Julie - Here's the Jicama salad recipie, it's from Rachael Ray's 30-minute Get Real Meals: Juice of 2 limes 1T Dijon mustard 4T extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) 1 jicama (1 lb) 1 ripe Hass avocado 1 small red onion, thinly sliced 1 English seedless cucumber cut into 1/4 inch thick disks 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped In a small bowl combine the lime jice, mustard, salt, and pepper. Whisk in about 4T EVOO. With a paring knife, peel the light brown skin from the jicama. Slice it into 1/4 inch thick disks, stack the disks up, then cut into 1/4 inch wide strips and reserve. Cut all around the circumference of the ripe avocado, lengthwise and down to the pit. Twist and separate the halved fruit. Remove the pit w/a spoon, then scoop the flesh out in one piece from both halves. Chop the avocado into bite size pieces. In a salad bowl combine the jicama, avocado, red onion, cucumber, black beans, cilantro, and parsley. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.

Gave up my dishwasher the first time it broke down and I rediscovered the fact that I enjoy doing them by hand. (Actually, I practically washed them before putting them in the dishwasher, anyway.) I use gloves and the feel of the hot water seems to warm me through to my toes in the winter. Most of all, I love my the view from my kitchen window while doing them, all critters and growing things or critters and the colors of winter. It's a marvelous excuse to stay there for a long, long time and enjoy. Yesterday was eagle migration on Lake Minnetonka. I saw 14 adult bald eagles in one tree!!!!! I have never seen anything like that in my life. Waterfowl filled one of their favorite "feast-before-flying" bays - everyone was represented out there, bobbing and diving and flapping for more room in their temporary city. Today, was a lot more sparse, but still a wonderful slice of migration. I love this time of the year despite the fact that the lake is giving up the ghost and is going to sleep for a time. It goes out with such a huge finale!

One of the reasons to *not* rinse/prewash dishes is if you use an enzyme detergent it needs the food particles to work better. It'll etch glass and stuff if it doesn't have the food particles. I can't explain it well, but it's easy research for a more thorough explanation. Most just recommend scraping the dishes (and really, who wouldn't?!) then into the DW. I haven't had a dishwasher for more than 30 years but I'm starting to miss it. I would get grossed out though when it left stuff on it. When washing by hand and using a good soap it gets clean. Sure, you just put it back in and rewash but it still bugs me. It also bugs me to see people leave dirty dishes in the DW for a week before washing them. Argh! If it takes a week to fill it, you should have a smaller DW or use a top rack only feature. This is what impresses me about the F&P Dish Drawers. And geez, I can wash a few dishes FAR faster than an hour or two for a dishwasher! LOL And when you compare the time to load the dishwasher vs washing, it's pretty close. Time's not a factor. It's the hassle of washing them. I soak my dishes and a quick swish, rinse in HOT water and into the drainer to dry. Putting them away is comparable to time in a DW. Oh, and one thing I found out quickly, the way you load it makes a big difference. You have to learn how the water sprays and make sure it's not blocked for effective washing.

I'm SO EXCITED your kitchen remodel is finally going to happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You've gotten so many responses and good tips, that I was only able to skim through. I love our kitchen dish drawers, but we cheated a bit. Our dish area has a hutch sitting on the counter above the dish drawers. It's mostly full of glasses, cups, serving bowls, and pitchers, but has drawers across the bottom for flatware. This means that the top drawer in the base cabinet, that might usually hold flatware, is free for dishes, like custard cups, etc. Our plates (dinner and salad/dessert sizes) and cereal bowls are in the 2nd drawer from the top (the first deep one), and we have Tupperware type containers in the bottom drawer. (In the pics in the link below we still had some serveware in the bottom drawers, but now it's plastic containers in one and lids in the other.) I wouldn't want to have everyday-use dishes in the bottom drawer. We had 46" for the dish storage, so we did 2 cabinets each at 23" wide. Our dishes are heavy, and many for our crew, so I'd worry about going too wide. Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen... Dish drawers shown about 1/2 way down