I love cast iron skillets. Over the years I may have collected, um, let’s say 11 of them? Here’s the deal though. I bought all of them at garage sales because they were rusty and had $1 price tag on them. Guys, if you ever find a cast iron skillet at a garage sale – buy it! 9 out of the 11 cast iron skillets that I’ve acquired are Lodge brand.
So what do you do when you find a rusty skillet? First: Buy It. Second: Season It! Buy some steel wool at Ace Hardware or any home improvement store. I actually sprinkle coarse sea salt on the skillet, and using my steel wool, use some muscle and basically sand off all the rust. Never use soap with cast iron – simply run some hot water over it and scrub until you’ve removed all the rust – from the inside, the handle on the bottom – the whole thing. Next: oil it up! I use canola or vegetable oil. Lather the whole thing up then bake for one hour at 350 degrees. I then turn off the oven and let it sit there overnight. The next morning, it’s ready to go and will be nonstick. If your skillet ever starts to stick again, just repeat the baking process with the oil and you are back in business.
When you clean your skillet, make sure to completely dry it before putting it away. I’ll actually put it on my stove on low heat and watch the water evaporate. Let it cool and then I either spray it with Pam or rub a bit of canola oil on the skillet until I use it the next time.
I posted this picture of my breakfast tostadas on Instagram yesterday, and my friend Lauren wanted to know what kind of pan I was using. I was at work and guessed that it was a 12 inch pan, but it’s actually a vintage Lodge skillet that is 10 inches.
So while you won’t be able to purchase that exact skillet because it’s so old, Lodge does sell a similar pan – they call it a griddle pan because the slightly raised edges will hold pancakes, eggs, oil, etc. And it’s only $24 bucks! I use this pan for making hash browns, even frittatas because you can obviously go from stove to oven with these skillets. Have I convinced you to buy cast iron skillets yet?! 
That was a filling 4 point breakfast. I wasn’t really all that hungry by the time I got to work, but I was about 30 minutes early and realized I should eat something, so I went a couple blocks from work and stopped and picked up panang curry from Pho’s Spicier Thai Cuisine. It was a bit “hole in the wall” kind of place.
When she asked me how spicy I wanted it, I blurted out “I like spicy!” She said “okay – I make medium” and walked away. It wasn’t until she walked away that I looked down and noticed this heat chart:
So medium is described as “quite hot” but what I was really worried about was the disclaimer at the bottom that said “be careful if you never been here.”
This photo does not do this dish justice. It was the perfect spicy flavorful that I always look for with a spicy dish. I don’t want to just taste spice and nothing else. This had layers of flavor, and a nice peanuty flavor at the end. I will admit, there wasn’t a whole lot of beef, but I ate half of this dish for 10 smart points. Next time I’d like to try their pho soups.
It was a demo class yesterday and it was unlike any class I’ve ever witnessed thus far at The Chopping Block. We had two groups of four women, so we put them on each end so they could easily talk to each other, then had a couple in the middle. Chef Dionna started going over the menu, talked about her favorite French seasoning salt (which is amazeballs!) and before we knew it, both groups of ladies lost complete interest and Dionna basically had a personal chef show for the couple in the middle. So it all worked out in the end, but I don’t know why I would pay $50 for a demo class, and not pay any amount of attention to it?
I will recreate this dish soon – it was a flank steak salad with a warm tomato vinaigrette. I think I may add some toasted pumpkin seeds when I make it though.
And the next dish was an Asian marinated salmon with a baby bok choy and carrot salad that is also going to go to the top of my list of things to make.
We gave the best two pieces of salmon to the couple in the middle who paid attention.
I am working a private party today so that means I get to demo some dishes:
· Frisée Salad with Roasted Beets, Toasted Pecans and Oranges
· Chocolate Crêpes with Mascarpone Cream and Homemade Caramel Sauce
Um, I’ve never worked with beets before or made crepes, so this should be interesting! I may watch a couple youtube videos before I head to work today. Chef Rachel is super nice though, so I know she’ll be a great resource for me.
Alright, time to get this show on the road – I am working on another blog post for The Chopping Block that’s due tomorrow. My topic? Soup and Bread!
Make it a great day!
I have had no Internet connection for about 24 hrs. which is why I am late in responding.
You are the most lovely, trusting woman…….and ,based on what I have read about your life story,
someone for whom I have a great deal of admiration. We both lost our husbands around the same time ( my husband’s death came after 3 yrs of misdiagnosed cancer ) so the feelings you feel are mine also.
I could never accept your kind offer to get me the salt at a discount AND mail it to me. You don’t even know me and your life is so full adding a post office trip seems unreasonable. Your offer, however, is one of the nicest things that a stranger has ever offered to me. You really warmed my heart.
So sorry for your loss as well – grief is such a fickle friend – I can be laughing one second and on the verge of tears the next.
I am going to email you and get your address – it is not too much trouble and you will be putting this salt on everything! 😀
Hugs!
Thanks so much……you’re the best. Went to order and the salt was $12, which I was okay with, but the shipping was $14 ! Re-dunk-a-liss !!
That’s crazy! I’ll use my discount and send you some!
I love cast iron. We found 2 pieces and inherited one from my great grandmother that no one wanted. I used a dremel with a sander on it and took off all the rust and crust, reseasoned it and we have a cast iron griddle! John likes to cook with them because it helps him keep his iron up.
Can you actually get iron from a cast iron skillet?! I didn’t know that!
We converted to cast iron a few years ago after going through so many non-stick skillets. We got some for Christmas in three smaller sizes, but got a beauty-big one at Cracker Barrel. They carry a whole line of Lodge cookware. And we haven’t looked back. Haven’t found any at garage sales, tho. Must be too late.
Over the years I’ve just kept my eye out for them at garage sales – Hannah jokes that if I walk into a garage sale I can “smell” the cast iron somewhere!
I’ll never forget when my boss took me to a Thai restaurant here in town – we stood in line to order, and I asked him what the number system was for the spice level. My boss told me 1-10, so when I got up to the counter and placed my order, I said I’d like it #5. The order-taker literally GASPED and said “you want superspicy???” – turns out, their spice level was 1-5, not 1-10, and I’m sure he looked at the caucasian woman and worried that she was gonna die with #5. I ended up with #3 and it was plenty spicy. Anyway, your story reminded me of that incident, and I can’t think of it, more than 10 years later, without LOLing.
That’s hilarious! Once I went to a place that had “extra spicy” chicken wings. Tony’s old friend liked spicy stuff like me, so we went ahead and ordered it.
It was so spicy we couldn’t even bring it to our mouths, let alone take a taste of it – we later found out they were using ghost peppers in the sauce!
Can you tell us what is the brand of the French seasoning salt ? TIA..
Hey Andy – I don’t remember off the top of my head – I’ll check when I head into work tonight and get back to you – it’s delicious!
Andy – here is the link to the salt that we sell!
http://www.kathycasey.com/shop_seasonings.html