Kitchens are the heart of any home. In my home, the kitchen is the first room one enters from the back door. Books and pocketbooks get dumped on the table. Baskets of laundry hang out on the floor on their way to the washer and dryer. The proverbial "junk drawer" holds every tool and fastener known to the human race. The scotch tape lives in the kitchen. So does the stapler and the rechargeable weed wacker. A basket of hats and mittens sits year-round on the radiator. It is theonly room in the house that has traps set out. In the hierarchy of rooms, kitchens are royalty.

Peer into anyone's kitchen and instantly know (1) their taste in art, (2) their tolerance for insects, (3) how religious they are, (4) whether they compost and (5) what their backyard looks like. And because kitchens are all about food, they can be the happiest rooms in the house.