What are these white granules I keep finding?

look at your ceiling closely above where your granules show up.

Nothing there. They are near a cabinet base and the stove.

I don't know of any pest that causes white granules... except for ants, but in that case they would be found near corners. An ant infestation is usually pretty obvious (ants don't make any effort to hide themselves). There are some plant based bugs that lay white eggs that would do this, but you didn't mention any plants in the areas.

Do these areas usually get wet?

upload it to imgur.com, post the url...

look at anything wood above whre the stuff lies. Can you see any tiny holes.

We had a cabin in Maine that had termite damage and the little "granules" (hich were termite poop and plaster shavings) just was in any are here they were burrowing near the surface.

I bet it is termites.