I purchased a set of try-ply Calphalon Contemporary cookware. Then, I purchased separate pieces of various brands depended on my needs. For non-stick, I have some Calphalon hard anodized and Lodge cast iron cookwares. Except for cast irons, most, if not all, non-stick cookwares have teflon or similar substance which is harmful when cook at high temperature. The fume is invisible and is known to kill indoor bird pets. Unlike other cookware, you should not preheat non-stick cookwares. It will make the cookware hotter than it should. If you want to be on the safe side, cast irons are best for non-stick and healthy to use too. Most come pre-seasoned and ready to use. Beside giving you some needed irons, cast iron cookware will give you some muscle too =o) If you're a serious cook, it's hard to stick with just 1 brand or 1 type of cookware. Nevertheless, chose the types that would best fit your cooking methods. ie: I like to brown meat or fish before putting it in the oven. I chose the Calphalon tri-ply stainless and cast irons so I could move from the cooktop straight to the oven and cook in high heat.

I love the look of the short shag too (Frieze) and would have gone with that if it had been an option with our builder. Instead, we got a multi coloured berber type (a closed loop). I'm worried that while the colour will be awesome (multi colour being better at hiding marks), that the Berber will show wear easily on the stairs. My last house had a nice thick cut pile wall to wall carpet with a thick underpad. Cushy underfoot but I did find that it had a bit of a sheen and I could see traffic patterns as well as vaccuum marks. I was looking for a shag area rug, and the dealer said to try pulling on the strands (I was worried about the baby eating bits of carpet). If they come loose, don't choose that type (and some actually did). I also noticed that some of the twisted strands unravelled. And would require clipping, I was told. No thanks!

It will help if you look at the broiler as an upside down BBQ. A broiler is simply a lot of heat coming from the top rather than below. An infrared broiler is the same thing except that it constructed out of a honeycomb ceramic that concentrates the fire into a bunch of tiny "burners" creating massive amounts of heat- direct heat. When BBQing, one typically cooks just above the source of heat; the closer to the source the more searing and carmelization takes place- and more dripping and fires. Raise the grate and the intensity reduces resulting in less carmelization on the outside and more opportunity to cook the food internally. The broiler is very much the same except that most of the grease falls down so less fires. Of course high heat like an infrared broiler will cause a load of splattering and flare ups happen. Like a good BBQ chef, you need to stay focused on the broil as crazy things happen fast with this kind of heat. Many people use the standard style broiling pan that comes with a new oven, allowing the grease to drip through the openings into the pan. Others use a wire rack sitting in the pan to do the same thing, while others broil directly on a sheet pan. The food, the amount of oil present, the amount of time required all detirmine which procedure you use. I like to finish a lot of dishes with the broiler. Stove top or oven will do the majority of cooking but when I want a crust or nice brown glaze on top of a dish, I set the item very close to the broiler, and sit on the floor watching and moving the pan around as necessary to get the color in the right spots. The distance from the broiler will detirmine the amount of time something can cook before charing. Generally speaking the thicker the food is, the farther away from the heat to allow the internal temperature to rise. Of course if you're simply finishing a dish and want the dramatic browning, then keep it close. I've copied and pasted a few paragraphs below that speak to the subject a bit more. Have fun, be safe, and use your hood as this can be a smokey affair if there is a lot of splattering. Here's the pasted stuff: Turn the Dial to Broil Broiling is a dry heat method of cooking whereby a radiant energy source is located directly above the food. In other words, the food is underneath the heat. Many people refer to broiling as "upside-down grilling" but thats not completely accurate. To understand why we must discuss the ways heat is transferred to food. Convection is when heat is transmitted via moving currents of liquid or gas. Thus, when you bake or roast something in your oven, the circulating hot air surrounding the food performs the cooking. Conduction is when heat is transferred through direct contact from the cooking vessel to the food. Turn on your frying pan, fill it with bacon, and the heat is conveyed directly from the flame, to the pan, to the bacon. Boiling is a combination of both. The food cooks from direct contact with the water, (conduction), and from the circulation of the water, (convection). Finally food can be cooked by radiant heat, a.k.a., infrared radiation. Such is the case with broiling. Here the food is in close proximity to the heat source but not touching it. Grilling is not pure infrared radiation. You certainly achieve radiant heat from the nearby coals or gas flame, but you are also cooking via conduction, since the food is actually touching the grates. Therefore, and I know IÂm being a little anal here; broiling is cooking via infrared radiation while grilling is a combination of infrared radiation and conduction. Whew! Glad we got that out of the way. With the exception of the tiny thermal technicality I just outlined, everything else about grilling and broiling is the same. Because broiling is a dry heat method, only tender cuts of meat are suitable. You would never broil a pot roast, lamb shank, or beef brisket. They would become even tougher. Cuts from the rib and loin of our four-legged friends are best suited for broiling. Fish, shellfish, vegetables and chicken are also good candidates. You should also never broil a thick cut of meat, even if it is of the tender variety. Broiling is very intense heat and fast cooking. If the piece of food is too thick, the exterior will be burnt to bits by the time the center is cooked. So ixnay to the on-the-bone chicken breast. Do boneless breasts instead. Conversely, if the piece of food is too thin, youÂll obliterate it. Stay under an inch in thickness but not as thin as a cutlet. Of course, this all depends on the quality of your oven. IÂve cooked in ovens that had a wimpy broiler. The food never develops that sear like you obtain on a grill or by sautéing. If your kitchen is vitiated by such an oven, use an alternative method. Searing the food creates strong flavor. A broiler that falls short in the heat intensity department will shortchange your taste buds. The basic broiling method is such. First, make sure your broiler has completely preheated. Why? See the previous paragraph. Next, lightly brush the food with oil. This will add flavor, help prevent sticking, and facilitate the production of a uniform sear. Then season the food with salt, pepper, or whatever other spices you plan to use. If youÂre not planning on making a sauce from whatever drippings accrue in the pan, you can cover the broiler pan with aluminum foil for easy cleaning. Place the food in the pan and then into the broiler. Keep a close eye on it. As soon as the first side is browned, flip it. The second side will not take as long as the first since the food is partially cooked at this stage. Remove when the second side has browned and chow down. BROILED PORK CHOPS WITH HARICOT VERT Haricot Vert are tender French string beans. Use regular string beans if your supermarket doesnÂt carry them. 4 center cut pork chops Olive oil as needed Rosemary, chopped, as needed Salt and pepper to taste 4 oz. dry white wine 4 oz. veal stock 1 bay leaf 4 cloves garlic, chopped Gastric, as needed, (see recipe below) 6 oz haricot vert 3 shallots, chopped Preheat the broiler. Brush the chops with oil and sprinkle with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Do not cover the pan with foil. Broil until desired doneness. Remove the chops and cover with foil to rest and stay warm. Place the broiler pan on top of the stove and turn the heat up to high. Deglaze the pan with white wine, and then add stock, bay leaf, some rosemary, two cloves of garlic, and reduce for a minute or two. Add two oz. of the gastric. Continue to reduce and taste, adding more gastric if necessary. Strain the sauce before serving. Sauté the haricot vert with the shallots in olive oil until almost tender. Add the remaining cloves of garlic toward the end and season with salt and pepper. GASTRIC: 4 oz sugar ½ cup white wine vinegar Heat the sugar in a saucepan until it melts and turns a pale brown. Add vinegar and cook until sugar has completely dissolved and is incorporated into the vinegar. Q: What is the difference between broiling and grilling? A: Both broiling and grilling create a seared crust on food, giving it a rich, concentrated flavor. This is achieved with radiant heat: with broiling, the heat is above the food, radiating down; and with grilling, the heat is below the food, radiating up. Broilers in a home oven have coils (electric) or burners (radiant or infrared). The coils or burners are either attached to the ceiling of the oven or are located under the oven, accessible by opening a drawer. Powerful broilers have a large burner or more bends in the coil, which increases their surface area, allowing more heat to cook the food. Broiling with home ovens can be tricky  many are built with safety measures that shut them off when they reach 500 degrees F, causing the food to steam in its own juices instead of broil under intense heat. Here are some simple tips for successful broiling: 1) Preheat the pan under the broiler before putting the food on it  this shortens the cooking time by allowing the food to cook on both sides at once. 2) Know your broiler: check for hotspots by placing toast on a sheet pan and broiling it. The parts that brown first are the hottest parts of the broiler. 3) Keep the oven or drawer door open while broiling: the temperature never reaches a high, but the broiler maintains its temperature. Keep these simple techniques below in mind for good grilling: 1) Lightly oil the grill before heating it and make sure it is hot before adding the food. This will help the food get grill marks quickly and will minimize the chances of it sticking. 2) Set up zones on your grill  keep one part of the grill hot and another very warm. Once the food gets grill markings on the hot section, it can be moved to the cooler area to continue cooking until done. 3) Be careful of cross contamination  don't use the same platters or utensils for the raw food as for the cooked food without washing thoroughly between uses. -Food Network Kitchens

Snidely, You are partly right but miss an important aspect of the Walmart Effect... while many consumers demanded products/services be ever cheaper and cheaper no matter what, a portion of consumers were and are still willing to pay more for better quality. We used to be offered that option but as cheaper and cheaper was more widely adopted the companies making higher quality products were forced to either lower their quality in order to maintain sales or folded cause they wouldn't. Now we often don't have the option of a better quality product and are stuck buying lower quality products and having to endure the compromises that come with doing that. Water heater Brands like A.O. Smith and Bradford White are only available through the plumbing supply channels and not through the mass market or discount channel. People I know who own a plumbing supply company tell me that they see plumbers recommending whichever brand realizes them the most profit, but using the story to their customers that they'd stopped carrying several brands - insert brand name here - because they were getting too many call backs to replace defective units. The plumbing supply owners don't care what the plumbers sell cause they carry both brands but they chuckle when the other brand has a better price now and the plumbers have to backstroke on what they told their homeowner customer regarding brand x being less reliable than brand y, but now brand x gets the plumber more profit so that's what the homeowner should get now. The problem with some plumbers is that when they lie to a customer they can't remember a month later which lie they told the customer when they ask the same question again. Whether you believe it or not all water heaters are not the same quality. Cut a few different brands open, as I've done, and the difference is obvious even to a homeowner.