Pots and Pans

I have 3 Scanpan skillets I really love. They are from Sur La Table. I tend toward inexpensive pots. The expensive ones are so heavy.

Most of my pans are Caphalons. They are my favorite. My pots are Faberware. They are quite a few years old, but still look good. I also have some Cusinart pots. I haven’t bought any pots or pans in a very long time.

We have a really nice set of Circulon pots and pans from Costco, but they’re Teflon. We liked them so much we bought a second set for the lake cabin. They were about $150 on sale.

We have Scanpan saucepans and one of their frypans. 

They've done everything we've ever wanted and still look great after at least 10 years of use.

If we were ever to replace them though, we'd probably splurge and invest in some Le Crueset enameled ones. 😍

Older Calphalon like you have are much better quality than what’s being made now. My old Calphalon isn’t pretty but you’d have to pry it away from me.

We also have All Clad which I love. But in my opinion, nothing stands alone. Each type has its own best use. My two very old cast iron skillets and my Le Creuset pieces round out what I consider essential for my kitchen.

I have a set of Calphalon that I really like, but the skillets have warped (DH and one DD refuse to follow my directions not to use high heat on a cold pan!) and don’t work as well as they should on my glass top stove. So im in the market for a couple of new skillets, and I’m going for All Clad this time. I think the D3 line would work best for me, and they will work on the induction cooktop I want.

All Clad is having a factory seconds sale next month just a short drive from my house, and I plan to go with friends. I don’t need a full set of cookware as I still have some stainless sauce pans and stock pots from older sets that will be fine.

I have figured out that I am not a "set" person. There's always a never-used dog in every set, at least for me. My two most used pots/pans are:

1. All Clad 12" skillet with a lid.
2. My parents' cast iron dutch oven.

The story goes that my father bought the cast iron dutch oven for 75 cents at a garage sale, and it was already very old when he bought it. He bought it probably 75 years ago, to give some time context to the story. My mom used it throughout my childhood and early adult life, then didn't really need it anymore so we transferred it to our kitchen, where she did still sometimes use it (she lived with us for 20+ years until her death 10 years ago).

At one point it was not in good shape from not being cared for properly. Definitely salvageable, but needed a little TLC. I don't remember when that happened--maybe 10-15 years ago? So I joined a cast iron cooking group on FB and that's when I truly realized what a treasure this thing is. I learned that it is pretty rare and in terms of old pots, quite valuable. Similar ones sell for over $300 on eBay. It's a "no name ugly hammered" or something like that, which I still find to be charming and quirky and on-brand for my family.

I followed the steps to get it back into perfect condition and we've maintained it very easily. I think my husband was just letting it soak in water too long or something. It's truly the easiest pot in the world to keep clean. It gets used probably 4-5 times a week and is the go-to for most dinners.

I got the GreenPan Stanley Tucci Stainless-Steel Ceramic Nonstick pot and pan set (William Sonoma exclusive) for Christmas last year and love it!  It's ceramic non-stick, which is so much better than Teflon, is made in Italy, and works so well.  Also nice looking!
www.williams-sonoma.com/products/greenpan-tucci-ss-11-piece-cookware-set/

I’m a huge fan of the Rachel Ray hard anodized cookware. Everything cooks even and nothing sticks.

Anybody have the Carote pots and pans? My DD has them but has not had much time to use them yet. I've heard good things. Was thinking about picking some up for myself.