Gene and I used some of our wedding gift money and purchase a reallllly nice set of pots ‘n pans. They’re Calphalon brand and they were somewhere around $400 retail. Of course we got a few discounts and we were able to get this 13 piece set for about $320 after tax! But, the point is that this is a VERY expensive set of cookware and after you cook up some bacon and it looks like this:

You tend to.. what is the word I’m lookin for here? Oh yeah.. FREAK THE EF OUT. I wanted to cry because I thought maybe I missed a step in the cooking process. Or maybe since I only read the pamphlet that came with the cookware 498 times instead of 895 that I missed something.

In the cleaning section of the pamphlet it says something about using Bar Keeper’s Friend to clean the cookware. I laugh because my first impression is: I’ve never heard of this before, which means it is going to be impossible to find in stores and second: What the heck kind of name is Bar Keeper’s Friend? This must be some kind of joke! They must have paid Calphalon big money to get their name in their little brochure.

Gene does what he does best and extensively researches this stuff online. It appears that it is some kind of miracle powder and that it can be found at The Walmarts. I almost crapped my pants! So we went to The Walmarts and were able to find some, for a measily coupla bucks ($2 in Okie Talk). I poured this magically powder onto my pant and scrubbed it (I’m sorry but I just had to leave the original first part of this sentence up here. It was TOO funny to pass up. Typos! Ugh) I poured the magical powder onto my pan with a few drops of water and scrubbed it with the recommended Dobie pad (Again, What the heck??)

All I’m gonna say is this:

P.S. I guess that wasn’t all I was gonna say. I just want to say here that this stuff is highly acidic and before pouring it on everything you own, you should read the cautions and instructions and all of that nonsense. It is GREAT stuff! It is really good about cleaning off that yucky black burnt crusty stuff on the bottom of your pots and pans too.

This stuff saved my life. See, I was going to have a full on heart attack and stroke when I thought I had ruined a pan that probably cost $100 on it’s own. So, in a way, this can of magical powder saved me from visiting The Dark Side a little too early.