I'm back...I made the plain yogurt cake on The Kitchn blog...made it exactly as she said and only added the grated rind of a lemon. Baked it 50 min. Used EEVO as that is all I had...not just plain OO. It was WONDERFUL. LIght and tasty and no oily taste at all. We had it last night and again this AM with sliced strawberries. I will be making it often. I will link to a piece on Livestrong about palm oil . And here is part of an article about coconut oil : "According to Dr. Barry Sears, who is an expert in lipids (fats), holds a doctorate in biochemistry and does extensive research in the field, coconut oil does have some advantages over other types of saturated fat in that it is rich in tocotrienols (vitamin E, an antioxidant), and because of the high amounts of saturated fat, it is stable for cooking. (Note that the tocotrienols degrade during cooking so this benefit is lost if you use coconut oil for cooking.) All in all, coconut oil may not be as unhealthy as many animal-derived saturated fats (butter, meat), but until more research is done, especially looking at the impact on heart disease risk, it is better to limit your intake to less than 10% of total calories per day and make sure that it replaces less healthy foods such as refined carbohydrates, sugar and high fat animal proteins instead of adding to them. And I agree with Sears that for controlling inflammation and obtaining optimal health, extra virgin olive oil is unquestionably your best choice." Certainly a lot of info. The bottom line is , if you take in too many calories vs how many you burn you will gain weight and potentially be unhealthy. Moderation in ALL things is best. You can't leave out any food group without suffering consequences. If you leave out meat you have to make up the difference with the proper amino acids in complementary proteins. It is not easy being a human with good nutrition these days :) c Here is a link that might be useful: Palm fruit/palm seed oil...the difference

Definitely wait a few weeks before shelving your books to give the paint time to cure. It hardens as it cures. If you put books on the shelves too soon, they will mar the paint and could stick to it a bit, too. I would go with a semi-gloss. Benjamin Moore is a good brand. You could also look into CabinetCoat, which is an acrylic resin paint, I think---more durable than latex but still water based. I used it on trim in our house and was very pleased with the results. It's more self-leveling than latex and brushmarks just settle out. It does tend to form drips and sags more than other types of paint AND it dries quickly so you need to be vigilant about checking your work as you go. Here is a link that might be useful: CabinetCoat paint

veer, I just learned recently myself that what we call arugula is the same thing as rocket. Shaw was very clever when he said that we are two nations divided by a common tongue. The book maintains, and I agree, that there is a great divide in America. A great many people live primarily on fast food and convenience food, and eat both unhealthfully and without much sophistication. Lots of people never cook other than to heat something in a microwave oven. On the other hand there is a large and growing segment of the population with a great interest in good food -- the "foodies" -- who dine out or cook at home. Look at the success of the Food Network on television these days. This interest seems to be centered most heavily around the Northeast and the West Coast, although I'm sure many such people are found all throughout the country. The book was a lot of fun to read. My poor husband was trying to read his own book on the plane and I kept nudging him to read bits to him. (It's only fair -- he asks me crossword puzzle questions.) You should be able to find it if you are interested. I bought in a bookstore in Florence, and I see that Amazon UK has it. And yes, we did come home inspired. I have made several things we learned, and my son was gratifyingly impressed. Tonight Tom will be cooking my almost-birthday dinner and I'm eager to see what he comes up with. Someone said to me, Oh how nice that you took your husband to cooking school with you. I replied, How nice that he took me. It was his idea in the first place! He generally comes up with good ideas.

Real wood, even the much more stable composites like plywood and MDF, swell with moisture and release that moisture when the air dries out. That will leave minute cracks at any joints. Today's professional coatings are much more flexible than the old oils of yesteryear, so the cracking won't be as apparent, but it will still occur. "Real wood" for cabinets is a term bandied about by the uneducated kutside the industry. Realistically, cabinets haven't been constructed of all solid wood panels since plywood was invented. Solid wood panels are the most unstable form of wood that exists. Plywood was a great leap forward in furniture construction. As was MDF. Technically, MDF is just as much "real wood" as is plywood if not more so because it's able to be much denser--To have more wood per cubic inch than plywood. They are both made of cross grain wood, it's just the plywood uses layers of cross grain veneers while the MDF uses tiny wood particles where the fibers lock together like wool does to make felt. Both can have issues with moisture if exposed, with the unprotected MDF swelling and the plywood delaminating If you want a painted cabinet with zero cracks anywhere, get thermofoil instead. You're not really wanting the natural characteristics of wood. You want plastic. Thermofoil will give you the look that you desire. Thermofoil wraps come in many many different colors today, and they are much more durable--and attractive--than yesterday's thermofoil. Just look at Martha Stewart's cabinets. No paint there. All high tech European thermofoil that most would be hard pressed to tell wasn't paint. Solid MDF that mimics a stile and rail construction will be the next most stable. It will not have any real joints to move as it would be a solid piece. The downside to that is that you aren't able to achieve sharp definition at the corners, so it always looks a bit "off". It won't really save you much in costs over thermofoil though if you have it hand painted instead of sprayed. However, hand painting instead of spraying can help with the perceived "plasticy" look, as can hand applying a slight glaze over a sprayed coat. That will also be an upcharge. Multipart MDF with an actual free floating inner panel and separate stiles and rails will be the next most stable when it comes to cracks. It's plenty strong enough and durable enough for most situations. Just like the solid MDF, if it's hand painted instead of sprayed, It's a much more realistic look because of the multiple parts and you will not be able to visually tell the difference between it and solid wood if hand painted. If it's sprayed, it tends to look a bit "too smooth" to the experts. The average person will not be able to see nor will they care. Next in line in stability comes wood rails and stiles and a MDF center panel. This helps a bit with the cracking between the panel and the frames, as that is often the most apparent spot, especially if the doors were painted after assembly which is very common. The spot where the stiles and rails meet have the wood grain going in different directions, so you will still get cracking at that spot, much more than a MDF frame. As I said, with the new latex paints, it's less apparent than with the old oil paints. Hand painting with the minor errors that entails will also help it to achieve the less than perfect natural look. The most prone to hygroscopic behavior is solid wood--which can be a bit misleading. Most "solid wood" recessed panel doors are not really solid wood. They are plywood panels with wood frames very much behaving like the solid wood with MDF panels I explained above. There is zero advantage of a plywood over MDF for the center panel if you are using wood frames. The MDF is probably cheaper for the same look. "Solid" raised panel doors (or solid reverse recessed panel doors) are the most prone to potential cracking. The panels are not "solid" in that they are created out of a single piece of wood. That would expand and contract horribly! The panels are constructed of several solid pieces laminated together and then machined with a profile before being placed into the stiles and rails. In addition to all of the usual suspect spots for cracking, these add the potential of cracking occurring between the laminated wood strips. They are the most authentic construction for very old homes, as plywood and MDF did not exist 150 years ago, but they will also give you the most authentic look. That means the potential of hairline cracks pretty much everywhere. All in all, the less processed product that the cabinets are made of, the more "defects" it will have. The more man made and processed a product is, the more "perfect" it becomes, with little variation in construction or appearance. More "natural looking" is a polite way to say "has natural defects that would not occur in a man made product". Some people want something expensive to look "shiny and new" always and those are the people who have little tolerance for the variations found in nature. Those people are the ones that should look to thermofoil to give them their desired "maintenance free and new" look. Some want their new kitchens to immediately look as though they've been there for years---with the natural patina of time built in. Most of us are in between, and we usually have our budget interjecting it's own constraints on our aesthetics.