I've tried Gloves in a Bottle, a very thick lotion. It worked, but the smell wasn't very pleasant. I've put Bag Balm on too, before going out to do battle. It works (and is pretty cheap as a little goes a long way), but it is petroleum jelly-based, sooo...just a little gooey and I'd rather use it afterwards. I've found that nearly any goopy lotion will do in a pinch, but I try to avoid anything with a heavy or flowery scent...to much bee bait!

We have a hand-crank Donvier we got when we were married in 1995 that is almost constantly in use from about the 4th of July to mid-September. (The brand-name one is overpriced. Get a clone, which can be had for under $20 on sale.) DH wants an electric and I may get him one for his birthday (which is 2 days after Christmas LOL) if end-of-summer sales yield any REALLY good prices on reliable machines. Here's the base recipe we use, from the Ben & Jerry's book... I don't think you could GET any simpler, and it's surprisingly good. We pretty much never use a custard base because our kitchen is not air conditioned, and diddling around making custard in a 90-odd degree kitchen is officially Not Worth It in our book. For a 1 quart ice cream maker, combine 1 can sweetened, condensed milk (many of us remember it as "Eagle milk") with 2 cups light cream, a splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Do NOT leave out the salt! Stir well, chill at least 2 hours before putting in the ice cream maker. You can substitute full-fat ("cream top") vanilla yogurt for half the cream but it doesn't really save you much calorically, just does interesting things to the flavor and can make you feel a little virtuous LOL! Lower-fat yogurts give a strange chalky texture and unsweetened yogurt makes for very sour product. (Found from unpleasant experience that just chucking a quart of yogurt straight from the container into the ice cream maker, no matter how yummy it is normally, does not make nice frozen yogurt, oh no not at all!) There's a simple plain base, now start playing... A super easy way to get a delicious fruity flavor ice cream is to substitute 1 cup of a good strong jam for 1 cup of the cream. (I don't recommend doing both jam and yogurt and eliminating all the cream. The result came out... the only word I can find for it is "stretchy".) The jam concentrates the fruit's flavor; warm "seedy" jams like raspberry or blackberry until they're liquidy and push them through a strainer if you don't want to be picking seeds out of your teeth for days. If you want fruit pieces, line a cookie sheet with the nonstick foil or baking parchment (or a Silpat if you're blessed with one), spread out a layer of finely chopped fruit with the pieces not touching, or minimally touching, and freeze rock solid. Add the fruit pieces at the very end of churning. Toast any nuts you wish to add for a stronger, "nuttier" flavor; and grating frozen chocolate bars on the largest holes of a grater (use an oven mitt to hold the chocolate so your body heat doesn't melt it) gives a better result IMO than using chocolate chips, even the mini kind. If you want to use something like butterscotch chips, freeze them and break them up in small batches in a food processor on "pulse". Good use for one of those mini-chopper types. Remember that your liquid ice cream/sorbet/yogurt mixture has to be almost sickeningly-sweet in its unfrozen state to taste "normal" as a finished product - the cold numbs your taste buds so all the flavors have to be STRONG. Oh, and filling the churning chamber more than about 2/3 full, 3/4 at the most, can be a recipe for a Big Sticky Mess. So don't do it. Honey-sweetened ice cream does not store well more than 24 hours - it gets crumbly and weird-textured, so if you want to do something with honey, have enough people around to scarf it down within hours of curing. Alcohol will interfere in the solidifying process so if you really load it up even with an overnight cure you may not get more than a "soft serve" texture. We bought a whole slew of nice little (not quite 1/2 cup) lidded plastic containers into which we portion the ice cream while it's still in the "soft serve" state. Pop them in the freezer and in 4 hours it's solidified enough to have the proper ice cream "mouthfeel", although I like 8 hours' curing time. If we don't pre-portion it DH will go WAY overboard! Oh, and the famous Mark Bittman/New York Times "eggless ice cream" was IMNSHO utterly REVOLTING.

I think there's no real proof that dietary fat makes you fat, and I don't think I'd skip the cream--the calories per serving can't be that much. I've linked to a study in the scholarly journal Nutrition, and here's an excerpt from the abstract: "The DGAC Report does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that increases in whole grain and fiber and decreases in dietary saturated fat, salt, and animal protein will lead to positive health outcomes. Lack of supporting evidence limits the value of the proposed recommendations as guidance for consumers or as the basis for public health policy. It is time to reexamine how US dietary guidelines are created and ask whether the current process is still appropriate for our needs." Here is a link that might be useful: In the face of contradictory evidence: Report of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee

Hm.... I think the island had to be a 36" cabinet max, with overhang off the back? There might have been room to have a small overhang off the left, near the DR. I'd have to double check. There are things I do like about the L + island, including the larger pantry in the kitchen. What I don't like is a) seeing the kitchen floor wide open from the front door b) the fact that it doesn't play so nice with the BS window and pushes kitchen seating towards the fridge/sliding doors. And, you are right, the plan doesn't work so hot with the bump out. If we went with the smaller 7" bump out, I could modify/customize a pantry cabinet on the end where the bump out is - make it less deep but long to accomodate a microwave and food storage. So, I guess it could still get figured out? As the bump out gets larger, it seems harder to make the L work. It also pushes the walkway space further to the left and squeezes it even tighter...leaving something more like an isle/atoll instead of an island. lol I was able to meet with the woman who designed that last kitchen - and can hire her for a $500 fee that would be applied to the cabinets if I went through them. I really, really liked her. She showed me the stacked stone - and it explicitly talks about it being cleanable, kitchen ready, etc. She's going to contact the owner, who she is still friends with 2 years later (I think that's a good sign) and see how it is holding up in the kitchen. I dunno, there's just something about mixing materials that I like here. The smooth glass tile, looking modern, combined with the stacked stone just seems fun and kinda true to the house? But, then the issue comes up about where to terminate the darn tile! Do you wrap it totally around the hallway to the W/D cubby or just end it on the wall somehow after the bump out? And how much does all this add to the budget? And what does it do the possibility of hanging shelves or what-not off of the bump out? (I have these great hammered measuring cups and spoons I could hang on the side of the bump out in the kitchen nook, if we bump out it) I have another appt at 11 am tomorrow to look at other frameless options, that are probably out of my budget. They offered to do some pricing for free, but they are expensive to hire. I FEEL like I am getting some momentum going and am not too far from appliance, layout and cabinet decisions I could live with and love. Getting some numbers should help with that. The flooring and counter and tile is still stumping me to a large extent - not to mention the darn budget. lol We are emptying the LR and kitchen (slowly) in preparation for the tear down. My partner is focused on moving the electrical. I keep reminding myself how much this is saving me when I think about how long it is going to take. However, up until now, him going slow has been fine because I really have not known what I want and so it just gives me more time. As I figure out what I want and get things ordered, I imagine I will get less patient... I love the materials in the enormous kitchen you just posted. The dark brown is about the perfect shade of brown, isn't it? It plays so nice with the white on top. That kitchen is not only huge, though, it is so open and has a ton of light and height. Look at the width of those floor planks, too! I like that floor color. Does it look brown enough and not too golden? I want to stay away from yellow, orange and gold tones on the floor without going too dark in my little house. Tricky. Something like that might be a compromise point? Thanks for the link to the cabinet info. This, I admit, is the stuff that bores me. I know, I know, I need to know. I also appreciate your first hand experience with IKEA. Did you ever post pics? Sounds like you have reservations of both the boxes/frames and the doors. My aunt in Chicago decided to remodel her kitchen after me - and is about 90% done with an IKEA kitchen. She went creme on top (the shiny modern doors) with a new door on the bottom that is sort of driftwood looking to me. Must be veneer. So, she is getting a 2-toned IKEA kitchen, without any influence from me. Irony. I'm excited to see it. Did you ever post pics of your basement IKEA kitchenette? I'd love to see! Icelady! It's good to hear from you. Saga is the right word! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction to get reconnected with GI. I've really lost track of the old crew.