Cranberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies A modified version of the Quaker Oats VORC (look under the lid). As with all cookie recipes, freezing your chocolate chips and cranberries will make a huge difference in the finished cookie. The chips will hold together under heat and cranberries won't puree in the mixer. Let these cookies cool completely! Ingredients: 2 sticks unsalted butter 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 cups Quaker Oats - regular, not the instant or overnight 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup chocolate chips - not minis 2 cups cranberries Process: Cream both sugars and the butter until soft and fluffy Add the eggs and vanilla and mix Mix the flour, baking soda, cranberries, and chocolate chips in a large bowl and then add to the mixer and combine at low speed for a minute at most Add the oatmeal and combine at low speed Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper Roll the dough into 1" to 1-1/2" balls and place on the baking sheets Flatten them if you want crispy cookies, otherwise leave them as balls to get chewy centers Bake 13-15 minutes or until the edges start to get brown Cool completely on racks. Yields around 3 dozen cookies

Okay....today I finally found that Costco had partnered with a new countertop company & had an apt/estimate with Kitchen Magic Inc today ( 3/14/14 0 My wife looked at all the samples of granite & quartz and the rep said I had 58 sq ft with counters & backsplash. He explained that I don't pay Kitchen Magic but I do pay Costco. My wife liked the quartz better and he quoted me for a quartz countertop of Dupont Zodiac Toasted Almond Color including all removal & installation of countertop , backsplash & stainless steel double bowl sink = $ 8125 ( including tax ) and I would receive an $ 800 Costco Cash Card Rebate to be used on future Costco Purchases, He also worked out an estimate on a granite countertop ( Venetian Gold Color ) = $ 7898. adding that the Costco Cash Card Rebate of $ 800 did not apply on the granite. He alleged that both of these estimates were " special prices " for Costco which did not apply to all quartz or all granite. I I explained that did not seem like a bargain & displayed an estimate from Home Depot for 51 sq ft Silestone quartz in 9/5/13 = $ 7.598.50 adding that granite was the same price on the Home Depot estimate He indicated that I was responsible for purchasing a faucet which Kitchen Magic would install with the countertop & sink My wife likes the Dupont Zodiaq Toasted Almond Quartz and Kitchen Magic seems to have a good rep ( especially in conjunction with Costco ) .......but I wonder how " out of line " a $ 7500 Quartz Countertop is in Long Island , NY ? EDIT - when I asked rep if the granite had a lifetime sealer ?....he replied " No " & claimed it needed to be sealed every 2 years which my wife picked up on. He then claimed quartz is more durable & although we don't have any young children living with us anymore--- my wife became convinced that quartz was easier to maintain This post was edited by REBOP49 on Fri, Mar 14, 14 at 22:52

This has been discussed longer than I've been around here. (more than a decade) First you are much more likely looking at furniture board-aka particle board than MDF. The vast majority of cabinets do NOT use MDF but an enormous number of KD's, salesman, even contractors will refer to it as MDF. (but depending on type of each they would be on practically equal footing with particle having an edge over most of what is actually used for MDF in cabinets-there are over 100 variations for each) I currently only have one brand of frameless cabinets that offers Particle Board- they also offer ply and every other brand I have at the moment uses plywood sides. I went to great lengths to get that brand specifically for the particle board option. What I tell my customer- once you are at the middle price point, top end at the box store (Kraftmaid, Shuler...) there is no point in paying for plywood except: on exposed ends if that is what it takes to get veneer, and sometimes for shelves greater than 30" wide that will be VERY heavily loaded. So I'm telling them that when they go shopping somewhere else they should be looking at a less expensive options than some of what I have. When I worked at a place that had more particle board options available I told people exactly the same thing. I used to post the physical stats from the National Plywood Association for both- for all but bending under load, particle wins. Search back a few years if you want to see those. My own kitchen is particle board frameless because that is what I wanted and fit my budget. If I were to spend more I would not burn $$ just to be able to say I have plywood. There are far more important aspects to cabinets quality than "pepsi or coke" ply or furniture board. AND once you have settled on a price point there is more to picking who you work with than which brand-who provides it for you counts for more. As to the cabinets themselves- the most important aspect of a middle of the road or better brand is customer service and QC, finish is next, methods of construction and volume come in there (how rushed are the people on the glue line is my favorite thing to see when evaluating a brand- a really accurate indicator of how things will turn out in the long run). Jakuvall

Does refacing makes sense if you not only like your layout, but like and want to keep your stone countertops? (I've been told that my marble counters will likely break if they tried to remove them to replace the cabinets.) (I ask because replacing cabinets where I live is around $50k (on up). Refacing (I'd just buy the doors - I'm handy enough to put them on/deal with hardware) is about $6k. I only need doors, not veneer on edging.)