I bought some unglazed quarry tiles at one of the home stores and lined my bottom rack with them. I bake my pizzas on them as well as free-form breads. When they get crusty with anything spilled (from the top rack) I lightly scrape it off with a thin, flexible spatula and wipe with a wet cloth when they have cooled down. Don't believe I will ever bake cookies, fish sticks, or anything else but pizza and bread on them. They are cheap, so if one breaks or cracks, I just replace it. As a matter of fact, I have a few extras in the pantry just in case. I've even put one in my toaster oven when I wanted to bake just one small pizza or re-heat some slices of pizza.

I use matzah meal, I've never made them with flour. I use the food processor these days. I seem to lose too much of my knuckle when I grate them by hand. I make a ton and then freeze them and bake them, but their the best right from the frying pan! Potato Latkes 6 medium Idaho potatoes 2 medium yellow onions 2 large eggs 1/4 cup matzoh meal, or 3 tablespoons all-purpose, unbleached flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper Chicken fat, or vegetable oil, for frying Applesauce Sour cream Peel potatoes and place in cold water. Using a box grater, grate potatoes and onions into large bowl. Transfer potato-and-onion mixture to a colander set over a bowl, and squeeze out excess moisture. Return mixture to bowl. In separate bowl, combine eggs, matzo meal or flour, and salt and pepper, to taste. Combine all ingredients, adding more matzo meal if mixture is too wet. In large skillet, heat 1/2-inch oil (or chicken fat) over medium-high heat. Drop tablespoon or serving spoon-size portions of mixture into hot oil, and press down with spoon to flatten. Fry until brown and crispy on edges; turn until golden brown on each side, cooking 3 minutes per side. Remove to paper towels to drain. Serve with applesauce or sour cream.

Like Jakkom, I've made persimmon bread. I've also made persimmon cookies, cake-like and very good. Never made persimmon pudding, but if you were making pudding on the stovetop, you would have to stir it often, so this doesn't sound like more work than that. I ran a google search for persimmon pudding and the first three that came up that were baked did not require stirring after placing them in the oven. You might want to try a different recipe than the one she gave you.

Sue, your table sounds great! I'm I kind of average height for my cohort, or a little on the tall side. When I was designing my kitchen, I kept trying to fit in a proper baking area, but it just didn't work with all my other must haves--like, I didn't like the idea of a pullout because there'd be no way to clean up at the cracks and I couldn't deal with loose flour floating around my cabinets. Then I figured out that since three inches below standard counter height was ideal rolling height for me, I could just put on the clogs that are too tall to wear on a cracked sidewalk. One of the members in Kitchens called them "Plllog's Clllogs". ;) I do have a set of too full drawers that have cake pans, pie plates, baking dishes, my huge bread bowl, small racks, rolling pins, baking mats, cheese cloth, etc., and all the utensils and paraphernalia. Next to them are corner drawers with my baking staples, and the mixer and grain mill on top. In the uppers on the adjacent wall are the measuring jugs, spare mixer bowl and attachments, and some other accoutrements. The big racks and baking board are in a special caddy on the other side of the island where there was room for it, but those aren't things one needs on the fly anyway. The counter in the baking area is level with the window sill so gives me extra depth for baking tasks. I've found I like doing my measuring on the island, however, which is a couple of inches higher.