A Tale of Two Pots
In the past week I have ruined two irreplaceable pots. The first was my Grandmother's, a 9" Sidney Hollow Ware Co. cast iron skillet. There's more to it than that though. Sidney Hollow Ware Co. was bought out by Wagner around the turn of the century, so this pan being made prior to 1900 was in all probability handed down from my g-grandmother to my grandmother and in turn to my mother then me. I've had the pan in my possession since 1991 (when I moved out). ABout a year ago I was blackening some catfish and afterwards I noticed a small hairline crack, I was using it to toast my chilies last weekend and as it heated up I heard PINK... and the crack had opened and spread in a quite impressive way. Well it didn't break in half and I still have it, I'm sure my grandmother forgives because hell I *was* cooking with it at the time, and honestly of 16 grand children I"m pretty sure I'm the only one who can make her kielbasy.
The second pot hurts a bit more. When my mother got sick she spent a lot of time in bed with her trusty American Express card; seriously she had the thing in a holster. And she spent as lot of time ordering stuff of the TV! One of those items was a beautiful Wolfgang Puck 3 pc set, with a saute pan, a chicken fryer and a 6.5 Quart stock pot. Well yesterday I decided to make Pea soup. I woke up and put about a gallon of water, two smoked ham hocks and an onion in the pot and set it on high and forgot about it, I figured I would make a ham stock and then make pea soup later that day of the next. I was downstairs watching TV when I heard something popping. I went upstairs and the entire house is filled with smoke, stinking of burning sow, and the smoke it simply billowing out of that pot on the stove. URGHH! I grabbed a pot holder and threw it in the sink and filled it with water, cranked the heat, opened all the windows and lit some nag champa (that shit covers everything up!). The stock pot, needless to say, was ruined, the water had boiled away and the pig cankles had mostly melted away and were literally carbonized on the bottom. I didn't even try to clean it, I simply threw it out. I know my mother would laugh at me but it kills me.
I really don't give a rat's ass about much in life. My wife, my kid, my guitars, my mother's ashes, my mother's china, my g-grandmother's pin cushion, and that stupid plastic statue that my grand-parents always kept on their dashboard. That's really about it. But there's tons of little stuff that gets messed up and every little bit hurts.
The second pot hurts a bit more. When my mother got sick she spent a lot of time in bed with her trusty American Express card; seriously she had the thing in a holster. And she spent as lot of time ordering stuff of the TV! One of those items was a beautiful Wolfgang Puck 3 pc set, with a saute pan, a chicken fryer and a 6.5 Quart stock pot. Well yesterday I decided to make Pea soup. I woke up and put about a gallon of water, two smoked ham hocks and an onion in the pot and set it on high and forgot about it, I figured I would make a ham stock and then make pea soup later that day of the next. I was downstairs watching TV when I heard something popping. I went upstairs and the entire house is filled with smoke, stinking of burning sow, and the smoke it simply billowing out of that pot on the stove. URGHH! I grabbed a pot holder and threw it in the sink and filled it with water, cranked the heat, opened all the windows and lit some nag champa (that shit covers everything up!). The stock pot, needless to say, was ruined, the water had boiled away and the pig cankles had mostly melted away and were literally carbonized on the bottom. I didn't even try to clean it, I simply threw it out. I know my mother would laugh at me but it kills me.
I really don't give a rat's ass about much in life. My wife, my kid, my guitars, my mother's ashes, my mother's china, my g-grandmother's pin cushion, and that stupid plastic statue that my grand-parents always kept on their dashboard. That's really about it. But there's tons of little stuff that gets messed up and every little bit hurts.