Mary, I'm very happy with my 11" cuprinox style fry pan. But like you, I've spent time reading all the cookware articles. If there is one pan in your arsenal that you want to be thick and heavy, it would be the frying pan, (at least for some cooking). I think the Demeyere Atlantis skillet would be a great choice because it is lighter,(than copper or iron) but still thick and would never warp at high heat-thanks to the stainless. Good cookware will sometimes make up for a less than perfect heat source. I have a powerful gas range with nice big star shaped burners, so I don't really need the thickest pan. But if you were to sear a steak with a weak burner, you would like a nice thick pan to hold more heat - once you preheat it. Otherwise, the meat would 'suck' the heat out of the thiner pan, before the burner could catch up and supply enough heat to get it hot again. I remember you saying you weren't sure on what you were cooking with, but wanted a good fry pan that's not too heavy. I think the Demeyere would be a good choice, I don't own it but I've seen the fry pan and it looks good.- should be easy to clean and is induction capable. I like the inside silvernox finish as well. Price is tough to swallow, but I saw one on sale that was the floor sample at a Sur La Table store...- so if you look long enough? What do I think about the All Clad copper core stuff? It is bomb proof, and I'm really impressed with it. It's not induction capable, and it's not particularly light (because of the copper). Total thickness at the edge, even with all those plies is not very thick. My guess is that the Demeyere Atlantis would do better as a fry pan, even without the copper, because the aluminum is so thick, - while remaining fairly light. Sure copper heats a little faster.. but the race isn't always won by the fastest and fry pans are one item that thickness and therefore heat capacity is just as important.

For the hash browns, heat your skillet on medium-high for a couple minutes with NOTHING in it. Then, add whatever fat you are using and allow another few seconds for it to come up to temp (because your pan is already very hot this will happen quickly)...then, after the fat is hot ONLY then add the potatoes. You can tell if the pan is ready by dropping a small piece of whatever your cooking into the pan...it should immediately sizzle...if it doesn't the pan was not hot enough when you added the fat. When the potatoes are in the pan, lower your heat slightly to medium-low. Then, and this is important....DO NOT TOUCH THOSE POTATOES. You mentioned you had "stirred" your hash browns and that's, probably, why they stuck. You have to let them sit until a crust forms. This is the same technique used for searing a steak or roast, etc. Do NOT touch whatever is in that pan until the caramalization has occurred. When the crust has formed on the potatoes they will let go from the pan and then are ready for turning. For me, I cut my potatoes in about 1" dice for hash browns and they can take a full 5-8 minutes before they are ready for me to touch. For a piece of meat, you will know when caramalization has happened because the previously stuck like glue steak has loosened itself from the pan and you can turn it easily...if it's still sticking it's simply not ready to be turned. Back to the potatoes...at most you might have to turn your spatula upside down and lightly loosen the potatoes in order to turn them but they WILL come right up and certainly not be glued to the pan. The key is learning to keep "hands-off" until the correct time to turn and starting with a properly pre-heated pan. For me, the instinct to fuss with food in the skillet was 'cause I didn't want it to burn. Unless you just walk away and completely forget what's cooking that won't happen. Be sure to use enough fat also...for, say, an 8" skillet filled with hash-browns cut in 1" dice and piled in the skillet 1-2" deep...go around your skillet 3-4 times with the oil. If there's not enough fat...then food could burn. In my weekend cooking class for home cooks at CIA, we practiced for an hour on this technique using hamburger patties. It took me quite a while to "get it" that my instincts to fiddle with the food in the pan were causing my problems. I've taken several of CIA's home-cook classes and they're wonderful...it's an advantage to living just 9 miles from the campsus which, BTW, is georgous...all old brick buildings set on a hilly site...very picturesque. I've taken 3 courses there....knife handling (excellent); artisan bread (too elementary & not enough time to practice); and a general technique class (excellent). But the parking lot is huge and I hated hiking with my cane and cooking stuff up to the buildings...I digress, sorry. Unfortunately, the one time DH and I coughed up the $200 or so to eat at the school's French restaurant it was ghastly and I do mean GHASTLY. It must have been truffle week in class and/or the school got a real deal from their produce supplier 'cause truffles were in everything...way too much of a good thing. Dinner was so horrible, we passed on desert. I couldn't bear the thought of truffle chocolate something-or-other. Now, with all that said...you WILL get some pieces of food that stick to a SS pan. But, you want that to happen...that's where we get the wonderful stuff to make sauces, gravies, etc. from. And, why a non-stick pan is not the best for searing. Quickly deglaze your skillet with a liquid of your choice and again...DO NOT STIR that pan. Just allow the liquid to quickly heat up and all the stuck pieces will loosen all by themselves with little or no assistance from the cook. Once that happens, lower the heat dramatically and stir away to blend any additional ingredients into your sauce. As for the high heat issue...there will be times when you want to do that such as searing meat, however, much of that flames shooting a foot in the air around the pan stuff you see on the Food Network and the chef tossing the skillets around is for show. They can shake that pan and move it all around the burner but what you WON'T see them doing is poking at the food with an implement of destruction until caramalization has happened. Then, with great fanfare they will toss the pan and flip.

If your looking at purchasing a set of Apollo Cookware, then there is only one 5-star skillet available in that line and that is the Proline skillet. As dbabuy said, it has a 4.8mm thick core that runs up the sides of the pan. As for Restoglide/Duraglide, I would stay away from these. Its not that they are "bad", its just that they are not even remotely comparable to the Apollo cookware. If any retailer is offering these as an option for an Apollo set, they are undoubtedly trying to pocket the difference. Now we move on to the 4-star pans and how they compare with the 5-star. Because of the thicker core, the five-star has a greater mass which helps in regulating and controlling heat. With that said, though, 3-mm thick is pretty comparable to alot of other brands like All-clad stainless, Calphalon Tri-Ply and Cuisinart Multi-Clad. So unless you are a REALLY demanding chef, I would wager that most people wouldn't notice much of a performance difference. However, I did notice you said that you had an interest in non-stick. If this is the case, then 4-star Multiglide is really your only choice. They don't make a non-stick Proline. And, like I said, I wouldn't go for the Duraglide. I should mention that I have used the proline and selectine skillets, with the Silvinox and Brinox coatings. The Silvinox/Brinox is such a refined and pure form of stainless steel, that it is virtually non-stick, and in my opinion builds flavor better than non-stick cookware. Just my two cents, though. As for sets/versus individual pieces - I always go individual. Whether its knives or cookware, you're going to come out on top with individual pieces that are specifically suited to what you use, rather than having a couple pieces from a set sit in a drawer because you never use them. My advice is to shop around for the best deal, as well. Good shopping and if you want more details, let me know and I'll do my best to help.

I have seen the Tramontina at my local Wal-Mart and it is nice stuff. I took a magnet with me and all the pieces on display were magnetic. It is more higly polished than any other tri-clad I've seen, and the handles are more comfortable than All Clad. I've compared it to All-Clad and Emerilware Pro-Clad and I prefer it over either. The Emerilware's lids are cheaply made. They are glass with a SS rim. The thin stainless they use results in easily bent and dented rims. Two of the lids on display were bent/dented. Another alternative is Kenmore Elite Tri-Ply. Another fully clad cook set. The handles are more comfortable than the Tramontina, not as nicely polished but very similar in finish to the All-clad. The price is slightly higher than the Tramontina but much less than All-clad. One thing about all these sets, the bases are the same thickness as the sides. The bottoms were fairly flat but not as flat and heavy as other sets made for glass/induction cooktops. And while all of these were magentic, they weren't as strongly magentic as those with the heavy flat bases. I don't know if that makes a difference in the performance of the cookware or not. I've heard a few people say thier thinner pans warped. I never knew Sears made cookware. Obviously someoen makes it for them but I don't know who. Here is a link that might be useful: Kenmore Tri-Ply