Fryin' pan man

It’s the simplest thing you can imagine, but I am feeling good about my latest purchase. I try to not to speak of things I buy because I would like to think I am not materialistic. I think I get things I know I will actually use. If I don’t use, or cannot use, something I throw it away or give it away. My parents were of that generation that saved everything, threw nothing away, thinking ‘I will need this someday’. I am at the point where if I don’t have what I need for that moment, I will do without. I have discovered that I usually manage to survive that terrible moment. As for getting rid of things I don’t need, I am lucky to live in a building that has a unique way to get rid of things. Bring ‘em to the laundry room.  In the laundry room you can leave books, teacups, pots, pans, sweatshirts and magazines … and voila, next day, they’re gone. Somebody can use whatever some one else has left. Just last month I felt smug satisfaction with myself as I delivered my last computer and a television set to the local homeless shelter. Imagine my surprise at seeing their TV was better than my NEW TV.

Anyway, getting back to my original thought… I have a new frying pan. A friend recently raved about cast iron frying pans on Facebook and attached a video, produced the by the Lodge company, which makes cast iron cookware in Tennessee. So I purchased a nice big Lodge cast iron fry pan.

Now I remember Mom and Dad singing the praises of cast iron years ago. But when I was a teenager, I was always the one doing the dishes and always got stuck doing the pots and pans. I remember having the scrub the big black frying pan. Well it turns out I was doing things wrong. One does not scrub a cast iron frying pan, or use things like SOS and Comet … like I used to do. Take a stiff brush, some hot water and clean the pan out and then wipe it dry with a paper towel. Apply a bit of new vegetable oil, a bit of heat, a dash of salt,  and the pan is ready to use again. That’s what YouTube has taught me. So from this point forward I plan to use my new pan for a variety of meals including an apple dessert recipe. 

It’s almost as big as a Dutch oven. Research tells me that cooking on low heat for longer periods is what makes the cast iron produce great results.

So I am planning stews, steaks and spaghetti sauces. Look out Gordon Ramsay!