I sew, I will do most of my own cooking and baking, and am 50, so maybe it's my generation. When pressed for time, convenience foods are nice, but I don't think I've ever brought anything to a potluck or bakesale that was direct-from-store. (Except one thing: for a potato-bake one time, I contributed the fat-free sour cream and light margarine - which, btw, were also the first to be emptied.) Our schools do allow homemade goods for parties and birthdays. But all volunteers in the classrooms or anywhere around school must be fingerprinted AND have a TB test every 3 years. They also must never be alone in a room with a child (which is a good rule for us teachers, too). Teachers who have a child with an allergy are encouraged to let the other parents know, "This room has a child with an allergy to (x), so please mark your contribution if it includes (x)." Most kids are very good about not eating something if they know they're allergic to it. I think the annotation on a flyer "homemade goodies sell the best" is a good idea. Thanks for the ideas, ladies (and gents). DonnaR/CA

I just picked up "Advanced Bread and Pastry; a professional approach" by Michel Suas. This is a textbook that most culinary students would recognize. Roughly 1000 pages for about $60. Although geared towards the budding professional, there is a ton of great information for the advanced home baker's bread and pastry efforts. Do you really know why you need to scald milk for certain recipes? I didn't either. . .

If you are going to store all those things in that area, where would you actually work? I have a 4 ft section that functions as my baking area, but most of my small appliances are on the other side of the kitchen. My baking area has Measuring cups and bowls, extracts and decorating items, my food processor, my scale and discs and mixing bowls in the uppers. The bases have my spices in one top drawer next to the coooktop (dividing them for baking and cooking wasn't going to work, so I overlapped them). I have 2 deep drawers that hold flour, sugar, cocoa, chips, dried fruits, and other baking goodies. The other stack has a couple of shallow drawers with pot holders, wraps and baking parchment, some utensils, and my smaller baking pans in the bottom. The sheets and racks are above the ovens and the roasting pans and wok are in the drawer below the ovens (range didn't work for me either ---that was a big IF in my last post). My mixer and a utensil crock stay out on the counter. That space works for baking because everything is right there. I can pull out a drawer and scoop flour or sugar -- it often never hits the counter. I also have an island to turn a round and work on if I need more space. It would be hard to work a lot there without the island. It would also be hard to work there without most of my supplies right at my fingertips. I'd actually like to have 2 feet more, but I'm very happy I nixed the drawing my KD came back with and that had only 3 feet there. I'm not sure that space will do what you want for you.

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