I use the same method as Brenda but instead of copper (which I looked for and could not find) I use aluminum flashing from Lowes, cut it with scissors and write on it with a paint pen marker. I can include lots of information beside the name when I write on both sides. So far the writing has held up for 3 years. I also like to use the coat hangers for pants that have the cardboard. When the cardboard is removed the ends are already bent and I only have to bend them a little bit more after cutting the wire on both sides of the curved hanger. I get two stakes per clothes hanger so mine stand up above the ground a little bit but are well concealed as I do not like to see the labels. I use a large head nail (so I don't miss with the hammer) to punch a hole in the aluminum. I also use this technique to label apple trees but hang the label from fencing wire that I loop around a limb. Thanks for everyone's ideas Sue

Cece- those were two good shows today, weren't they! I especially likes the cloisonne book cover. I printed that project out. The pasta maker I have is an Atlas. You can get them in a store that sell kitchen stuff- maybe a chain like Lechter's or a local culinary shop. It was funny when I got mine cause my Dad got it as a xmas present for me. He thought he was doing good by getting a big schmancy electric model with all types of controls on it. When I saw it, my face fell, and I had to tell him I wanted the old hand-cranker for crafting, not cooking! He had to take it back & order a new one, lol! I am not sure what the going price is- maybe $50? Check on Ebay to get an idea- I know they have them all the time. HTH, Karen

Posted by johnliu ---" You see, when I think about the physics of oven rosting/braising, many hours at a constant 350F, I do not understand why a heavy enameled cast iron dutch oven should actually function differently from a tightly-lidded pot of any material, be it heavy copper, clad stainless, pyrex, or even tinfoil. No matter what material is used, won't the liquid in the pot be about 212F? ---" To food, it makes no difference what material you cook it in. Temperature is temperature; Cookware materials do not change the taste of food. As a matter of fact, if you remember in General physics 101, you can actually boil/cook food in a paper pot. However, the conductivity (rate of temperature change) of material will make a difference in your cooking methods: Fry, braise, bake, simmer, saut�, boil, etc. For roasting in an oven, the following situation probably takes place: copper v.s. cast iron cookware: Copper pot � Copper is a much better thermal conductor than cast iron, and copper pot is lighter in mass than cast iron (ignoring specific heat for this discussion) therefore the pot itself will be heated up much faster in a convection oven, faster in a regular oven, and since shinny copper is a good reflector of infrared ( you�ll notice gold colored foils are used on space craft to reflect sunlight), not that fast in an electric oven which initially uses radiant heating mostly. After cooking, the food in a copper pot will cool down somewhat faster initially, but not that much faster even copper is a much better heat conductor. That is because the conductivity of the layer of food behind the copper takes over m(assuming you are not boiling stock), unless you stir the food constantly. Cast iron pot � Cast iron is not a very good heat conductor and with the thermal mass, it will take a while for the pot to get up to temperature. For low temperature cooking, it does not make much difference CI vs. copper, for high temperature cooking, copper will cook food faster or burn food faster. The choice of enameled cast iron cookware, in my opinion, is more aesthetic than functional, which is a very valid reason. You can probably say the same thing if you were to compare copper vs. st. steel. dcarch

No need to reply to this. Just FWIW: What if you dropped the wall behind the stove quite a bit. Kinda like this. How much you could drop the wall would depend on what you had to put behind the stove. On the top of the wall behind the stove, to at least partially conceal the stove's protrusion, you could put something like one of these? (In my mind's eye, I see a collection of copper boxes, not a single one.) I was looking for something that might hold kitchen tools or somehow be useful as well as pick up the sink's copper and be interesting. I found a couple. This one isn't long enough, but you'll get the idea. Here's a detail of the planter: And here is the link: Here is a link that might be useful: hand-tooled copper planter with birds This post was edited by Bellsmom on Sat, Feb 23, 13 at 17:35