The highlight of the day was visiting two of our favorite wineries to pick up the current releases. We started at Silver Mountain, where we picked up the 2015 and 2016 Sonnet Pinot Noir Black Ridge Vineyard as part of our shipment, and also took advantage of the trio special to acquire more Alloy, Spencer’s Choice, and Syrah.

After that, we went to Burrell School and picked up a Chardonnay, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and their top wine, Valedictorian.

We could have picked up our release at Silvertip, too, but they were still being extra-cautious due to Covid and were doing a no-contact pickup with no tasting; I decided it was the better part of valor to let FedEx deliver the wine later this week.

After we got home, we took a twilight walk and enjoyed the sunset.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday, not at all!

We went to Costco today – I had a prescription to fill, and it was by far the cheapest place to do it. While I waited for them to confirm the price, of course we shopped; one of the things we were looking for was induction-compatible cookware, especially saucepans.

None of the cookware on the shelves was induction-compatible, but Hexclad was in the warehouse for a “special event.” Their cookware was clearly labeled as induction-compatible and non-stick, so we let the demonstrator show it to us. It looked good – he cooked an omelet with just a little oil and showed us how he could use a metal spatula without harm. But he didn’t have any saucepans (he’d sold out), and we didn’t really need any more skillets. So we left empty-handed, but with a link to their website to find out more.

Unsurprisingly, the website made the cookware look even better than the demonstrator did. But I did a little more research and found a Hexclad review from The Rational Kitchen. I’d run into The Rational Kitchen when we were deciding on a cooktop (which isn’t here yet!) and I liked the way they went into detail and explained things; they did the same thing here.

One of their observations was that you (we) probably don’t need non-stick saucepans. Considering we mostly make rice and pasta in ours, that’s probably true – and that means Hexclad isn’t a great fit for our needs, so I’m glad they didn’t have it in the warehouse today!