Dining rooms/areas during the holidays...
lavender_lass
10 years ago
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romy718
10 years agodeedles
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Vote:If room not carpeted, should Dining Table be on an area rug?
Comments (16)Looks like majority has rug under formal if room is large enough and no rug under kitchen table due to messy eaters. Funny, my old house had wood dining table on wood floor. I had to put felt under all the legs, then moved a few weeks later and had to remove the all because new house had carpet. Now I am removing the carpet and having to put the felt back on. But since I will most likely have a rug under there, I may only do the chairs in case the chairs get taken off rug for some reason. My room is large enough to have rug under table with about 2' of wood around edge of room still showing. My kitchen has no rug on wood floor. It is amazing how many crumbs my kids drop each week. I almost feel like putting a "splat" mat under there like they do for highchairs....See MoreOT: Share winter recipes to make during the holiday break
Comments (32)Here's our friend Maria's everyday chicken mole or, as she explained to me long ago, amused by the new culinary fuss over "moles," chicken in gravy. Maria was the oldest of 10 and spent her childhood here in the U.S. babysitting and on a stool preparing meals while the adults were out in the fields. She's a fantastic cook, but this is simple home cooking, no chocolate, no "special" ingredients. I'm offering it because I never see it on recipe forums and it is delicious, definitely winter comfort food. Amounts are approximate, of course, and can be massaged as desired. Chicken broth Water and 2-3 pounds chicken parts, chicken, plus whatever you usually add, such as: 1/2 onion 2 cloves garlic 1 leafy stalk celery. 1 bay leaf 2 teaspoons thyme Salt and pepper to taste Gravy 3 tablespoons chicken fat (skimmed from chicken broth) 1/2 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic 3 tablespoons flour Cumin seed, broken up, to taste, about 1 tablespoon or more Good quality chili powder to taste, start with a tablespoon if unsure 3 cups chicken broth Simmer first group of ingredients about 20 minutes, skimming foam as they approach a low boil, then turning heat down to simmer about 20 minutes for the typical supermarket chicken. Remove and cool chicken enough to pull apart into bite-size pieces. For gravy, lightly saute onion, garlic and spices in chicken fat skimmed from the broth. Sift flour into the pan, whisking quickly, and stir over low-medium heat until flour is cooked; will be bubbly but not browned. Then stir in defatted chicken broth and simmer until thickened. Salt as desired. At this point you can add more chili powder to taste if needed and simmer a bit more. We like it a nice medium chile-red, not pale and not dark. Then add the chicken and serve over whatever you like....See MoreA 2 ft. deep by 10 ft. long closet area in the dining room?
Comments (34)Thank you very much for thinking of us and posting pictures of your mom's beautiful dining room, mojomom. I certainly hope that the choices we make for our home will age as gracefully as your mom's. : ) Thanks for the pictures mdln. Those are very nice. Awww, no worries sheesh. This technological stuff is so hard to keep up with, isn't it. Our video screen for watching movies is hooked up to a speaker cabinet from 1978 (the record player is even still in it) because neither dh nor I are up to figuring out the new sound systems right now, LOL. We'll leave out the electric fireplace, jlc712. In fact, we've had an about face with the whole project...Now why I didn't do this earlier, I don't know. I drew everything out on graph paper (always better than doing math in your head-oy!), and with the other furniture in the dining room, I was stunned (smacking forehead, here) that there really is only room for an 8' table. Ummmm...we're outgrowing our 8' table already, and 1/2 of our kids are under 10. That lead to a whole house evaluation, and a complete rearrangement of furniture and room functions. As a result, we flip-flopped our living room and dining room today. (Fortunately, the kitchen is smack dab in the middle of the house with the other rooms on either side of it.) The living room (I mean...new dining room) is 15.5' x 25'. It can handle a dining room table, a big dining room table. Like 16' long big. And that's with putting a closet at one end of the room (so all these closet ideas? They won't be wasted!) For DH, this means doing the longer, more extensive project of supporting the ceiling with beams rather than a closet, but it will make for a wide open and airy living room(yay, I love airy!), and a long dining room with plenty of room for a larger table. Phew. Since we often have large groups of people over, this should work very well for us. We were even able to work it so that we got more couch and chair seating in the 14'7" x 17' room than we could logistically work in the 15.5' x 25' room. It all seems good. It is so true that it pays to live in a house for awhile to see how the space functions before making major changes. Thank you one and all for helping us think this project through. You have been incredibly kind and helpful and I love the creative insights and ideas that you brought forth....See MoreStaging during the holidays?
Comments (22)Unfortunately it's not a parallel reality. When I was selling my home, as decoration on the front hall table I had a white marble stone statue of Buddha. There was actually a couple who came in and decided the condo was too Asian looking. After that feedback, I took Buddha down and instead put up a metal fish statue. (This is in FL.) You just never know what will or will not turn someone off and better to let them imagine how they will live in the space vs how you live. For those of us here on GW who can envision how we could live in a different space, even if it's not our colors or taste, it's hard to imagine others can't do the same. However, most people can't. They can't see past the wallpaper, the carpeting, the pictures of little Johnny on the wall or yes even the witches caldron if that's what the person is into....See MoreMgoblue85
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