Do you use your stovetop as extra counter space?

[SMW]

All the time - small apartment kitchen. The burners are quite difficult to turn on, so it's unlikely to happen by accident. But not while cooking on other burners, and only as a temporary holding pattern - except for the cast iron skillet, which resides on one burner - and whose insides are also occasionally extra counter space when I'm really stretched.

So far I've never had a problem with this, but I've also only had gas stoves.

[snowangel]

I, in a rather large suburban home, have like 10' of counter space (little enough that I could afford granite), so at this time of year, certainly, it is counter space. After all, in August, I don't turn on the stove. We grill! Different season, I only use one side of the stove as a counter, but use the oven plenty.

[CharlotteM]

Yes, all the time. In my tiny kitchen, even my sink doubles as counterspace for my cutting board sometimes. But I have yet to burn a shopping bag on the stove...

[chiantiglace]

I second the sink input. I use to use a butcher block over my sink and my marble slab over the stove just to prep what I wanted, then I would exchange them out when washing or cooking.

[mizducky]

I will occasionally use a cold burner as a landing pad for a bowl into which I'm spooning something out of a cookpot warming on an adjacent burner. But otherwise, the stovetop is the horizontal workspace of last resort--and I only leave stuff resting there temporarily, and can get a bit OCD about triple-checking that all burners are off off OFF!!! This even though I think I've only had one or two accidents over many years, and those only resulting in, say, a singed corner of a potholder or something.

Now, this is not counting the perennially-dwelling-on-stovetop items such as the teakettle on one of the back burners, and the spoon rest on the metal strip between the burners. Those I feel are fairly bullet-proof WRT any random accidental heating (and I did mention about my being OCD about triple-checking the burner knobs, right? )

[petite tête de chou]

I have stainless steel burner covers that serve two purposes. 1) They hide my -ahem- untidy drip pans and 2) let me know that the stove top is cold. I've used the surface to bring meat up to room temperature before grilling but that's about it.

[Beverly Shaw]

Only when I am in the room and usually when I am putting away groceries.

I am paranoid though: my parents' house burned down in September '04 because something was left on a stove during a power outage. Before the power came back on, one of the burners had somehow been switched on.

I can't say I was as careful pre-fire, though.

[Pat Churchill]

Only when we had one of those useless glass cooking tops. The rest of the time I've had gas though our griddle-top JennAire back in NZ sometimes sees a bit of service as a place for short-term storage.

[Grub]

Well now that we've covered stopetops -- how about, "Do you use your oven as extra counter space? for storing empty pizza boxes?

Friend of mine did this, and I actually came into the kitchen TWICE, asking what was burning, but was told to piss off -- you know how it can be harder for a cook to notice things like that if they're actually right in the kitchen the whole time, and the smell creeps up slowly, right? Well the third time I wasn't taking no for an answer -- something was definitely burning; paper. He still didn't believe me, but luckily, at that point the smoke started rolling...

Roasted cardboard -- yumm-o. It'll be lovely with enough blue cheese dressing -- I'm sure I saw it on Semi-homemade cooking once.

[Lordof7]

Yeah, I use the stove as a counter. However, I do limit what I put on it to pots and pans and lids and stuff. Never paper or plastic, and rarely plates. I feel for heat before I put something down, but the space between the burners is always fair game (especially for lids and hot pots than should not go on the formica counter.

Haven't yet had a disaster (knock on wood) but I did have a nifty experience with a plate once. It turns out that those strange "indestructable" plates are actually quite heat sensitive. If you put one on a hot burner it will explode. I mean literally explode into thousands of sharp fragments. My college roommates and I were all standing next to the stove, and its a miracle noone got hurt.

[chromedome]

My usable counter space in the current rental consists of a pull-out cutting board. That's it.

So, yeah...stovetop, corner of the kitchen table, top of the microwave...it's all prep space. I don't burn/melt anything, although my kids occasionally do.

[BigboyDan]

Nope.

I'm careful with fire...

[johnder]

nope not I. I grew up in a house with a hard core non-insulated wolf stove. At a young age I quickly realized anything on the stove was hot even if that specific burner wasn't on. The monster just radiated heat from every orafice.

With my current wolf stove (the home model) I am still in the habit of never leaving anything on the stove unless it is being heated or about to be heated -- I don't even touch the oven door handles without a kitchen towel because I assume it is hot.

Same way I never ever touch a pot handle on the stove without a towel in my hand, even at other peoples houses. Once burned, twice shy.

edit: typo

Edited August 22, 2006 by johnder (log)

[fungi_provider]

Counter space? what's that?!?!

Of course i do, and we even picked up some of those nifty decorative stove eye covers, which at last count, 3 sets burnt up due to forgetting to remove them from the burner.

Your stove top is counter space. Use it wisely.