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.

According to some sources, I should just slit my wrists now, since I'm apparently killing myself by using it.

Those sources are not reliable. Granted, I am a mouthpiece of Big Cookware and we make a lot of nonstick everything, but the stuff that used to be harmful in nonstick coatings is not used anymore by anyone manufacturing anything that is sold in the US. It does not matter what brand name the nonstick coating is. The only reason to worry about scratches in the nonstick coating is because stuff you are cooking will be more likely to stick there.

Let me know if you want me to hook you up with a stainless steel pan, our outlet sale is starting soon. A small skillet ought to be fit into a flat rate USPS box, I think/