After many months of being on the edge of storms and cold weather, winter arrived here Monday night and into Tuesday morning. Judging from the amount of snow I shoveled from the back porch I'd say we got about 8 to 10 inches of the white stuff. Ish. After helping us dig out Colton left to head back to River Falls for work. It was really nice having him home.
Seasoning them was a stinky affair. I swear that stench is still lingering in the house from when we did it last Sunday.
I've learned a few things about them already - You can't use plastic spoons or spatulas in them - duh right? but hell who has metal cooking utensils? I didn't, but do now.
I've only used them a few times and I really like they way food cooks in them. Fajitas seem to have a more authentic "mexican" type flavor like you'd get from a restaurant. Grilled cheese sandwiches made with my much longed for Tillamock cheese (that my eldest son got me for Christmas) was absolutely the best grilled cheese I've ever had.
Cleaning the skillets have been interesting too. How do you not use a shit load of soap to clean something you've cooked in and is dirty? Apparently it can be done with just a stiff brush and hot water, but don't forget to dry that pan well or it could rust. Stay tuned for more adventures in cooking with cast iron.
It's always been our tradition to leave the Christmas tree up until the weekend after New Years. Which in a typical year, when we put it up the weekend of Thanksgiving is about a week too long for me. This year however we put it up late and I ended up taking it down on Tuesday after the cats totally demolished it. Damn cats. They obviously thought the tree was the only play place in the house. Good for ambushing unaware people walking by and scaring the crap out of them to lounging on the branches and falling from their perch and knocking more branches out. sigh.
I had a unexpected phone call from one of my Uncles the other night. I hadn't talked to him in probably 10 years. He was calling to tell me how much the Christmas card I sent meant to him. How's that for sweet. It really made my day hearing from him and ensures that I will continue sending cards. I had contemplated not doing them this year since I was running so behind in everything. Sure am glad I stuck with it and got them out.
Hope you all have a safe New Years!
later :)
4 comments:
Hey, if you're ever really craving Tillamook cheese, email me. I can pick up a 2 lb brick for about 7 bucks. Not sure how much postage is, but probably about 5 bucks?
I went to a training once where they cooked our whole lunch in cast iron. It was amazing.
Happy New Year to you and yours!!!
It would probably make more sense if I specified that it was a GIRL SCOUT training, wouldn't it? Campfire cooking. :)
Hi Kellie....we too have cast iron skillets. I store them in my oven because I have no room in my kitchen cabinets. Let me tell you, every time I have to take those damn things out of the oven to use the oven, it's like I'm working out with weights. They are heavy buggers! We love to use ours for skillet cornbread....makes the best cornbread ever!!! Yup, cleaning isn't the easiest, but Bike man uses a chainmail scrubber, they are great and leaves the seasoning in place. Happy cooking with your skillets!
So a good way to clean them... heat them up on the stove, then place in the sink and coat with kosher salt (couple tbsp) and a scrubby something or a rag and use the salt as the abrasive to remove the food particles. Then once you have it cleaned, rinse with warm water. Now I have to dry the outside of mine with a rag because I have a glasstop stove but place them back on the stove and let the heat dry them. Then coat with a little oil and bam, ready for the next use. If one rusts, you can actually bring it back by doing that or throwing it in a hot hot fire. but don't do what my husband did and use an oven mit to get it out, otherwise you catch the oven mit on fire and your hand. Yup, true story.
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