Saturday Thrills - Lining up at Aldi for Cast Iron Cookware?! More exciting than it sounds!!

in #life7 years ago

Yes, I am an old soul trapped inside the body of a 20-something year old. I realised this as I stood in line at 8am this morning outside my local Aldi with the roller-door still firmly closed - the store opened at 8.30am. I surveyed the group of shoppers surrounding me and the average age was comfortable 55+ but I felt right at home.

What was I lining up for?!

Three words: CAST IRON COOKWARE

I am not only obsessed with eating and food in general, but I absolutely love cooking as well and ever since we got our own place I've been hooked on cast iron. I don't cook with it everyday as it's quite heavy but whenever we need to sear steaks or start a dish on the stove to then finish in the oven, cast iron is my go to.

The cream of the crop with cast iron is Le Creuset and I do own a few pieces but they are hundreds of dollars for ONE so when I saw Aldi had a sale where the highest priced item was $24.99 (AUD) I made a note in my calendar and was up at 7.30am on Saturday (with my mum in tow!) to get there in time!

Let the games begin

It wasn't that crazy to be honest, I guess not everyone is as mad about cook ware as me (weird right?!)

I initially only came for one thing which was this 3.5L Cast Iron French Pan as I plan to make a chicken and potato stew tomorrow (stay tuned for this!)...but like any well-laid plans I ended up also buying a few other things:

A cast iron fry pan, I plan to use this for basically anything I need to quickly fry up on high heat as cast iron retains heat very well and I feel better using cast iron over high heat vs non-stick which is not meant to be safe to do so.

I also bought this die-cast aluminium pot - I quite liked this as it seems to have similar properties to cast iron (i.e. able to withstand high heat) but without the weight.

It's also got 2 different pouring holes so you can pour liquid out whilst keeping the lid on.

Cuteness overload

No I am not talking about babies - I'm talking about these cute little, itty-bitty quiche dishes !! Aren't they the cutest thing ever?!I had no idea what I would cook with them as husband doesn't like quiches but I figured I could buy now and think later =P (dangerous words).

.

I also bought these mini dutch ovens which were SO CUTE! They even had little lids. Again, no idea what I'll do with them - baked eggs?!

Size comparison to my iPhone 6S....that's a normal sized iPhone! Crazy how small these things are.

Where to store all the cookware now?! #firstworldproblems

So, there you have it. I walked in with very clear intentions to purchase only ONE item, the French Pan and I ended up walking away with a trolley-full. I didn't even show you the Enamel stock pot but I figure not everyone would be as thrilled to keep reading about cookware as me =P

I am really looking forward to trying out all these new cookware pieces, particularly the cast iron french pan which I am using to make a chicken + potato stew dish to be posted on Steemit shortly!!

Let me know if you guys have purchased this type of cookware before or if you enjoy / hate cooking with cast iron (I know people from both sides!). Also, feel free to shout ideas at me for what I can do with the new cookware, I might do a food dedication post :P

I hope everybody's Saturday morning was as thrilling as mine - peace out!

@phamished xx

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Oh my goodness 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️ Just as excited as you are!!! I bought a stainless steel BIG fry pan with a gorgeous glass lid a few weeks ago from aldi to replace my non-stick one. I am subbing out all our non-stick for healthier alternatives. I don’t own any cast iron yet but am totally excited by your post 🤗 and totally would have lined up too!!

Haha yay!! I am so glad you share the same passion as me for cookware 🤓🤓

Oh wow that sounds great! I’ve tried stainless steel in the past and no matter what brand I buy I just can’t get it to the non-stick level I see on TV so I always end up ditching it. Any tips?!

I’d highly recommend cast iron. For steaks or searing I like to use the American brand of Lodge, really high quality and inexpensive.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Ooh thanks I’ll keep my eyes open for Lodge brand!
Yeah nah stainless steel doesn’t non-stick as much as non-stick cookware but I figure the health benefits outweigh the negatives!
But actually, this new frying pan I bought from Aldi has a waffle bottom rather than smooth and so far it’s been amazing! It’s cleaned really easily, been fairly good at not-sticking and cooked really evenly!! So maybe the waffle surface helps?!

I don't see a single piece of Cast Iron anywhere

😂 🤣

Plus, you looked right by my go-to Real CAST IRON Source...

LODGE, made in U$A!!!

Enameled w/e, U lose one of the main bennies of real Cast Iron, and that is the IRON Supplement! Yes, it needs cured on occasion...

😎

Good article, however. I had no idea they were coating iron for cookware. Wild! I just wrote my reply exactly how it struck me when I saw the enameling... 🤨 😐 😑 😶 🙄 😏

Haha actually I already own 3 pieces of Lodge cookware 😋😊

I purchased enamelled cookware today because raw, porous cast iron like Lodge is not that great for cooking acidic food.

I feel there is a place for both raw and enameled cast iron and now I own both 🤗🤗

Great Answer! Yes, I have a big Dutch Oven, a couple skillets with lids and a 9" (23cm) skillet I got at a yard sale or something for like 25¢ 😁 Great Deal on your coated cookware, it mos-def looks like Quality Stuff! Plus you can pick it up with a Magnet if you ever need to ;)

That’s stupidly cheap!! I had to buy my Lodge stuff brand new but I don’t think the garage sales here in Australia are as good :(.

I hope it’s decent! Will be giving it a test run tonight 🥘

Lol. This reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer pushes all the kids out the way to get to the front of the ice cream truck.

Hahahaha if push came to shove I could have been doing exactly that but luckily there was plenty of stock and no one brought their “fight face” 😂