I have a love/hate relationship with my kitchen, my stove in particular. My apartment used to belong to my grandparents and so just about everything in the kitchen has been there since 1966 when they moved in. They never cooked much to begin with and in the last ten years of their lives, they ate out exclusively.

I put the counter top you see to the right in last summer, when the old one started to crumble into pieces and the building replaced the dishwasher last fall when the old one lost the ability to clean anything. However, the stove is untouched and it makes my cooking life frustrating on a regular basis. I have five burner settings, which makes any nuance in heat difficult. And do you see the way the oven overhangs the stove? Well, that makes those two rear burners nearly impossible to use when there's stuff on the front, because it's hard to reach without burning yourself. And the underside of the oven is always dirty because it on the front line, catching all the bubbles and splatters from the stove top.

On the plus side, my oven bakes perfectly, heating evenly and always exactly on temperature (not bad for four+ decades) and I never worry about messy projects, because my kitchen is very far from pristine.

Now Slashfoodies, it's your turn. Tell me what you love and what you hate about your kitchen. Take pictures and upload them to our Slashfood Flickr group, so we can all get a peek into the most used room in your house.

As Joni Mitchell so eloquently put it, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

I think she was talking about my stove.

You see, earlier this week, the gas line to my stove developed a leak. The good news? The gas company responded promptly to my frantic phone call, and switched off the gas. The bad news? Until my landlord returns from the country to inspect the site (long story), I'm stuck without a working stove.

My point in telling you all of this? I've become a slave to my Foreman grill. Salads and hummus-on-cold-tortillas only get you so far before you're craving decent, warm food.

In case any of you are ever stuck in a similar predicament, I've decided to list some of the conclusions I have come to during The Week Without A Stove:

• You can successfully cook the following vegetarian-friendly foods on a Foreman grill: tofu, polenta, onions/zucchini/eggplant, veggie patties and virtually any type of imitation meat product, toasted sandwiches
• It is impossible to cook decent pasta in a microwave
  
• The following food/imitation food products have started to appeal to me solely for their ability to heat quickly without the use of a stove/oven: Easy Mac; toaster pastries; those soups in cardboard containers; individual, microwavable oatmeal packets; 90-second rice
  

Kitchen trends come and go, but there are certain aspects of both design and technology that seem like they're here to stay. One trend is for professional-quality appliances, particularly stoves and ovens, as many home cooks want to be able to prepare four star cuisine in their own kitchens, not just approximations of it. In a similar vein, kitchen islands are still popular, as they create a useful workspace for more complex cooking. In other words, we're seeing a preference to technique over technology.

But technology is really growing quickly and for those who prefer streamlined stovetops to gas or electric pro stoves with huge flames, induction heating is supposed to be making a splash in the market. At Yanko Design, designer Terence Woon conceived this wall unit as a way to further streamline the kitchen, incorporating a variety of appliances into one small space. His vision includes (from left to right) a juicer, blender, toaster, multimedia interface, scale and water dispenser. Personally, I think I might still prefer individual appliances, but we can't say with certainty what we'll end up with.

What would you like to see in the kitchens of the (near or distant) future?

Rappers in the kitchen? This unlikely combination is about to hit television. Celebrity Cooking Showdown is a 5-night culinary contest between celebrities of varying degrees of success, like Tom Arnold and Gabrielle Reese. The semi-homemade Food Network celebrity, Sandra Lee, will host the show when it airs in April 2006, on NBC.

Feeling outdone by his rapper friend, Coolio, is working on his own cooking/variety show. In what is certain to be either the best or, depending on how you choose to look at it, the worst cooking show of all time, Coolio says " 'This won't be your average cooking show - it'll be Coolio with food. I'll be cooking, talking, rapping, dancing and singing.' There will be a four-piece band, a DJ, and strippers - all in the kitchen." That's right: strippers. Of course, Coolio says that he's a good cook, specializing in enchiladas, spaghetti and egg rolls, and though self-taught, it is entirely possible that he has a few genuine tips to share with the television audience.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Engadget just announced that Sanyo Electric is planning to release an induction stove that talks to the user. The 200V Built-In IH Cooking Heater stove features "voice navigation" that sets of preselected tones when it completes various functions, like boiling water. The tones, much like the ring tones of a cell phone, can be downloaded via the internet to give a level of customization to your appliance. The stove also includes verbal cooking instructions for several recipes, to help newbies learn their way around the kitchen.

Having grown up with, learned to cook on and generally taken for granted the vintage gas stove in my family's kitchen, you can imagine my surprise when I saw a red one just like it on the Food Network, crouched behind Rachael Ray. Stoves like our 1952 Chambers Model 90C (above) have become all the rage and it's no surprise. They're beautiful, obviously durable and hey, what good cook doesn't like cooking with gas? When restored, these stoves can command upwards of $4,000.

We acquired ours in the mid-70s while our house was being restored. As you can imagine, the house has evolved around the stove, which hasn't really moved in a few decades. While it still cooks just fine, there's a bit of finesse involved. There's no pilot, so the oven and ranges must be lit by hand. This usually results in a fun "booof" sound that makes most guests back away from the stove.

[Photo: John Vagnoni]