Cooktops/Ovens: S/D, RFD

You can set up a gas stove to work with LP - it takes a different orifice at the incoming gas valve. Talk to whoever is your LP provider.

I have to say - I love cooking with gas. Because we rent and have moved around a great deal, I've had experience cooking on gas, conventional electic, and those flat top electrics. Gas will always be my first choice. I personally would love to have a 6 burner cooktop with wide spaces (wide enough to set a stockpot on) between the burner ranks, but our current kitchen is tiny so that isn't going to happen. As for grills - outdoors. Messy, smokey, take up burner space for limited use. And for a griddle, I have a carbon steel one that fits over 2 standard burners which works a treat for my purposes.

Things I don't use: built-in timer, automated delay cooking, broiler. Self-cleaning terrifies me in a gas oven - the heat cranks up to fiery furnace of hell proportions and the door is locked and you can't cancel it. So the oven our landlord put in last year for us doesn't have this.

And - I hate those flat ceramic electric ranges. Hate hate hate. Don't buy into the idea that they are "easier to clean". You have to use special products to clean them, they discolor, they get scratched, they don't provide adequate feedback to the cook. Boo hiss.

I'll definitely get gas when I buy a new rig. I agree in theory that grilling should be done outside, but my parents used to have a Jenn-Air with a well-vented stovetop grill, and I remember it being awfully handy. (I didn't have to clean it, though.) But yeah, I'll probably skip that, and a griddle that fits over 2 burners is a lot cheaper.

The wish-list feature I'd REALLY like to have is a monster-BTU wok burner.

Oh yeah, massive BTU burner U&K, as is a simmer burner. My stove has one of each, plus two regular burners.

The key with a griddle over 2 burners - get cast iron or carbon steel and let it heat up for 15 minutes. It will still have hot spots, but the differential will be less if you let it heat up that long. I have a stainless steel roaster that I use on two burners to render lard - no matter how long I leave it on the burners, the hot spots are very apparent.

Have you seen those outdoor wok kits that use a propane tank with a burner ring on top? They also have the turkey deep-fryer option kit. Friends of ours use theirs for a massive fish fry every fall.

Yeah, that's a (much cheaper) possibility. I wish my dad still had his welding rig -- he once fabricated one of those with a car wheel as the burner ring. The climate here is a bit murderous for going out in July/August heat and adding 30,000 BTUs on top of that, though.

i find the broiler to be indispensible, but then i'm rarely if ever in a situation where i can grill. sadly.

yo i just got one of the burner top griddles and that thing smokes like a banshee when on med-hi heat. i was using olive oil and maybe that's why, or is that just how it is? any info would be appreciated.

don't use Olive oil - it has a way lower smoking point than most other oils, mind you, if you get it right and have decent ventilation then something marinated in olive oil based tyhings should be ok, just don't whack the heat up way high.

For actually oiling the griddle though I'd use something like canola oil.