the stove wall's glass cabinets.

In the rough stage the electrical strip for the kitchen. There are
more on this one strip than the number of electrical plugs in the original kitchen!

Glamour shots of the breakfast bar after completion!

This is my beautiful kitchen that might be small
but it has tons of storage and my pastry/breakfast bar!

My Sink side of the kitchen with a kitchen sink!

Inspired by Julia Child I have peg board
which soon will hang all of my cake pans!

Now that is a pretty kitchen with a spot for everything!

     

THINKING GRAND (MARNIER)

  When I am gifted something like a candy bar I always think how can I make this into a cookie? Cookies currently are my favorite thing to bake. I like that I can make a giant cookie and then cut and freeze it and it is sort of the stir-fry of baking. Once you have a great batter and have confidence in your ingredients then you just are only limited by your imagination (and/or a mean case of diabetes). Most people only have an angel and a devil on either shoulder while I have a fat girl that gives me hints when I bake. She says things like, "really just one 2 cups of chocolate chunks, the texture of the cookie will be ruined and uneven, double it!"

  My mother in law got me the best Easter basket a Grand Marnier chocolate bar by Turin and a Barnes and Nobles gift card. Oooh! I am so excited! Grand Marnier is so good and has made some of my favorite alcoholic drinks taste divine! My favorite drink (and was my wedding drink) is Cosmo Royale and Cosmos done well are great. With the Barnes and Nobles gift card I got a variety of books including one about how to make pretty cookies (I make sturdy good tasting cookies but they are not pretty) and others related to art/photography/and sewing.

  I used the Barnes and Nobles card and now I have been thinking what to do with that candy bar! And the easy way out would probably need to get a whole lot more candy bars and taste the candy bar to see what is going to go well with the chocolate. I actually was inspired not to use the candy bar. I just ate two squares and therefore I keep leaving less and less chocolate for the cookies. Perhaps I will do something like the Hershey Peanut Butter Blossoms (ie a cookie batter then you press in the chocolate) but orangey with the with future Grand Marnier chocolate bars by Turnin. But the below is my experiment that was inspired by the Grand Marnier chocolate bar by Turnin. 
  
 I found out in my experiment that Grand Marnier cannot exactly compete with dark chocolate's tones. When you mix Grand Marnier with dark chocolate  it needed a little Orange Extract to kick it up. I realized that dark chocolate bars are expensive plus Grand Marnier and orange extract. While running errands my husband gave me about $7.00 to go into the store to get the heavy whipping cream. He though I would come back with $4.00 and in fact it cost $6.99 for a quart of Heavy Whipping Cream. So this is a very rich dessert and that is before sinking any teeth into the cookie. This is a great limited edition cookie and people seemed to love my cookies. It is fun and nice addition to the spring/summer mix. So this is not exactly a cost saving cookie but it is really worth the money and there will be no waste not, want not here!
  

How Grand Marnier! Cookies

(Doubled recipe)

 Ingredients:


4.5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups (4 sticks) butter softened
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1.5 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons Grand Marnier
2 teaspoons Orange Extract
4 eggs

Chocolate Ganache with Orange Panache Recipe (below)

Chocolate Ganache With Orange Panache!
my variation of Chocolate Ganache's from page 82 of Whoopie Pies; Dozen of mix 'em, match 'em, Eat 'em up recipes by Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwill.

Ingredients:


24 oz chopped dark chocolate
1.5 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons of Orange extract
3 teaspoons of Grand Marnier

1.) In a large heatproof bowl place the chocolate.

2.) On medium heat in a large, heavy saucepan heat the cream just until it bubbles.

3.)  Add the cream over the chocolate and let it stand for 10 minutes while it slowly melts the chocolate.

4.)Stir using a wooden spoon or spatula until smooth.
5.) Add in the Orange extract and the Grand Marnier when it is cooler.

6.) A.) Allow the mixture to rest at room temperature until firm enough to spread which is about 2 hours
                                           OR
     B.) Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes until firm enough to spread.
7.) Put the Ganache to the side
8.) Sift together: flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium sized batter bowl. Put aside.

9.) Cut up room temperature butter into small pats of butter and place in the mixing bowl. Using the flat blade attachment in mixer cream the butter, Grand Marnier, brown sugar and granulated sugar together.

10.)  Beat the egg mixture with a fork to break up the egg. Add the eggs one at a time to the mixture of creamed butter/Grand Marnier/brown sugar/sugar. Make sure in between eggs to beat the mixture well.

11.) Stir in the Chocolate Ganache with Orange Panache into the mixture. Make sure that the stand mixer spreads the ganache through out the mixture by using a flat spatula to scrap down the sides.
12.)  Add the sifted dry ingredient slowly folding it into the wet mixture. Run until the dough is mixed thoroughly.

Tips: If the mixture is uneven: fold the mixture by hand if necessary to mix the bottom part of the dough with the top layer. If necessary then run the mixer again.

13.)Cover the cookie dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate in the mixing bowl for about 20 minutes.

14.) After 20 minutes preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Form the cookies and bake  for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden.

(Tip: I got three Giant cookies out of this recipe plus 4 large sized cookies. I feel this recipe is better with the Giant cookies pan because the dough is very sticky! I added for this event red sprinkles for Memorial day. I baked the cookie for about 20 minutes at 350 degree Fahrenheit)