Au Revoir, Le Creuset!

More than thirty years ago when I was fresh out of college, I was working at a boutique consulting firm in Chicago. My co-worker Dawn moved back to her home state of New Jersey to get an MBA. Before she left, she unloaded stuff she didn't want to schlep halfway across the country.

She gave me a crusty seven inch, light blue enamel and cast iron Le Creuset frying pan that used to be her grandmother's.

She looked at it and saw the discolored paint. 

I looked at it and saw gold.

"Are you sure you want to give this away?" I asked.

"I am never going to use it," she said. With that, I packed it up, took it home, and used for thirty-three years.

Today, the pan died. I was reheating hash browns and I smelled something odd. When I cleaned the plan, I noticed the enamel chipped. I googled if I could still use the pan, and the answer was sadly no.

I have no idea how old that pan was. It was pretty worn when I got it, but it still had a lot of life left in it. I could have been purchased in the 1940's, 1950's or 1960's. Who knows? That pan is older than my kids and lasted longer than my marriage. The pan might be older than me. I used it regularly to melt butter for popcorn and sauté a small batch of onions. The pan was a prop in a major plot point in my life. Jack was cooking breakfast sausages in that pan when I told him I was pregnant with Ada. Later, I used it to melt butter when I baked chocolate chip scones for my kids.

Au revoir, Le Creuset! May you rest in peace.