Easy & Safe Cleaning for a Stainless Steel Skillet

It's Mother's Day! My husband and I decided to make Cinnamon Belgium Waffles with strawberries, mangos, blueberries and bananas macerated in amaretto, and sausage for breakfast....and well, the sausage....well this is a bit of a story, you see, we've been revamping our kitchen and our pantry to reflect that we believe the best medicine cabinet is your kitchen.  We've removed the food dyes and preservatives as much as possible, switched to glass storage containers, and removed the non-stick pans from our kitchen due to the recent articles denoting that the chemicals come off and are in your food....I'm also tired of replacing them because the nonstick seems to wear off so quickly and I only hand wash them!!!  Oh, and YES....I did say removed the nonstick pans--I get the "are you crazy?" question a lot. However, after years of cooking classes, I know this to be a positive for cooking many meats and making a pan sauce afterwards as most professionals prefer to use nonstick for the carmelization you get in a good quality stainless steel pan. After having kids I sort of slid over to nonstick because I thought I was making clean up easier--anything to make life easier with small children right? So, with going back to regular stainless skillets, I've had to make a few adjustments....I now make quesadillas in the oven on a silpat because the flour tortillas want to stick and not flip in the pan (these are a staple boy food here). I have to use a little more oil for eggs not to stick. So all in all I am falling in love with some old recipes and cooking techniques again. This morning my husband was in charge of the sausage links......let's just say they really wanted to stick.  The sausages turned out great, but the pan was a mess, and Alan said too bad we don't need gravy...look at all this great flavor! Yes, we could have added an acid (wine or vinegar) then chicken stock and a fat (like cream or butter), and we'd could have had great sausage gravy...and a clean pan...so I thought, well, we don't need to make a pan gravy....BUT what if...so I did....I poured inexpensive white vinegar into the warm pan, enough to cover all of the browned parts and just left it sit while we ate brunch, then cleaned up. Using a pampered chef silicone scraper, the brown carmelized stuck on stuff came mostly right off. Then with a sponge and soapy water it all came clean, easily.  So I already buy white vinegar in the largest size jug because I use it as my primary cleaning agent, along with peroxide, in a spray bottle to clean counters & glass, and I use it to clean my wood floors...so now I know the easiest way to clean my nonstick pans too!  And the great thing is no harsh chemicals needed to keep them looking their best.  Another tip: Have Stainless Steel Appliances?  Buying expensive stainless appliance polish? Just use a microfiber cloth and white vinegar to wipe them down, then a damp microfiber cloth to wipe over them, and they will be sparking--again no harsh chemicals needed.