Big Pot. Really Big Pot.

Finally! A cooking pot big enough to boil the carcass of a twenty-pound-plus Thanksgiving turkey! It's actually the same size as a water bath canner. When spying this gorgeous pot on the store shelves, I HAD to HAVE it. About five minutes after placing it in my shopping cart, another woman asked if there were two pots because she was looking for a pot just like the one I had in my cart.

I didn't let her have mine. The Christmas Spirit does not apply to TJMaxx customers.

You can always buy a pot at full retail price at Orson Gygi's or maybe Spice and Spoons. After purchasing my stainless steel pot and tying it on the roof of my car to get it home, I made chicken soup immediately.

Unfortunately, my soup came with a side dish of steamed forearm and boiled knuckles. MINE. As in: I burned myself. As in: the pot was so big there weren't any spoons in my kitchen that were long enough to protect my skin from the steam. I love cooking for my family but there ARE limits!

Off to Spoons and Spice I went to find a long-handled spoon. Little did I know (and maybe none of you did, either), that someone in the world makes wooden spoons with extra long handles--just for cooking in fine pots the likes of which I'm proud to say I own.

My spoon might be a little bit toooooooooooo long and Kim loves it that way. She quotes Shakespeare and giggles because it takes BOTH arms to wield such a study spoon. It's about the size of a two-by-four!

"Fillet of fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog.

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting

Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,----

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." 

(From: Shakespeare's Macbeth)

And for my sisters in case they've never made turkey and dumplings, here is a recipe for your file:

Dumpling Recipe

Mix together in a medium size bowl:


     2 cups white flour
     4 tsp. baking powder
     1 tsp. salt

Cut in: 4 tablespoons soft butter

Stir in: 1 cup milk

Plop on top of eye-of-newt-soup simmering and bubbling in your favorite cauldron. Cover pot with study lid and let steam for ten minutes over low heat.

Love to all,
Caorlyn