The Perfect Romantic Music For Valentine’s Day Dinner

Not to date myself too much, but I remember when I was just learning how to cook back in the 80’s, an ex-girlfriend turned me on to the music of Sade.  We listened to her 1984 debut album Diamond Life endlessly while preparing special meals in her tiny studio apartment kitchen. Your Love Is King, Smooth Operator, Hang On To Your Love are ingrained in my head. When I hear them now, they bring back some fabulous memories.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I wanted to let you know about Sade’s brand new album Soldier of Love that was just released. This is her sixth studio album in her 25-year history and the first since her Lover’s Rock album back in 2000.

When asked why so long, she replied, “ I only make records when I feel I have something to say. I’m not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling something.”

OK, I like that integrity and I like her music.  Susan from Epic Records was kind enough to send me a preview copy of her CD and I can tell you her signature sultry florid voice and ultra cool attitude come shining through. As Chris Richards from the Washington Post says,

“She’s plaintive and pining as the album opens with “The Moon and the Sky,” her own vocal harmonies following her like a sad shadow. “You had the keys to the car. You had every star, every one of them twinkling,” she sings, soberly blending the mundane and the cosmic. “

Sade, born Helen Folasade Adu in Ibadan, Nigeria, is back with the other original principals bassist Paul Denman, guitarist and sax player Stuart Matthewman and keyboardist Andrew Hale. They recorded Soldier of Love near her home in the countryside of southwest England. You can hear from the record they are still enjoying doing what they do 25 years later.

With two young kids at home who eat every dinner with us unless they are sleeping over at one of their friends, I’m not typically setting the atmosphere for a quiet romantic dinner. Saying that, my kids love to eat supper in the dining room with candles and we often have something playing softly in the background. Last night I turned the kids onto Sade by playing her new CD and they didn’t hate it. My wife and I loved it.

Related Topics

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How to Make A Great Salad For Valentine’s Day

Pork Medallions with Apricot Glaze Recipe

Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce

Fish en Papillote or Fish in Parchment Paper

Chocolate Souffle

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

My Squidoo - A Reluctant Valentine’s Day Dinner

To continue the conversation about remodeling a new kitchen, I would like to talk about appliances and specifically new refrigerators. I wrote a post called How to Choose and Buy a New Refrigerator that looked at features and some of the deciding factors when buying a new refrigerator. Now I’d like to tell you about the very cool brand I decided on for our kitchen renovation.

LG Electronics New  4-Door French Door Refrigerator

One of the coolest innovations in refrigerators these days is the French door refrigerator:  the kind that has side-by-side doors that open up onto one refrigerator compartment as wide as the appliance.  This is great because not only do you need less clearance for the doors to swing, but you can also put large party trays or even pizza boxes in the refrigerator without having to shove them in diagonally.

Right out of the gate, we knew we wanted the French door feature, and so that’s how we focused our search.  And then we saw that very cool commercial on television for the new LG Electronics French four-door model and my kids decided it was the one for us. Check out their commercial at the end of this post if you haven’t already seen it.

Wait a second, did I say four-doors?  Yes!  Two doors for the refrigerator section and two stacked freezer drawers on the bottom.  Let me describe what I like about the new LG refrigerator.

Hands-Free Door Opening

How many times have you come in from shopping, grab a bunch of stuff that has to go into the freezer only to realize you don’t have a free hand to open the door?  It happens to me all the time but with the LG refrigerator you just touch a button with a knee or foot, and the freezer drawers open by themselves.  Very, very cool.  They are also self-closing, so all we need to do is nudge them to start them off, and they close all the way.

No More Playing Tetris in the Freezer

Stocking the freezer is like Tetris in our house, a great game for the iphone, but not for a freezer. Frozen goods seem to get tossed in with no rhyme or reason so it is impossible to find anything. And if you have baskets in your freezer, they always seem to get stuck on some item especially the kid’s ice cream containers.

The LG refrigerator has 2 separate freezer drawers so you can store the items you use every day in one compartment and the longer-term freezer items in the other. Now the kids have a place to keep their ice cream containers without disrupting the rest of the frozen leftovers and vegetables.

Easy Access H2O

We drink a lot of water in our. In fact, I even put in a reverse osmosis water filtering system for our ice and drinking water so I can stop buying bottles of water at the supermarket.

The kids like to drink water out of those refillable plastic sports water bottles but they don’t fit in a standard refrigerator water dispenser. So the folks at LG designed this new refrigerator to accommodate water bottles up to 13 inches tall. This is also great for filling up the nightly pitcher of water for the dinner table.

No More Leaving The Fridge Door Open

Or how many times have you found yourself closing the refrigerator door only to find out next time you go to open it, you didn’t close it all the way the first time and all the cold air is streaming out into the kitchen and the ice cream is melting and soft.

The LG refrigerator has an alarm to let you know if a door is ajar!  Now I can’t blame the kids when I accidently leave the freezer door open.

Big With Space Age Looking Controls

Did I mention how big it is?  It’s 28 cubic feet!  It’s huge.  In the refrigerator, there are three crisper bins, four split shelves (three of which slide in and out), and it has LED lights that make it very bright and easy to see everything inside.  Both freezer drawers are deep, there’s an ice maker and bin, and the freezers have LED lights, too.

On the doors, there are a lot of LED lights that not only look like space ship controls but are really useful.  Just by checking the display, I can see and adjust the temperature in the refrigerator and the freezer.  It even tells me when to change the water filter.

There is also a child lock, a nice safety feature to have.  All the controls—even for ice and water—are smooth.  No buttons sticking out makes it easy to clean and modern.

Good Looking

Aside from all these features, this refrigerator also looks good.  The hidden hinges give it a finished and more “built-in” look, and the contoured doors are more aesthetically pleasing than plain flat doors.  Plus, we like the stainless steel exterior because it matches the rest of the appliances in our new kitchen.

As if all of that weren’t enough, my kids are excited because they think it is cool. Hey, that’s good enough for me.

How to Choose a Kitchen Granite Countertop

I’m in the process of doing a complete renovation of our kitchen and I feel like I am back at school with all the wonderful stuff I am learning. Every facet of this job is an education, and I hope to write a whole series on How I “Reluctantly” Renovated My Kitchen. These posts are not in any proper order but when I’m done I’ll build a landing page on the Reluctant Gourmet web site to tie all the posts together.

Chester County Granite Countertops

I was very fortunate to meet Dan and Ann Marie DiTomaso of Stone Masters Inc at their incredible showroom in Kennett Square, PA where I received my thorough education in all things granite. Dan and Ann Marie have been fabricating quality granite counter tops in the Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas since the late 90’s. They started Stone Masters Inc after trying to find stone slabs for their own kitchen renovation and had very little luck in their local area.

They decided to learn everything they could about granite and how to make their own granite countertops for kitchens and bathrooms. At the time they were buying and selling houses, and these new granite countertops added loads of value to the homes they were renovating.

In response to the high prices and poor service available in the Chester County area, Dan and Ann Marie started Stone Masters Inc.  They studied stone production tools and equipment. They went to trade shows and met with stone importers and specialized equipment vendors.

I love the background reflection showing on the granite.

With a few ads and word of mouth, customers came. Dan and Philip performed every aspect of templating (they actually make Fir plywood or luan quarter inch templates of the countertop so you can see exactly what it will look like before they fabricate it), fabrication, polishing and installation by themselves. Shortly thereafter, experienced fabricators, installers, and templators were hired.

When they moved their shop from Aston, Pennsylvania to Kennett Square, they invested in automation and hired a trained team of designers to assist customers with overall shapes, edges, sinks, faucets and backsplash designs. You should see these machines! They are huge and can cut multiple countertops at once with their diamond blades. It’s worth a visit just to see the production, but I would call first.

Interview with Granite Master, Dan DiTomaso

I must have asked Dan dozens of questions when I went out to Kennett Square to see his shop. I didn’t write down all his answers so I asked if we could do an interview on granite, how to buy it, what to look out for – all the stuff you want to know about before investing a bunch of money in granite for your own projects. I think you are going to find this interview very informative and a great read.

This is a MUST READ if you are thinking about purchasing granite counter tops for your kitchen or bathrooms.

Dan,
As you know, we are in the process of doing a complete renovation of our kitchen including new cabinets and countertops. In my lifetime I have lived in numerous apartments and homes with all sorts of countertops including Formica, ceramic tile, wood, granite, stainless steel, and soapstone so my first question is how does one go about choosing the right material for a new kitchen?

How much is determined by cost?

This depends entirely upon the individual selecting the material and how much they want to spend, but let me give you some ideas about costs and the various options for countertops.

Today, laminates also commonly referred to as Formica (just one brand name of laminate, there are many different laminate manufacturers) are a great surface. They’re the least expensive, easy to maintain, and we have all seen it for many years in kitchens.

The significant draw back to laminate is that an undermount sink is not possible, nor are certain shapes and edges. This limits the design of the whole kitchen and the fixtures you can select. Technically, this is due to the fact that it is a flat skin glued on the top of a substrate. It is not solid all the way through the counter itself.

Solid surface solves that problem. It also has the added benefit of allowing any style edge, any shape, an undermount sink and a wider variety of appliance choices.  Solid surface can be engineered stone, real stone or a variety of synthetic materials.

Engineered stone is commonly referred to as quartz. It is sold under brands like, Cambria, LG Vitara, Caesarstone, Silestone and others. There are other types of solid surface that are essentially plastics and acrylic type materials such as Corian that do not contain any natural material content.

Then there are solid natural stone options such as Granite, Travertine, Marble and Soapstone and Quartzite.

Finally, there are tile countertop options that are endless in choices, but have the same problem as laminate (Not solid all the way thru) plus grout collects and shows dirt.

In cost terms from least expensive to most expensive let me give you a feel for what I see in this market. Your mileage may vary.

Laminate                                   $25 - $45 per SF
Tile                                            $20 - $60 per SF
Granite                                      $39 - $99 per SF
Synthetic solid surface              $50-  $90 per SF
Engineered Stone                     $60 - $125 per SF

How much is determined by functionality?

Most customers tell me time and time again that the undermount sink is the single biggest functionality impact that drives the decision to upgrade their countertop choice. Most people opt for the undermount vs. a drop- in style sink for that reason alone.

Working adjacent to a sink during food preparation is a given in almost any kitchen. Being able to slide waste directly into the sink and clean the working surface without a sink rim to catch debris and restrict liquids is worth the premium price of any of the countertop choices over laminate or tile.
How much should you weigh appearance?

Appearance and resale value go hand in hand. Some material choices are big enough and long lasting enough that you have to consider what impact your choice will have on your home’s value. How this choice will affect resale value or (salability at all) in this market is a significant consideration. While appearance is a personal choice, your selection and budget may depend upon how long you plan on staying in the home.

Let’s start with granite since that is what we decided to put into our kitchen. My cabinet person has told me that you buy granite by “Levels”. Level 4 is more expensive than Level 1 and so on. Can you explain what these levels represent and how important are they?

There is no standard “Price level” for any stone. One stone yard or fabricator may classify a species of granite named New Venetian Gold as a level 2 and another as a level 3. With thousands and thousands of different stone quarries around the world, price level is a reference point to be used as a budget meter and not too much more than that.

Look at the bottom line of one supplier’s quote as compared to another vendor’s quote.

It can be deceptive to compare one supplier’s level 3 price to another supplier’s level 3. Comparing the bottom line as opposed to the top line of the quote shows you all of the elements that make up the quote.

One store may have a really aggressive price for the stone and make it up on edges, extra men, templating charges, trip charges and so on. Be sure to look beyond the square foot price or you may actually pay more in the end.

What makes a level 4 granite better and more expensive than a level 1 or two?

Better is a misnomer, more expensive is accurate. Many people automatically perceive that more expensive means better or higher quality and that is just not the case. The primary factors that affect the cost of stones are:

• County or origin:  IE: Labor costs in China are dramatically less than Italy.
• Freight:  Quarry from port distance, is especially significant due to the extreme weight of the product.
• Hardness: How hard one granite is vs. another affects how much time and tooling it will take to quarry and fabricate your stone choice.
• Competition: Many quarries producing similar stones near each other will drive down the cost. Compare this to one quarry offering a unique and popular stone.  In this case, real (or perceived) exclusivity keeps demand, and price, high.
• Fragile stone: Beautiful yet delicate stones suffer higher breakage and cost more to bring a finished product to market.  They may require more reinforcing, and specialized handling drives up the cost.

Notice that none of these primary factors are “quality”.  Quality is a factor, but not the most significant raw material cost. Quality comes into play more so in the finished product.

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