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| You're so pretty. |
| surlatable.com |
Working at a media outlet means laboring beneath a trembling avalanche of unsolicited information every day.
Snowdrifts of faxes, endless e-mails, stolen Post Office cartons heaped
with paper mail and mystery packages share City Paper's office space
with staffers. Even Batman the Canary gets mail.
But good deals abound in these menacing piles — if you know where to look. When kitchenware catalog Sur La Table landed on my desk, I was helplessly sucked into their tasteful retrograde housewife fantasy land.
Prominently featured are highly coveted stovetop "ovens" (read: heavy lidded pots) from French cookware giant Le Creuset. Prized by home cooks and chefs alike, Le Creuset pieces are cast-iron and enameled in brilliant crayon-box colors. Lidded cast-iron cooking pots
transfer heat evenly and are the ideal vessel for braising meats and creating slow-cooked one-pot meals. But though visions of coq au vin
and short ribs that fall apart at the slightly touch of the fork dance in
my head, a glance at the prices provides the reality check.
A
3.5-quart Round Cast Iron French Oven rings up at a healthy $174.95, but 3.5 quarts is not really big enough to make dinner for six, which
is why you're buying the damn thing anyway (so you can have legendary
dinner parties and make your friends jealous/full). More useful is the 5.5-quart version, priced at $219.95. I
shudder to think what shipping the hefty cast iron cocotte costs.
The "good deal" part arrives in the form of more temptation: Spend $250 on Le Creuset via Sur La Table,
and the'll throw in the $70 Le Creuset 8-quart enameled steel
stockpot. Jesus Julia Child, that's exciting! With a choice of
deliciously named colors (Dijon! Kiwi! Caribbean!), this might be
the ultimate food nerd shopping bonus/holiday gift. The deal is
valid until December 31, 2008.
So dig out your friendliest
APR credit card and invest in a pot you can hand down to your
grandchildren — but not before you host some tres serious group suppers.
Sur La Table, 1-800-243-0852, surlatable.com
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