Yes, Flwombat: Rubber mallets rock in the kitchen! I love to use non-kitchen immplements in the kitchen, from my propane torch for roasting chiles and eggplants for babaganooch to plastic putty knives for scraping my cast iron skillets after cooking, to using weight plates to hold down pan lids when braising or steaming.

BTW, except when making mass quantities, I find my large Cuisinart more trouble than it's worth. I can cut one to two onions or tatties by hand easier than I can clean the blade and plastic parts of my robo chopper. Besides, I think I mostly like to cook because it allows me to play with knives and fire.

Ditto on eExoglass spoons. Mine's a workhorse that never seems to age. Cuisinart has finally begun to manufacture their prep boards again (hooray!). These $10 marvels have raised edges, which means you can chop tomatoes and other juicy items and not have the juices run off onto your counters. Also, they're diswasher safe. My old ones are 20 years old and I had been frantically searching for something I liked as much. Now, I can retire the two I absent mindedly placed on burners.

I love cast iron skillets and for my birthday this year, my wife gave me a Lodge Signature 12" skillet, which I love to death. They are pricy, but Cabella's sells them at a good discount. OTOH, I've picked up really good cast iron cookware for pennies at thrift shops -- kind of hard to resist bargains like that.

Years ago, we bought a bunch of Calphalon cookware, but we found it was higher maintanance, less versatile, and, despite the advertising, not robust enough for every day use (you WILL need to have it re-annodized). Over the years, we've replaced almost all of it with thrift store cast iron and Le Cruset casseroles.

Regarding Hulu, Nancy Friedman's Away With Words pretty much puts it in its place.