50s kitchen, bakeware back in style

At the stroke of the new year last year, Chris Potts kissed his girlfriend Colleen Murphy, took a sledge hammer and started traveling back in time."If I'm going to do it, I have to dive in," he told himself, as he started to take down a wall in his Fairless Hills, Pa., home.What Potts did over the next few months was turn the couple's galley kitchen and small dining room into an expanded kitchen with the look of a 1950s diner, complete with turquoise-colored seating booth, jukebox and coin-operated telephone.Potts trimmed his soffits and moldings in gleaming stainless steel and, with the help of a friend, tiled the floor in black-and-white porcelain squares that shine like ice. Refurbished metal stools surround the turquoise Formica countertop.
A mural on the dining room wall depicts a mid-century gas station. He framed it and added a sill to make it look like the view from a diner window."Vintage" Pyrex bakeware and Homer Laughlin diner china complete the '50s look.The only thing missing is Fonzie.Potts is used to refurbishing old cars; this was his first house renovation project."My first love has always been old cars, now it's anything from that era," he said. "I knew in my head what I wanted it to look like but I didn't have plans. This is my first home improvement project."It wasn't easy. The couple had to hunt for the discontinued Formica they needed — buying samples from countertop stores and even purchasing some on Craigslist from someone in Utah.
The stainless steel trim was custom ordered. They visited several tile stores before finding what they wanted.Murphy picked out the cheery robin's egg paint color but left the "creative" work to Potts, who formerly worked as an automotive service manager."He will tinker with something to get it right," she said.The metallic sheen of the decor goes great with the new stainless steel appliances the couple couldn't do without. Dark, streamlined wood cabinets with pewter handles give the kitchen an appearance that's crisp and refreshingly new looking despite their incorporating elements that are 60 to 70 years old.As the couple searched for dinnerware in the turquoise color that brings the room together, Potts developed a hobby that may now turn into a business.He started collecting old Pyrex pieces and has found that these kitchen staples that almost every baby boomer remembers from childhood are now becoming collector's items."A year ago, I didn't know what Pyrex was," he said.As he searched for specific colors in bowls and bakeware at thrift stores and antique shops, he came across others in colors and patterns that he knew were good buys, or matched pieces he already had. "Instead of coming home with car parts, I was coming home with dishes."It was the chase of finding a new piece in a different color at a reasonable price," he said.

The importance of helping families lead a healthier lifestyle

Community members can order their meals through the partner organizations each week and then pick them up during the designated time-slot for each location. The current prices are $5 for an individual meal and $15 for a four-person meal. "They're fresh prepared meals, they're delicious, ready to eat, very healthy and people can put them in their refrigerator and heat them up any time they want during the week, so it's a really convenient option," Doshi says.Working with these organizations, Doshi and Katz noticed that the staff members could also benefit from the service, so they are gearing their business to fit their lifestyle as well. "A lot of the organizations we're working with are non-profits, and their staff members are also very budget-constrained and time-constrained and are spending most of their day focused on helping other people be healthy," Katz says. "And at the end of the day they're potentially having to stop at a McDonald's because they're in a rush and don't have time to actually cook a meal for themselves. So we're really trying to build that side of what we're doing as well."
Healthy food is not just a business opportunity, but a passion for Doshi and Katz. They understand the importance of helping families lead a healthier lifestyle because, as they were growing up, they say, their families sometimes struggled to find the time and money for balanced meals."Every issue that my family worked through, we did at the dinner table and we did so around an Indian dinner. To me, that was one of the points of stability of my childhood," Doshi says. "So I think all my life food has been really important in terms of bringing people together around a dinner table." But her mother, who was raising two children by herself and working as a nurse, didn't always have the time to cook. So Doshi understands how much their business could help other families in similar situations.
While in business school, they heard the general misconception that many families not only can't afford healthier food, but don't really want it. "I think, for various reasons personally and emotionally, we had a gut reaction that that's just wrong and that's a terrible thing for our society to believe in," Katz says.Doshi and Saloni are now looking to partner with more organizations. Their goal is to reach about 750 households with ten partners by the end of the year.

Pontiac homeless shelter to unveil new kitchen

One of the largest and oldest homeless shelters in southeast Michigan is celebrating the opening of a new kitchen to help better serve the community.Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Tuesday for the new kitchen. The homeless shelter renovated the kitchen with a $50,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation.Grace Centers of Hope chief executive Kent Clark says the new kitchen will allow the shelter to prepare more than 150,000 meals each year. The shelter currently feeds between 150 and 200 homeless men, women and children each day.The kitchen, which hasn't been remodeled in more than 20 years, has received new appliances including a convection oven and gas range with burners.
Videtti's mother, Carly Videtti, says that the lessons have given her daughter independence in the kitchen, a skill set she may be able to use one day to get a job.Not just any chef could have accomplished this, she said."It's very hard to find someone who's willing to work with these kids, who has the patience," Carly Videtti said. "He's very soothing and very kind. He can't find anything wrong with the kids, which is great."Above all, Scheinzeit now prizes his flexibility. He can be there for friends who need him. He can spend time sketching out the perfect dinner party.Chocolate: Out Of The Box, Into The Frying Pan.He misses the financial stability, but "I don't miss the hours, I don't miss the heat in the kitchen and I do not miss that 80-hour work week where all you do is just work every day — couldn't go to funerals, couldn't go to parties."
A longtime regular customer, Bill Kuipers of Haskell, can see the transformation in Scheinzeit. "You could tell he had a lot on his mind" when the restaurant closed. Now, "he seems so at peace.""Anyone can make good food. But what Joel brings is Joel. His passion, his enthusiasm … there are great restaurants all over the place but it is such a treat to find that kind of soul."What does Scheinzeit say now about running a restaurant? It turns out he got that question while speaking at a junior high career day recently."I told them how great it is," he says earnestly. "It's a great way to express your creativity and your emotions and your feelings. It's a great way to give love to people. It's a great way to just interact with society and the community, and do good things and do what you believe in."

Chocolate: Out Of The Box, Into The Frying Pan

Chocolate is like sex or pizza: Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. There are those who prefer light, refreshing desserts after a big meal, but I think those people are crazy. I always gravitate to the most decadent dessert on the menu, which is usually laden with chocolate. And while I love the stuff, there is nothing sadder than giving or receiving a box of boring chocolates on Valentine's Day. Each year, men and women shamefully duck into grocery stores and pharmacies to grab a box of assorted chocolates. Because nothing says "I love you" quite like chocolate from a gas station.
I'm not going to suggest cutting chocolate out of Valentine's Day, but what about combining two things that will impress your significant other more than anything else: chocolate and a home-cooked meal? Over the years, I've learned that going out to dinner on Valentine's Day can be quite an ordeal. Long wait times, overpriced specials and servers who would rather be spending Valentine's Day with their own significant other than waiting on you. The solution? Make dinner yourself. She/he will love you for it.Which brings us back to chocolate. Put it in the main course rather than a box. If you've tasted a piece of extremely dark chocolate, you know that it has the potential for much more than just dessert. It has an earthy, bitter taste that may be tough to enjoy on its own. But that depth of flavor works quite well in savory dishes. Keep in mind, this is dark, unsweetened chocolate, not wrapped pieces of sugary candy.
While the Olmec Indians are credited with being the first to grow cacao beans as a crop, the beans' popularity soared after Hernan Cortes brought them back to Spain along with the equipment and knowledge he obtained after conquering Mexico in 1519. From there, chocolate spread throughout Europe. And you can imagine what it did for chocolate sales in 1624 when Johan Franciscus Rauch of Vienna declared chocolate to be a food from the devil that drove humans to be consumed with passion.The most common savory dish that uses chocolate is Mexican mole. As with any good legend, there are varying stories on why people started using chocolate in mole. The most common is that a group of panicked nuns in Puebla threw together a dish for a visiting archbishop with the few ingredients they had on hand. This included chilies, nuts, bread, spices and, of course, chocolate.

Lisa's Mediterranean Kitchen in Ridgewood

After seven years doing business as Lisa's Turkish Kitchen on Chestnut Street in Ridgewood, Lisa Mayisoglu closed that location in July and reopened in December on Oak Street with a new name: Lisa's Mediterranean Cuisine.The days of belly dancing events are over (although Mayisoglu will provide them for private events if requested), with a new focus on an expanded menu and making her customers feel like they are in her own home.A new pizza oven added to the kitchen lets Mayisoglu bake Turkish breads daily. She has several new dishes on the menu, including beef kebabs to supplement the many lamb and chicken specialties.
"Some people don't like lamb," she says. "I wanted to bring everyone in here — and so my kids will eat here more. My daughter doesn't like lamb!"Specialties include the popular homemade manti – tiny handmade dumplings stuffed with seasoned lamb and onions; beyti kebab – a spicy adana (minced) kebab wrapped in lavash bread; and Turkish staples such as gyros, stuffed cabbage and etli bamya (baby okra with lamb.)Mayisoglu is proud of specialties such as the pacanga boregi appetizer — triangles of phyllo filled with Turkish pastrami, kashar cheese and fresh tomatoes, or coban kavurma — chunks of lamb sautéed with shallots, mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes and special Turkish spices.
Customers are especially happy with new lunch specials designed for quick dining, and with the larger selection of fresh fish, including bronzini and tilapia, says Mayisoglu, who learned to cook in her native Turkey from her mother and aunt. Her father, brothers and sisters own Turkish restaurants in New York. Her brother-in-law provides her with fresh fish and meat, which is halal.Free Press Test Kitchen recipe: One Pot Beef Stew is perfect.Good, fresh Mediterranean-style food is the attraction, but Mayisoglu says the personal touch is what brings people back."I get ready for them each day like they are guests coming to my house," she says.Mayisoglu operates the restaurant with her sister, Selma Sozen, who runs the dining room while Mayisoglu mainly supervises the kitchen, coming out frequently to visit customers.Lisa's new location on Oak Street may have intimidated some potential restaurant tenants with its troubled history — most recently 5 Seasons Bistro, which closed last April after less than a year in business. The bad layout stymied even celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay on his "Kitchen Nightmares" show when he tried to help owners of the previous restaurant, Bazzini."I knew that. The minute I walked in for the first time, that's how I felt too," Mayisoglu says. "But I had a vision that I could fix the place up. Nothing has ever come easy for me. I always have to go for the hard thing."