Hm... Re pricey sinks, check the Kitchen Forum Conversations area for "Garage Sale" items. I think a few people were going to put up sinks. Also, check for closeouts, eBay, Craigslist, etc. Pricey plumbing, well, better to have it done right if you're doing it, so if that's an expense you want to forgo, it's understandable. You can have a cover for the sink made of countertop material, or something practical, that will keep general garden dirt out of the sink when it's not in use, and convert it to counterspace if you need it. I live in a moderate climate where we don't have to winterize pipes. Do you have hosebibs in the garden? Sprinklers? Other things that need to be set up for the Winter? Is it a lot harder to do whatever it is to a sink? Can it just be added to the list? I don't think anyone who wanted to buy your house would reject it because there's no sink in the outdoor kitchen, though it might help the overall impression of the outdoor living space on an emotional level. I think most of it is about looks, however, rather than specific features. Whatever you decide to do about the sink, the outdoor kitchen sounds like it will be a lovely addition to your home.

That is a wonderful write-up. Thanks for taking the time to write it. We have a Viking cooktop and your observatoins match ours in using it for 7+ years. Alas, we don't have a grill so nothing to add here. We do have a portable infra-red grill we bought for our boat. And our experience matches yours. It is great for stakes but everything else will get torched from below, but no heat from above. They should call this steak grills and be done with it. BTW, we don't have the boat and never use it. FYI, we have a cermaic cooker now which we use for slow smoking (e.g. 12-18 hours). I have used it rain and shine including in snow. It will use only one single bag of charcoal for 24 hours. It has an automated controller for temps and I am able to manage it from the PC inside our house (through a program I have written). It is able to maintain its temp within 2% or even better! Not saying you should go that way but it is worth considering what you can do with an outside unit for at least slower cooks. You only have to put up with the weather when you load and unload it. And of course, it will create a BBQ which rivals or betters more restaurants. Again, much appreciate the feedback.

Taking meat out of the freezer tonight I found a package of short ribs cut on the thin side. Finally it clicked why I bought these so I'm trying the maui style ribs that Dinanna55 mentioned many moons ago. Looks like they were a hit in Hawaii but the place has closed down. Here is one recipe that was linked to in her post and a link to one on epicurious. I'm going to play around with both of them and hopefully come up with something good. They sound different and unique to me tonight. Rib recipe keeps Hawaiian secret safe Azeka's is a ribs and snack shop in Kihei, Maui that has been in business for more than 50 years. The shop's legendary Maui ribs recently inspired Patricia Shorting to e-mail me in search of a recipe. Shorting had a card listing the ingredients -- soy sauce, cane sugar, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and sesame oil -- but wanted to know the proportions. By Times Colonist (Victoria)February 20, 2006 Azeka's is a ribs and snack shop in Kihei, Maui that has been in business for more than 50 years. The shop's legendary Maui ribs recently inspired Patricia Shorting to e-mail me in search of a recipe. Shorting had a card listing the ingredients -- soy sauce, cane sugar, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and sesame oil -- but wanted to know the proportions. Azeka's website, azekas.com, says the shop came up with a special marinade for barbecued beef short ribs in 1976, and it quickly became a favourite of Maui residents and visitors, solely through word of mouth. "Don't forget to try the ribs at Azeka's Market!" people would say. The marinade is based on an original recipe of Bill Azeka's mother, and the shop treasures the formula so much, it trademarked the product. The chances of getting hold of the secret recipe are, well, nil. So, if you want to taste them, go to Hawaii, or they'll ship them to you frozen and you can cook them yourself. The other option, of course, is to come up with a recipe that resembles the tasty morsels of ribs served at Azeka's. The place to start is with the meat. As noted, the cut used is beef short ribs, which may come as a surprise to some. Most associate short ribs with thick, five-centimetre-wide pieces of meat that require long, slow cooking to make them tender. For Maui-style ribs, however, the short ribs are thinly cut, one-centimetre-thick, long strips that become tender by deliciously marinating the meat, not slowly cooking it. The result is short ribs that take 10 to 12 minutes to cook, not two hours. As for the marinade, the key balancing act is between the salt from the soy sauce and the sweetness from the cane sugar (sold at some supermarkets and Asian markets). In a first go-around, I used three parts soy to one part sugar. It wasn't quite right for my taste, so I opted to go with two parts soy to one part sugar. That may sound like a lot of sugar, but when I tasted the ribs, they were sumptuously sweet, not overly sweet. I added the ginger, garlic and sesame oil in small amounts until I achieved the somewhat subtle, I-know-you're-still-there flavour I wanted to achieve. All three ingredients have pretty powerful tastes, and if you overdo it with any one of them, they, not the ribs, could steal the show. Is the Maui-style rib recipe I came up with like the one served at Azeka's? Likely not. And that's a good thing, because it's nice to have secret food finds that keep you wondering why they're so delicious. That being said, my ribs were tasty and can be cooked indoors or outdoors. Because of the high sugar content in the marinade, you need to cook the ribs over medium heat -- any hotter and the sugar will burn before the ribs are done. Eric Akis's columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday. The best-selling author can be reached at ericakis@shaw.ca Maui-style Beef Short Ribs I used Kikkoman soy sauce in the marinade. It's a little lighter in colour and didn't turn the ribs a deep black colour, which some of the darker soy sauces do. I didn't want that to occur with my ribs because they'd be darker and less appealing-looking once cooked. Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus marinating time. Cooking time: 10-12 minutes. Makes: 4 servings 8, 5 to 6 bone, thinly cut strips of beef short ribs, about 3 1/2 lbs (see note) 1 1/2 cups soy sauce 3/4 cup cane sugar 3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger 3 garlic cloves, crushed 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil Place the ribs in a sided dish just large enough for a single, slightly overlapping layer. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar into the soy sauce. Pour over the ribs. Cover and marinate the ribs in the fridge at least 8 hours, or overnight, turning them occasionally. Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill to medium heat. Remove the meat from the marinade; discard the marinade. Lightly oil the surface, then grill the ribs 5 to 6 minutes per side, until cooked through but still juicy. Adjust the heat downward if they're darkening too quickly. Note: At some supermarkets, unmarinated, thinly cut short ribs are labeled Maui-style short ribs. Eric's options: After marinating, these ribs could be frozen raw -- something you may wish to do with half the ribs if you're only feeding two. Thaw them overnight in the fridge the day before you intend to cook them. © (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. The link below has the recipe from epicurious. I've always had good success with the recipes from that site. If you google there are many more but they all have the same basic ingriedents. I'm going for it!! David

Actually, I have had the same problem the past few months. In fact, one of the Vidalias I bought was soooo sharp that my husband ( in the next room) complained about the smell from the onion I was chopping. I ended up pitching part of it because it was making my entire freezer reek of onion. This has never happened before with any type of onion. I bag left over chopped onion in heavy vacuum seal bags to use later, I normally can't smell a thing through those bags. Now that I think back, it was one of the rounder rather than flat Vidalias. Most of the flat ones are soft lately. Joanne