Where I couldn’t resist buying this:

My new baby! It's a Lodge 10 inch cast-iron skillet

And this:

Jacques Pepin's cookbook: Essential Pepin

I’ve been dying to buy both a Lodge Cast Iron skillet and Jacques Pepin‘s cookbook Essential Pepin for ages–but you know how it’s easy to keep putting things off, thinking, “Oh, I’ll do that this weekend…” and suddenly it’s 5 months later and you still haven’t checked it off your to-do list?

Certainly never happens to me. Nope. No procrastination here!

(Cue me putting this blog post on hold for 45 minutes to read excerpts of Bringing Up Bebe on Amazon and to watch my own YouTube videos. It’s a sickness, really.)

Cast iron skillets require a little bit of care, but they’re not as cumbersome or scary as you might think. I’ve been practicing on Boyfriend Jolie’s over the past few months, and last night was the inaugural run chez moi of my OWN skillet – success!

Now let’s see if this thing lasts for the next 3 generations, as everybody promises.