Le Creuset, Ooh la la

It's been a while since I posted about cooking and baking. I have been working through the Four Hour Chef and have tons to say bout it, but in the meantime the first "lesson" in the book demanded a dutch oven pot. 

Now, I had been totally clamouring for one for years, but they can get pretty pricey and I had done some research on other pots, and in fact the book does understand that price is an issue and so makes some other recommendations.

But it was my birthday and Christmas present combined, and the Four Hour Chef wants you to aim to cook twice a week. I churn out dinner every god damn day, plus breakfast, baking, etc. Eating out is a once in a while treat for us, not even a weekly thing, which is super rare in a family where both parents work outside the home.  There is next to no take out in our house . I don't remember the last time we got pizza, and we only got Indian once I think since the summer and that was only to take over to Marta's house. (Hi Marta).

So you are supposed to buy things you are going to use over and over again right? Now, if I felt at all conflicted about the price it evaporated over the first recipe in this book.

I'm totally in love with my Le Creuset pot.

The ingredients for the inaugural run.

The finished product.

This lamb stew recipe in white wine sauce ROCKS THE HOUSE. It's simple, and juicy and hearty and perfect for winter. In fact since this run I've made it TWICE for a dinner party, and both times I could relax enough to mess around with taking all my china out and setting a pretty table. I must have made it 5 times already, in fact there is some sitting in my fridge right now. It is the perfect winter recipe and I don't know if a cheaper pot would have done the trick but even Ger said the pot was totally worth it if it can cook up meat like that.

So here is round two:

Recipes for the 2nd run...

Braised Beef

Now this was also very tasty, but I have to admit too salty. I don't put salt in our food, or at least try not too, and when you are eating everything from scratch all of a sudden when you make something with 2 cans from Campbell's well, it is kinda like licking a salt lick. Nevertheless I would totally make this again (though maybe with low-salt ingredients, or my own left overs).