Pork Chops sound really good Brad. I canned for years with a soup pot and a dish towel in the bottom. The dish towel would float up until I got jars on top of it, LOL, and a rack would work a LOT better. Any pot will work for canning as long as it's deep enough to get a couple of inches of water over top of the jars. I have a gas stove, I think you're talking about the smooth topped electric stoves, and I don't have any experience with that, but a new stove is usually pretty much always a great thing. Happy cooking, and canning. Old cast iron is the best stuff, way better than the new stuff usually. Hug your Gram extra hard for that pan! Annie

Oh gosh, thank you all. In the beginning, I didn't give much thought to my kitchen. I knew I needed one, but I didn't plan on spending much time in there. I wanted plain and simple cabinets. I had even entertained the idea of barn tin for inserts. I wanted really country and rustic. I even thought maybe some rafters or beams, with some mini-hay bales. Then when ppl asked my kids if there were raised in a barn, they could say, umm well yal :-) Then as you go through the build, your attentions shift from one thing to the other, and I began to think about my kitchen a little more. Mostly from a decor standpoint cuz I thought I wanted a barn look. Everyone I know and every kitchen I had ever had, was a theme. One color, one theme. So I started thinking about that. And I didnt figure I wanted a big fancy tile backsplash behind the stove top, and all that jazz, but I found this piece of art that I really liked and I began to think outside the box. Not so much about theme but about colors and textures, and just things I liked and made me happy. I knew it wasn't the best choice as far as practicality for a stove backsplash, but I really liked it. (and didnt think I would use the stove much anyways) :-) That one piece of art kind of set the mood, and my thoughts on decorating in the whole house began to form. But as my attention shifted to each project, and when I got around to the kitchen and I searched this board, I began to realize there were things I wanted and needed and I tried to think about how I would use each space as I was becoming determined to cook more and entertain more. So I played house alot, walking through the meal preparation process, and putting dishes away, etc, trying to figure out what needed to be where. I can cook, I just don't. My mother died when I was 13 and being the oldest at home, I was the one left to do the cooking and cleaning. About a month before my mother died, she knew she was dying but I didn't. She was trying to teach me how to cook and clean from her death bed, literally. I would get so mad at her, because nothing was ever right, it was never good enough. Took me a little while but I finally realized she was just trying to prepare me because she knew I was soon going to have to do it all. So when the time came, I knew what I had to do so I just jumped in and did it. So I do know how, I just never enjoyed it from that point on. Anyways, now I couldn't be happier with my kitchen. I have even started preparing menus and shopping at the grocery store! My oldest daughter was talking to my neighbor a few months ago, about how I never cook/shop, and they said, you know, come to think of it, we see everyone at the grocery store (we live in a small town of about 4000) but we have never seen anyone from your family. (funny sad, i know) I was going to go dark island, light perimeter, then just decided not to. Then I saw all these beautiful white kitchens on here, and almost went that direction, but I knew if I asked my Amish guy to paint all this beautiful wood, he would have a heart attack and I didn't want the guilt. I think the Oak fits the house, but I do love the white cabinets too, and anything would look fine if it made me happy :-) But thank you all. I am always nervous about posting final end pictures. There is always something you could have done differently, but I am very thankful to have this home, and to have this kitchen, to have food in it, and thankful to share it with my family. I couldn't have made it what it is, without the research and feedback from this forum. You guys are all great. Thank you! Oh, and yes chalkboard paint, and there is magentic board paint under that. Losing weight by cooking at home and not eating out, drinking more water... moving, packing and unpacking and arranging and rearranging furniture... I also add this stuff to my water that helps me too. I also became the cleaning crew. I became the clean up crew for things like the drywall dust and extra pieces, prepping the subfloors for flooring, and cleaning up the extra trim, and extra flooring, etc. They would have but I figured I could do the cleaning, keep them building so we could get done that much sooner. I would put in 8-9 hour days right along with the crew, just working on the floors. And now, we arent quite finished, the lower level is still going and we have plastic up between the spaces, but still lots to dust, sweeping several times, mopping every day. Before, I did everything online. Most everything in this house came from online or eBay all from the comfort of my Easy Chair. Watched alot of HGTV, and the pounds piled on. I even quit riding my horse which is my therapy. So basically, I am out of the recliner now, building the house is behind me, I am back to riding my horse out with my girlfriends or my family, and now I can get back to life and living again and what a great place to begin to live again. Could not be happier.

LL --> when I was designing our kitchen, I did trial prep and baking to see the space I would need. I found that cooking prep on the whole needed less space as the process was sequential and the tools and the ingredients are not out for the entire duration. Having a water source in a prep sink actually reduced the amount of space. The rinsed veggies can drain right over the sink instead of in a colander on the counter. Baking on other hand needed multiple ingredients out for a longer time and more specialist tools were needed. Shifters, bowl for dry ingredients, wet ingredients, parchment paper, brushes, spatulas, measuring cups, bowls of stuff. The work area for kneading and rolling was also more. I could not spare two large prep areas and figured that I am unlikely to cook and bake at the same time. At least not larger more complicated recipes. So 36in for baking area and 40+for the prep.

I read cookbooks to get ideas, but I do not follow the recipes to a "T" unless it is a baked good. I will get ideas from several recipes and them combine them the way I like. I prefer finding recipes in books that I trust than on line, as I do not trust a lot of the on-line recipes. There are certain people on the cooking forum here that I trust, however, and I will ask them for recipes from time to time. There are other things I would rather eliminate than books, although I do not have all that many cookbooks to begin with. The books I do have contain recipes that are difficult to find on line. I suppose you could get rid of old maps, if you think they are clutter. My sister destroyed my map collection, and I was never able to replace many of them. I collect and keep certain historical maps but throw out old road maps if they are recent but out of date. However, I do enjoy looking at old maps.