Steamy Love

So, I've held out on you, Cow Spot Friends. In my last post I covered the highlights from my trip to the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Chicago, but I left out my favorite discovery. The truth is, this item was not forgotten, it was left out intentionally. I knew it was too cool to just include among the other items from the show, this item and topic deserved a post all its own.

The item: The Wolf Convection Steam Oven. The topic: Steam Cooking.

THIS is Wolf's Convection Steam Oven.

Oh.My.Gosh. This appliance is TOO cool. I had heard about steam cooking, but really didn't know a lot about it. Thankfully we were lucky enough to get a pretty thorough tutorial about this product and I was blown away by all it could do. To begin, steam cooking is quick, healthy and versatile. When cooking with this steam oven, foods maintain many nutrients that are lost by other cooking methods.

Take broccoli for example, if you boil broccoli you will notice the water begin to get a green tint.

Like this....

The green tint  you see above are the nutrients that have actually left the broccoli due to the cooking process. Most of us eat vegetables like broccoli to maintain a healthy lifestyle. By cooking the broccoli in a steam unit, you will increase the amount of nutrients your body receives, compared to boiling the broccoli, where a large amount of important enzymes wind up getting poured down the drain.

As cool as this information is, I was still hesitant. For most of us, it would be a stretch to buy an appliance solely for its ability to steam veggies. Especially when you can buy a steam appliance that sits on your counter for the times you plan to steam rice, veggies or other grains. The information I found out next took this appliance to a whole new level of cool and relevant.  The bottom line...this convection steam unit can do SO MUCH MORE...

 Because this is a convection steam oven you can also bake cookies and slow roast meats. You can even place a carton of eggs inside and WAH-LAH, hard boiled eggs.

Another great way to utilize this appliance is to cook frozen foods. Frozen foods?? Yep, the appliance adds moisture then bakes the moisture off, leaving you with the perfect crispness for chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, fried shrimp, etc..

Pretty cool, right? I was intrigued and I love the fact that this appliance can literally be used in place of a second oven due to its versatile nature.







If you are familiar with steam cooking and have looked at or own a steam appliances of your own, you will be interested to know this steam oven is bigger than most. The water reservoir that is usually located within the unit to one side, is actually located at the top. 

See the seam right beside the control panel? That's where the water reservoir is housed, leaving the whole cavity of this unit open for use.

Because I design kitchens, I have acquired a deep interest and appreciation for appliances, despite my limited cooking skills.  For me, boiling rice a is a great culinary fete.  Oh gosh... I better stop, I can feel you losing respect for me as we speak :)  In my job I have had to familiarize myself with the various brands and styles of products along with their pros and cons.  Over the last few years I have heard various clients talking about the characteristics of specific appliances and how they use them for various dishes. I now understand cooking is more than just something people do, it's an art. And like any art, one must have the right tools to produce the desired results. Right now everyone is about "right sizing" and I think this appliance is a perfect fit for that mindset. You get all the perks of a convection oven with the bonus of steam capabilities.

Wow, this post is making me hungry! With all this talk of food, not to mention the pictures, it's no wonder my stomach is roaring at me! I Hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any recipes involving steam cooking please share!

All photos are from google search.

KBIS 2012

Sit back and relax, maybe go grab a coffee, this is going to be a long one!

I just got back from the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show a.k.a. KBIS! This years show was in one of my favorite cities - Chicago.  KBIS is always a fun show to attend, full of new trends, innovative products and tons of inspiration. The show was smaller this year , but provided me with all kinds of blog topic ammunition.  Everyone who attends the show will walk way with different impressions, favorites and highlights. But to me, this smaller scale show (as compared to years past)  allowed certain items and trends to shine bright. So, without further adieu let me introduce you to the things that sparked my interest at this years show...

 Tile:

This tile is by Ann Saks.  These tiles are 3-dimensional and gave the space a very cool look. I love how the tiles are varying shades of gray which gives the wall even further depth. 

Close up view of 3-Dimensional tiles. Doesn't it look like the tiles are jumping off the wall?

Look at these funky tiles, which are also from Ann Saks. I loved the bright colors and patterns. 

This pattern is called "Pollen in Orange Gray." No big shock, this was my favorite of all. Two of the hottest colors of the year. Couldn't you see this tile in Tory Burch's home?!

Ann Saks had a lot to offer in terms of cool tile. There is a lot of focus on texture, dimension and pattern. Today tile is no longer just a functional component to a space, it's a form of expression.

Countertops:

As you know from previous posts, I'm a big fan of Cambria. So, this was a must see booth for me at this years show. They have launched a few new colors this year, but it wasn't the new additions that thrilled me, it was the trial slabs that were brought to KBIS to get industry feedback and opinions. These slabs don't even have names, and were only labeled with roman numerals so we could vote on our favorites. They were all nice, but there were two that really spoke to me and they were both in the gold family. Yes, you heard me right... gold countertops!!! They were beautiful! Unfortunately my camera (iphone) did not pick up on their beauty, and the pictures just don't do them justice. But, imagine it, with all the talk of brass lately, it only makes sense that this concept would flutter into countertops, and it did so beautifully.  The gold tones mixed brilliantly with other colors ranging from coppers and browns to beige and grays with the depth that only Cambria can offer to a quartz countertop. Hopefully my favorite slabs earned enough votes to become two of the new slabs introduced this year, so you can see them firsthand or at least in a clear, professionally taken picture :).

Trial Slab II: beige and gold and little bit of copper all mixed together to form this breathtaking countertop. 

Trial Slab I: This slab reminded me of a gold sequined dress. So pretty and elegant with sparkle and depth.  

Appliances:

One of the most surprising "trends" I saw at the show was black appliances. Both Wolf Sub-Zero and Dacor were showing appliances in black. Both said the black appliances were introduced because people were tired of stainless steel and wanted something different. Hmhm.....while the black appliances were pretty, I'm not sure that this is a trend that will take among the masses. A lot of people have just traded in their black appliances for stainless. Plus, in my opinion stainless is like white trim, classic. We may re-visit this topic in later blog posts but this was definitely one of the more surprising finds at this years show.

Plumbing:

 Rock Crystal, Green Onyx and Chinchilla Obsidian inserts for Kallista's Amedee Basin Sets. What a fun way to jazz up your faucets.  

This sink is by Toto and was pretty cool in that you operate the hot and cold by turning the dial on the far right of the sink. When you turn the dial to hot, it lights up red and when you turn it to cold it turns blue. I thought it was pretty snazzy :)

This is Kohler's Numi Toilet. A few posts ago I talked about the Toto Washlet, which was the splurge-a-rific toilet seat that could all but fly to space. Well, the Numi is similar in that it offers a lot of the same features, but this time instead of it being just a seat, it's the whole toilet that can show off its luxurious skills. To begin this toilet has a motion activated lid and seat, advanced bidet functionality, integrated air dryer, deodorizer (air is pulled through a powerful heated seat), feet warming, illuminated panels and music.  That's right... this toilet comes with a remote control that allows you to jam out to your favorite tunes while taking care of business.

Miscellaneous:

This is a USB wall power outlet I came across. It is essentially a traditional outlet with two USB ports built in. In today's world when most of us rely heavily on our mobile devices it can create a traffic jam of sorts in our homes with everyone trying to charge their phones, ipods, ipads, etc...at the same time. This handy outlet configuration allows you to charge your devices while still maintaining your outlet space for other important plug-in related things. Pretty cool, right!?

And Finally, the CELEBS!! We had two celebrity moments while on this trip. On Tuesday night we went to Dupont's Color Splash party where we met David Bromstad. David has several shows on HGTV and actually won Design Star seven years ago.

Here I am with fellow designers Melissa Nagle and Holly Floyd with David Bromstad.

On Wedneday while visiting the Kohler booth at the show, we ran into Monica Pedersen. Monica is from HGTV's Designed to Sell.

Again with fellow designers Holly Floyd and Melissa Nagle with Monica.

Well, there you have it, my week at the KBIS show in a nutshell, OK a big nutshell :). These shows are fun and informative and always bring you back to reality feeling inspired. I hope you enjoyed!