Get a grouper reuben while you can

I live along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

via Flickr

That body of water is why I live here. Usually, it's a calm, warm stretch of emerald sea that forms a backdrop to much of life in this part of the world. No other body of water I know exerts the pull on me that the Gulf, my Gulf, does. I've dallied in The Atlantic. I've dabbled in the Pacific. The Mediterranean's good for an occasional affair and the Caribbean's a nice fling too. But none of them can compare with my Gulf of Mexico.

I'm sick over what's going on 5,000 feet below a spot 250 miles from where I'm sitting. Our beaches aren't likely to be fouled the way the beaches of Prince William Sound were 21 years ago. But the waters here will be fouled by something far more insidious. In the coming months and years, the contamination spreading outward from that spot on the floor of the Gulf is going to spread into every life form, including the ones I like to eat, along this coast.

The Gulf of Mexico is a treasure trove of resources, and all of those resources are linked together. You can't isolate the fisheries from the oil deposits, or the people from from either. Allowing an essentially self-regulated industry to Drill Baby Drill is an insanity on par with enabling unsustainable fish catches or encouraging endless, pointless suburban sprawl. The spill wreaking havoc to my northwest is a symptom of a deeper problem and it has a lot more to do with a human inability to think and act for the long term than it does with which party's in the White House. So instead of Drill Baby Drill, how about a chorus of Manage Baby Manage?

To the outside world Florida has no culture of its own but those of us who live here know it does just as surely as any other place on earth. For better or for worse, Florida does have a culture and it has foods unique to the region. Many of those foods are linked to the Gulf of Mexico. Chief among them is the grouper sandwich. Every restaurant and every aficionado in the region has a pet variation on the theme.

I walked along the beach at Pass-a-Grille yesterday and I stopped at The Wharf for what well may be my last Gulf grouper sandwich for a long time. It was at The Wharf that I first experienced a grouper reuben. While The Wharf's reuben isn't exactly sublime, whatever it's lacking is more than made up for by the jukebox full of Elvis songs.

via Flickr

My grouper reuben is sublime and here it is. It starts with some Thousand Dressing.

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons bottled sweet pickle relish
• 2 tablespoons bottled chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix together all of the ingredients and sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to let the flavors blend.

Onto the sandwich.

• 4 grouper filets
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• pepper and salt
• olive oil to saute
• 2 cups of sauerkraut.
• 12 slices of a good aged swiss cheese
• 8 slices of good pumpernickel or marble rye
• butter to brush on the bread to grill

To prepare the grouper, I just put the milk in a zip lock bag and then add each piece of grouper, one at a time. It just gives a light base so the flour sticks well.

Mix the flour, cayenne and salt and pepper again in a dish or a separate bag and then drag each fillet in until it's lightly coated. Heat up the oil in a pan over medium high and saute the grouper until lightly golden on each side. 4-5 minutes per side is about right but it varies with the thickness of the fish.

Drain the sauerkraut and set aside, butter your bread and have the cheese slices ready to go.

Now heat up the pan to medium heat and build your sandwiches. Now lets build the sandwich. Take a slice of bread and smear it with Thousand Island dressing. Add a slice of cheese. Add your grouper filet and cover it with sauerkraut and another slice of cheese. Add the top slice of bread and grill until lightly golden on each side. The cheese should be melted and the sauerkraut nicely warmed.

So whatever happens out there in the coming weeks and months, I'm swearing off the grouper, the oysters, the stone crabs, the shrimp and the rest of the fruits of the Gulf fisheries 'til further notice. Thanks BP.

Reader question: Can I have three finish colors in my new kitchen?

The following question came from a reader with whom I've been corresponding for the last few months as she undergoes a major renovation of a historic home.

I was wondering if you might discuss the use of color in kitchen cabinets in a future post, especially multiple colors. When I Google the topic, I often just get black and white, or wood and white or wood and black, etc.

I just got color samples in from Timeless Kitchen Designs, and we are leaning toward a combination of three different paint colors for the cabinets. Walls will be a neutral I've yet to settle on,  the floors will be a nearly uniform gray slate, I'm getting hammered zinc counters and a Shaw's Original sink.

Upon showing certain people our color choices, I have heard the comment that we are breaking a few "design rules" by having 1) more than two colors featured in the kitchen and 2) featuring those colors on the cabinets instead of on the walls or as accessories. I believe the thought is that the room will be too busy, or perhaps we will tire of these colors one day and be unable to change them without a great deal of trouble, or if we need to sell (no plans to, ever) no one in their right mind would buy a house with these colors in a kitchen.

It is true that I am unable to google a kitchen with this combination of colors, or even many kitchens with more than two cabinet colors. However, this just makes me like it even more! So, from a professional point of view, are we making a mistake? Would you advise clients to tone down the colors, or get what they love regardless? We don't think we will regret it, but it is somewhat frustrating to feel so proud and excited and have people come in and say we should stick with all off-white, or something like that.

I obviously will get what I love regardless, and I did defend my choices, but was met with shrugs and 'well, okaaaays'....Are we just more 'out there' than the average kitchen remodeler? It's not like I'm picking lime green/magenta/day-glo pink, after all.

Thanks for the question and before I wade into an answer, congratulations on choosing Timeless Kitchen Designs. Kevin Ritter is an artist in every sense of the word and I cannot wait to see what he does in your home.

Now, onto your question. I searched the web for some multiple finish kitchens and as luck would have it I came across one by Kevin, so you're in good hands. If I believed in signs I'd definitely call it that.

Look! Three paint colors!

Here are some others using three finishes and all of the following rooms are by Medallion Cabinetry. I have their image library, so these shots were easy to come by.

See? The rooms shown above look fantastic and I encourage you to throw that in the faces of the naysayers who disapprove of your choices.

I hate it when I hear someone say that something breaks a design rule. Especially when it's being said about color combinations. Short of some technical rules about form and function, there aren't any real design rules. Whatever design rules exist are trumped by the Great Commandment (at least according to me). That Great Commandment is of course Be Intentional.

Generally, the people who tell you that you're breaking a design rule are getting this nonsense from HGTV or the Garden Web and I'd ignore their "advice" without hesitation. It sounds too like they're worshiping the graven image of resale value, another dead end when we're talking about a kitchen such as the one you're planning for.

But back to my Great Commandment. When your finishes follow a narrative and they make sense for the room they're in you're on the right track. Being intentional isn't so much a question of the finishes you're using, it's more about the motives behind them. Based on our conversations, your motives are spot on and you have terrific taste. So be confident and enjoy your multiple hues. When your renovation's completed, your naysayers will go home to their off whites and envy you. Go for it!

Jenn-Air's new finish, Oiled Bronze

OK, back to KBIS. The largest appliance manufacturer who showed at KBIS 2010 was Jenn-Air, and they meant business. Their exhibit was huge and featured a kitchen designed by Ellen Cheever and she used cabinetry by Scavolini. Other trade folks out there will agree that Jenn-Air isn't the appliance brand that comes to mind when I think of a Scavolini kitchen or Ellen Cheever.

But this is the new Jenn-Air. Jenn-Air's owned by Whirlpool and for a long time, all of Whirlpool's energy and money went into attempting to make KitchenAid competitive with some of the higher end appliances out there.

Well apparently, all of that's changed now with the rebirth of Jenn-Air.

That's not what I want to talk about though. Jenn-Air had several full kitchens in their KBIS booth and one of them featured their new-ish finish, Oiled Bronze. Here's a close-up.

It seems to be a surface patina applied to stainless steel. That Jenn-Air sells small containers of of Oiled Bronze touch up paint for it tells me it is. It tells me too that it doesn't handle scratches very well.

It's being touted as an "instant classic" and of course, everyone with a dog in the race is repeating that phrase. Well, I wonder. It's certainly different but it reminded me of something and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I was poking around on Pam Kueber's terrific website, Retro Renovation and I found what it is about Oiled Bronze that strikes me.

I think it's the old appliance color Coppertone, revisted.

I wish Jenn-Air well in this push toward the upper end of the market, but the folks already sitting in that spot aren't exactly worried. It's not enough to charge a premium price, you also need to build a premium appliance to justify that cost.

What do you guys think? Is Oiled Bronze an instant classic? Is there such a thing to begin with? Is this a finish you'd buy?

Do Blogland Zombies raise urban chickens?

It's at once a simple quandary and at the same time a question for the ages. Do Blogland Zombies (here and here)  raise urban chickens (here, here and here)?

And if they did, would it look like this?

Credit for this post goes to reader Cham, who continues to egg me on.

All the way from Argentina, it's Fango handmade sinks

Last fall, I started being followed on Twitter by Fango Sink Design. Fango is an Argentine company with one production facility in suburban Buenos Aires. They make a truly unique lavatory sink and before I knew it I was their fan on Facebook and I added their link to my idea file for the next time I get called on to source an interesting sink.

Well imagine my surprise when I turned a corner at Coverings last week and saw that they were exhibiting. I walked right up and introduced myself, "Hey, we tweet together!" It's always fun to meet someone I've come to know 140 characters at a time. That's either a sign that Twitter truly knits the world together or it's a sign that I need to turn off my laptop from time to time. In any case, I was struck by how beautiful their sinks are in person.

The person on the other side of those Fango tweets is Joanna Smink, Fango's export manager. We talked for a while and she told me the story of Fango and why they decided to show at Coverings. Fango had come up from Argentina for the show on a quest for US distributors. Joanna handed me a cost sheet and I thought about changing careers for a moment. Fango sinks are not only beautiful, they are shockingly affordable. If anybody out there's interested in carrying a line of beautiful, handmade sinks let me know and I'll put you in touch.

There's a simplicity to these sinks that borders on the primitive and the effect is stunning. Fango manages to walk a line between substance and delicacy that these photographs fail to convey.

Fango's sinks come in three shapes, round, conical and cylindrical. Each of those shapes is available in three sizes and they can be either vessel-style or they can be semi-recessed. There are nine stock colors for the exterior and 15 patterns available for the interior.

Exterior colors

Interior patterns

if you find yourself looking for something new and original when it comes to bath design, look to Argentina and Fango's handmade sinks.