I love to cook, no lie. I don’t feel like I get to enjoy it as much as I used to since I’m working so much lately (and coming home exhausted), but when I can I try to have fun in the kitchen.

Over the years, I have slowly been upgrading my arsenal of cooking tools. It started with the array of colorful silicone spatulas (don’t laugh at me, but aren’t they fun?!). Then it moved on to plain-jane restaurant grade serving bowls. The black plates from Salvation Army are still around, on the other hand.

When we moved into Erwin House, I desperately needed a great dutch oven. I’d been eyeing the La Crueset line at Whole Foods for years, but I didn’t feel ready to shell out the $100+ for one of their cast iron pots, so I picked up the $60 version at IKEA. That still felt like a HUGE chunk of pocket change, but it has produced some fine meals, let me tell you what.


About a month ago, David finally tossed our nasty little fry pan, Teflon flakes and all, into the garbage. We bought a Le Creuset 10-1/4″ iron-handled skillet. This thing gets used daily to fry eggs, brown chicken, and for Saurday’s dinner, it seasoned and softened fresh corn tortillas for David’s favorite: enchiladas. (I would have posted a picture, but our camera was stolen.)
I can’t say I yet see a difference in the quality of the materials between the La Creuset and IKEA products. I’ve been trying to figure out what the socially responsible thing to do is. Are the IKEA products being made in sweatshops? Is the enamel hazardous to my health? How come it was half the price–is it just the branding?
One thing I learned the hard way when we were remodeling: you get what you pay for. I can’t tell you how many times I wished we had bought up and swallowed the cost. Certainly I feel that way about the doors we make. I’m trying to figure out how to drive our prices down, but the fact is that our doors aren’t made in China by 12-year-old boys, the pieces and parts are made in Florida, in San Antonio, in Houston, and even right here locally in Austin. I want to feel as good about buying stuff as I do about what we make, but sometimes it all feels very overwhelming. If nothing else, at least the fresh produce we eat is local!



I will tell you one thing, though, I support well-made stuff. The fact is that we live in a disposable world and it’s killing us. The La Crueset skillet will probably be around longer than I will.