In May we solved the the ‘pots’ half of the kitchenware problem by throwing boatloads of money at Le Creuset. For smaller saucepans and the like, we’re still doing alright with fairly cheap legacy stainless steel.

Now, pans.

I flirted briefly with carbon steel and maybe I’ll still give it a try someday. But toward the end I started feeling that it was just a Euro version of the standard cast iron that is more popular here in Murica del Norte.

There are a couple of small knocks on cast iron. One: You don’t want to cook anything acidic in it, like vinegar or wine or (most significantly for me) tomatoes, because that destroys the seasoning, and exacerbates problem two–iron leaching out into you food.

Both of those issues can be situationally fixed by going for cast iron with an enamel coating.

The very best thing about uncoated cast iron is that it’s completely bombproof. So I decided I’d get one primarily for camp cooking, induction cooktop on the fancy end; raw firepit flame on the on the other.

After a long session of research, this is what I’m buying for sure: The Stargazer.

There’s another newer American cast iron company in second place. They’re called Field. In the fundamentals Field is very nearly as good as Stargazer. They’re just more expensive.

For home use, and tomato jobs, I’m going with enameled cast iron again. Le Creuset has a few options available, but spending three hundred bucks on just a frying pan (as opposed to a full dutch oven) just doesn’t have the same appeal.

The perfect solution has not appeared, but …

… for a third of the LeC price, i’m rather taken with this cute lil thang:

The pan part is shallow and small, but might could work to feed a solo sojourner, or two that aren’t big breakfasters. The cool part is that it also functions as a tight lid for the small enamel saucepan, and that together they form a dutch oven much smaller than the fancy ones we’ve already got. So … very versatile, and put together with the Stargazer that would make plenty of kitchenware toolkit for shorter camping runs.

We’ll see.

The reason I’m on this now is that I’ve been cooking a lot, and especially digging in to the 25 pounds of brown rice for a staple. The curry saucery for it is still evolving, but it’s based on onion, tomato, chiles, coconut milk, and too many spices. Sometimes I throw in chickpeas or whatever meat we have around ready to go, usually chicken.

The alternative meal is based on the other 25 pounds, of pinto beans. I like eating them alone, but they can also be the foundation for burritos.

The third thing is chilaquiles, cutting up and frying corn tortillas, tossing scrambled eggs over the top … cheese … salsa … chicken sausage too sometimes.

I saw the hoppy frog again for a third time. The trick seems to be going out at the right time, after sundown, and looking in the same right place.

The rain didn’t materialize at all today and I for one mourn that fact. Probably Hoppy does too.