No money…but, I have a nice pan…

Let’s get this straight right now…I don’t have a lot of money.  I am a working class wife.  To make matters worse, I am starting to develop a taste for expensive cooking items.  Oh that’s bad, so bad.  On a positive note though?  I absolutely LOVE OXO tools in the kitchen, and they are super affordable.  It’s not that I must have all of my spoons, ladles, knives, etc, matching…it’s that I enjoy the quality of their products.  But, this post isn’t about OXO.  It’s about a new pan I purchased for myself.  Wait, for myself?  Wouldn’t it be a purchase for the hub and myself???  I mean, he does eat what I cook every night.  Oh wow!  Do you know what this means people?  I can go out and buy anything I want for the kitchen, and I can say it’s a gift for both of us!  Ha!  Love it!  Hmmmm…a whole new meaning to a Christmas gift.  I should really insert a mischievous laugh here…

On to the pan folks!  So, like I said, I don’t have a lot of money.  But, what I have found is that BB&B, Bed Bath and Beyond for you non-addicts, is a great place to get certain pans.  Through all of my watching Food Network and the Cooking Channel I have been seeing this one pan.  This one elusive pan.  It’s the (let me get the right title from their site) Calphalon Unison Nonstick.  But, it has a Sear Nonstick coating on it.  This allows me to sear items as delicate as salmon without it sticking.  Here is where the BB&B part comes in.  You know that handy-dandy coupon you get in the mail sometimes (depending on where you live)?  The coupon that has a HUGE 20% written on it, and it’s usually bulky and awkward in your handful of mail you have just retrieved from the box?  Yeah, that coupon.  That coupon works great when you have a semi-pricey item you want to purchase there.  I found the pan section that contained a few of the Sear Nonstick.  There are Slide Nonstick, but that’s not what I wanted.  We started looking at the prices and were amazed at how expensive some of them were.  Luckily for us, as the salesperson explained, sometimes there are “special values” on certain pans to draw you in.  Ha!  Draw me in?  How dare Calphalon assume I am that easy!  We found the “special value”, and it was a 12-in. Round Grill Pan.  One I could use to make sear grill marks on my salmon!  So excited, and even more excited when the 20% coupon took off more money.  So, all in all, the pan ended up costing me right at $40.  Not a bad price for someone who has a lust for expensive cookware but the wallet for hand-me-downs (which I still love and appreciate, Mom!). 

In the end, I guess I still do have a bit of money since I saved my 20%, I do have a nice pan, and…ugh…Calphalon did draw me in with their “special value”!  It’s a win-win in our household.  Especially when I cook something amazing on it like salmon!  *A little tip: I did read somewhere that it is best to oil the meat before putting it in the pan, instead of putting the oil in the pan first by itself.  I’ve tried this, and it’s worked great.  *Another really important tip…Don’t use EVOO when searing.  It doesn’t have a high enough smoking point.  Oh yeah, learned that one the hard way.  It took days before all the smoke smell was gone after I attempted to sear steaks in a different pan.  Bleh.

I now give you permission to go out and buy a nice pan for yourself.  It needs to be a pan, that when you pull it out to get started cooking, you feel like you are on one of those television shows.  You are worthy of a nice pan.  A pan that when you look at it, the heavens open up and sing Hallelujah above you.  Think about your favorite thing to cook, and buy a pan to accommodate that delicious creation.  Try and use a coupon, and don’t go broke buying it.  I want a dutch oven from Le Crueset in the specific color of Cassis, but I know I don’t have $270 to spend on that.  Pamper yourself…it’ll give a whole new meaning to cooking from your heart…

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