Last week I MADE my own ricotta cheese.

That sounds so much harder than it is that you should all go home and make your own ricotta cheese and then tell all your friends and they'll think you are cool. Or lame. I followed directions in the current Cooking Light, and then put that homemade ricotta cheese in homemade ravioli made using wonton wrappers I painstakingly cut into circles with a biscuit cutter since I had no gyoza wrappers. Let me tell you, that is way more of a pain than making your own cheese. The easy way to do it is to keep the biscuit cutter in place and pull off the excess. The hard way to do it is to try to cut the wonton wrapper and then pull it apart. Either way takes FOREVER.

And then you have to boil the ravioli, which is fine, but then you cook some asparagus in butter and then toss with the ravioli and you wind up with a glutinous mess. It was pretty good, but the ricotta by itself was better.

I also made raised waffles this weekend, where you use yeast and let it sit overnight, and I don't think I'll ever make another waffle recipe again. Jeff had 5 and a half waffles. I am not even crazy about waffles, but these were incredible. Thank you, Dorky Yankees!

The culinary high point of my week so far, though, has been this pot. My dad was supposed to get me something nice from Paris, since he lost a bet, so he sent me a teensy tiny copper pot- we're talking keychain size- with a catalog from DeHillerin on Friday. April Fool's and all. (My mom says when they tried to explain this to the DeHillerin salesfolk, they didn't quite get it. Nonetheless, the teeny pot is hanging from my spice rack and will make a cool holiday ornament.)

The real pot, in all its glory, is a joy to behold and a thing of beauty. ("It gets fingerprinted up real quick," says my husband. Feh to him!) They asked if they were going to give someone one copper pot, what should it be, and the DeHillerin folks said this one. The DeHillerin folks know what they are doing.

I will be saute-ing some chicken cutlets in it tonight. And making a gorgeous sauce in its gorgeous stainless steel interior. I suspect there is braising in my future, too.