messyjessy

andiesenji- I'm in rural Indiana, near Purdue university. We do actually have several asian grocers and the like, because of the large number of international students, but they are almost strictly groceries and no pretty things. We do have a Pier 1 though! I had completely forgotten about it because it's badly located. I'll check it out later today!

FatGuy, I think I must know where on the internet I can find a "spoon rest" like yours! It is beautiful, and unfortunately I won't be able to find anything remotely similar in my locality. edited because my fingers weren't typing what my brain was thinking.

Here in Indiana it's the same story that many are sharing here, white and yellow onions in particular seems to be mushy or moldy, if our stores have them in stock at all!

I had to laugh about the wok, because that's another hand-me-down we have that is incredibly out of place in our home. We end up using it on lazy nights to make frozen bag one-skillet dinners, because it's the only pan we own that's large enough! Just out of curiosity, what size stockpot meets your needs? We do a lot of pasta dishes as well. I've been waffling about using a 6-8 qt vessel for pasta (hidden use for a rondeau?) and getting a big stockpot for stock/corn later, or getting something 8-12 qt that might be useful if not ideal for all of the above. I live in the midwest, so the corn pot will definitely be needed, but not so much during the dead of winter.

Thanks again Samuel. I understand all your points and agree wholly. The problem stems from feeling ill-served by EVERYTHING we currently have (the sizes and condition of most everything is woefully inadequate), and being overwhelmed with options. Your thoughts on the small frypans are especially illuminating, as it is largely that kind of thing we are currently equipped with. I don't want to outfit all our needs at once, but just get some solid basics and work from there as we progress through new cooking adventures. I just hoped to start by knowing what 3-4 pans other people find most useful. The saucepan is noted. The dutch oven is maybe the one thing that I thought was well-suited to my needs, but I admit to also having been seduced by Staub. I neglected to mention we actually have one currently, but it feels quite small to me (3-4 qt?). I do prefer to use it for stews/braises/chili mostly, but baked beans too, and sometimes bread. It is too small to accommodate large meats or stew and soup in quantity for later use, both of which I would like to do. Am I one of the ignorant Rondeau-needy? I will attempt to think of the things we like to prepare on a regular basis, and work through your suggested questions to come up with well-informed choices.

Samuel- Thanks for the wonderful information about cookware! I’ve been searching up and down trying to find this sort of information in one easy-to-process lesson. I’ve spent the last couple nights reading and reviewing the information in the lecture, but have not yet had time to read through the entire length of the forum posts. I know a lot more now than I did, but it’s just so much information to digest. So I do have a couple questions, but I hope I am not repeating earlier requests! For some background, my boyfriend and I have semi-recently finished our undergraduate studies in engineering and have moved onto graduate school and wonderful (paid!) research positions. Though we’re of “appropriate” age, for reasons outside the scope of this question we are choosing to remain happily unmarried. The obvious downside is that we now don’t have the large gifting occasion that warrants gifts of cookware! Anyway, we’re replacing my long worn-out, disgusting Circulon hand-me-downs using our new grown-up salaries. Our budget is large, but we don’t want to just throw money at every cookware and find out what works by trial and error. Unfortunately, our old set had pieces that were just badly sized or unnecessary, and it didn’t leave me with a lot of pieces that I knew I wanted to duplicate. I know what I don’t want, but am not quite certain what options it leaves me with. Questions: 1) I know that this depends a lot on cooking style, cuisine preferences, # of people, etc, but can you list some pans that you might expect to see on your typical registry “starter” set? I’d like to know about basic pieces that I’d likely get a lot of use from, and have some reference for commonly used, practical sizes. 2) We do already have a cast iron skillet that we intend to keep, and would like a dutch oven. For the rest I was thinking the Paderno GG stuff for the disk-bottom applications, and All Clad MC2 (from CookwareNMore) for the straight gauge pans. And also a Wearever nonstick skillet for an egg pan. Do you think there might be any better options for similar money? Oh, we cook on electric and gas, and I don’t care about induction readiness and obvious aren’t looking for a set. 3) I’m also curious to hear about the favorite “dream pans” people have. Since this is a gift to us, we might like to splurge on a few pans for prettiness sake or for increased performance from copper, so please feel free to let me know your ideal pan/maker for various applications. 4) I've thought about keeping a nonstick saucepan around for making quick hot cereal in the morning. I always manage to get these very stuck in stainless pans and don’t want to have to scrub before leaving home in the morning. Any recommendations for brands/materials/alternative solutions? Thanks so much for any and all guidance, I am glad to learn from your experiences/mistakes! Jessica