Wax Paper vs. Parchment Paper

I have a goal... I guess it's not too serious, but serious enough for a wife, and it's about time!!! I want to finally really figure out the tips and tricks with household things- whether it be with cooking, cleaning, organizing, or decorating (and anything else I might have missed in the list). I also want to share some of these things I find/figure out with you, so here it goes:

Ever since I learned how to turn on the oven and bake, if I needed the pan to be lined I used WAX paper which I would also grease up. But today, finally, I had a news flash: wax paper was not made for the heat of the oven! That is why the paper would start smoking as it would almost burn. So to avoid the burning of the paper which I didn't understand why I would just opt out to greasing up the pan- which would mean more cleaning for later. Wax paper has a coating: either soybean or paraffin which melts and doesn't withstand the temperatures that you sometimes bake at.... So what you are really supposed to use wax paper for is to wrap up cooled-off food for storage, wrap up a sandwich, or use it for convenience such as placing your chocolate dipped strawberries to cool-off on without sticking to the paper and leaving the chocolate where you want it- on the strawberry. 

I usually would buy the Reynolds Wax Paper- but if you actually go to the link it doesn't say you bake on it! You use it for the added convenience to prepare  the food. So this is what I find out once I finally take 3 minutes to look up the real use for wax paper.

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Now Parchment paper you ought to use for cooking/baking with. You may line a cookie sheet, muffin pan, cake pan, you name it instead of greasing it up. The lining on the parchment paper is heat resistant, a non-sticky silicone. You can also wrap the food in it and cook it- this technique is called “en papillote” which gives you nice moist meals.

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Now I am not sure why it took me this many years to finally take a moment and figure out the difference. So no more greasing up the wax paper and baking on it and then trying to get it off my cookies/cake...

Next Step: Find a coupon for parchment paper and go buy it :).