Cabinet Doors and a Sick Kid

We went back to school after Christmas break yesterday. Today I am at home with Kylie. She's got a nasty cough. I'm hoping this is a short break in the week and not the beginning of a cycle that keeps me out of my classroom for a week.

Since I'm at home, I'm working on the kitchen cabinet doors. We changed the knobs first and liked them so much with the black cabinets, that I am changing out the hinges and calling it good. No painting at this time!! Yippee!! Given that there are 29 doors and 14 drawers, I am thrilled.  I'm not planning on this being a long-term fix, maybe a year or two, so I went with contractor grade hinges. 58 hinges. The difference between contractor grade and the good ones are an easy $3 each!! So, needlesstosay, the less than awesome new brushed nickel hinges are perfect.

What's the difference you ask? Well on the expensive ones, the inset in the middle of it is the same color as the hinge. On the contractor grade ones, the inset is a different color. In our case, it is a brownish/maroonish color. It's noticeable, but not worth the price increase.  In may picture below the hinges are gold, the inset is brown. Our hinges are exactly like this except that they are brushed nickel.

Well, I am off to get Kylie to stop climbing on the couch and to finish the cabinets. I'll post a finished pictures later!!

Love It, Loan It or Leave It-- Kitchen Accessories

Today's installment of Love It, Loan It or Leave It is about kitchen accessories.

In case you are wondering what I am doing, take a look at yesterday's post....
[and just as a reminder, no payments, no freebies to me for the reviews.]

LOVE IT-- We have 2 coffee pots. We use them both everyday. I know, spoiled. (The Keurig was a birthday gift!!)  But both coffee pots make the LOVE it list!! For the first cup of coffee, it's the Keurig.  It's all about immediate gratification!! I make a cup of starbucks, Doug makes a cup of hazelnut.  Then we make a pot of coffee (only a 1/2 a pot on workdays) using the Hamilton Beach Brew Station. Both coffee pots are used everyday. Both are LOVED :)

Loan It--My deep dish Pampered Chef Baker. It was an ouch to purchase, but I got suckered in at a "cooking" show (otherwise known as home party). The meal that was made was pulled pork in 20 minutes. It was wonderful. And I've made it a couple of times since and my family loves the meal. But I don't use it for much anything else. I don't think I'm getting my bang for my buck. 

But if you want to borrow my baking dish to make pulled pork, let me know. You will be glad to use it, but not have to buy it!

Leave It-- Sorry Pampered Chef! I don't mean to be a hater, I use lots of their products and know that they make quality products. However, my flower muffin/cupcake pan is a bust!  It looked so cute and I bought the pan so that I could make cute cupcakes for my daughter's birthday a few years ago.  HOWEVER, the baked items did not look like the pan at all when they came out.  Cause how can they? It doesn't matter that the pan is silicone and the baked item is supposed to come out easily. It doesn't. It breaks and falls apart.  The muffin that is. Not the pan. It is fine. A beast to clean, as you can see in the picture, but in great shape as I NEVER USE IT.

So, if you were thinking about making really cute muffins/cupcakes that look like flowers. DON'T. Or, make plain ones and do fancy frosting. Or you can have my pan.  It was too expensive to put in the garage sale, so it lives in the back of my cabinet taking up space!

And that's my Love It, Loan It or Leave It for the kitchen!