"why do they sell insulated?" Well, they are in the business to sell, and usually what sells is the "new and improved", whether it really is or not. As far as what to cook, I can't guess. BTW, the gold/dark/insulated/etc cookie sheets aren't the best either. The plain old 1/2 heavy aluminum sheet pans from the restaurant supply store are the best. I suspect that it's the iPhone/"latest and greatest" mind-set that sells most kitchen items.

Cat herder, those two pieces are perfect! I bet she's going to love them. Lots of people say the 5.5 qt size is the most used, but I personally find that I use my 6.75 qt size much more. If I'm going to cook something long and slow I usually cook a lot of it, so I like the larger size. In fact, I also have the 9.5 qt. oval size, and I use it quite a bit also. The 9.5 qt is harder to wash, just because of it's size and weight, but I don't think the 6.75 size is hard to wash at all. The 2 qt saucier is a great choice too, good for rice, oatmeal, vegetables, etc. Your wife is going to be thrilled. The LeCreuset stoneware baking stuff is also good, but I also like the Williams Sonoma goldtone baking stuff, and it's a bit easier to store, I think.

I had a cake leveler once! (I didn't think it worked very well, but maybe that's just me.) I thought the ''idea'' of it was good, until I realized it's one gadget you can eliminate from a kitchen that never has enough room, which mine never did. Which brings me to sharing one thing I have learned over the years. Your cake won't actually ''dome'' if you use the right size pan for the amount of batter you have. In other words if the cake has a dome, you're probably baking a recipe in an 8 inch pan that actually needs a 9 inch pan. (Your oven temperature could also be too high but that's another subject, mostly evident when baking cupcakes.) Anyway, once I figured this out, I've never needed to cut the tops off any cake. (Seems like such a waste, when I want all the lift I can get!) It's much easier to deal with in the final phase of cake making, and eliminating a step is never a bad idea if you don't need it. This also eliminates the need for a crumb coat when frosting the cake, since you haven't opened up the ''crumb'', which also saves time.

I'll add my name to the list of people who hate the silicone bakeware. I had better luck with the muffin pan, which was smaller, than I did with the bundt pan, which always stuck, never stayed in the right shape, spilled when I tried to move it. No matter how much it was greased or floured or sprayed, it stuck and everything came out in many pieces, never all in one piece. I hated that pan, as well as the round layer cake pans which performed approximately as poorly. They were such carp that I put it all in the "free" box when I had a yard sale but no one took it because when they asked how it worked, I told them. I do have Silpats, which I tried to use for rolling out pie crust and it worked horribly for that too, but it's pretty good for fondant if you dust with powdered sugar and they work for baking cookies. Dave does like the silicone pot holders for removing hot radiator caps and such in the garage, so I gave those to him, LOL. It might have worked OK for an ice mold, or maybe jello, but I don't make either of those things, so into the trash went the silicone. My favorite pans are my old uncoated aluminum Bake King pans, probably the things are as old as I am. I have some nice new non-stick KitchenAid loaf pans and they've held up, not lost their coating, work well, don't stick, etc. However, they are 9x5 and they're just too big, so I always revert back to the smaller 8 inch Bake King pans. I have old Bake King round cake pans too, they work well as long as they are well greased and floured. My old glass pyrex also works as well as anything I own, but I don't have any ceramic bakeware other than pie pans. I try to stay away from glass/ceramic bakeware because I'm clumsy and when my carpal tunnel is giving me fits I drop everything. Metal can take the abuse. (grin) Annie