Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been contemplating this post for a while. A long while in fact. The seed that will become this pot was planted by the V-man on March 3rd. You see, on that date the great and terrible Velociman cast down the gauntlet of Colander Blogging. To be honest, your Maximum Leader is not enamored of his colanders enough to want to photograph or blog about them.

But your Maximum Leader has a skillet…

But not just any skillet… A skillet with a history.

Around 1870 or so your Maximum Leader’s maternal Great- Great-Grandmother on the shores of this great Republic. She arrived at the port of Philadelphia. (No trip through Ellis Island for her - no siree.) She arrived with her husband and a dream. A dream of leaving behind Scotland (her country) and Wales (his country) and making a new life for themselves in America.

Having arrived in Philadelphia it didn’t take her long to determine that the “City of Brotherly Love” was not the city of her dreams. So, she did what any woman with a can-do attitude and a dream did in those days. She decided to head west. She bought up provisions, tools, cookery, a few horses, a wagon, and a rifle. Among the items she purchased was a 12 inch cast iron skillet.

She took her husband, her stuff, her skillet and traveled across this great land. In a wagon. Braving weather. Braving natives. Braving all the hazards of a journey in those times. She decided to keep going until she reached Portland, Oregon. There she settled. She birthed some babies. She raised her family.

Then she got a letter. The letter informed her that a relative (her brother perhaps? foggy memory) who also came to these shores from the mother country had passed away. Passed away and left her as guardian of his now-orphaned children. But for some reason - one that passes your Maximum Leader’s understanding - the children had to stay in their hometown.

So she packed up the family. Got the wagon going again, and moved to - wait for it - Dayton, Ohio.

Life in Dayton seemed to suit her, and her brood. Eventually, one of her daughters married and started out on her own. One of the things your Maximum Leader’s Great-Grandmother got from her mother was the 12 inch iron skillet that had trekked across the country and nearly back again.

The skillet remained in Dayton for many years. But eventually new families are created by cycle of birth and marriage and skillets are passed along. After a time the skillet found its way into the kitchen of your Maximum Leader’s sainted mother. There the skillet languished in the bottom drawer of an oven for many years. Until your Maximum Leader graduated from college and moved out. At that time your Maximum Leader liberated the skillet and took it as his own. A birthright of sorts…

Today, that skillet has a position of honour in the Villainschloss’ kitchen. Your Maximum Leader and Mrs. Villain use it at least 4 times a week. The skillet now has some friends too. Another 12 inch cast iron skillet that belonged to Mrs. Villain’s paternal grandmother (who bought it after she was married in Rhode Island). And a 6 inch cast iron skillet from Mrs. Villain’s maternal grandmother (who bought it at some point in the 1930s).

One could say it is a power-trifecta of iron…

What? You would like to view the great and historical skillet? Well, here is a little photo of it. You can clicky through to see a larger one.

If you viewed the larger skillet do you see the seasoning. The old crusty layers of gawd-knows-what all over the outside. Your Maximum Leader thought of having it analyized to have it’s make-up scientifically determined. But he decided not to. It just adds to the mystery (and history) of the skillet.

If either of the Villainettes (or the Wee Villain) want that skillet they’ll have to pry it out of the cold dead tendrils of their father. He’ll never part with it. Indeed, should your Maximum Leader ever need to evacuate the Villainschloss for anemergency the skillet (along with guns and other necessities) will be packed in the Suburban along with the family…

And there you have it. Not Collander Blogging… But Skillet Blogging.

Carry on.