This is a great comparison picture. I have the bowls on the left -- they are officially called Medium Bowls. I like them because they're a good size for an adult serving of soup ... or a casserole. They are very sturdy, and none of mine have even a chip -- and I've dropped them on my linoleum floor (I wonder if they would've survived tile floors). I like that the sides are very straight because it's easy to "chase" that last bit of food and scoop it up on your spoon. I also have the Fruit Bowls, which are useful in an entirely different way. I would like to add a few of those Gusto bowls for chili and similar meals, but since I already have the Medium Bowls, it's hard to justify. However, two negatives about the Medium Bowls: 1) They take up a lot of space in the cabinet. 2) They must be spaced out "two prongs apart" in the dishwasher, meaning I get fewer dishes per load. Changing the subject a little -- now I'm talking about plates: Someone mentioned Kohl's sells Fiestaware. Note that they sell what they call "buffet plates", which are a smaller plate. Yeah, I know, when you say "buffet", I think bigger, but it is what it is. I love them: We use them for small meals like sandwiches. My daughter has full-sized Fiestaware dinner plates, and the size /weight difference is surprising. The point: Kohl's is the ONLY PLACE that sells that buffet size plate, so if you start buying plates there, you're locked in for your plate purchases.

My favorite is a stainless steel 3 qt. bowl I've had for so long I don't even remember where I got it. It's as wide at the bottom as it is at the top and makes mixing cakes and things that need to be blended well so easy. It has a pouring spout and a handle. All it says on the bottom is "Stainless Steel" "Made in Korea". If the house catches fire, I'm grabbing that bowl before I leave!! I have another smaller pottery bowl I bought at a craft show. It has a spout and handle, too. Good size for whipping up enough pancake batter or macerating fruit for the two of us.

We have the "chicken bucket". All veggie ends and parings, used paper towels, leftovers forgotten in the back of the fridge, and meat scraps (no bones) go in there and it's taken out to the chickens. They run to the fence when they see me coming with it. They especially like it during canning season! They eat what they want, the rest gets mixed with the straw along with the exit material from the chickens and it all gets mixed in with the grass clippings in the compost bin. Figure first time through the chicken is better than it rotting in the pile. Double duty if you will.

Let me tell you my tale of woe which is still increasing my blood pressure even tonight. For the past 5 days, my house has been inundated with some type of small flies; maybe drain flies, but I have a coffee angle as well. This morning, I used the foot peddle on a plastic Rubbermaid trash receptacle in the kitchen........there must have been at least 25 in the garbage and many flew out all over my kitchen and dining room. I had noticed most seeming to come from the kitchen sink/drains, so I used the foaming disposal/drain cleaner at least twice, but that had no impact. I made coffee as usual this morning, using my Cuisinart 12-cup coffee maker, although I just make one cup and use paper filters and some organic ground coffee. I didn't really look "into" the coffee maker this morning, but I had just run vinegar and water through it the other day for the auto-clean cycle, which it really needed. Like some others in this thread have mentioned, I don't think that the standard cleaning touches every opening within the coffee maker where moisture may be allowed to linger. Later in the day, it appeared that many of these flies were around my coffee maker........to my horror, when I opened the lid on top, there must have been 15 or 20 inside the coffee maker. Even after I rinsed it out and attempted to dry it off, more flies were landing on it. It was like a horror film. I tried putting into two plastic grocery bags, since I didn't have a single bag big enough, and I shortly realized that there were flies getting into the bags like the coffee maker was a magnet. I then cleaned the coffee maker in the sink, and cleaned the canister as well and hand dried each and put the coffee maker into two other plastic bags and put it in my home office at the other end of my house. I put the canister in a separate bag and tied the top and did the same with the basket. (as I type this, there are flies landing on my hands and arms......Alfred Hitchcock can't be far away) I would guess that I have killed about 100 of these flies in the past 4 days and still am not entirely sure where they came from, but I have read that drain flies breed and hatch every 48 hours and I seem to just keep coming. If these things were in my coffee maker this morning, I must have ingested a lifetime's worth. I seem to have two sizes of these flies and the only way to kill any of them is when the land on the counter. When they are flying, it is extremely hard to kill them. I believe they are attracted to carbon dioxide, because they have flown into my eyes, nose and mouth. They sound like mosquitos when they fly near my ears. I may try the apple cider vinegar and dish soap idea before going to bed shortly, but I'm afraid that I wake up with even more tomorrow. I have read that you can add some sugar to this mixture as well. The dish soap is important. Since I could not eat lunch or dinner today because so many were landing on my food and plates, and I had to throw food away, this is really taking its toll. They are going into my kitchen cabinets and have tried to get into the microwave. I am putting many scraps that might have gone into the garbage into separate bags and tying them off. There is no open food or waste in my kitchen. I even sprayed flying bug spray into the garbage when I discovered the infestation there and it made no difference.....nothing kills these things........help !!! UPDATE: I used two suggestions found online that seem to help. One is to build a simple fly trap using apple cider vinegar and dish soap in a cup/container and put plastic wrap on top, secure with a rubber band and poke some small holes in the top with a toothpick. Flies get in; can't get out. Other thing is the suggestion to use a spray bottle and fill with water and dish soap. You can zap flies when they land somewhere and it makes it easier to kill them. Run water and disposal more frequently to make sure there is no "organic matter" that can attract more flies.