kitchen workarounds?

[greenbirds]

I don't know if anyone has a solution to this problem, but I figured here would be the place to ask.

I'm a pretty avid cook (there was a time in my life when I was debating between chef school and an academic career), and I am absolutely in love with enameled cast-iron cookware like those awesome Le Crueset dutch ovens (which I've used in other people's kitchens when I've had some help to handle the doggone things), but for one thing: I have arthritis in my hands and wrists which makes it really difficult for me to hold anything that heavy -- something that's required if I'm to say, put a full dutch oven in my oven to bake and then take it out again.

Enameled cast iron's pretty spendy, so I'm reluctant to plunk down a ton of money on something I may end up not being able to use. I'm wondering if anyone here has found useful workarounds for moving heavy cookware around the kitchen? I would be forever grateful!

TIA! :)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

It will be affected by the way your kitchen is set up, but small lifts. Instead of going from the oven across to the sink, go from the oven to a wooden board on the floor. Then go to the next place and so on. I find lots of small lifts much easier than one requiring a long holding time, but obviously that might not suit you. I have arthritis in my hands and wrists but it affects me bending or turning my hands more than lifting as such.

[daughtercell]

Yeah. I also have the thought, for me, of getting some kind of rolling cart, so I can put things on that and then roll them to their next location. I have arthrogryposis (muscle weakness, joint contractures) and holding/lifting/carrying heavy cookware is hard enough for me when it's empty, and basically impossible when it's full and just out of the oven.