A Casserole By Any Other Name...

For Christmas, I put a Dutch oven on my wish list. Specifically a Le Creuset Dutch oven, because that's what Giada deLaurentis uses on "Everyday Italian," and since I love cooking shows, I should have the things they have in order to cook like them, right?

Anyway, my sweet mother-in-law and sister-in-law patiently explained to me that Le Creuset enamel-covered cast iron is HEAVY. Ok, no problem...I just want a Dutch oven from anyone. I had visions of standing before the kitchen-hearth, searing a nice fat chicken in butter and olive oil on top of the stove, and then generously surrounding it with fresh herbs and root vegetables and shoving it into the oven to roast for awhile. I didn't really care what brand I used, as long as it was designed to do the task.

YAY! I got an enamel-covered cast iron Dutch oven for Christmas!! I was so thrilled...it wasn't Le Creuset, so it probably wasn't all THAT heavy (right?) and it is even "my" color...green, a color Le Creuset surprisingly doesn't carry. Love it! I could hardly wait to get out the roast chicken recipes and get started. But first...I decided to read the directions. Simple, really, just one page.

Before first use: boil 25 cl milk and 1 tbs vegetable oil in casserole. Rinse with hot water and dry with towel. After first use, wash with hot water and washing-up soap (cute, huh?) and towel dry.

Ok, that should be easy! So how much is 25 cl milk? (No, I don't remember that from school. I didn't like metric conversions then, and I don't like them now. Fortunately, I have an online math tutor that teaches my kids that stuff so I don't have to.)

Well, on my handy-dandy measuring cup are metric equivalents. Problem one solved. (25 cl is 1 cup.) I poured in the milk, measured the oil, set the flame to "boil right now" and plopped on the lid. And yes, it's heavy, just like they said, but not so bad. It has to stand up to all that searing and roasting I'll be doing soon.

Now, just wait for the milk to boil. Pace the kitchen, peek under the lid. Pace some more, peek again. What's taking so long? Then I got distracted with organizing my hot teas in alphabetical order and whipped my head around when I heard a sizzling sound coming from the stove. Good grief.

I snatched off the lid...man that thing gets hot!..and turned off the fire. Was this what they had in mind? I don't think so. *sigh* So much for just a hot water rinse. I set the whole thing in a sink of hot soapy water and let it soak a bit while I wiped off the stovetop and the countertop and down the front of the cabinet door and the puddle off the floor. Then I began merrily (yes, why sweat the small stuff...) scrubbing the pot on the sink divider when the whole thing slipped out of my hand and crashed into the sink. Yipes!! KA-SPLOOSH!

They were right. It's VERY heavy. And it displaces a LOT of liquid when it lands in a sink of washing-up water. This whole story has a happy ending, though. I learned a lot, most of which I'll not likely repeat. These things, though, are worth remembering: 1. Enamel-coated cast iron Dutch ovens, no matter who makes them, are very heavy. (It bears repeating.) 2. They are also very slippery when soapy. 3. Never have anything made of glass in the sink when washing a big ol' pot like that. 4. Always have a wooden cutting board hanging out in the bottom of the sink to absorb most of the shock and save the coating on the sink. 5. Always use a pot holder on the hot lid, silly.

Despite the adventure, I am still looking forward to roasting that chicken. Just not today. After all...my Dutch oven is so very clean...