as an alternative to PAM.

In the summer I had a nice recipe with puff pastry and asparagus and it called for parchment paper and I did not have any trouble.

A lot of people speak highly of those second, third generation non-stick pans. This Luddite doesn't allow Teflon coated pans anywhere near my food so I can't endorse them, but one of those "As seen on Television" pans might actually work.

The flat one with narrow sides? Stupid question, I know..

I don't have problem with non stick. For scramble eggs, this is the only one that I can use.

For the specific dish that I mention - the Greek meatballs - they are supposed to be cooked in the oven.

Is your frying pan not over safe? My to die for Italian Joe's meatballs made with sourdough bread are baked in a cast iron frying pan.

Oh, 'She who Must be Obeyed' says the the baking sheets with the shallow rolled up lips are called jelly roll pans, and cookie sheets, proper, only have one lip in the back.

I am not a cook. Just follow recipes.

Yes, I have a cast iron skillet. A small one, 10" diameter. Thus when I prepared pollo scarpariello today, I had to go two rounds to brown the chicken pieces. And then, when I had to move them to the oven, I transferred to a Dutch Oven.

I suppose I could cook the Greek meatballs in the cast iron skillet, except that the instructions call for putting them on skewers.

Why can't you place the skewered Greek meatballs in a large non-stick skillet and toss the whole thing into the over?

Just an idea.

so it should accommodate all of them.

Still have to replace PAM with something else. Perhaps brushing with olive oil.

there will be more then enough fats released to reduce the sticking to nothing without resorting to Pam....and if they do stick, cooks and chefs around the world would use a simple old school spatula to release them. Simple, no?

Bon Appétit

but I like many of the suggestions here. Will see how they work tomorrow.

A cookie sheet has either one or two lips - if one it's on a long side, if two they're on the short sides.

Baking sheets have shallow rolled-up lips. Mine are a quarter-inch deep.

Jelly roll pans have lips an inch high.

Specifically for spraying my loaf pans when I make bread. I got one of the sprayers and filled it with oil - but the bread stuck as bad as when I manually spread oil in the pans.

I posted about this in the Cooking & Baking group and was told that commercial spray oil products have an ingredient that reduces sticking - maybe lecithin? Though when I look up the ingredients, lecithin is listed as an emulsifier, not as a non-sticking enhancer. One site listed a silicon compound but that was described as being a non-foaming agent.

I went back to using PAM or other commercially produced sprays - I use very little of the stuff so whatever the odd ingredients are doesn't disturb me. Keeping the spray bottle that I fill at home was a pain and oil used that way wasn't working anyway.

They have a coconut oil spray that I've used in my baking to successfully replace PAM.

My husband I walked out with only two items - a gift selection of loose teas for a gift and a mini-baguette of multigrain bread. I hope the teas are better than the bread - the bread was worse than my bad efforts at bread ever were (and now I make some pretty darned good bread). We pretty much felt as though it was a wine & cheese shop with enhancements.

It's actually in the same shopping center where my husband works some days - but the days he works at that location he usually closes the store and so Trader Joe's is closed by then. So we'd never gotten a chance to go in before.

I usually shop at Publix and buy their brand of baking sprays. Cheaper than PAM but just as good. I'll have to look at what variety they have - and may go back to Trader Joe's to see how their coconut oil spray compares in price and performance.

Don't have the spray, I just buy the oil in a jar and apply it to the pan with my hands.

Great moisturizer as well. No more dishpan hands for this fella.

But the foil can cause problems. Aluminum conducts heat fantastically. Gets hot quick and cools down just as fast. That can cause items to stick.

Try using glass bakeware with olive oil and it should not stick at all.

Also you can start the baking process at the highest temp your oven will go (usually about 550), for about 3 to 5min then back down the temp per the recipe. This will sear the outside of the meatball, keeping the moisture inside, and giving it a nice crust to help it hold together.

Stay away from Pam and margarine. Use olive oil and butter instead.

There are some wicked good cooks in the cooking and baking group that can help.

Did not know there is a cooking and baking group. Will have to visit it.

try using a rectangular cake pan. Balance the skewers on the edges so meatballs are not sitting on the bottom of the pan. Place some foil or parchment on the bottom to catch the grease for easy cleanup.

Another thing I would try is to use replace 1/2 the meat mixture with ground turkey.

and will definitely move to parchment

They are great for pastry and sugars. I love using mine for making brittle. Nothing sticks to them.

But for meats and fish, you will never get that smell out.

There is also a non-stick aluminum foil out now; you use the dull side up.
No one should be using margarine anymore...that is a trans fat. Real butter and real oils (olive, coconut) are the way to go! The whole "lite" thing is a joke, and got embedded as the law of the land, sadly thanks to Senator McGovern. He THOUGHT he was doing a good thing at the time...who knew Ancel Keys' study was so bogus? he chose seven countries out of 21 he looked at - the ones that fit his theory.

Planning on fixing the meal tomorrow and will implement the suggestions.