Kitchen Deals -> Dinnerware

There seems to be little difference between hard wood and plastic cutting boards from a safety standpoint, as long as they are properly washed and sanitized after each use. Personally, I like the feel of solid wood. One piece of advice--buy large cutting boards. Don't bother with these tiny boards that everyone seems to have in his or her kitchen. They are not user friendly. Once you get down to serious cutting or chopping, the small boards are always woefully inadequate and downright maddening!

Convection ovens allow you to bake more foods (cookies, muffins, etc.) at once with even browning, but without the need to shift and rotate pans. A convection oven is the same as a conventional oven except a fan is installed in the back interior of the oven. The fan is used to blow and force the heat to circulate in the oven and around the food, thus eliminating the need to rotate and shift pans. In reality, though, even with the most expensive convection ovens, you will still need to rotate your foods, because there will always exist still hot spots in the cavity, because the cavity is small. Don't compare home convection ovens with most commercial convection ovens used by bakers and small food manufacturers, because their commercial ovens are much larger than home ovens and commercial ovens don't have any hot spots and therefore, there's no need to shift and rotate pans.

Never use a scouring pad of any sort to remove stubborn stains or soiled areas, since these pads scratch the finish and any future soiled areas won't clean up as well, especially with the self-cleaning models. When the oven is cool to the touch, place a cloth or sponge, dampened with warm to hot tap water, onto the soiled area and allow it to sit, for about ten minutes or so, to help loosen the soil.