Green light for a green pot,and a pre-special-day lunch

When this pot arrived the other day, I thought the seller might have screwed up. The box was so light I was sure the pot was aluminum, not cast iron. But the pot is indeed cast iron – very very thin cast iron.. Definitely not anywhere close to Le Creuset or Descoware heftiness.

The seller also had said, "This pot is quite heavy!" Apparently she's used to cooking in tinfoil.

The test for me, of course, is in the baking. And you know what? It did just fine. Another pretty, round (and tasty) loaf came out of the oven today.

As pretty as the pot is, I'm thinking I don't really need it. (Thanks, eBay.) But if it's wrapped up with bread ingredients inside, I believe it will make a fine Christmas gift for a friend who complains she hasn't got the right pot for no-knead bread.

No-knead bread recipe here.
After the bread came out of the oven, I toddled off for lunch with an old friend who is not Santa Claus and had some very tasty lasagna at the Washington Park Grille (stupid all-Flash website, grrr). The lasagna had both veal and pork in it, which is key to good meat sauce, and a lot of cheese.

The service was attentive, if weirdly snarky. You know, the kind of wisecracking that you can do with your friends because they know you're joking, or that you get from wait staff at, say, Flo's Diner. I didn't really know what to make of it in this context.

But anyway, the lasagna was good. Was tempted by the tiramisu, but I didn't want to take a three-hour nap.

In hindsight, maybe I should have eaten the tiramisu and taken the nap. That's not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.