What Now

YOU DON'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

I'm currently upset at the ultra-fabulous Le Creuset company and their fine, enamel coated cast iron pans.

About two years ago, I got a Le Creuset skillet for a birthday gift. I had a crush on that brand for a long time, and had hoped that eventually I'd be able to buy a whole set of these kinds of pans because they are supposed to be practically indestructible and last forever. Of course, I quickly realized that buying a whole set of enamel-coated cast iron pans was going to cost WAY too much and take way too long to save up for, so the fact that I had just one made me love it all the more. I've used it constantly, and I'm fairly certain that I never mistreated it in any way, but a month or two ago, I noticed that the inside of the pan had some chips of enamel gone. I was unhappy about this, and had planned to send the pan back to be replaced, but knowing how way leads on to way, I never did it. It wasn't causing me any problems and I was still able to use my pan, so I forgot about doing anything.

Monday night, I was in the process of making dinner. The pan had been heating for a few minutes while I got the porkchops ready, and when I put the first one in, it immediately started popping. That's not too weird, because food will do that when it gets hot, but then it started popping out at me and it hurt. I thought that maybe the olive oil was splattering out on me, but I didn't have that much in the pan to begin with AND the temperature wasn't up that high. So I spent the next little bit trying to keep my porkchops from burning. Normally I'm pretty good at this, but for some reason, things weren't going so hot for me at the time. Anyways, when the food was ready, I noticed that the porkchops were black around the edges. It wasn't bad, but it was enough for me to notice. I was hungry, so I didn't get picky about anything, I just dug in. At first I didn't notice anything, but soon I realized that there was something gritty in my food. At first I thought it was a seed from some blueberries I had eaten earlier that might have been stuck in my teeth, or some kind of spice in the rice I'd added as a side dish, but it got worse. I had eaten almost a whole porkchop before I realized that it was not just gritty, but it felt like I was chewing on sand. I went back into the kitchen and looked in my pan, and realized that the black stuff that had been on my food wasn't because it had been burnt, I had been eating bits of the black enamel coating that had popped off of my pan and stuck to my food. Not only that, but I realized that when the pan was popping at me earlier, it was bits of the coating that were hitting me! No wonder it hurt! I ended up having to throw away all of the food I had fixed, because even the rice had gotten the black stuff in it somehow.

Indestructible my ass.

Now I'm worried about how much of it I actually ate. It probably wasn't much honestly, but all I can think of is that I've got bits of sharp stuff floating around in my body! I hope nothing gets punctured! :( I'm going to have to go through a rigamarole trying to get the pan replaced now. I thought it was just as easy as sending it back, but apparently not. You have to call them and get their permission to send it back, and THEN they decide if you will be able to get a replacement. Normally I woldn't worry about it, but it was way too expensive to just toss away. It's also been a really good pan up until it tried to kill me.

I guess we'll just see what happens.