The Skillet

Aaahhh the magic of a cast iron skillet.

I registered for one of these when we got married but I didn't get it. "Oh Well!" was the uneducated and untrained thought that went through my mind. We went camping last year on the Niobrara River and I borrowed a cast iron skillet from a friend to use 'out in the wild' and I wasn't all too impressed with it yet. Mind you, we were only frying bacon and eggs over a camp fire with ash floating up in the air and settling back down inside the pan and giving our food a nice ashy touch.

I forgot to give the skillet back and it thudded around the trunk of my car for a few months before I took it out and put it in my cupboard. She could get it back when she came over and remembered......it's been almost a year now and she remembered. Did I use that skillet one time while it was in my cupboard? No. Once I gave it back, did the universe start sending me tons of different skillet recipes that looked too good to be true? Of course.

So, Saturday I was making a list of things to get while we were out and a cast iron skillet was on the list. But being as how they are a bit pricey, I didn't have my hopes up too high. I left my list at home. Don't you just love wandering around Costco without a list? Annoying. Completely forgetting about the skillet, we met up with some friends to kill some time before we all went to a movie. We wandered into Marshalls. I don't really like Marshalls. Too much junk to sort through to find anything good. After meandering through aisles of gaudy candle holders, incomplete dish sets and tacky Easter yard decorations, we were headed out the door, when Bill says, "Hey, I found something that I thought you might like." Over in a large plastic bin, on top of a bunch of broken cardboard boxes and plastic wrap......was a lone skillet. A SKILLET! With no price on it! The stars aligned, the heavens opened and began to sing because I found a skillet! Bill didn't even know that I had been wanting one! I bought the skillet and now I'm a happy girl.

I wasted no time getting started on my list of skillet recipes. Last night I made a FABULOUS (If I do say so myself!) Chicken Parmesan with homemade sauce and fresh buffalo mozzarella. D-Lish! Then this morning I made award-winning oatmeal banana pancakes that had perfect caramel coloring all due to......the cast iron skillet.