Take back the cookware and give her tinfoil, from which she can fashion a festive hat!
that was a really nice gift, too bad it wasn’t appreciated.
I was all on board with what a nutcase that person was for even being worried about such a thing. Then people started mentioning the nonstick surface.
Eventually over time there will be microscopic scratches in that nonstick surface. In addition to that thousands of heating and cooling cycles make non-stick surfaces eventually break down and release carcinogens.
I do love me some cast iron pots and pans.
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No, no, I’m planning to retire in 10 years, so an early retirement gift would be greatly appreciated…thanks…
Maybe she was planning to cook steak tartare in it? 
This is us - when my wife and I were young, we had hand-me-down cookware and things we could pick up in the local thrift store…we love to cook, so as things wore out (and we were in a more comfortable financial position), we bought good stuff…Calphalon’s good stuff…
Thankfully not true.
What about a stainless steel set, then? (Just make sure to tell her how to use a stainless steel sauté pan correctly, or she’ll hate it.)
Agreed with everyone else, great gift.
There’s nothing more that I can add that hasn’t already been said, I just wanted to say that you were treated very rudely.
I was always taught that if someone thought enough of you to give you a gift, especially a rather expensive one, you accept it graciously, even if it is something you never intend to use.
Anything else is an insult to the giver. I don’t know you, but I am cringing for you at the rudeness of it all.
My thanks to anyone who thought it was a nice gift. I started out with crap pans, and didn’t realize good ones made a difference until I was probably 40. I actually thought there were things I was unable to cook, thanks to shit pans.
Aww, she’s a great kid, and I don’t hold anything against anyone. No reasoning with that crap, I’ll just add them to my set, hmm, my big skillet is looking a little shabby.
But sort of on topic, the handle on my large deep saucepan is loose and I see no way to tighten. Factory issue???
That was a nice and thoughtful gift. So often people starting out have crap things – secondhand or inexpensively furnished – and it’s so much more difficult to live with stuff that’s not as good.
(That being said, I furnished my first apartment out of estate sale finds and had GREAT stuff. But it takes looking and legwork.)
Wow, never heard of this problem with a Calphalon pan before … but there’s a first time for everything.
Those kinds of handles are riveted in with great force – if you’ve ever seen 'em make cookware on How It’s Made they always mention the ginormous tons of force that slams in the rivets. So there’s a slim chance of being able to peen the rivets back in place unless maybe you have access to a press.
If your pan is less than 10 years old, that still falls under Calphalon’s warranty and they may repair or replace it. BUT you have to pay to ship it to them, and pay to get it back.
http://www.calphalon.com/en-US/warranty-info
You’re probably better off replacing it.
Yeah…if she thinks the crud on the rivets is unsanitary, she should pause and think about the sponge she’s using to wash the pots and pans. It’s pretty much like taking a swab of the every bacteria that’s ever been in the kitchen and then smearing it all over your cookware.
Looking a gift horse in the mouth much?
Sounds like the mom is a paranoid whackadoo.
I was washing a couple of my glass Calphalon pot lids yesterday. I wondered how they got the rivets so tight without breaking the glass.
what she sounds like to me is a cast iron uber alles woo-bigot. But a crypto one, since the advice wasn’t pure cast iron advocacy, but rather slandering the alternatives (and then very helpfully advocating The One True Cookware).
I stole all my husbands cast iron cookware from his camping stash a few years ago… a few had rust. I scrubbed clean with SOS pads and washed in hot water and eeek soap… wash them everytime with soap, rinse and put in the oven upside down to dry
What is the proper way to use a stainless steel saute pan?
Get it nice and hot before adding oil or anything else to the pan. That’s basically the trick.
As a general rule, giving cookware is not a good idea unless it’s on a gift registry or has otherwise expressed specific interest in an item. People are often very particular about their cooking tools.
Heh, I was going to post that link. Because of:
Cast iron does not need special care. You can give it special care so that it works better, but the great thing about cast iron is that it’s nearly indestructible. Which makes it perfect for the young or inexperienced. Teflon and the like can be easily ruined by overheating or scraping too hard. A new cook can abuse their cast iron for years and if they ever decide to season it and treat it better, they can still do that then.
Any way, the OP’s niece has undoubtedly grown up with cast iron and so knows how to use it.
I love cast iron (and cook on some form of it pretty much daily), but I tend to agree with not recommending it for a beginner, mainly because it is heavy as hell and shit really does stick to it if you don’t know what you’re doing. Maybe a nice enameled cast iron pot is fine, but as a newbie, I don’t think I’d want to deal with cast iron pans.