Hi Kids, We will not be having a big Easter dinner but I can't get away from tradition all together. No company for us and no invites to go out so we will be taking advantage of the good weather to get some heavy yard work done. I will start a pork butt in the crockpot in the morning so we will have some yummy pulled pork sanwiches at the end of our day. I also made some yummy pickled eggs last saturday so by tomorrow they should be perfect! It will be a very different Easter but I can live with change. I look forward to the pork. gazania, I hope you enjoy your pickled eggs and beets as much as I am going to enjoy mine. My kids love them when they are here but my husband can not stand them. He hates hard boiled eggs and when you add beets to the mix, he runs for the hills. I love them and can't get enough! Enjoy! It sounds like all of you will have wonderful meals, start to finish. I hope you all enjoy the bounty, the company and the day. sooey

Tons of new growth but lack of buds could be from being given too much nitrogen (fertilizer with a higher first number.) I have several of these plants and don't do anything differently to them than the hundreds of other plants I have. Taken outside when danger of frost has passed, brought in to escape the same. That's one of the things I love about it, it blooms often, whenever it feels like it throughout the year, w/o any special care. This gnarly old woody gal has a bloom now, made a couple last month, from buds that started forming in September, when it was still 90+ most days and about 70 at night.

Here's an idea: All perimeter counters and cabinets are 3" deeper than standard: -- Counters are 28.5" deep. This gives you more workspace as well as more room behind the sink for a faucet and to clean behind -- Base cabinets are 27"D. If your cabinetmaker does not offer deeper base cabinets, then pull standard 24" base cabinets out from the wall -- Upper cabinets are 15"D. This should not be a problem - most cabinetmakers today offer 15"D upper cabinets. All zones are nicely separated, which allows multiple people to work in the Kitchen at one time - preparing a meal/snack, cooking, and/or cleaning up. There are four defined Prep Zones, with potential for others throughout the Kitchen. There are 3 Prep Zones on the island - two of which are adjacent to the prep sink. The third is around the corner and while it is not directly adjacent to a sink, it's close to both sinks. There is a 2-bin trash pullout next to the prep sink. The Cooking Zone is on the wall for ease of venting. It is surrounded by ample work/landing space. There are two cabinets on the left for tray storage and pot & pan storage on the right. Additional pots & pans can be stored in the island. The Cleanup Zone is on the perimeter where dirty dishes are hidden from direct view from the Dining Room and Family Room. Both DWs flank the cleanup sink. There is also a 2-bin trash pullout b/w the cleanup sink and the range for easy access from both the Cooking Zone and the Cleanup Zone. Dish storage is located in several locations near the DWs and all to the left of the cleanup sink. This is so your dishes are located near their point of use - the Dining Room. Dishes are also stored near the DWs for ease of unloading. Finally, dish storage is located where someone can set the table or load/unload the DW without getting in the way of those preparing & cooking. Since you have a large family, you probably have more dishes than most (I grew up in a large family - six children as well - and we had more dishes than most.) Dish storage is located: -- A 24" Dish Hutch is to the left of the sink/DW. It has a 15" deep upper cabinet that goes to the counter above a 27" deep base cabinet. I recommend the first 6" to 9" of the upper cabinet be either a drawer or two or separate doors from above so you can open the doors above even when there are items on the counter. A nice thing about this arrangement is that if you are short or while your children are, dish storage is lower than in standard upper cabinets. Instead of starting 18" above the counter, storage starts 9" or so above the counter. [Note, I originally made it 36" wide, but then I remembered that you have a Utility Shaft at the end!] -- There is a 42" dish drawer in the island for additional dishes. The drawer faces the sink/DW side. With an aisle 51" wide, you should be able to have both the DW and the drawer open at the same time - nice and easy for putting dishes away! -- Finally, assuming the Utility Shaft is not as deep as the counter, I propose putting a tall dish cabinet in front of it for additional dish &^ glass storage. The refrigerator and freezer are on the periphery so both those working in the Kitchen and those just looking for a snack or putting away groceries can access it without getting in each other's way. They are also located so non-Kitchen workers do not have to cross through the working part of the Kitchen to get to them. The MW drawer is located on end of the island - near the refrigerator/freezer and a water source. Most MW'd food comes from the refrigerator or freezer and many need water added to them when MWing. As with the refrigerator, the MW is located such that both Kitchen workers and non-workers can access it without getting in each other's way. The Pantry is located just outside the main Kitchen work area. A walk-in/step-in/reach-in pantry is a much better use of space for pantry storage - it's more flexible, it costs much less, and storage is more efficient. The island has seating for eight. Two seats have 18" of knee/leg space for tall family members or visitors. The other six seats have the minimum recommended 15" overhang. This will be find for short to average height folks. There is a 12"w x 27" tall Utility pullout for broom, dustpan, swifter, etc. If you prefer, it could also be turned 90 degrees so it's a 27"W x 12"D cabinet. To the left of the pantry is a Tea/Coffee/Beverage Center. It's located outside the Kitchen proper to allow anyone to make tea/coffee, etc., without encroaching on the Kitchen's main work area. If you'd like, you could add a bar sink and, possibly, a refrigerator drawer or under-counter beverage refrigerator. Note that a bar sink is smaller than a prep sink, so it will not take up as much room. A bar sink is usually small b/c the most use it gets is to fill glasses for water or to fill a coffee maker, etc. Prep sinks, on the other hand, get a lot more use and more space is needed so they are generally larger. . . Zone Map:

The main problem with these meal delivery services, for me, is all the plastic, which I try to avoid. Being mostly vegan, I didn't find the cost to be that big of a factor. Also, I was able to get some items that are not sold locally in the groceries in my small town. So if you want to try some new brands, that's another thing in the plus category for this service. I used "Dinnerly" which I recommend, very good quality, instructions, packaging, choices, cost per serving, etc. I can only speak to their vegetarian options. The rest looked good though. They offer variations on some of their meals which could be vegan or with animal products depending on what you choose. I thought the fact that tofu was way more expensive than meat to be sad, but the same is reflected in store prices. For a product made out of dead cheap soybeans, it sure is expensive. Same with the fake meats, not a cost effective grocery item usually. I eat them, but not every day. Portions were ample, no complaints in that department. Meal one: Bok choy lo mein This was good, although lo mein isn't a favorite dish of mine. I love bok choy, and having this meal encouraged me to buy it more often. It's pricey but you don't use that much. I didn't cook the lo mein noodles separately as instructed. Instead, I stir fried the bok choy and scallions and then added chicken broth to the wok and cooked the noodles in the broth. They thickened it as they cooked. The recipe called for a poached egg in the dish but I used diced teriyaki marinated tofu. It seemed skimpy on the vegetables so I added a package of frozen stir fry vegetables. The plus for me on this meal was to encourage me to buy bok choy more often and use those precut and frozen stir fry mixes for the ease. I prefer buckwheat noodles also. Meal two: Roasted brussel sprouts and mushrooms in barbecue sauce served over scallion and garlic grits Again, a plus for me was the brussel sprouts, I don't make them often enough since they are expensive. I had never made grits with garlic before, very good. I usually just make plain polenta and serve a sauce over it, but I think adding scallions and garlic was great, along with cheese and butter at the end. I added carrots to the roasted veggie mix. An easy dish for me to repeat. Also encouraged me to get back into roasting veggies, really warms up the kitchen! Meal three: Gluten free cheese ravioli with spinach Two items I don't often buy due to the large amount of plastic they come in, fresh pasta and baby spinach. They don't sell gluten free fresh pastas at my local grocery, just dried ones, so this was a treat. I learned an easy way of steaming spinach to add to the dish, just put it in the colander and drain the pasta over it, that wilts it enough to go into the dish, but still keeps a fresh taste. Plus you can wash it ahead of time and drain in the same colander, so this meal didn't create a lot of dishes to wash. Meal four: Cuban picadillo with Impossible burger and jasmine rice. This is one of my favorite dishes, I usually use Morningstar farms fake meat crumbles, so this was one of my first tastes of the Impossible burger. It was good, but the burgers came preformed and sealed separately in a large amount of plastic, so I would not have bought this on my own. It also came with Cento tomato sauce, a brand I don't usually buy. I buy the cheaper store brand. I found the Cento to be of better taste/higher quality. Not sure it made a huge difference, but some. I loved not having to measure anything for this dish. If I made it again on my own I'd make up a big batch of the stew and freeze it. Good quality olives too, something I don't usually get. I only buy kalamata. I had some left over corn and some sauteed sweet red pepper, which I added, those were good additions. Delish. Even hubs said he liked it and he usually doesn't like anything with a sweet and sour vibe. Meal five: Roasted garbanzo beans in a Mediterranean themed chef salad Good but a little tart. The dressing called for fresh squeezed lemon juice, which I almost never fuss with. It was good but aggravated my GERD. I had never roasted garbanzo beans before, what a revelation! They were delish, even more nutty tasting than fresh cooked. They kind of got lost in the salad though, which was heavy on the humus based dressing. I had never used hummus to make dressing before, that was good. I added a little goat cheese and green pepper. The salad had fresh made croutons which you toasted in the oven along with the garbanzo beans. Those were great! Worth the extra trouble. The salad featured a heart of romaine, one of my favorite salad greens. I can get these in the store, but again, I never buy because they come pre-packaged in plastic. Loved the dish but if I ever use romaine in a salad I buy the whole head and wash myself, not the pre packaged, pre-washed stuff. So overall, it was wasteful with all the packaging, but fun for me because it took a lot of the thinking out of the process and featured fancy foods I don't normally splurge on. I also think given enough time I might be able to put together some of my own kits for some of these options, so it's a good way to collect a set of recipe ideas to tweak on your own later.