Frugal Science Gal

Many of y'all know about my passion for CSNstores.com!!  I absolutely love shopping this site and could LITERALLY shop for HOURS!!!  Another thing about CSN stores is that you can call about ANYTHING.  I know that a lot of OTHER websites have negative reviews on products not because of the quality of the product itself but because of the misinterpretation of the produc that they purchased.  In my search for products, I called CSNstores customer service and was able to ask about a specific knife set. They were so helpful and assured me about the product.  Where else can you get customer service like that?!?  Love this website!!!

I am just always SO impressed at just how much I am able to get on a budget!  We moved a few weekends ago and along with this move has been a ton of preparation.  This is our first place together and we are combining all of our stuff and realizing what we do and don't have.  I was able to get a few things that I knew that neither one of us had before the move so that we would be able to start off with some stuff.  For under $65 I was able to get:

I am absolutely in love with the Farberware Nonstick Carbon Steel pans!!  I started off by buying muffin pans and mini-muffin pans in this collection and now I have bought the 3 above as well as 2 loaf pans, 3 baking sheets, and a bundt cake pan!  I am so glad that the first product I bought for our new place was made from them because now all of the pans we have thus far are the Farberware Nonstick Carbon Steel!!  I LOVE that it seems to just fall out of the pan.  I spray mine with Pam before using, bake, and simply take a knife around the edges and the cake/brownies/cornbread/etc just comes out!!  These pans are heavy too!  For me, I consider that a GREAT thing!  I feel that I am definitely getting my money's worth and that they will last me a really long time!  Isn't that what everyone wants when they are buying new pans.  Most people don't think..."I'll have these pans for a year or 2 and then buy a whole new set".  Personally, I would rather buy higher quality products and never have to buy them again then the cheaper products that rust.  I do wash these products by hand, because like I said, I want to keep them for a REALLY long time. Because of the nonstick surfacet though, wash time is nothing! I have had no problems with rust or anything!

I am so excited about the Farberware Nonstick Carbon Steel 13" Pizza Crisper because I can't stand the bottom of the pizza crust getting soft.  This will really help in that by adding the crisp to the bottom.  When I was looking through the selection I also found a .  I'm hoping that this pizza crisper will serve double and used to make potato chips as well.  I haven't tried that out yet, but it will be interesting to see how they turn out! 

As for the Farberware Nonstick Carbon Steel 9" Round Cake Pans, I chose them because I really want to make those cute round, double-decker cakes!  My mom has made me the same one every year for my birthday since I was probably 5 and it is in that shape.  I feel like it is a great entertaining cake as well as birthday and many other festiviites.  The best thing about it is along with the festivities physical appeal that it offers versus a 9 x 13 flat cake, it can ALSO be used for everyday desserts (or for us the weekly bake every Sunday).  These worked like a charm!!  If it wasn't for me forgetting to put icing inbetween them and trying to do it after...the cakes would have been perfect!  They just popped out of the pans when I flipped it over. 

On to the Nordicware Natural Commercial 13" Covered Cake Pan.  I purchased this pan because my mom has always made (my absolute FAVORITE) homemade lasagna in a pan similar to this one.  She suggested I get a pan like this for an even and thorough cooking.  By adding a lid to the baking process on items such as lasagna, it keeps the cheese from getting all hard and crusty and it remains that ooey gooey goodness melted, stringy cheese!!!  Some people like for their cheese to get hard, but I'm not a fan of that...at all.  I think it takes away the flavor of the cheese and you are adding calories and fat for...nothing!  Haha!  If I'm eating the extra cheese, I want to taste every bit of it!  Back to the pan...like I said about the Farberware products, I was excited to see that this pan was "Commercial".  Commercial usually means that it is going to be heavy duty because it is intended for the kitchen of a restaurant and such (Commercial use).  This pan was not what I expected it to be as far as weight and thickness but it defintiely does it's job!  I'm sure this is also another product that will be around for many years to come.  Also, it is made in the USA though which I am a huge supporter of!

Now for the Cooking Tools and Gadgets!!

The first product is our Calphalon Can Opener.  We both had can openers previously back from college but they were both awful!  Mine was horribly rusted and his had a broken handle.  So, we decided to upgrade.  I picked this one because I really like the Calphalon name.  This can opener is a little large, but we are very happy with it.  My mom who has arthritis saw it when helping us unpack and mentioned how much she wanted one because of the larger handle.  The oversized knob is intented to make it easy turning.  The fact that this product is dishwasher safe will allow us to keep it for many years to come and maybe even as long as the point where we are starting to get older and needing a larger knob. 

 

The Calphalon Ice Cream Scoop is definitley more of a novelty.  It is by no means something that every household needs, but is is something that I wanted!  I love the way this scoop makes perfect little balls of ice cream.  I think it looks so much better than the scoop of ice cream the spoon I used to use made.  I have this one dessert that I like to serve with company over it involves ice cream.  I can't wait to have our first guests over with this new ice cream scoop!!

 
*I received these products free of charge from CSNstores.com in order to host this review.  I did not receive any compensation for this review and ALL opinions are my own.  I review products honestly.