About seven years ago my daughters bought me a twelve piece set of Calphalon non-stick cookware. Calphalon doesn't make my set anymore, and they have changed the product.I love it, because food cooks so well in it and I use it almost all the time. I have a two and half quart saucepan that I use all the time for sauces. I don't mean spaghetti sauce, because I use my metal Calphalon frying pan for that most of the time, but the more elaborate kind. The white sauce you use for macaroni and cheese or for melting chocolate. It's also good for steaming vegetables since it comes with its own steamer that fits right on top that uses the same cover. You can also use it as the bottom of a double boiler. I put a Pyrex bowl on top of gently boiling water and it works great for melting chocolate.:)
So I used this pot to death. We noticed that it had started to peel on the bottom even though I didn't put it in the dishwasher. You have to wash non-stick Calphalon only with mild soap and NEVER put it in the dishwasher. This particular sentence is very important, because it will destroy the outside finish making it lighter and also it will void the incredible Lifetime Warranty that this company has for its products.
If you remember my post Why I Love Lions, I mentioned that I got a new pot. It was a replacement for this one, a two and half quart Calphalon non-stick Contemporary pot. So what did I do with this brand new pot this week? Yikes!!!! I put it in the dishwasher and OMG we had such a turmoil over this fact. I got confused about the directions, because we had been looking at so many pots and there were no instructions in the box when I took out the pot. So instead of going online to check I just put it in the dishwasher. It looked fine inside when I took it out and yes, it did look a little lighter on the outside. I wiped it with a wet paper towel and dumped in the soup. When my daughters came into the kitchen and saw what pot I was using and heard that I had put it in the dishwasher they worried that we might be poisoned.:) Seriously, we searched the whole website and the internet to find out if using a pot that had been put into the dishwasher would poison you. But I threw out the soup anyway. Would you eat soup that had been cooked in a pot that might or might not poison you?
The story gets better, because we actually spent over an hour looking up information with my daughter, who is getting over health anxiety and my husband not even in the same room, who butted in and started screaming that this was going to cost him money. After I told everyone that no I was not serving them Poison soup and that I was going to call the company and see if I could get a new pot, he calmed down and we had dinner. The next day I called the company and the actual person who could speak English, which is definitely a plus for any company, told me that yes, if I had been treating the pot as it should be treated I could get a new one!!! Yes!!! A free pot!! Well, almost free. I have to send it back to the company with my name and address and phone number and they will give me a new pot!!! So then I asked him the hypothetical question: I had heard that putting one of their pots in the dishwasher could hurt them. I asked him could you eat the food out of a pot that had been in the dishwasher. This is a question we could not answer even on the internet! What do you think he said? Yes! Yes you don't damage the inside of a non-stick pan in the dishwasher. But you do damage the outside and if you have a flat-topped stove, which I don't, then it can leave rings. Also, of course it voids the warranty. So, guess what? I kept the pot and I'm sending the old one to them tomorrow. What a great company! If all companies were as great as Calphalon, maybe our economy would be in better shape. I hope Google gets my answer to anyone who needs it.
We didn't go to the movies at all this weekend. No one could decide on a movie again! The possible reason for this is that there are such poor choices out there. But we did watch a movie
on Saturday night, "In Bruge". My daughter belongs to Netflix and we got it from there. The first time we got it we were all set to watch and found a giant crack in the DVD. I don't know what it is about Blue Ray DVD's but it has happened to us several times from Netflix. But they're also a great group, because you just send it back and they sent it again in a couple of days. Anyway, this time the DVD was fine and we all watched as if we were in a movie theater with the lights out, but no popcorn.:) To be honest, this is not a popcorn movie.
Imagine you are in the fairy tale - like city of Bruge, Belgium. It was established in the twelfth century and all of the buildings are intact. In this medieval city where swans are the official symbol, two travelers arrive who don't seem to fit in. These two guys aren't your usual tourists. They were sent there by their gang leader played by Ralph Fiennes, and they are to wait for further instructions. Ray, played by Colin Farrell and Ken, played by Brendan Gleeson (He played Mad-Eye Moody in the HP movies) must sightsee and pretend to be normal for a couple of days. Colin Farrell has a terrible secret you learn almost immediately that tears at him. But his companion who seems normal must keep an even worse secret from him that he learns when his boss calls and gives him the instructions for which he has been waiting. As in any film about gangsters mayhem ensues fairly quickly and continues throughout the film. Ray is a very volatile guy and has trouble keeping a low profile, while all Ken wants to do is see the sights.
If you order this movie make sure that anyone who watches it is over seventeen. Not only is it peppered with the f--- word, but it is gory and there is a lot of use of guns as well as mention and use of drugs of every kind and lots of alcohol. But this film is worth it, because the writing is so good. Martin McDonagh, the writer and director is a brand new film maker and I hope that we see more from him. He uses the city of Bruge as a backdrop for a story that plays out as if it were a Shakespeare tragedy. The dialogue is crisp and as I said filled with curse words, but how else would people like this talk? I don't like guns and shy away from movies that use them too much, but I really liked this one. Maybe it's the canals or the parks or the beautiful medieval buildings, but this film is a winner. Mr. McDonagh has written and directed a film that makes you think and gives you a window into the minds of his characters. If you order the DVD don't miss the extras. They will enrich your experience of the film and inform you of facts about Bruge. I feel like I was a tourist there from just watching these extras. Go ahead and order it. Let me know how you liked it.
Hope you had a great weekend. I am going to highlight a new blog tomorrow. Have to go to sleep earlier due to Daylight Savings Time. It's comes earlier, because Bush changed it for us, and we lose an hour that doesn't get replaced until we go back to Standard Time in the Fall.
I'd like to say how happy I am to have new readers and welcome to all of you! Please leave me a comment so we can get to know each other. I love meeting people and will answer you as soon as I can!:) Of course, thank you to the readers who were here before and I appreciate your following me and hope that you will also please leave a comment so I know how you feel about these meanderings.:) Yay! No politics in this one. Hope everyone tried to celebrate International Women's Day. I think my husband is melting a little. You can't stay an iceberg around a Leo.:)
