it was certainly delicious. as to proportions, he isn't sure. it was made in my large glass bar shaker and he used one can of ginger ale, said maybe equal orange juice and poured in the amaretto (di saronno) until he thought there was enough LOL. it was strong, but then again, i'm not much of a drinker, even communion wine gets me quick. it really made a nice poaching liquid. i wonder how it would fare with fish????? maryanne

Her little outfit, especially the bonnet, is great. (I'm not sure about the laptop computer, though.) You spoke of a "tin cup". The enameled steel cup she holds is probably as authentic as you can get. The term, tin cup, was a generic term applied to metal cups. Very few cups were made of tin in the 1880s, although tin was safe material for drinking and beverage cups. It would have been too expensive, on the order of a silver alloy cup. You would not have sent a true tin cup to school with a child. Canned goods and cups were mostly steel plated with tin. Every day cups were enamaled steel. In the 1940s, I had a folding cup. It was mostly a novelety. I'm not sure what the material was for my cup, likely aluminum. It could have been plated steel. The folding cup was not completely water tight, but held water long enough for one to drink. The cup tended to weep a bit so the user was careful to lean forward to keep from dripping on his clothing. New cups were fairly water tight, but with a little use and a ding or two and those leaked like a seive. The bottom line: A folding cup was a neat novelty and fun to have, but a regular cup was more reliable.

Thanks bmorepanic- Are you referring to if we do what Annie mentioned by adding a middle door so that the top doors on the l and r sides of the banquette would be the same size? Good thought on the paneled beverage fridge. Yes, I already changed the pullouts to drawers next to the main fridge but don't have an updated picture yet : ) Thanks! A spot for the TV has been an issue throughout but this seemed the only option as most disliked putting it in an appliance garage next to fridge as shown here... You can see we also removed the non-functioning trim kit so that the cab above fridge could be larger. The kids will view it from island more than likely and I'll use it mostly for "listening". Another spot is above double ovens but that's on the opposite side and no one at island would really see it. (It would be better for me when prepping food though)

Ok, So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say something you probably won't like: I suspect that much of what you think you know about water isn't correct. The "Dead water" comment was a clue. There is a ton of misleading and unsound information about water that is designed to sell water treatment. I think that is the source of much of your information. You can clean up the taste and odor in your water and reduce some of the trace chemicals by simply using a decent carbon filter. That is what I would suggest. As for fluoride, I think that you are over-reacting to hype about fluoride that is baseless. Note: As you look on your water quality reports it shows how much of a chemical is present compared to an EPA action level. Your Fluoride levels are average 0.5 ppm compared to an action level of 4 ppm. I've said it before: We are really, really bad at assessing comparative risk. Smoking, sedentary lifestyle, not wearing a seat belt, texting while driving, excessive fast food, more than moderate alcohol consumption and owning a gun will shorten your lifespan much more reliably and at a much greater magnitude than 0.4 ppm of Fluoride in your water. Even that bag of microwaved popcorn you had last night has more spooky chemicals than anything coming out of your tap.