The pot lid in action! Also, I know this looks kinda gross but actually it’s chicken parmesan and turned out great.
In case you were wondering, one of the oldest pieces of cookery is the Jomon Pot, dating from 14,500 BC. It was discovered in Japan, and had a unique basket-type pattern pressed into the clay surface. Thanks to modern technology, archaeologists were able to sample food residue from the inside of the pot to see what people ate 14,000 years ago. They found that the Jomon people subsisted on boiled acorns and shellfish, which sounds gross.
This fact, like several others, comes from the one and only “History of the World in 100 Objects” podcast from the BBC, which has been a great repository of random facts. which I still draw on. See, e.g., “I Want Someone to Talk About Me the Same Way This British Dude Talks about this Gold Llama“; “Can Someone Explain This-Off-the-Shoulder Tops Trend Me”. I thought there were going to be much more random facts in law school, but alas, that is not the case. Pretty much the extent of my knowledge as a budding lawyer can be summed up as follows: 1. You should really get anything involving property law in writing; 2. The Rule Against Perpetuities is very difficult and it is actually not malpractice for lawyers to mess it up (true story); and 3. All of Tort law would pretty much be abolished if people just watched where they were going and didn’t trip over stuff. I also have learned how to cite sources in a bizarre and counterintuitive way that only lawyers would get. Supra.
Anyway, back to my point about cookware. Loyal readers may recall that I am a devotee of my cast iron skillet. I am that type of person who frets about seasoning and always makes sure my skillet is dry before adding another protective layer of oil to it. I love my skillet, and have used it for many a one-pot meal when the crockpot has not sufficed, but one downside has been that I did not own an oven-proof lid that fits. Now, I am a resourceful and innovative person, and refused to be daunted by my lid-less state, so whenever I had a recipe that called for a cover, I just improvised with some tinfoil.
Although I am resourceful, I also strive for the finer things in life. And, perhaps due to my advanced age, I realized that I no longer had to settle for an inferior, jerry-rigged tinfoil solution to my pot-lid troubles: it was probably possible to buy a pot lid that was oven-safe and fit my cast iron skillet, if only such a thing could be found.
Lucky for me, I had a birthday coming up, so I could outsource my pot-lid finding needs to a more capable person, i.e. my mom, who is still into buying birthday presents for her grown offspring and appreciates cooking implements.
My birthday rolled around (not one of my best, thanks, law school!) and lo, the pot lid arrived! (Wrapped in coordinating celebratory birthday wrapping paper, of course). Now, I know a pot-lid is probably one of the most boring things anyone could get for their birthday, but I was super excited about it. Also, I’m a strong independent woman who don’t need no man (though does need a pot-lid) who is not getting married anytime soon, so I need to take advantage of opportunities for convincing family and loved ones to buy me cookware.
Friends, I tried out the pot-lid the very night I got it. And it worked great! It trapped the heat, and was much cleaner and easier to use than tinfoil. My chicken parmesan (or, ok, chicken cooked in marinara sauce with zucchini and cheese on top) turned out great! I also made a one-pot beef stew which hitherto had not been possible, thanks to my heat-trapping oven-safe pot-lid.
I have accepted the fact that I am an old and boring person who takes weird pride in using the least amount of pots possible to make dinner. And I’m ok with that. I truly enjoy not washing dishes while at the same time cooking a week’s worth of meals in one go. There is no need to settle for an inferior pot-lid solution when others are available. It just takes getting older (and having a mom, and maybe the internet) to figure that out.
In Case You Were Wondering. . . 
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