I am no stranger to packing up and moving, I seem to do it at least once a year. In fact the closest thing to a year lease I have had since college was taking over a lease with 10 months left on it. I do however have standards. There are things I will not leave behind. One of them is my trusty griswold skillet. It is wonderful. It has a lid. Well, anyone who moves for seasonal jobs knows about the last minute scramble. No matter how long you have been preparing, planning and packing there comes a time when you are frantically cramming the last odds and ends into your car. Somehow during this most recent episode my skillet ended up in storage and not in Sue Bea. I didn't realize this mistake until sometime the first week I was here. I had bought some delicious local bacon for my potato salad. Brought it back to Tumble Inn (our staff office, where the refrigerator is) and nearly had a panic attack. My skillet was in Montana! I figured since the bacon was bits and pieces I could cook it in my pot. Bacon needs to be single layer to get crispy. It was the longest bacon cooking episode of my life. I had to make a decision. I decided I would buy a second skillet of a different size. Two skillets are reasonable. There have been times when I could have used two. I can now bake corn bread and fry bacon at the same time. Well, I will be able to when the skillets are united. What I have also learned from this adventure (besides always bring the skillet) is that pre seasoned is a load of crap. The first bacon I cooked was even sticking. I have yet to cook my eggs in the new skillet successfully over easy (one of the few ways I will consume eggs). My griswold is like magic, my mom bought it at a rummage sale, so even though it is nowhere near as dark as the new lodge pan, the 40+ years of bacon frying really shine through. If my eggs are broken in that pan, it's my own fault. One day I will look back at this and be proud of the work I put in to this second skillet. Right now I need to cook a lot more bacon in it.
