Just wanted to come back to the thread to thank you all. The party was a huge success, with lots and lots of compliments going to the recipes from the CF'ers. My original estimate of 100 people was a bit off. Not exactly sure, but we think it was actually very close to 200 that attended! So here's the food recap: Kalua Pork --- amazing! We used whole pork butts, wrapped them in banana leaves. On Friday, we lightly smoked them - 2 hours or so (capturing the juices from the meat). Then the day of the party, finished cooking them in the oven for about 4-5 hours. At the party, we shredded the meat, added back the juice from the smoking, and kept the meat at a safe temperature in a tabletop roaster. Glenda_al's Sour Cream Banana Bread --- wonderful flavor and very moist, lots of requests for the recipe. Judi's Asian Style Green Beans --- a perfect complement to the kalua pork. I varied the method a bit by steaming the beans ahead of time, then sauteeing the garlic and ginger and making the sauce (with less cornstarch). At the party, we just mixed batches of the beans with the marinade as needed. It worked out great. Ruthanna's Tahitian Rum Punch --- when I first mixed all that rum with the fruit it tasted awful! But after 2 days, it was transformed to a wonderful nectar. The one change we made (both to cut down on the amount of alcohol a bit and because it sounded kind of odd) was to replace the wine in the recipe with Sparkling water with Lime - crystal geyser or Trader Joes). On the day of the party, we added the ice to the punch, then put the sparkling water separate, so guests added the sparkling water and more ice to their glasses to taste. It worked out perfectly. A few even said it surpassed DH's homebrew (which is a HUGE compliment, since he's very skilled at brewing!) Jim's suggestion for Spam Musubi --- aside from the side effect of having to break into the Monty Python Spam skit all day long, the musubi was a hit and one of the first things to go. Claire's Watermelon Popsicles --- sorry to say, by Friday, I was too exhausted to make one more thing, so DH went to Trader Joes and picked up their fresh fruit popsicles (they even had one that was layered raspberry, lemon, strawberry). The kids loved them, especially after hours of running around with squirt guns and playing laser tag. We just served the sliced watermelon, always welcome. Al --- I wish I would have made the coconut buns instead of coconut rice. Although my recipe had good flavor, I made it in the oven, and it came out a bit too mushy, plus others brought rice dishes... but the hawaiian bakery rolls were great with the kalua pork and all was well... but next time! plllog's suggestion for puu puu platter items --- I served lumpia and rumaki (bacon/date version). Guests couldn't get enough of the rumaki and were offering to man the broiler to get them out faster. sffog's idea for teriyaki chicken --- good call. For the first time ever, we ran out of the main meat dish. Thanks to sffog, I had 15 lbs. of teriyaki chicken skewers on hand and a guest brought about 50 pineapple/tofu/veggie skewers and I made an additional 20 or so skewers of just mini sweet peppers and onion slices, so all was well. Ahi Poke --- as you can imagine, 5 lbs. of sushi-grade ahi... what's not to like! We made small batches through the day so it was never sitting out long. It worked well. DH's home brew --- the kegs were empty by 11 pm (including a 13-gallon keg of Hofbrau from BevMo). His brew just gets better and better! Misc. salads and slaws - lots of compliments all around. And then our guests outdid themselves with offerings of beautiful Vietnamese spring rolls, pineapple upside down cakes, fresh fruit cobblers, homemade salsas and dips (Jezebel sauce - yum!) and fruit platters. It was a perfect day, not too hot, live music from DH's band and another friend's band going throughout the party. Good time had by all!

Thank you, remodelfla, for posting that pic. It is pretty representative of what the Shirebrook slabs look like. However, I think that backsplash was a bit of a mistake, IMHO. Below is another picture of Shirebrook, but it really does not show as bold as it is in real life. Still, beautiful, I think. And those cabinet colors are about what I'll be choosing. Anyhoo, I needed something to unify our uber-traditional family room with the kitchen -- red oriental rug and brown-red Chesterfield sofa, etc, and this will do it, I hope. Here is a link that might be useful: [Shirebrook on Houzz[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/shirebrook-from-the-waterstone-collection-traditional-minneapolis-phvw-vp~1976067)

I just found this post, and hope it's not too late to leave a comment and get an answer to a question. First, I adore your wonderful kitchen...it's truly a "heart of the home" kind of room. The warm wood countertops are really beautiful, and something I will consider when we re-do ours. Right now, we are looking for a refrigerator that will blend with our Wedgewood 40" stove, and are considering the Fisher Paykel. Since you have one, can you tell me if you like it. We are looking at the model that has the pull out freezer, rather than the swing door, and I think its slightly larger, but basically the same in other respects. We have a four bedroom house, over 2300 square ft., but the kitchen is a galley, about 20 ft long, with 62" of floor space between each side. We have a 36" French door refrigerator right now, but I would like to replace it with one that is 33" so I can gain a couple of inches to the right, where we have only about 12 inches of counter between the fridge and the sink. The alternative to what we have would be either the Fisher Paykel, which is narrower and almost counter depth, or another brand, like Maytag, etc., that is 33" but also 33" in depth....the reason to go to that one is the added interior space. Is the 17.5 cu. ft. in the Fisher Paykel enough? There are only 3 of us at home, but some of my friends feel that it's too small for the size of house we have. Are you happy with the size...does it hold enough...or would you go larger if you were to do it again? Thanks for any opinion or advice...we need to buy something within the next two weeks!

I still love the cream/white cabintets....thanks for sharing. I was beginning to doubt myself after going to home tours and seeing all very dark cabinets. peridot....my cabinets will be custom made from a local builder...but the paint is pearl. I hope we both love that color...so good luck in yours also. christine...I was also glad to see the ORB pulls. I was trying to decide to use that or stainless. I did purchase ORB light fixtures and plan to use a brown(ish) counter top. I hope my kitchen turns out as well as the ones posted...and I appreciate the ones who did.