A well-designed set of pots and pans will last most cooks nearly a lifetime.  When selecting cookware, think of it as an investment in the quality of food you will serve your family and friends for many years.  Here are a few tips for choosing new cookware.

Conductivity:  This term simply refers to how well the cookware conducts heat to create an evenly heated cooking surface.  Copper-bottom pots and pans provides excellent conductivity, but can be rather expensive.  Another option for optimum conductivity is stainless steel pots and pans.  Some stainless cookware sets have an inner aluminum core on the bottom for conducting heat.

Handles:  I cannot say enough here.  When selecting cookware, pay close attention to the quality of handle.  Avoid plastic.  Look for sturdy, metal handles that are riveted or welded to the pan.

Avoid Trends:  As I mentioned above, cookware is something you’ll have for awhile.  So, that lime green cookware set that looks so shiny and cool right now might not give you the same thrill in 6 or 7 years.  Choose carefully!

The 12-piece Farberware cookware set above includes 2 sauce pans, 2 skillets, a stockpot, lids, and utensils.  I like the riveted stainless steel handles on this set.  The Farberware Millennium Soft Touch cookware set is available at Zappos for $160.

Rachael Ray was this year’s surprise winner over Ellen DeGeneres and veterans at The View in the talk-show category at the 35^th annual Daytime Emmy ceremony. Apparently this was a surprise not only to viewers but to Rachael herself.

“My life has been a total accident—a very happy, wonderful accident that I didn’t and couldn’t have planned,” Rachael says on her website.

At age forty, Rachael not only has a popular TV show but also a cookware line and is celebrated as a “cookbook queen”. All this from her philosophy that shows how “you do not have to be wealthy to live a rich life.”

I’m hoping I have surprise, accident life like that waiting for me!