One nice alternative if you want but can't have an instant hot is an electric kettle---we got one a few months before our remodel, and have been using it for all sorts of things. It boils far faster than our kettle did on the gas stove, and I also love the auto shutoff. No more trying to remember if I turned the stove off after I'm at work! It will have its own space in the new kitchen, and will be the primary source for hot water. We are also in the extreme minority in GW land and only have one water source in the kitchen---not even a fridge line! (Okay, technically it's split for the d/w, so I guess that's 1.5...) It's what we had before and we liked it, so we kept it that way. Works for us. I like the idea of an instant hot, but we have a small kitchen and the under-sink real estate was too valuable to put one in. I contemplated a pot filler, but our stove is close enough to the sink that we wouldn't gain that much. Friends who have one that is very close to the sink still love it because it allows them to fill pots with a child in one arm. You still have to put the child down to empty it, of course, but makes it a little easier! We have a hot water dispenser at work, which I do use, but I do find the water is not quite hot enough for tea. I use it anyway for that since I'm lazy, though. :) (You also may be able to change the settings; no clue how it works, exactly.) I've seen steamers (someone around here who posted a finished kitchen recently has one, I think) and they're very cool, but really only logical to have if you steam things virtually every night or if you have a really large kitchen with space that isn't needed for other things.

Well, it happens that this past year I acquired an older one (doesn't have the glazed interior). I read up all over the web and although I had doubts I plunged in and tried it. It was the most beautiful loaf of bread I've ever made. It has it's drawbacks, you have to soak it in water and put it in a cold oven, etc. but to me it was worth the trouble. I've added the recipe I used for a rye/wheat loaf. It came from my Southern Living cookbook. 2 pkgs. dry yeast ½ cup warm water 1/3 cup molasses 1 Tbs. salt 1 Tbs. caraway seeds ¼ cup oil (I used olive oil) 1 ¾ cups lukewarm water 1 ½ cups rye flour 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour 3 to 4 cups bread flour Dissolve yeast in ½ cup warm water in a large mixing bowl, stir and let stand 5 minutes. Stir in molasses, salt, caraway seeds, oil, 1 ¾ cups water, rye flour, and whole wheat flour. Beat until smooth. Gradually stir in enough of the bread flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough onto floured board and knead until smooth, about 8 minutes. Place in a well greased bowl, turn to oil other side, cover for about 1 hour or until doubled. Submerge bottom of Romertopf in water for 15 minutes. Remove from water and pat dry. Put the top of the Romertopf in the water to soak for another 15 minutes. Punch down dough. Put dough into bottom of Romertopf which has been lined with parchment paper. Cover and proof for 20 minutes. When proofed, slash the top of the dough 3 or 4 times, cover with lid which has already soaked and patted dry. Put into a COLD oven and set temperature to 425 degrees. Bake, covered, for 45 minutes. Remove lid. (Make sure you put hot lid on a towel.) Bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven (again, place on towel). Remove bread from pot and cool on rack completely.

Foodonastump, I got an email from Best Buy today that included the instant pot at $99. While I was looking at it, the Amazon app showed the comparison for Amazon's price was still at $79. Would be work a look if it was something you wanted. And I suspect it and the Echos will be back for Black Friday or pre-black Friday sales if it is something you can wait a couple of months for.

We have an assortment of freezers. Thinking the 40+ year old giant Montgomery Wards upright would be dying soon we bought a smaller upright and a small chest. Then I decided it would be handy to have one on the back porch for the things I use most often. I use dollar store plastic baskets and cheap small storage totes with labels on the front in the uprights. Most everything we freeze is foodsavered and hard to corral (yep, double sealed and dh says he likes the generic rolls of plastic best). Right now none of the freezers are full and I could get everything into two, but it's so nice to be able to see in there. Giant, still-running upright is beef and three slabs of pork belly I need to bacon-ize. Small chest has a turkey and cloth grocery bags of pkgs of fruit and lots of corn. ...it was the last year for corn from our favorite u-pick so we stocked up. Other upright is pork, lamb and chickens. The back porch freezer is full of vegies,fish, stock, store bought stuff. Leftovers and things that should be used soon go in the fridge freezer. Sounds so organized. Ha. The best I can do is make myself go through them every few months. I tried an inventory taped to the door...was really bad about marking things off. I have gotten much better about labeling and dating, though. Even so, I always seem to wind up with a batch of 'dog soup' when I clean them out.