Went to Ikea, looking for something to get a bit more counter/cabinet space in our kitchen..
Ended up falling in love with the Ivar system.
It's actually pine, and was very reasonably priced. Also picked up the giant 16 gallon recycling containers. I like how they have all these attachments for this thing, like the hooks, and the baskets that slide on the shelves.
I have an Ivar set up in my kitchen, and the pieces for a second one. I just need to stain it first. I have a light blue kitchen, so I stained mine an aqua color. It looks really pretty. Just took a weekend to do it.
I picked up the base for this work cart in the as-is section. It was clearance out summer stuff and they had no more tops to this. I got it for $10, and all I need is a 20x28 top. I was going to check out some granite installers to see if they'd have a scrap piece from a sink or stove cutout that could work.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S29033415/
I've also got plenty of other ikea stuff in my kitchen. I think my most favorite is their
roasting pan. $10 and it does the job for everything. I have an expensive one with a bigger rack, but it's only good for my Thanksgiving turkey. This one is the perfect size for so much more and I use it on my grill. It still takes some elbow grease to shine it up, but it's metal and can take the beating.
Okay, so I've got a million questions I'm hoping some of you might know the answer to or could help me with.
1. I have all clad pots and pans, and like in post 1480, mine has the straight edges. How do you pour a pot of water out of it without it dribbling down the side of the pot and out of where you want it to go? I have a 2qt pot that's pretty much my dedicated tea pot for a pitcher of tea. I always have to pour the tea into the pitcher in the sink because of the spills it creates. It's not a huge deal to do it that way, but it'd be nice to know if there's a trick to it. I've seen Alton Brown do it a time or two on his shows, but I don't notice anything different in how he does it.
2. How do you make spaghetti sauce thicken enough to stick to the pasta without it being a bowl of chunky tomatoes and noodles. I've been making sauce from fresh tomatoes. Every weekend there's an Asian couple at the flea market that sell their vegetables, and they give me boxes or bags of softer tomatoes that won't sell. I always share my results with them, so it works out. So I do the whole boil for a minute to skin the tomatoes. Let them cool enough to throw them in my food processor. It's tiny, so I do tiny batches with it. Then I put it in my stock pot to simmer away. First time I simmered overnight with the lid on. It was rather watery. The second time I simmered overnight with the lid on, and then most the day with the lid off to take out the liquid. The sauce was thicker and looked like a good consistency, but not enough to make it stick to the noodles.
3. Is there any way to keep pans from gunking up while making scrambled eggs? I've done Ramsey style eggs, and they're soo good. But I hate the clean up. My boyfriend is horrible, he heats the pan too hot and cooks them too long. I can make amazing fried eggs and sunny side up in my skillet or cast iron pan, but scrambled is frustrating. I can do an omelet, but sometimes I just want that silky crumble of a fluffy scrambled egg. I only have one 14" non-stick skillet and the rest are stainless. But it seems like an overkill for a couple of eggs.
There's a few other things that have been bugging me recently, but I can't think of them at 3am. So I'll ask later.