Small Bites

Today in the food section I ran a story by Jan Uebelherr of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who asked readers to share what they loved about their kitchens. There were so many good tips shared — speed racks, soap dispensers, compost bins, a lunch-making station — that I knew I had to copy her story idea. Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

There are a million things I’d love to change about my tiny kitchen — especially its size — but there are two things I really love: the peninsula and the custom spice rack.

The peninsula is just big enough to fit two wooden stools underneath, and it’s a great place for people to sit for breakfast, or where a couple of guests can gather while I’m cooking.

Tania Savayan took these photos of me in my kitchen for an upcoming column. Here’s me at the peninsula:

My husband made the spice rack for me from oak he rescued from the street. (Someone was throwing out a bedroom set.) It holds about a hundred spices, and even has slightly bigger shelves at the bottom to hold bigger jars, like for honey or peppercorns.

It’s about the only thing that would fit on the wall between the back door and the big picture window that looks out to the backyard. Except maybe a piece of art. Although now that I think about it, to me, it is kind of a piece of art.

And Tania made this silly photo of me in front of it:

So I want to know what makes yours so special, too. Please share the comments below. I’ll be doing a story for the paper, too, so, for the best answers, I’ll send a photographer to come shoot you in your kitchen!

Here’s Jan’s story, after the jump.

Jan Uebelherr

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

What do you love about your kitchen? There’s probably some aspect that you truly appreciate, since most of us spend a considerable amount of time in the kitchen — whether it’s to cook or entertain.

The kitchen is now the place to gather, entertain, plug in a laptop, charge the cell phone and more. Cabinets are designed to wring every inch of storage out of available space. Design continues to evolve. There are ever-growing ways to make kitchen life better.

So yeah, there’s lots to love in today’s kitchen. And when we asked readers to share their tales, the had many — of pot racks, spice cabinets, pop-up mixer shelves, butcher blocks and sneaky storage compartments. There are tales of great deals on kitchen supplies — from auctions to eBay and more.

Doing cartwheels over rack

Robert and Mary Lou Simmelink are in the middle of a remodel of their Shorewood, Wis., home, but already love their “speed rack on wheels.” It sits next to the stove, under a counter, ready to be pressed (or pushed) into service. It gets used a lot.

“I used to be a pastry chef, so I had used speed racks for years in my professional life, but it never occurred to me that one would be useful at home. I saw a picture in a kitchen inspiration design book that included one and it was an ’aha,’ or really a ’duh!’ moment,” said Mary Lou.

Robert, executive chef at Alto-Shaam, makers of food service equipment for commercial kitchens, agrees.

“The best thing we did was to put a half-size speed rack that is on wheels next to the stove,” he said. “We use this for hot trays coming out of the oven, such as the Christmas cookies. … We can also park hot saute pans just before plating. I plan to use it to stage platters of food and ’back-up’ food when we entertain. This way, the back-up food is away from the guest and we can all have a good time in the kitchen without clutter.”

‘Sold,’ to the couple with kitchen smarts

Dean and Valerie Ferber know a thing or two about shopping around. The previous owners of the Ferbers’ cottage-style home in Hales Corners, Wis., had an antique bread table. It gave the antique-loving Ferbers an idea. They hunted flea markets, antique shops, estate sales. At one antiques mall, they spotted the perfect piece: a woodworker’s bench. But at $1,100, it was too pricey.

Then, on the way to another store, they stopped at an auction and found a bench covered with paint and equipped with two vises. Where others might have seen a mess, the Ferbers saw potential. But first they had to win it.

Bidding started near the price of that first bench they’d seen, but there were no takers. The price dropped to $500, then $250, then $100. Finally, Dean Ferber raised his auction paddle. The auctioneer asked for $125, and a man in front held up his hand. Dean Ferber bid $150 — and the 1880s work bench was theirs.

“And all Wifey could say was ’How are we going to load that thing?”’

With some help, they got it into their van and were off.

Down-to-earth decisions

For Elizabeth A. Gorzalski, a yearlong remodel began with one realization. “It took me seven years to accept my wheelchair status,” said Gorzalski, who was in a car accident and also has a muscular disorder. “When I finally realized, ’this is it,’ and I accepted it (the condition), I redesigned my kitchen so I could entertain and cook and enjoy it.”

With the help of Eric Wright of Rockwood Construction in Wauwatosa, Wis., and cabinetmaker Rudy Steiner of StoneTree Woodworks in Mukwonago, Wis., she has a kitchen that works for her. It started with a unique measurement. Steiner told her, “Let’s measure where your nose is. We won’t put anything higher than your nose is.”

One element she’s especially fond of: The space below the counter at the stove that allows her wheelchair underneath, “allowing me to cook safely,” she writes.

Another nice touch was the height of doors. “I had a very old dog who never left my side,” she said. “The doors are exactly the right height (from the floor) so that I could pull them out and ’Buckles’ would not be disturbed.”

Buckles is gone, but her two dogs now, Sir Reginald and Max McGee, benefit from the same design detail.

Compost concept

Judy Holzmann of Campbellsport, Wis., saved up to remodel her kitchen, then went hunting for deals — and found them. She figures she saved nearly $14,000 by getting merchandise on eBay, Craigslist and design showrooms. She sent along a spreadsheet to prove it. “Hope you don’t mind my enthusiasm — this project took five years to plan and save for so we wouldn’t go into debt,” she writes.

She loves the openness and flow of the new kitchen, and all the new appliances, but if she had to pick one thing?

“For functionality, silly as it sounds, my favorite thing is the built-in compost bucket,” she said. “So practical, and looks cool, too. I’m an avid gardener, so have been composting for years and using it in my flower beds.” Before the remodel, she composted in buckets kept outside the patio door. “In the winter the whole works would freeze solid. In the summer it just looked gross.”

Naturally, she found a great deal on the compost bin. “With all the ’green’ products out there I knew there had to be something, and it took a lot of Googling to find it,” she said. She came up with one made by a firm called Rev-A-Shelf. She found the best deal by ordering it through Menards ($131).

The bin is set right into the countertop, installed in a “dead space corner next to the kitchen sink.” When the three-gallon bin is full, one of the kids takes it out to the compost pile in the woods behind the house.

Serving up suds

Trudy Hannam of Cedarburg, Wis., likes her kitchen just fine, but it was a small item installed by her 57-year-old son, Herbert (Jay) Hannam, that makes her life so much easier.

“I love my soap dispenser,” she writes, with more than a little excitement. “I got a new kitchen faucet this year, and my son installed it. He also had a special drill that he could use to make a hole in my sink and added a soap dispenser. Now I don’t have to bend over several times a day to get soap from under my sink when it is needed. It is absolutely wonderful! It fills from the top easily and directs a stream where needed.”

Using their noodles

Heidi Jones is happy that she has a kitchen that fits her perfectly. Her counters are 28 inches tall, instead of the standard 36 inches.

“It’s because I am only 4 feet tall,” said Jones, of Pewaukee, Wis. “You see, my husband (Jeff) and I are both little people, who stand 4 feet and 4 feet, 4 inches tall, respectively.

“Three years ago we decided to remodel the kitchen to fit us and not someone who was much taller. It’s a dream come true to be able to make macaroni and cheese for our two average-size boys (Logan, 9; Cameron, 7) and not have to use a stool to reach the stovetop, get off the stool with a kettle of boiling water, walk over to the sink, climb back up on the stool, dump the water into the sink, get off the stool, walk back over to the stovetop, well — you get the idea.

“I can make macaroni and cheese in one easy step now — just like everybody else does.”

Clever corner

Terry Crevensten lived with the dated kitchen in her 1960s Cedarburg, Wis., ranch house for more than 20 years. Last summer, they finally gutted the kitchen, adding a family room and a mudroom. She put a lot of thought into organizing and making the most of the space, including creation of “lunch-making station.” But the element that sold them on the designer (Bob Sebastian of Brillo Home Improvements) was moving the sink to a corner.

“Although you can put carousels in the corner cabinets, they’re still not great and the corner counter can be a problem,” she said. “The design also put a niche above the sink and spotlight lighting, so we have some artwork there.”

Well-seasoned kitchen

Terri Walters said her “darling husband” Lee remodeled their 1930s home in Wauwatosa a few years ago and included lots of organizational features. The one that Walters loves, though, is the long, tall spice cabinet. There’s a reason it’s so tall.

“It’s a former ironing board cabinet that (now) organizes herbs and spices, makes them easy to find and is convenient to (but removed from) my stove and kitchen island,” Walters said.

“I have over 50 jars of spices and also store salt boxes, cookie decorating supplies and flavorings like vanilla and almond in my cabinet,” Walters said.

Turning talents inward

Kendall Polster is a welder who makes art and designs restaurants for a living. So he unleashed his talents on a challenging space: his own small kitchen.

“I put in a restaurant-grade, deep double sink from Fein Brothers,” he said. “I built the sink cabinet more as a piece of furniture on legs, not built to the floor as a traditional kitchen cabinet. I made it using all recycled oak … except for the maple I used in the two-inch-thick pull-out cutting board. The sink cabinet ended up only costing me about $60 in materials.”

Warming up to memories

Stacia Hickey of Whitefish Bay, Wis., wanted to remodel her kitchen. Having limited resources, she and her husband had to get creative — and learn to live with some things. Now she’s happy about that.

They painted cabinets and added lighting but kept the “vintage” countertop.

“While counter space is always at a premium, our counters and back splash are a cool, authentic red Formica that is in great condition for being 60 years old,” she said.

“What I like the best is the sense of history my kitchen has. The older items remind me of the two families who lived here before us. One of them lived here for 40 years and raised three children in the house. If it worked for them, why not us?

“I like to think about the happy times we are adding to theirs in this kitchen — birthday cakes, holiday dinners, breakfast on a child’s first day of school and all the little moments that add up to a lifetime of happy memories.”

This kitchen has heart

For many, the kitchen love question had more to do with love.

Amy Runte of Brownsville, Wis., believes she has the best kitchen in the world. “I love my kitchen because it is the place in our home that is most often filled by the people we love,” she wrote.

“It is where I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner last year and where we gather to blow out candles on our sons’ birthday cakes. I love that it fills the house with the smells of chocolate-chip cookies and the sounds of laughter. It is where we cook dinner together, say thanks together and enjoy each other’s company.

“I love that it is the center of our home,” she said, “is constantly filled with activity, and was built by the hands of my husband and father. I feel grateful to not only have a kitchen that I love, but a family I love as well.”

Let there be light

Lori Cannestra, a self-described “kitchen design junkie,” had a big kitchen remodel and loves a lot of the details (like the custom spice rack, the phone niche and home organizing corner).

One small detail stands out for her: “Our simple, under-cabinet outlet strip. Tucking an outlet strip under the cabinets, rather than traditional receptacles every three feet, enhances the beauty of our tiled backsplash by allowing an uninterrupted, clean line across the length of the wall. It’s a small detail, but one that really improves the aesthetics of the design without compromising functionality.”

Roundly praised

A small item is indispensible to Joan Dean of Menomonee Falls, Wis. It’s her “handy, dandy lazy Susan kitchen tool organizer.” She’d be lost if she didn’t have it right beside the stove, she said.

“It holds measuring spoons, wooden spoons, various knives, spatulas, a garlic press, two scissors, whisks, potato peeler, bottle openers, pizza cutters and more,” Dean said. She ordered it 25 years ago from Rodale Press’ Organic Gardener magazine. “I could not cook or bake without my kitchen tool organizer,” she said.

Measure by measure

Deborah Kramer of Onalaska, Wis., was determined that space would be wasted when she remodeled her kitchen. She measured cans and boxes to make sure they fit in the drawers she had in mind. To get every inch of space to work, she had pantry drawers designed to fit next to a long row of wine cubby holes.

“I had them plan the wine rack first and then make the drawers with the remaining space,” she said. “These pantry drawers pull completely out so no canned good is unseen.”

Bright idea

Kate Wilson did a remodel on a budget, with help from Home Depot in Milwaukee. Her new kitchen is bright and cheery, with lots of white and yellow, and it has great storage. Drawers rather than doors on cabinets make storage easier. One smart detail: “A front flip-out drawer above the under-sink cabinet that holds sponges, rubber gloves and scrubbers that I don’t want to keep out.”

In fact, there were lots of these stories of ingenuity born of necessity.

Familiar surroundings

Nancy Leonhard, a retiree in Beloit, figures a lot people would find nothing to love about her kitchen. That’s OK. She may remodel it. Then again, she may not.

“We don’t have anything slick, the design isn’t clever and I doubt anyone would think it’s organized, but I sure do love it,” said Leonhard. This year, she and her husband were going to remodel the kitchen, which has oak cabinets and limited tile counter space. “I painted the walls, got a new rug, had new windows put in and I’m happy with that. I think the kitchen is me.” Maybe they’ll remodel the kitchen next year, she said.

She adds, “I wonder — is slick and fancy everything it’s cracked up to be? Slick and fancy comes at a hefty price tag. Me — I’m happy with what I have.”