Here you go May! Heath Bar Cookies Ingredients 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (Eight 1.4 ounce bars) 1/2 cup chopped walnuts Method Heath Bars are popular American chocolate-covered-toffee candy bars. Heath Bar toffee bits are often available in the baking section of grocery stores. Either chopped up candy bars or the bits can be used for this recipe. The bars have chocolate, the bits don't. 1 Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine Heath Bar pieces and chopped walnuts. Set aside. 2 Cream butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy (a couple minutes). Beat in eggs one at a time, and vanilla. 3 Alternatively mix in the Heath Bar mixture and the flour mixture, a third at a time, until well blended. Chill cookie dough for at least 30 minutes (better an hour). 4 Preheat oven to 350°F. On cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat, spoon out the cookie dough in small 1-inch diameter balls (size of a large marble). Place dough balls 3 inches away from each other on the cookie sheets. (Make sure there is plenty of room between the cookie balls, and that the cookie balls aren't too big. These cookies spread!) 5 Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

On Friday loves2cook4six let us show off our challah on her thread. We have a Gaggenau 30" convection oven (not steam), and to tell you the truth, I am still having a hard time with it. A part of it may be our altitude (5400) which affects baking, and another part may be that I can find no rule with this oven in terms of baking time. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes a shorter baking period. If there's an auto-convert feature on this oven (because every recipe I have, which is set for sea-level so I've already my hands full trying to figure out how to alter it for the altitude and relative humidity, let alone how much less time or a lower temperature for convection) I have yet to figure it out. Following our tried-and-true (from California) challah recipe, it should have baked for at least 30 minutes: here, it was overcooked at 30 minutes. Good inside -- not quite as chewy as one would expect, and the crust was hard. But tonight we made a (vegan) brownie pizza! getting ready to melt soy butter and unsweetened chocolate -- this is an Emeril pot which we bought sight / hand unseen [I hear you trailrunner and imrainey!] and, luckily enough, we like it! adding Ener-G vegan egg replacer -- it's so-so, but we're trying to get back to our veganism [we fell into vegetarianism during the remodel -- so many things had cheese in it that I just gave in!] -- the children and I do better without dairy, and I think my husband does as well, esp. considering he grew up without it [he's Japanese] singing an ode to brownie pizza -- please notice his middle finger on top of his "little chef" car [he likes "the rat movie," aka Ratatouille, so he will often have a "little chef" when he bakes] decorating with strawberries & blueberries It had a delicious flavor (naturally -- I mean, it's chocolate!) but again, I could not figure out when it was done. The recipe called for it to be done at twelve minutes but it was still wet in the middle (and it's only about 1/4 of an inch thick); so I baked for two more minutes and the crust was so chewy and hard it was dangerous for dental work! So we ate the insides. Waste not want not! To quote our family: "oishii!" (delicious) Ruffin (my youngest) didn't have any (yet) -- he had a scary reaction to the amoxicillin he was prescribed for an ear infection. So to tell you the truth, this baking was therapy for me, to help calm my nerves after the scare in my Little Angel! I don't drink but maybe I should look into it .... I love love LOVE watching all of you in action! I'm keeping good wishes for a speedy and easy recovery for trailrunner's son!

elizpiz- The island and the base cabs where the soapstone sink is are painted a subtle green which sometimes seems almost grey. To make the transition to the white frig panels and to make the area under the speed oven seem more furniture-like, we painted the drawers the same green as the cabs and the background the same white as the frig and the uppers. I wanted to make the little drawer under the speed oven special and had planned on making it the sole drawer painted orange. Unfortunately, I didn't get my knobs in time to match so I made that the only drawer with a different piece of hardware. Also, you are seeing the library where the cookbooks are. I'll have my husband take more of a close-up so you can see the books. I'm a sick, sick puppy. And no I probably can't get rid of anything but I'd be happy to have you take a look. newbieremodeler - The cabs are custom. I based the sizes on what I needed to put there. I'm attaching my plan to give you an idea. I not only mixed slab and inset but some cabs are framed and some are frameless. The cooking side of the island is frameless and the side with the doors are framed. My cabinet maker did not love me. a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42398147@N05/4604516040/" title="0001dR by Carem2, on Flickr"> Pretty obsessive, huh?

I don't think the track is metal. Here are some close-ups: The only problem you might have with cutting it are the metal pieces on each end that hold it the correct distance apart. I looked at it carefully, but I just can't tell if it is something that could be taken apart and put back together. The rack is very simple, though, and maybe you could attach the two pieces of wood with the hooks between them directly to the underside of the shelf WITHOUT the metal pieces. You could even just install some hooks alone there if you don't care about sliding them back and forth. If you have a big enough cabinet and don't have too many hooks I think that would work fine.