New member here - Gina sent me...

Oh GOODIE MORE CANNON FODDER!!!

Now if Gina was a REAL friend she'd tell you what an MLC virgin is and save you from the hazing (y'all ready, folks?)

Welcome to the best forum on the net, pharaoh!

Hi Pharoah!,
I've seen your kitchen...outstanding!!! This forum will inspire you to new levels of cuisine AND you will get to know some FABULOUS people along the way.

Claire

MLC virgin? Hazing? I am scared!

Gina, help :(

Awwww, Pharaoh!
That's just Jessy's way of sayin' she likes ya!

Welcome to the best forum around. Any friend of Gina's is a friend of ours!

Linda

Thanks linda! I guess cooking comes with a sense of humor. you know our kitchen forum gets quite 'heated' sometimes - Granite vs manmade counters, should i sue my contractor, wood vs travertine, ikea vs custom ...

and... what's the BEST faucet, cabinet manufacturer, wood species, flooring material, granite choice, hardware, garbage disposal, prep sink size, back splash material, wall color,under cabinet lighting, ALL, of course within budget. I'm soooooo glad that is behind me but I LOVED the process!!

but now, the REAL fun begins!

Welcome pharaoh!!

Everyone here is so nice and they all share great recipes too!!!

Linda P

Welcome to the board. Kinda new myself. I love this forum. The recipes...the photos of the food. Oh my heck. I feel like a gourmet when I cook a recipe from here. And to think--I used to feel gourmet only because I used wine once in awhile to cook with. lol I would love to see your kitchen! Please post! Again...welcome to the board!

Pharaoh!

Nancy

Hey you made it! Don't worry about Jessica - she just pretends to be EVIL!

This is the best forum on the web. Hang out with us. We L.A. area members have met several times now. We've gone to Surfas, Penzey's, a Spanish deli, Sur La Table, and more.

You'll have to educate us about what vegetarians cook.

Vegetarians cook vegetables....well...like DUH!!
Hey Pharoah....can we just call you Tut?...Or is that too informal?
Glad to see another fresh face...
Linda C

Hi Pharaoh. Welcome! There are several vegetarians here and a whole lot of us who always want to try good, healthy recipes, whether they involve meat or not. So I'm also looking forward to what you share.

And yes, the LA group is just great. I love to meet them (when I'm in LA on biz) at a restaurant, or for shopping or a day of cooking. Lots of us have met members all over the US and Canada and real friendships have grown from the virtual ones.

Lee, waving madly from Colorado

Hi Pharaoh!!! Glad you could join us. This is a great place to be, and lots of good recipes too!!! I see you have met the "Evil One" (Jessy)....She's not as bad as she seems. Just watch the way you word things. She will be watching!!!LOL [

](http://tinypic.com) Nice to meet you!!! Hope to hear from you soon!!! Diana55

Welcome! I'm going to have to go check out your kitchen.

AM

Welcome Pharoah.....hope to swap some great recipes with you!

I'm surprised Jessy didn't mention the nipples & balls...
Let the hazing begin....Oh, I mean welcome to the forum!

Boo

Hi, Pharoah. Welcome to the forum, I think you will really like it here.

Brenda

Welcome Pharaoh

Jump in the waters warm. You'll find us to be a fairly laid back group and we aren't sticklers about things like searching before asking or hijacking posts. Mind you, you raise the subject of Velvetta, mayo, cornbread, cooking show hosts and what BBQ really is at your own risk! LOL

Again welcome and I hope we hear lots from you!

Sharon

From one vegetarian to another, I bid you welcome! I've been hanging around here for a little more than a year, now, and still feel like a newcomer, but in a good way. I still have so much to learn, and have found that this is definately the place to come to learn it. Everyone is very helpful, and has taught me a lot. I bet I'll learn a lot from you, too.

Sally

Welcome Pharoah! I'm a veg also, though my DH and 2 sons are not. I've gotten some great help and recipes from everyone on this forum. I migrated over here a while ago from kitchens too!

Happy Friday!
DONNA

Hi Pharoh, glad you made the transition too.

I'm an omnivore, but I'm always interested in vegetarian recipes because our vegetarian son lives with us - especially dishes that are fancy enough for special occasions. Also, we keep kosher so anything for a milk meal has to be meatless.

Hi Pharoh! From one kitchen lover to another I welcome you to the CF. This really is the best forum around.

I remember you from Kitchens a loooooong time ago ;-) You really do have a spectacular kitchen.

Wow, what a great reception!

I will have to post photos of my kitchen again because the thread has fallen off in the kitchen forum.

Glad to see a number of vegetarians here :) I am going to lurk here for a few days before jumping into conversations.

Welcome to the Cooking Forum, Pharoah. I'm not a vegetarian but I do have a huge organic garden and I love a lot of the vegetarian recipes.

It's pretty warm and friendly here, and Jessica's not as evil as she pretends to be, at least she's not most of the time. (grin) The rest of us though, you'll have to take your chances with!

Annie

Welcome Pharaoh.

MLC stands for Molten Lava Cake - a recipe I posted long ago. That's about the extent of our vile power, leave or take a couple hundred transgressions.

So there you have it, the worst problem you'll encounter is being enveloped in a shroud of melted chocolate.

Still think we're trouble? Well, that may be true, but we mean well.

Again, welcome to the CF. I have a vegetarian kid in the house, so your recipes and ideas will be appreciated.

Sol

Welcome to the best as has been stated already! I am a kitchen forum wannabe and look forward to your pictures.

Cathy

Hi there, and welcome! Please do link us to your pix!

Jessy and LindaC.......you guys crack me up!

janet

Another Kitchen migrant here! Welcome to Cooking, Pharaoh! We are delighted to have you join the party. Thanks, Gina, for extending the invitation (although none is needed to come play in our sandbox!)

I've been a bit less active lately as I had some major life changes, but I just love this place!! I hope you get as much enjoyment, and make as many friends!

Good to meet you! I also used to be more active but now I've joined the work force and am away from home most of the day. Get comfy!

Welcome! This forum is about so much more than just food... food is VERY important, but the friends made are even more so. Be sure to pop in on the gallery and conversations sections once in a while too!

Who's gonna tell him what POOFING is??

Welcome Pharaoh...

Yes you'll find yourself among friends here, vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike and many, like myself, who'd love to have graduated from the kitchen reno forum LOL! Look forward to your veggie recipes and kitchen photos.

Waving from Canary Islands, Spain.

SharonCb

Welcome to our group Pharaoh! I bet you will like it here and we're glad to have you with us. We're mostly good people here. There's only one Evil One among us and sometimes she's not so bad.

Beverly

Hi Pharoah and welcome. I am another immigrant from Kitchens. In fact it was Kitchens and Baths when I started there, so it's been a few years. My kitchen is holding up well, althoug I am not the cook that n=many here are. I do a lot of recipe clipping for the day that I can get back into it again.

I will have to go have a look at your kitchen.

Welcome! I graduated from the Kitchen Forum too (Dedtired and I were in the same "class"). Ah, happy memories of total obsession. We're a little more relaxed here, I think.
Um.. I think.

Welcome-- I'm in L.A. too, on the west side. I hope you can join in one of our get-togethers. My neighbor/friend is vegan now and always looking for new recipes.

Hi Pharaoh! I'm another L.A. person who graduated from the CF. My remodel is 5 years old already, hard to believe. I'd love to see your photos and we always welcome another member!

Welcome!!

We're still in construction but my kitchen is very close to be completed...just waiting for a few replacement doors and some more shelves that we had to reorder. But I've been reading this forum when we were in our 1st temp kitchen and then through our 2nd temp kitchen!

Looking forward to getting to know you and your cooking style!

Michelle

Hi,
welcome, am also in Colorado am Lee's business partner..had been here many years ago and recently started "talking "again.......... it is truely a wonderful group of people willing to help, share ideas , and laugh at themselves........ which makes it pretty grand........ there have been cooking workshops,dinners out, helping of those in need.....enjoy the warmth....it is quite incredible....Charlotte

Pharoah:

I'm another kitchen graduate and new immigrant to this site. The depth of knowledge here is amazing and everyone is very helpful. BTW, I went to the Finished Kitchen Blog and looked you up. Your kitchen is drop dead gorgeous, even more so considering you did it all yourself! If your cooking skills are half as good as your cabinet-making skills, you'll be helping all of us in no time. Welcome.

Welcome..no vegetarians here...gosh I'm lucky to get atleast one vegetable into them a DAY! LOL

But hey I like new side dishes. ~wink~

Welcome to the best recipe swap and food porn site on the WWW...

I am back from traveling!

Before I start posting on other threads, here are photos of my kitchen that some of you have already seen on the kitchen forum and in FKB.

So here goes -
We did all the work ourselves including building the cabinets, installing the floors, cabs, appliances, electrical, gas, plumbing, lighting, etc. The only thing we outsourced (is that a bad word?) was the marble counters.
Total time spent on design, woodworking, demolition, construction - approx 2000 man hours. (Couldn't afford to hire myself :) )

Details
1) First we built all our cabinets from Red birch. Frameless cabs. All lower cabs are drawers. Drawer hardware is blumotion . Hinges are self close/soft close. Finish is oil based poly. No stain. Door style is shaker with a reverse reveal ( the front of the panel is flat, the back is raised).

2) Floor is travertine with onyx insets (laid on schluter ditra isolation membrane). The marble medallion was factory made.

3) Lighting is 4" recessed halogens on dimmers.

4) Asko Dishwasher

5) Jade 48" built in refrigerator

6) Electrolux double wall ovens and warming drawer

7) Bluestar 30" range top

8) The most expensive and bold part of the kitchen is the Connemara Irish Green Marble counters with floor returns. All of the templating, fabrication and installation was supervised by me. The installer did a flawless job.

9) The sink is counter depth apron front stainless, flush mounted to the countertop

10) The china cabinet has no glass! It has a built in aquarium

11)The hood is glass/stainless from ebay

12) The island has a back lit onyx panel that we made and installed for a lounge look when we have cocktail parties :)

13) The cabinet boxes are all made from prefinished 3/4" birch plywood using biscuit joints and pocket holes. The front edges of the plywood is finished with a burgess edge solid red birch insert. (no veneer or tape). The doors are shaker style with a flat front panel and a raised panel on the inside.

14) All the drawers are dovetailed (even though it is an overkill in todays day of pocket screws and glue) but I wanted to learn how to do them well.

15) The grain matching was a difficult task because you have to mark each piece and keep the order correct through the entire process.

16) Highly figured boards were reserved for places like the door above the aquarium etc.
17) The faucet is Hamat Ergo with pull down and joystick control (I do have reservations about that though)

18. The sink is a Julienesque stainless. I changed my original design of an Elkay apron front sink to this.
    The new sink is 36" wide 24" deep and is flush mounted. ie. is is exactly at the same level as the counter so no undermount or overmount!
    19) The dispensers are - hand soap and dish soap. The third protuberance is the air gap. The holes were drilled on site. I decided to put them on the side because the stainless is very hard to drill cleanly.

20) The storage containers are the 365 series from IKEA. I got rid of ALL mismatched storage I had before (glass/stainless/yoghurt jars). The plastic ones from IKEA are great. Easy to use, clear, the top has a small lid that opens to let you pour things...
The spice jars are also from IKEA. Brilliant design, they can rest on the side as well as the bottom.

21) GLASS BACKSPLASH
After months of agonizing over the backsplash, we designed, ordered and installed the glass backsplash.

Details: Regular glass was laminated (2 x 1/8" sheets). The lamination provides a 65% opacity. Not tempered. We templated the backsplash with strips of plywood and hot glue. We had a local glass company make the glass, we installed it in one evening.

22) The wall mural is made from fossils from wyoming that are inlaid in limestone. The top and bottom stone is a split face slate

Wow! Great job! The onyx island is fantastic and love, love, love the fish fossil wall. What a great way to display them!

Oh WOW! Please tell me you actually cook. What a wonderful space to share with those you love...just add food and folk!

Pharaoh

I am still so amazed with your kitchen! The fact that you did soooo much of this work, and that it looks this incredible, is just remarkable. I sooo love your fossil art (the biologist in me).

You often gave me great advice on the Kitchen Forum, and as per Gina's recommendation I popped up over here the other day (I did not introduce myself . .oops!) Just snuck in . .I am shy like that I guess! Still working on the final touches of our kitchen. Welcome back from your travels! And great to see a familiar "face" over here too!

Jamie (Far away in S. FL)

*THUD*

what Jessy did!

Holy crap! I vote the next L.A. get-together we go to pharaoh's house!

Wow! I clicked on this thread, intending to say Welcome! to the Cooking Forum, blah, blah, blah - but then I saw your pics and I'm speechless at your kitchen's beauty. Also speechless that you did most of the work yourselves. Speechless, too, that you built your own cabinets. And the fossil mural - more speechlessness! Anyway, welcome, and I love your kitchen!

You have a GORGEOUS kitchen!! That is one beautiful DIY cabinet project!!! Love the aquarium!!

What Gina said! Looks like another India cooking experience, based on what I saw in that spice drawer....where's Lee? Hmmmm....Little India in Artesia, anyone?

OMG What a kitchen. My kitchen is more like a camp kitchen. For real. I'll dream about yours. I'm new here too, snuck under the radar, so no one knows who I am.lol

It's because of kitchens like yours that I left the KF! I had kitchen envy and found it was better if I didn't know what I didn't have.

Fantastic!

Welcome again,
Cathy

That is one freaking cool kitchen! Love the fossil mural and the aquarium! I keep going back to look at both of them...not the appliances or marble this time. LOL!

Welcome to the forum! Hope to see you joining in with this great group of people who love food.

David

Okay, I am finally back from all my travels this summer.

Yes, major indian cooking in this kitchen.
Thanks for all the compliments! I am ready to cook and post photos soon...

I'm glad you're back and ready to jump in.

Yes Jessy, the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the spices and the masala dabba was that a fair amount of Indian food must be cooked there.

After cooking with Manisha and doing more on my own this year, I have stopped buying the vacuum packed Indian foods that I always thought were so good in the past - they just can't compare to what you can cook.

Pharoah, I'm looking forward to your posts - whatever the food may be. I'm sure only wonderful things can come out of your kitchen.

Lee

Welcome Pharoh. Thank you so much for sharing those kitchen photos, which of course totally blew me away like everyone else. Being a biologist with a particular interest in thing aquatic, your kitchen was like a dream to me, like a "I've died and gone to heavan" kitchen. My own kitchen is very small and completely lacking in counter space. Since it is a row house, no chance of expanding, lol!

I'm a vegetarain too, although no gourmet. I'm basically what I call a "hash cook." I have no patience for manipulating and arranging my food, so I specialize in stews and soups! Also cheap food. I can no more do good phyllo than play the violin, lol! I love eating Indian and Asian food, although I don't cook it that often, I just don't have the ingredients around for it. I seem to specialize in mediterranean cooking, I have yet to find a mediterranean cuisine that I didn't love, most recently I have been doing N. African due to the influence of this forum and one of our virtual dinners. How I envy you living in CA, you have access to all the best ingredients all the time.

Welcome, glad you're here!
Lpink