Calphalon, Take Me Away!

Somehow David needing back to school pants led to me buying a bunch of cookware with a Bloomingdales gift card. There was a logic to it at the time. Regardless, bask in the glow of my shiny new Calphalon Contemporary Stainless 10-inch omelette pan!


I don't feel horribly guilty about the omelette pan because it's a replacement for our very old non-stick frying pan which is kinda scary, what with the non-stick stuff all coming off regularly in our food. That pan needs to be retired to non-edible crafts. Granted, the Calphalon Contemporary Stainless 10-inch omelette pan at $49.99 probably cost about five times what I paid for the old non-stick pan, but (a) giftcards aren't made of real money, (b) I got the stainless steel because I figure it will last approximately forever, and (c) it was the least expensive 10" frying pan that didn't have a non-stick coating available on Bloomingdales' website.
I do feel slightly guilty about the Calphalon Non-Stick Baking Mat. It's basically Calphalon's version of a Silpat baking mat. This is not something I NEEDED. But the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe recommended it. Honestly, this is something I should have registered for when we got married. I'm a little bummed that it's pink. And I'm a little bummed that Bloomingdales doesn't carry Silpat. But I'm really excited to test it out with my next batch of cookies! And unlike the ice cream maker and overpriced slow cooker I contemplated purchasing, the Calphalon Non-Stick Baking Mat should have a high usage-to-storage-space ratio, which is my primary metric for kitchen supplies.
I probably could have picked this up cheaper somewhere else. This OXO Good Grips 8" Strainer was $19.99 at Bloomingdales. But I don't have a gift card somewhere else. I feel almost not at all guilty about buying this because our straining apparati are insufficient. We have one plastic colander with holes that are a wee bit too big for spaghetti. We have one strainer with a metal mesh but plastic ring and handle, which makes me nervous with really hot stuff. And also we use those two strainers a lot, so having another one, which I think will be the primary straining tool, is not a bad thing. I do kinda want an old banged up aluminum colander like Mom's. Not a shiny new enamel number. No. Banged up and old. Like the one Bob used as a helmet for his knight costume that Halloween, with the garbage can lid as a shield. We've got a picture of that somewhere, don't we? Meanwhile, this can unobtrusively hang, as opposed to taking up a ton of shelf space like a colander.

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