Cooking Brands Reviews

I purchased two of these and wish I had kept the paperwork to return them. This fork has such wide tines that it looks like a spoon from the side. The tines aren't narrow enough at the end to pierce or pickup anything except maybe a large cut of meat. I guess that explains why Amazon is trying to get rid of them. Go to the dollar store where they have real forks.

I received a set of these as a gift. I already have Le Creuset ramekins.

The glaze on my Cuisinart ramekins already has cracks. The funny thing is I've only used them to serve dips, nuts and dried fruits. I've used my Le Creuset ramekins for serving and for baking. I've never had any problem with the Le Creuset ramekins cracking. I hand wash, so this is not a dishwasher issue.

On the plus side, the Cuisinart ramekins are attractive with a traditional smooth finish and the color is vivid. Also, the ramekins are readily stacked and easily stored.

I recommend spending the additional money for Le Creuset.

'Cook's Illustrated' claims the ideal Ramekin should be 4" wide in order to enjoy the toasted sugar effect of 'cr�me br�l�e'. These pretty ones are 3" wide. I am not certain about the cracking issue raised. These claim to be microwave and dishwasher safe.

The glaze on my ramekins aren't cracking. I also hand-wash. I got the red ones and BOY! are they red! Very pretty color and very striking on the table serving anything from a creme brulee, grated cheese, to olives. Very pretty next to white plates. They take the oven and freezer well, and are easy to clean.

Highly recommended and worth the money.

I have now had two of these toasters. I love the design and features, but the first lasted five months and the second only one week. The electronics seem to have a glitch, which results in the toast popping up after only a few seconds.

On the Amazon web site, this looked like a promising toaster that would fill my requirements for toasting nice big slices of sourdough bread.

However, the toaster arrived damaged. The handle that you push down to start toasting is plastic and had been sheared off inside of the toaster. Peering inside, I could see that the slot through which the handle protrudes was misaligned with the handle; which is probably the main reason why the handle broke off.

Of course it didn't help that the outer box in which the toaster was packed was insufficiently padded length-wise (thus causing the toaster in its inner box to slide length-wise back and forth during shipping, putting more stress on the poor toaster handle!

When I see inferior workmanship like this, I always try to return for refund rather than exchange for another product of the same brand and model.

BRAND VARIETY is the name of the outfit that supplies this product when you buy via Amazon's web site. However, when I emailed them (the email address was given on the packing slip, NO PHONE NUMBER GIVEN), I never got a response! I finally gave up waiting and sent the toaster back to them to the address they have posted on their web site. Time will tell whether they actually ever credit me for the broken toaster. The return policy on their web site says they will; however, there is no statement about distinguishing between 'do not like item' and 'item shipped broken'; and since they don't respond to email, shipping costs to and from my house are mine to eat.

BOTTOM LINE: Don't buy this toaster, and don't buy from Brand Variety via Amazon.