Suzie,
That is funny about your pans! If it's any comfort here's good pan story for you: We homeschool. My oldest daughter was Taking an outside science class. It was required for her final to do a science experiment and write it up. So she finally decides to make a homemade smoke bomb- unbeknownst to me!
I am not home the first few times she attempts this. One day I come home to find several of my really good pots blackened with unknown char. Get them cleaned up and use them for dinner. A few days later I walk in to find her attempting to create a smoke bomb (again). Then suddenly the whole pot explodes catches fire and smoke bombs the house completely! After my recovering and checking to make sure no was around to call the police or fire department, we air out the house and I find my only noncharred pan sporting a new fire hardened color.
It had to be tossed. The others after years of use are finally back to a rainbow steel color. She learned a lot from that experiment and we had a good laugh after. But I don't miss those type of projects!
One of my favorite products for blackened pans is Setting it with water to boil to loosen things up then using Barkeeper's friend- a powdered soap- on it. Usually takes several rounds of this to bring back to semi silver in color and after a few months of use it looks pretty normal.
This year we went over to my oldest daughter, her husband and my oldest son's townhouse (housing is very expensive here!!) for Thanksgiving! What a joy to walk in and see them both cooking! It was a relaxed time a being together. We actually had warm weather of 70~. Amazing. Today it was similar so went on a short hike with my middle DD. My youngest is extremely excited as she has been invited not to one but 2 birthday parties this weekend! (I can count on one hand how many she has been to in her 13 years.) So grateful for this as she is very social and longs to be part of things. So back to making/cutting/tying together a polar fleece Disney princesses blanket for Sunday's party!!
The bales were $8 at TSW??? Oh man... I did Black Friday shopping from my bed and then ran to
Petsmart for their fish sale and also found 50% off Pur Love dog bones! Stocked up on those! Left a couple of bags on the shelf! Paid $30 and saved $36. Fish were about 66% off on the ones I bought. Now I can go downstairs to watch "fish t.v." to chill for a few minutes every day. (Phil, no fishing allowed!). Did't realize how much I missed it. It was my reward for ripping out and decluttering the basement family room. Fully filled my friends car with donations!
This week we begin to ramp up for Julia's heart cath with a pre-op visit. Will try to stop back. Will try to post one photo of her at the sleep study center. She looked like a mummy! Before leaving she said "No Sharps?? Mommy, No sharps!" Thankfully I was able to say,"Yes, No sharps just sticky like when we check your heart." Little did I know that they now mummify them so that the cords don't get tangled and so they can't pull off the sensors!
