Irons

Lodge Color Enameled Cast-Iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven, Island Spice Stunning! – Tami L. Skelton – Seattle, WA USA
I got this dutch oven in red and it is absolutely beautiful. I am very impressed with the weight and quality of this piece. I bought it for my weekend home and am purchasing a 2nd one for my house. I highly recommend this dutch oven for anyone looking for a stunning product at a great value.
I didn’t think I “needed” an enamel dutch oven but ordered it to make the artisan breads. I haven’t gotten to the breads yet, but I found it perfect for stovetop cooking of unhulled barley and several oven casseroles because of the promise of easy clean-up, a promise that was fulfilled. (I also ordered the le creuset stainless lid handle.) I’m glad the bread book drew me to this cooking tool. Lodge: EC6D43 This 6 Qt enamel Dutch oven is great for cooking, marinating, refrigeration and freezing. The color porcelain enamel on cast iron can be used on gas, electric, ceramic and induction cooktops, as well as in the oven. Not recommended for use on outdoor grills or over open outdoor flames. Not for use in microwaves. Lodge Color Porcelain Enamel on Cast Iron cookware is cast from molten iron in individual sand molds. The porcelain surface eliminates the need to season cast iron. The cast iron vessel has superior heat distribution and retention, evenly heating bottom sidewalls and even the lid. Tightly fitting lid seals in moisture. The excellent heat retention reduces the amount of energy needed for cooking. Two layers of very hard, glossy porcelain enamel are chip resistant and easy to clean. Lid knob is oven safe to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The black rim on the pot is matte porcelain, not exposed cast iron. Hygienic porcelain enamel is non-reactive with food. Although dishwasher safe, hand washing with warm soapy water is recommended to preserve the cookware’s original appearance. 10 3/4″ diameter, 4 1/2″ deep. Island Spice Lodge Color is one of the newest lines from this respected American cast iron cookware company. Traditionally shaped and more affordable than some European brands, Lodge Color enameled cast iron is just as durable, requires no seasoning, and attractively serves at the table. Lodge infuses this 6-quart Dutch oven with two coats of hard-as-nails porcelain enamel, in a choice of several bright colors that are gradated (dark to light) on the exterior, and which are nicely set off by a cream interior. Embellished with concentric circles and a black knob, the lid, which also fits the Lodge Color 11-inch skillet, is oven-safe to 400 degrees F, so you can start a stew or casserole on the stovetop and finish by baking it in the oven. The 6-quart Dutch oven measures 10-3/4 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep.

Lodge enameled cast iron makes a smart choice due to its versatility-you can marinate raw meats in it, since it won’t absorb odors or flavors, and you can braise, saut?, simmer, and bake in it. Made in China to Lodge’s meticulous specifications, each cookware item is first clad in matte black enamel before the color is added. The black rim that shows on the oven is actually the scratch-resistant matte enamel, not the raw cast iron. Though the Dutch oven is dishwasher-safe, washing by hand is recommended to best preserve the glossy finish. Look also for the pricier Lodge Enamel series, with its unique L-shaped lid knob, in a different set of colors and sizes to suit any kitchen. All Lodge enameled ware is covered by a lifetime warranty against defects. –Ann Bieri Lodge Color Enameled Cast-Iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven, Island Spice

• Le Creuset Stainless Steel Replacement Knob
• The Dutch Oven Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pot in Your Kitchen
• Glorious One-Pot Meals: A Revolutionary New Quick and Healthy Approach to Dutch-Oven Cooking
• Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron 11-Inch Skillet, Island Spice
• Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron 3-Quart Dutch Oven, Island Spice

GV2 by Gevril Men’s Stadium Girondolo Dress Watch #4033L GV2 by Gevril: 4033L Showcasing a mesmerizing bulls-eye design and pool motif, the GV2 Men’s Stadium Girondolo Dress Watch will add an exclamation point to any fashion statement you choose to make. Constructed with a stainless steel case, the watch includes a stationary stainless steel bezel, and a black leather wristband secured with an adjustable buckle clasp. A scratch-resistant-sapphire window protects the silver bulls-eye dial, which features an outer ring of colorful pool ball hour markers, followed by a ring of black-dash minute indexes, and finally a ring of Arabic numerals at five-minute intervals. The watch hand is fashioned to resemble a pool cue and rack. A convenient date calendar rests at the 10 o’clock position. Featuring Swiss automatic movement, this timepiece is water resistant to 165 feet (50 M).
GV2 by Gevril Men’s Stadium Girondolo Dress Watch #4033L

Pepe Le Moko – Criterion Collection Normally I wouldn’t bother reviewing a classic that has a ton of five star votes, but somebody actually claimed this film was only worthy of two stars, so here’s another vote to boost it back to a full five if possible!

I saw the 1937 French film “Pepe Le Moko” long after I, like so many other American film goers, had grown used to the story in the Charles Boyer/Hedy Lamarr domestic version, “Algiers” (Why not “The Casbah”? I always wondered?) The 1938 Hollywood remake is a highly perfumed and most attractive feature, with Boyer too pretty for a gangster but still excellent with a most engaging suavity – no problem understanding why all the women are attracted to him, and Hedy at the very beginning of her American career simply a pure vision. The camerwork by Howe is excellent to sometimes special and earned him his first Oscar Nomination, the story is told very well, and all in all a most charming and attractive film, that in some ways is fairly described as a classic. But…

But the original is a horse of a very different color – or black and white – and I can only suggest its astonishing power, the grip it takes on a viewer, the hold of its atmosphere. Here is something far more realistic and gritty than its softer Hollywood variation: A world of unattractive low lifes and disreputables, illicit drugs and deceit and ugliness, and playing out to a final rotten betrayal operating with the immediacy of a splash of absinthe in the face. How relentlessly the story develops: death occurs in the most brutal and unforgiving fashion, whether morally deserved as a breaking of the criminal code, or simply fated, the two quickly lose any distinction.

Gabin as Pepe the gangster on the lam gives as monumental a portrait as anything of the time – equal to the very best of any actor. His tragedy, his destructive obsession with a woman who comes to represent a freedom he can never know, turns him against the counsels and pleas of his wiser self, and his dearest friends. In his madness to find freedom and escape Pepe can no longer live within himself and his hideout, the Casbah. Desperate, trapped rather than saved, his fragmented milieu turns claustrophobic, his once safe streets now mock. The rooftops above blaze under the full power of Mediterranean sunshine, more brightly captured and caught than it has ever before been captured on film, producing a violent stageset conceived around endless constraining reflective walls within the Casbah’s ever-changing labrinth.

Criterion captures this with a fabulous transfer – although slightly higher in cost than most DVDs the finished product does full justice to this magnificent film. GABIN,JEAN: The notorious Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin, in a truly iconic performance) is a wanted man: women long for him, rivals hope to destroy him, and the law is breathing down his neck at every turn. On the lam in the labyrinthine Casbah of Algiers, Pepe is safe from the clutches of the police–until a Parisian playgirl compels him to risk his life and leave its confines once and for all. Once of the most influential films of the 20th century and a landmark of French poetic realism. Jean Gabin was a brooding, rough, working-class antihero in France when his role as cool master criminal Pepe Le Moko made him an international star. In the Casbah of French Morocco, an underworld slum of winding alleys dotted with tiny rooms, bars, and hideouts, Gabin’s Pepe is the prince of the criminal jungle while at the same time its prisoner. He’s safe only as long as he remains in this world the local gendarmes can’t penetrate. During a clumsy police raid, he meets a lovely Parisian (the exotic Mirielle Balin) adorned in expensive jewelry, but in the midst of flirting, his eyes leave her baubles and meet her gaze. Pepe falls in love and Moroccan Inspector Slimane, the only cop to have earned his respect, makes this new chink in Pepe’s armor the center of his plan to capture the Casbah’s most notorious gentleman thief. Gabin is marvelous as the confident yet restless Pepe, a cultured man–equal parts elegance and edgy brutality; at home in this urban jungle, but restless to escape. Julien Divivier’s romantic crime classic is a prime example of French poetic realism (a precursor to American film noir, shot in a shadowy style enhanced by the claustrophobic rooms and crowded streets. It’s a world where friendship and trust are everything, yet betrayal and duplicity await around every dark corner, and Pepe exacts a harsh justice on those who defy his code. Hollywood remade the film as Algiers with continental heartthrob Charles Boyer in Gabin’s role. –Sean Axmaker Pepe Le Moko – Criterion Collection

• Port of Shadows – Criterion Collection
• Touchez Pas au Grisbi – Criterion Collection
• Le Samourai – Criterion Collection
• Le Corbeau (The Raven) – Criterion Collection
• Children of Paradise – Criterion Collection