playing chef, my cheap toy kitchen

Here is M when she was almost two. I was pining for one of those fancy toy kitchens (which she ended up getting for Christmas a few months after this photo, which is at right...) The first "stove-top" was our laundry basket turned upside down, and I used a Sharpie to draw four "burners" on it.  She LOVED it. We had a cheap set of small pots and pans... She played with it a lot. With that success, we went ahead and spent the money on the fancy kitchen, thinking she'd love it that much more...We got the more expensive kitchen set (above right) which had (literally) bells and whistles, sizzling and boiling sounds. Guess which one she played with more???Just a reminder (to myself) and others that simple is sometimes best. What are your favorite "cheap" or home-made toys??