Dutch Oven

It may sound like a mundane topic, but having a good Dutch oven makes cooking a whole lot easier. We bought one soon after we married, and use the thing all of the time. The only other pots we use are a stock pot for making stock (duh) and boiling water, and a couple of small sauce pans for reheating soups, making rice, etc. Anyway, the workhorses of our kitchen stovetop (and oven) are the cast iron skillets (we have two) and the cast iron Dutch oven (5 qt). Some of our favorite uses for the Dutch oven are:

popping popcorn
making tortilla chips
creating soups, stews, and chilis (our winter staples)
roasting beef and lamb
deep frying chicken (holds temperature well)
frying potatoes
concocting chicken and rice casseroles/ beans and rice, and other similar dishes

Basically, you can use the Dutch oven to saute, brown, slow cook (as you would a slow cooker...just stick it in a low temp oven for several hours), bake, simmer and fry. It's also super easy to clean, and it is much less expensive than all of the stainless steel pots and pans (although, as mentioned above, I have a couple of those).

For more information visit Lodge. Additionally, Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated fame, has a few things to say about cast iron.