Cathy, I'm glad to see you are getting to know your induction cook top! Those prominent circles would bother me a little at first too.... When I first got my portable unit, I was talking a co-worker about it and he told me a great story.... he said he had a house a few years ago that had a stove that only worked with a couple of is pans and it would beep and not get hot if he tried to use the other other ones... he thought it was broken and almost called an appliance repair person to come "fix" it, but didn't because he didn't cook enough to worry about it! He didn't realize it was a "special" stove until our coversation.... years after he'd moved out of that house. It looks like you got a really good deal on your unit, and reviews are overwhelmingly positive. There is some great technology out now... Panasonic, Thermador, and Gaggeneau all make induction cook tops that sense the size and position of the pan and you can put the pans anywhere you want on the surface.... and it's controlled with a touch screen (they are putting touch screens on everything now... Kenmore even has a dishwasher with one)... The Panasonic verson which is just a concept model will also power a blender and juicer that are made specifically to go with that cook top! There's a video on Youtube... The UK has all the pretty induction ranges... we don't seem to get them here... do a google image search for a Rangemaster or Falcon induction range an see what I mean... they even have slide out grills and dual, side-by-side ovens! (responding to off topic questions, I wouldn't work for Sears again because they didn't pay well and I don't think they are doing well overall, but I had a blast when I did work for them because I was selling vacuums and sewing machines... it's a good memory!.... and granny is back home now from having had the chemo port put in so she's doing better... thanks for asking) We still have to set up something if you haven't already gotten rid of all those pots and pans (and even if you have :o)

Like Jemdandy, I also grew up on a dairy farm, only at our farm we had a coal stove in the kitchen and we did not have running water. Our day started at 5am when we went to the barn to milk the cows and feed the stock and we finally went to the house for breakfast at 9am. After breakfast grandad would assign one of us boys to help grandma in the kitchen for the day. That meant we had to carry 10 or 15gal of water in from the spring then shake the grate and clean the ashes out of the cookstove, and carry the ashes outside, then we had to go out to the coal pile outside and fill the coal bucket. Grandma was cooking 3 meals a day for 15 farm hands plus she canned about 4,000 quarts of fruits, veggies, pickles and sausages to get us through the winter, and in her spare time she baked 20 loaves of bread, a couple dozen yiest rolls and two or three pies every Wednesday and did the laundry for everybody on Monday. When she was canning the fruits and veggies were brought to the house in bushel baskets and we had to continually tote the baskets in to grandma and take the 5gal bucket she used to catch the peelings and veggie trimmings and dump that in the hog lot. When it was time to start preparing lunch Grandma would hand us a basket and tell us to get potatoes, so we headed out the back door, grabbed a hoe and headed to the potato patch where we dug a basket of potatoes. When we got back to the kitchen she handed us a basket and a paring knife and told us to go out in the garden and get leaf lettuce, onions & veggies (whatever was in season at the time). When we got back to the kitchen we had to clean, peel and prep the veggies under her supervision, while she continued working on what she was canning. We had two huge chest type deep freezers and in the fall we would slaughter 2 or 3 huge 900lb hogs, (I bet you guys have never seen a 60lb ham), a couple sheep, and at least two yearling steers, which then had to be cut up and wrapped for the freezer or hung in the smokehouse. When grandma wanted to make chicken we had to go catch the chicken, kill it, then clean & dress it and for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas we had to catch and dress a couple geese or ducks. (The first time I ever tasted turkey was after I went in the Air Force). In the winter we hunted racoons for their hides, but more often than not, a racoon or two ended up in the stew pot..as well as rabbits and pheasants. (We didn't have any deer on our farm). In addition to her veggie garden, Grandma had a huge herb garden and she was an undisputed master with herbs and spices. In summer it was fresh herbs but by fall we had to cut them and air dry them for winter and in the evenings after all our chores in the barn were done we used to sit around the kitchen drinking hot chocolate and coring and slicing apples, which we threaded on a string and hung across the kitchen ceiling to dry for winter stores. To this day I can still remember my Grandmothers weekly shopping list for the grocery store. 50lbs of flour, 25lbs of sugar, 3lbs of brown sugar, two large canisters of Quaker rolled oats, 5lbs of raisins, a gallon bucket of peanut butter (peanut butter used to be packed in 1 gal pails and grandma kept the empty pails for berry picking buckets for the kids), 8 packs of chewing tobacco for Grandpa and two boxes of arm & hammer baking soda and once in a great while she would buy 5lbs of whitefish fillets. At the time I didn't really think about cooking much, but over the years I have known a lot of guys who didn't have a clue how to cook and when they ended up divorced it was pizza or hot dogs and porky beans ( I couldn't live like that). Ladies, if you accomplish nothing else in this life, teach your children & grandchildren how to cook. Sometimes Jan laughs at me, but she knows, I don't need a menu plan. I walk in the kitchen and look around at what ingredients we have to work with, and I can turn out a gourmet meal every time. I may not have much money, but you can bet I eat good.

Hi! Awesome ideas and I have already use few. Quick tip for people who are coordinating different types of helping - whether taking turns making meals or something else like helping a friend after surgery, or maybe taking turns checking on someone, or sitting with a pregnant friend on bedrest. If there are several people helping it can be bad to all show up on one day and then no one comes for several days. So my sister set up a simple Shutterfly account and there is a "volunteer" list by date. The siblings and I log on and sign up for the day we are bringing the meal and what we are planning to bring. It's been working great! My parents don't get overloaded with too many meals or leftovers, and we can see what the other siblings are bringing. And if there is an unclaimed date, someone jumps in and claims it. I've been trying to compete with my sister who is a real foodie. Now if my parents would just log on and write up their "reviews" we would have a total feedback loop!

Hello @dsnine wow your post was packed with golden nuggets!!! So much good info in there. I actually read it out loud to my hubby last night :) You've got a full plate with six kids and homeschooling. I decided to homeschool my 5 year old, but we're only in kindergarten right now, and I salut you for homeschooling six kiddos. That takes major organizational skills. I'm struggling a bit with our kitchen design. I was planning on putting the extra fridge and freezer into the coldroom in the basement. We're trying to keep the overall squarefootage down, and with the fridge and freezer downstairs, I was nixing a full pantry. Instead, I was planning for pullout pantries along the wall next to the kitchen. Anyways, I'd love learn what you think makes a kitchen functional and flow well (aside from having a pantry). Are there some kitchen design "no nos" that you can share? What enables you work better and more efficiently in your kitchen?