My SPOT Award

We have this thing at work called a SPOT award. You do something that someone else finds particularly impressive, and they give you an award, right on the spot. (Get it, SPOT award?) Anyway, after one year back at the old grind, I finally got a SPOT Award. Said award also comes with a $25 gift check. Sweet.

So my quandry was: what to buy myself? I could just put the money in the bank, but what fun would that be? So I decided that what I really, REALLY wanted was a new roasting pan.

My roasting pan is about 13 years old. It has served me well, but it has two key flaws. The first, I can't comfortably roast two chickens together. I mean, I'm perfectly comfortable, but the chickens are crammed in there, wings all tangled up - it's just not pretty. Not good for heat circulation either. The second flaw is that I have no idea what it's made of. Frankly, it seems pretty cheap. I got it from a grocery store redemption program, so I know it's not top quality, but just how low quality it is, I can't say. I'd like to be able to pop it on the stove post-roast and make some sauce out of the deliciousness that sticks to the bottom of the pan. But not knowing what it's made of, I don't feel real comfortable doing that. A cheap pan is better than no pan at all, you know.

So I took my gift check, my BBBY discount card, and my need for a roasting pan and went shopping. Found the perfect pan. Oneida. Non-stick, sturdy, big enough for two chickens and a right large turkey (not all together, of course). Safe for use on the stove-top. It even looked pretty - big silver handles. I loved it! It was a tad more than the $25 I had to spend, but with the $10 rebate it came with and the discount card, it came to $25.03. Life is good.

I brought it home and it didn't fit in my oven. Blasted wall-mounted ovens.

So I took it back and got an emersion blender. And I've had smoothies everyday this week for breakfast, and milkshakes every night for dessert. Life is still good.

In other culinary news, the Julia Child memoir was GREAT! It made me want to travel, it made me want to try cooking some new things, it made me really hungry, and it made me want to read Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Too bad I spent my $25 on the blender.