I'm getting a miele single oven and am considering the miele speed oven as well. Seems like most people are happy with it, although there are some remarks about difficulty in cleaning. I've had a difficult time getting information on just how fast it cooks. Can it make a chicken in 20 minutes like the Advantium 240 or TurboChef?

One thing I would change: Get the delayed start timer to be more able to measure timeframes that are less than an hour. The one I have lets me choose hours. Apparently also less than an hour, but it's not very fine-grained there. The dial LOOKS like it takes delay start times of less than an hour, but it doesn't really do that. Sometimes I'm going out to do an errand, and I want it to start and finish before I get back. Instead, it hasn't even started yet when I come home, or it has barely started. Defeats the purpose. Counterproductive. The complete opposite of what I wanted. Frustrating. So, I've had to teach myself to turn the dial to the last click (also very coarse and not very finegrained). Even then it's not impressive. Why can't I have a delay of 10 minutes? Why can't it be easy to turn, and reliably set at ten minutes? OK, I realize that many will say "who cares" and "why do you need to delay start for ten minutes". This is the feature that I want, for my own reasons. It will determine my next purchase. If I move I'm selling with a wonderful FL washer already installed and in its place. HTH

Great find, John. Cousances was bought by Le Creuset in the 1950's. The little skillet is indeed the lid to the saucepan. They still make these, called the 2-in-1, at least in the U.S. The skillet part is my total fave, and the saucepan part is a new fave for induction. Edited, from the eBay Guide "Cousances enameled cast iron ... had features which distinguished them from their competitors. Among those features were the base, which was left without enamel, but sealed against rust with the final glaze, and the skillet design which was a French version of the classic American skillet popularized by Griswold and WagnerWare, having two pour spouts, a cast on handle, and a lifting tab on the largest of the handled skillets." You've got the care and cleaning right. You don't need to do anything to the enamel. If it's clean, it's clean. And if the bottoms aren't rusted at all, they're probably still sealed. The place to beware is the very edge around the top where the iron is sealed, but can get worn. You don't want to leave that soaking so that it rusts (but if that happens you can just scrub off the rust and do better next time). You can bake on some oil to season any truly raw iron parts, but it shouldn't be necessary. If you do get stuck on gunk, you can deglaze it on the stove. Just heat some water and use a wooden scraper or wooden spoon to loosen the gunk. If the gunk is on the outside, heat it in a larger pan of water. And if you burn the bottom or really thoroughly bake on gunk, it just takes longer and more elbow grease, but you should be able to bring it back if you're patient and gentle. The most important thing for caring for your enamelled pans is not to scratch the enamel. No scrambling the eggs with a table fork in the pan. Use wood, plastic or silicone. For clean up you can use a plastic scrubby, or a plant fiber one, but no metal. Like any cast iron, don't shock them. No ice cold water in a hot pan. Don't put a hot pan down in a puddle. Try not to bang the rim or drop it. Le Creuset make silicone handle covers nowadays which can be very useful. Congrats on the new friends. They can parlent en français with the Maviels, because you know those prima donnas flirteront avec les bad boys.

Again, thanks a lot to everyone for sharing your thoughts. Below layout is what we settled on. I know it's by no means the best design, but it will be functional, and it required compromises from all parties involved (yes, that includes the cats too). The wall cabs are bumped out 2 inches. With the cover panel covering the doors and slight over hang, the cats will have a 15" deep platform. The counter top in front of the wall cabs will be about 11" deep, which is what my DH wanted ("to set things down on"). Good night and happy 4th everyone!