Continued good meetings, Hec, and a commitment SOON!

Greetings from Queenstown, NZ. It's gorgeous here.

shrift, I love following your trip with Lee.

NZ is one of my favorite places, and is absurdly beautiful. I spent five weeks there, on the North and South Islands, and I don't think it's possible to capture that beauty unless you're there or in a particularly vivid memory.

Question on cookware, now that I have a new kitchen to make in my own image. I have a non-stick skillet. According to some sources, I should just slit my wrists now, since I'm apparently killing myself by using it. I know part of the problem with Teflon was that people would leave them on hot burners for ages unattended, which I know better than to do. Even though I have a dishwasher now, I don't want to spend eons scrubbing out my skillet. Do I need to save myself and get a new skillet?

I have a teflon pan I use that hasn't killed me yet.

I think the main thing is not to scratch it so the coating comes up and also not to heat it really high... although I the point it becomes a danger is higher than most people cook with.

There are other non stick options other than Teflon now and if you want to get a new pan.

I don't think I have actual Teflon, unless they just changed the name.

Question on cookware, now that I have a new kitchen to make in my own image. I have a non-stick skillet. According to some sources, I should just slit my wrists now, since I'm apparently killing myself by using it. I know part of the problem with Teflon was that people would leave them on hot burners for ages unattended, which I know better than to do. Even though I have a dishwasher now, I don't want to spend eons scrubbing out my skillet. Do I need to save myself and get a new skillet?

It's fine to use a teflon pan in general, but I would suggest you discard it when there has been a scratch on the bottom of the pan deep enough that you can see the metal base of the pan, or it holds even a hint of rust. Teflon generally isn't the issue -- it wouldn't be FDA compliant if it was -- but you're only meant to eat food from the top of the teflon coating, where the barrier forms to keep the non-sticking action working.

You're not going to get ill from a few flecks of teflon in your food, but as more will flake off the longer you use the pan -- particularly as you're introducing heat every time as well -- the more you will inadvertently consume.

Stainless steel pans are a great option, particularly if you're using olive or coconut oil as a cooking base. For frying or searing, you can use an oil mixed with some butter, but generally I don't use butter on its own with stainless steel as I find it burns off too quickly at high heat. WalMart carries a 10" stainless steel sauté pan with a lid for ten bucks, and that pan will cover almost everything you might need to cook.

Well, I've had the pan for about three years, I'll look around for a smallish stainless steel skillet.

Cast iron is always a safe choice, for home defense as well as cooking.

Cast iron is fussy. I don't do fussy cookware. And I prefer swords for home defense, it's hard to stab with a cast iron skillet--though the skillet-and-carving knife combination is classic.