The Far Shore

So my sweetie had consoled me a while ago to just ride out my wave of menopausal insanity/depression until I reached the other shore, and I think the far shore may finally be in sight. I don't mean I've reached it yet, but hey, at least I can see where I'm aiming for, finally. I mean vivid, horrible nightmares every week, knots in my neck, and clenching my teeth constantly -- these are not the signs of a happy camper.

On the other hand, they sure as heck beat frequent bursts of wild sobbing, so hey, I'll take the trade.

I will spare you all the details of the menopausal process (which will go on probably for the rest of the year, I'm guessing) except to say that I got so fed up last night I was ready to cry (again) whereupon my engineer (once again) consoled me. He reminded me that when I finally finish this process I will NEVER have to deal with it again. EVER. That cheery thought did perk me up. Well that and a sympathetic (or is that empathetic?) smooch.

At least I am starting to get back on track with some of my normal activities, like knitting, which is good, since between friends and family, 6 babies are expected to show up between now and mid-May. Yikes!

Of course, it's a bit difficult to be productive when I am loath to move a cute kitty when they park themselves on my knitting. Say hi to Spot, looking adorable and disinclined to move.

Other entertaining sights include the little boy on the subway this week, as posted above. I saw him enjoyably absorbed in his big picture book on dinosaurs and was amused because in addition to his serious look of concentration, at one point there was an older businessman sitting next to him who kept looking at the dinosaur book instead of reading his own report from the office. Who could blame the guy? Dinosaurs are WAY more fun than paperwork.

Although I haven't started cooking again, and my apartment still looks like a tornado hit it, Santa (via my engineer's mom) was good to me this year, and brought a long coveted addition to my kitchen: an enameled cast iron Dutch oven!

An episode of Cook's Country, the fluffier cousin/sibling to the revered Cook's Illustrated, reviewed the 6-qt Mario Batali pot as one of their top 2 picks for the budget category (by which they mean $100 or less). The exact same product review is posted on the CI site (which makes sense, since the same staff works for both magazines) but the Cook's Country website is free, and only requires registration (I think). Huh.

Although the Mario Batali Dutch oven (annoyingly named "the Essentials Pot" in their official branding lingo) also comes in a luscious Chianti color (i.e., deep red), that is (a) out of stock from the official supplier, and (b) $30 more. I got it for less -- with free shipping and no sales tax -- at Chef's Resource, which only stocks their persimmon (i.e., orange) pot. Since orange was my favorite color as a kid, this bothered me not at all.

Since I was intent on buying a pot/Dutch oven with a metal knob, did NOT want phenolic (i.e., plastic) knobs (are you listening Le Creuset?), did NOT want to pay Le Creuset prices (I'd rather buy dining chairs, thanks), and really liked the clean lines of the Mario pot (In the words of the Cook's gadget geek, "a very handsome pot"), I was quite pleased.

And yes, I will remove the label and wash the pot before using. Although I foolishly threw out the rubber spacers it came with, which would be useful for storage purposes (the manual suggests storing the pot with the spacers and lid inverted), since I suspect this heavy sucker will live on my stovetop (besides which, I have no more room in my kitchen cabinets), this doesn't really matter.

On the flip side re: cost, I found these 2 cookbooks on the stoop the other day. Yes, I follow in the time honored NYC tradition of "freecycling" (i.e., garbage picking).