Yup - Couscous are your friend - whenever I need a fast starch - I have something in 5-10 minutes. I add ground pepper (and I did add this to the BC version), Parmesan, Gruyere, etc. My DH thinks I made something very special.... I won't tell him our secret! Dodge- lots of Floridans have nautical themes for their kitchens. My parents had lots of ocean items in their condo. Andrea - I don't have many non-stick pans anymore- even before I switched to induction, I was slowly replacing my pans - but when I make omelets - sometimes I want the option - and used the new scan pan tonight based on that wonderful video - and mine looked just like the chef's! Maybe there is hope for me as a cook yet!

Looking at your layout, I don't think you have the room for a 36" range. You will need a filler between the blind corner and any adjacent cabinet. That nixes your pullout that you have there. And you have minimal landing space on the other side next to a major traffic route. That will leave you with a 30" range fitting MUCH better. You could do a 30" induction range and separate wall oven elsewhere, or something like the GE Cafe with the griddle and double ovens below. That would give you the maximum versatility in the smallest space. If you want to grill, use a grill pan or do it outside. It doubles your requirements for ventilation, which you haven't discussed at all. That will get pretty expensive as you will be required to have makeup air for the CFM that you would need to have for a grill. In your situation, I'd put a separate under counter oven in place of the under counter MW. Maybe a speed oven, but the best place for the MW is next to the fridge as that's the logical flow of snackers and reheaters. I'd also really revisit having the work table as island. You could make the island work a lot harder by having a small prep sink on it and putting the trash there as well. That would give you a better prep zone with less walking. I'd suggest swapping the pantry and fridge. You need a straight shot from the fridge to the sink to make the prep zone work best. And that involves water access. So, you need the fridge at the bottom of that aisle, or a prep sink on the island. Or both. Otherwise, you're adding a lot of roadwork to making dinner.

This thread, which I didn't catch the first time around, made me think. In general, I cook to eat and feed my family. However, I do enjoy baking for special occasions. I think that if I didn't work outside the home I would cook more...and be more adventurous. But, I work and have a long commute so by the time I get home I have to make fast meals with little time for creativity or major prep work. So, we eat a lot of frozen veggies--as is out of the bag, pre-cooked meats warmed up, pasta, soup, occasionally waffles/pancakes/eggs, potatoes, etc. I.e., for the most part things that I can cook fast. One up side to this is that our meals haven't changed that much w/o a kitchen since we do have a MW, Toaster Oven, and hot plate to cook with! One very big downside to this, though, is that my children are not learning to cook like I did from my mom. Back on topic... After finding this site and reading about zones, I realized that one thing that I really wanted was a baking center. So when my kitchen was being designed I had it in the back of my head that whatever we ended up with had to have an area I could designate my "Baking Zone", preferably near the ovens--with room to roll out dough, spread out cookie sheets, and have cookie cutters spread out all at the same time! The other thing I got from this site was our window...having the window down to the counter (OK, not cooking-related, but a very important design element!) Our very first plan that our KD came up with had input from us...but a very naive/ignorant us! (Before GW...BGW!) Then....I found this site.....and the changes began. Actually, I posted that original plan and asked for help (and also asked my KD to start over w/no island) Many, many people here helped me come up with a plan over several weeks (months?). We finally came up with a plan that has changed little since then. Interestingly, when I took away the island "must have", my KD came up with a plan very similar to what we came up with here. The only 3 differences were (1) no mini peninsula, (2) a 36" pantry cabinet rather than a corner pantry, and (3) no separate Message Center cabinets. My KD wasn't completely happy w/our differences, but she, wisely I thought, told me to go home and mock up what I wanted to see how it would work (same advice I got here!) Well, the mock up was great! It proved that I did indeed want the mini peninsula (I liked it so much I left the mock up in place until demo and used it!) When I told her the results, she didn't argue, she accepted it telling me it's my kitchen, so ultimately it's up to me. So in the end, my design was/is based on what I wanted, not what the KD wanted. [If only someone else had measured my kitchen and she was given more authority, I think a lot of subsequent problems would have been avoided.] Our kitchen isn't done yet, but it's close...so I can't yet tell you how it is going to work for us...but we are so...

Jane_NY, I'm a New Yorker who knows what you are talking about with Trump. I moved to the city in 1982, right around the time that "Dump Tower" opened. I remember how it started as a very expensive rental, beautiful on the outside, but with notoriously cheap finishes and corners cut on the apartments. At the time, I worked in an office with a pregnant woman whose husband's small company was involved in building it. Trump plunged her family into debt with his standard M.O. -- underpay but promise a lot of work. Then when the work is completed, don't pay the final bill, and tell the small businessperson to "go ahead and sue me." If you look into his business history, you'll see that he's constantly having to work with new people as he burns others in his wake. And remember the beautiful sculptural frieze on the Bonwit building that was torn down for Dump Tower? The one he promised to the Metropolitan Museum, but instead destroyed into rubble? I remember talking among a bunch of women about our worst date. One recounted being asked out by a guy who hid being married, was a boorish bore, and against her wishes, insisted on taking her right to her door while insulting where she lived, and then kicked her little dog in the face when he came to the door and sniffed Trump's shoe. I remember when he announced his upcoming divorce to the newspapers before telling Ivana and his children. My friend's daughter went to school with Ivanka at the time, and said everybody felt sorry for her. I felt sorry for Ivanka when she was about 15 and trying to be a model. She was tall but far from model quality. This was before her chin and breast implants, and you just know that the other models who had to work to get where they were must have treated her with contempt. It seemed to me to be kind of cruel to let her go through that, especially when they didn't need the money. But Daddy liked models. With all the money he made or ripped off, the only charitable thing I can recall Trump doing for the city was when he renovated the public ice rink that you can see from his apartment. Even then, he had to plaster his name on it. If there was a public figure from, say, Phoenix, whom everyone from Phoenix said was sleazy cheater and not to be trusted no matter how they appeared on TV, I would be inclined to listen to the people who knew him. I learned long ago that when someone doesn't trust, it usually means that they can't be trusted. I think of this every time I hear him whining about "fake news."