A Season For Every Pan Under the Sun

I love my cast iron griddle. You see the television chefs using them all the time!

What's that? Mine doesn't look quite like theirs? Sigh. I know. This used to be a beautifully seasoned Emeril Cast Iron Grill/Griddle.

Now it's just a griddle that has lost it's natural non-stick coating. How does this happen? Cast iron and water are not friends you see. Cast iron doesn't like to be immersed in water. It's the Wicked Witch of the West of cookware.

My kitchen staff likes water . . . they like soap. They like copious amounts of soap and water and scrubbing. This is excellent in the staff's day job which involves surgery. It's not so excellent for my cast iron and Teflon coated pans.

Why don't I wash my own darn pans? Well the impressionable male children need to see the staff helping mommy you see.  Shared workload in the household blah, blah, blah, blah . . .

But no worries! We can fix it!

Turn up the heat! You're going to want to make sure you have some good ventilation for this process.

There's smoke involved. Lots and lots of smoke! Most of my cooking involves smoke. I have a love/hate relationship with my smoke detectors. I lean heavily towards hate.

If you have birdies in the house or anyone who's sensitive to smoke may I recommend you do this on a grill outside? If you have one of those glass top electric stoves, I don't think it would like this process much either. Stick with your outdoor grill--gas or charcoal will do. We need to bake a new coating onto this pan. 

Add a little vegetable oil to your pan. I'm using a lovely soybean oil. Any bland, flavorless oil will do.  This is not the time to use olive oil!

Use a nice clean paper towel to spread the oil all over your pan.  It's safer to use tongs.

Heck, what do I need fingers for?

Can you see the oil start to smoke? That's what we're looking for. When the smoking starts to diminish . . .

Add some more oil! Notice that pan is so hot I'm using tongs to hold the paper towel now. It's really the best bet.

Even more smoke! Let the oil burn off and the smoke dissipate and do it again!

What we're looking for is the pan to turn black! The way it looked originally!

After about 20-30 minutes I thought that maybe, just maybe I had accomplished it. So let's test it. Add a little cooking oil . . .

. . . and an egg. Who doesn't like a nice fried egg? I don't like broken fried eggs! Hmm . . .

Not exactly like Teflon, but it's NOT STICKING!

But will I be able to get it back off of there?

YEAH! No leaking. My work here is done! Well it's almost done.

A cast iron pan likes to be cleaned with a little oil rub down. See the browned stuff that is wiping up? Let your pan cool with a little oil on it. Wipe all the excess oil up and put it away.

If you happen across an old rusty cast iron pan at a garage sale or flea market give it a good scrubbing with steel wool and then try this process with it. Most of them will come right back to life.

February 8th operating levy for LS-R7

We're getting ready to vote on a new operating levy in our school district in just a few weeks.  I plan to vote FOR this operating levy. Why you may ask?

It's the teachers . . .

My kids are bright but not always easy to teach. At other schools they've often been considered a chore! Here the teachers just seem excited to educate them. They seem excited to see them learn. They seem excited to spend one on one time with them! I've never had teachers who "got" my kids so well.  They seem to actually have time in the day to sit down with them and teach them one on one.  It's so rare anymore for anyone outside of a special needs classroom to get that kind of attention. Do you know the difference 2 minutes of one on one attention can go for a kid who struggles? The child can go from "I hate math, I'm horrible at math." to "I really CAN do any assignment she gives me if I take my time. I'm pretty good at this stuff."  This was my 12 year old after one month of his teacher saying "Don't start the assignment unless you're sure you know how to do it. If you're unsure we'll spend a few minutes going over it again by ourselves." 

It's the technology . . .

It's expensive. I'm always skeptical when all the new fangled gadgets are used.  I knew that "smartboards" were fun but I really wondered about how necessary they were.  I've been converted.  I went to school and have watched them used in math class. One piece of equipment can show a movie, become a protractor, and illustrate the difference between area and perimeter!  The textbooks have programs that come with them! I can go online and see how the textbook says to do the worksheet.  Hallelujah!  Oh and that Powerschool thing? Talk about being able to hold your young driver accountable for actually turning stuff in! The power, the power bwahahahahahaha!

It's the way the district operates . . .

When they've been short of funds they've actually cut things. They've made thoughtful cuts. They've went to the public and said "Which of these programs would you prefer go?" When they decided to cut the summer school "for all" program two years ago the Superintendent commented that he was totally shocked that the parents picked that! It affected so many families! We're not dumb you see. We know what is going to affect our children's learning in the long run.  An extra month of school is nice for our pocketbooks but unnecessary when it comes time to tighten the belts.  They're even going to multi-grade classrooms. I'm surprised that so many people are shocked and horrified by THAT idea.  It's an idea that's worked for generations.  The district knows labor costs are huge and that talented teachers have effectively taught under that model for decades.

It's our property taxes . . .

Our property values are flatlining and the County Assessor is rumored to have actually dropped some valuations! In Ohio the county assessor taxed our house at $205,000 when we sold it for $160,000!  Could I have contested this? I had one week and I had to get 3 certified documents delivered in that time. Then you had to pay it anyway and if they hadn't "gotten to your case" in six months you had to resubmit your documentation.  While my taxes have been the same for 3 years now the cost of electricity and natural gas have gone up. The buses are packed to capacity.

For all of these reasons I'm going to haul my butt out of the house on February 8th and vote for this painfully large levy.  Good schools cause people to want to move to a place.  Good schools increase your property values.  Good schools make your neighborhoods nicer places to live.  Our schools are excellent. Stupid national government policies have made the housing market collapse.  LS-R7 has done their part to counteract this and it's our turn to support them.

Chick Beer III

I'm guessing it's time I mention the pretty yellow bottle on the left!

It's called 312 and it's an "Urban Wheat Ale" made by Goose Island Beer Co.  Now it looks like a "normal" beer and there's no mention of fruit so what makes it a chick beer?

It's got the cutest little goose on the label! Add that shade of yellow and the chicago skyline to the label and its just made to catch any lady's eye! Didn't they intend it for us chicks? I think their marketing department did!

Actually its only slightly chickfied.

It has a bit of traditional American beer taste.  But being a wheat style beer it is so much smoother than your average hoppy mass produced beer.  For a beer so light in color it has a slightly nutty smell. Most beers that are called "nutty" usually pack a punch of bitter. But not this one.  This one has some of that lovely bready flavor I like beer for. 

The alcohol content is relatively low for beer at 4.2% and the website even lists cheese pairings! Maybe its more chic than chick?

I highly recommend it. Heck you could even buy a valentines six-pack for the man in your life!  I doubt he'll even recognize it's chickiness.

Cake

Darling daughter made me my favorite childhood cake for my birthday. I always loved the cherry chip cake mix with cherry frosting! Now they only sell strawberry but somehow it tastes exactly the same . . . why is that?

She even inscribed secret messages in the decorations! It's The DaVinci Code of birthday cakes.

My youngest asked me how old I was going to be. When I told him he said "OH! Like Daddy? You're old like Daddy now!" He said this in a congratulatory manner. The padawan has much to learn . . .

Of Wine and Wine Stains

The following tale is true. Unbelievable but true.

I was in the middle of making a perfectly glorious pot roast when I discovered that I did not have a single bottle of red wine open! So I had to run, run, run to get it open and deglaze my pan. When what do I discover . . .

The wing of my corkscrew is broken. When did this happen? I certainly didn't break my corkscrew. My husband rarely drinks any wine that I don't hand him so what the heck? Who comes into a person's house and breaks their corkscrew and doesn't say "Hey lady, I broke your corkscrew! Better take care of that before you want another bottle of wine!" Has the cat been hitting the bottle behind my back? His tastes are sophisticated but they usually involve sea life. Regardless I was in the middle of a WINE EMERGENCY! I needed to deglaze that pan.

Adrenaline is supposed to give you strength! I figured it's just a leverage device and I could get that cork out with just the one lever . . . right? The adrenaline was surging. I couldn't deglaze with the dry vermouth, that would be out of the question! I had to save the pot roast!

So I screwed it in . . . and started to push down on the lever.   
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Nothing. Not a nudge. Not a squeak. I couldn't even get that artificial cork to TURN a degree in that bottle.
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So I sought assistance.  "SON!" I have a 21 year old giant of a son. He lifts things at work. He's strong. He came to my rescue.  I said "I'll hold the bottle, you pull."
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On reflection I realize I probably should of handed the bottle to him. You know, so he could feel the give and take of the cork.
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He pulled one way. I pulled the other. There was even a little grunting involved.
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I suddenly realized that maybe this wasn't something to do over the beige carpet. "STOP!" I yelled.
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He stopped. He said "I need gloves, it's hurting my hand." What wimps today's youth are . . .
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I had him grab a dish towel and I sat on the floor of the kitchen and I grasped that bottle with both hands. He grabbed hold of the top loop and started to twist and turn and pull with all his strength . . .
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it reminded me of birth
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his birth in fact
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he popped out with an explosion then. When that cork came loose I was about an inch off the floor hanging onto the bottle with all my might. I landed, the wine came swooshing out, hit me in the chin, and dripped right down into my bra.
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THAT is why I have a wine stain on my bra. THAT is the honest truth to what happened. It's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Now, I just gotta go tell hubby . . .

Macaroni & Cheese

My family loves macaroni and cheese.  I find myself bringing it to all the church potlucks because it's a full on entree for the children.  It's also our goto dinner most sunday evenings. A girl's tired after that post church breakfast after all!

Go ahead and fill a pot with some cold tap water.  I'm going to make a pound of macaroni so I really only need a large saucepan.

Add a couple of teaspoons of salt to the water.

Now I know there are those of you who say, "but why would I add salt to the water when I'm going to put a salty sauce on the noodles?" I will say, "this is your only chance to get a flavorful noodle."

Unsalted noodles taste like flour and warm tap water. Ick! A good helping of salt NOW will prevent you from having to add more later.  I will now get off my soap box . . .

Go ahead and put a lid on your pot and turn the heat on high. You want to get a good hard boil going.

Okay, the following steps are very complicated . . .

. . . break up half a box of Velveeta and put it in a microwave safe 1 quart measuring cup. 

What's that? . . . You wanted a roux? . . . You wanted seven natural cheeses?

Why would I deny myself the use of this beautiful product? Chemicals, you say? Preservatives, you say? We're made of chemicals! Who doesn't want to be preserved? Seriously!

Break out the mustard!

You want to add a nice heaping teaspoon of it to the cheese-like product in the bowl.  You can use a grainy stone ground type mustard if you like but you're going to have to tell the kids it's pepper floating around in their macaroni and cheese!

In it goes! You could use a half teaspoon of dry mustard powder or a half teaspoon of hot sauce at this point instead of the prepared mustard.  You're looking to kick up the sour-bitter ratio! It'll make it taste cheesier . . . aren't our tongues weird?

Now add milk until you've got 4 cups of stuff! Any old milk will do! I used skim and whole milk today. I've even used up a little leftover evaporated milk and leftover half and half in this dish. It's definitely a good one to get rid of excess dairy products in the fridge! 

Now into the queen of the kitchen . . .

Now, cheese doesn't like high heat. It makes it seize up into stringy, rubbery, chewy, gobs of grossness. That's why we're using Velveeta!  It can HANDLE THE HEAT!

I only make it handle the heat for two minutes at a time though because I don't want anything to boil over!  Then I check on it and give it a stir. How long it takes depends on how cold your milk is and whether you had your Velveeta in the fridge. You want to continue heating and stirring until it's all melted.

Select some cheeses from your refrigerator. I decided to use the mozzarella since it was a little past its date and I was only cooking for the family. Besides cheese making was designed to preserve milk! It's not like there was anything growing on it . . .

Cheddar is really good too! My favorite is to add a little Swiss cheese to it. Oldest son doesn't make it without at least 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan. I've even used up a little leftover cream cheese!  Go wild with it! The Velveeta will overcome all textural issues your cheese choices might cause in a normal bechamel based cheese sauce.

You're going to need a cup of it! I go ahead and heap it up because I don't want to press it down into the cup. I let it stay nice and fluffy and easy to mix in. 

Meanwhile you've been stirring your cheezy milk in the microwave right?

Ah, it's all melted! It's plenty hot at this point. Perfectly hot in fact . . .

. . . for melting your grated cheese!

Give it a few stirs every once in awhile and your cheese sauce will take care of itself! If it's not completely smooth it's okay. You're going to add it to hot pasta. It'll look like cheese soup at this point but it's supposed to! It hasn't hit all that starch from the macaroni yet,

Oh yeah, it's MACARONI and cheese isn't it? Better get on to it!

Your SALTED water has probably been boiling for a couple of minutes by now! Go ahead and add a pound of macaroni or rigatoni or rotini or shells or whatever floats your boat! My mother used to use these ginormous elbow macaroni that I can only find randomly!

So here's the deal on the macaroni. Cook them till they're just el dente and they'll soak up a ton of the cheese sauce and you'll end up with a nice firm side dish you can pile high on a plate. Cook them till they're soft yet still shapely and you'll end up with something more slippery and creamy. Something you'll want to put in a bowl.  Mother liked them in the bowl with lots of butter and Parmesan! I go somewhere in between. About 6-7 minutes for our family. Make sure to give it a GENTLE stir one minute in and then every two or three minutes after that.

Drain the pasta . . . please imagine the pasta being drained in a nice colander in a beautiful clean sink, my children drug me away to see some lightning-hurricane-drago-bey-baku-poke-ultra-cool thing on the computer and I somehow became distracted :-(

Add the cheese sauce and stir it around.  It'll appear overly soupy at first but you have to give the sauce time to slide into all those macaroni tubes! By the time I get all six of us assembled at the table and prayed over we'll have . . .

Family happiness!

Now what goes good with some macaroni and cheese? It's salty and sour so we like something kind of sweet and tangy with it such as some BBQ or a tossed salad with a sweeter vinaigrette. My hubby and I like it because it's super quick. I find a small bowl of it accompanies most leftovers we have in the fridge too.  

Macaroni and cheese

1 lb of Velveeta
1 lb of dried macaroni pasta
2 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard
2-3 cups of milk
1 cup grated cheese (about 4 oz.)

Put 8 cups of water and salt into large sauce pan. Bring to a boil, covered. Break up Velveeta into large chunks and place in 4 qt. measuring bowl. Add mustard and enough milk to bring level up to the 4 cup line.  Microwave milk mixture on high until it's melted, stirring every 1-2 minutes. Add grated cheese to measuring cup stirring gently until it mostly melted.  Cook pasta in boiling salted water until it's slightly past el dente. Drain. Mix pasta and cheese sauce gently and thoroughly.

Anti-Chick Beer

Oh look at the pretty beer with a puppy dog on it! Isn't it cute? Why the website says that it's delicious with everything from chocolate to seafood. I LOVE chocolate and seafood why not give it a try! 
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Blech! Beers, labeled as porters or stouts should be avoided at all costs in my opinion! They are dark nutty brown in color and bitter as heck. But what do you do if you find yourself somewhere with a beer that is too bitter for you? This is a BEER EMERGENCY! What are you to do with that stuff you still have in your glass?

This is where we use our mad balancing skills.  You may recall my discussion of the tongue and what it can taste? We mainly taste bitterness, sweetness, saltiness, and sourness.  The nice thing is that some of these counteract each other.  Sweetness counter acts sourness--think lemonade. Generally, I enjoy lemonade more than I enjoy a glass of sugar water or a glass of lemon water. The same works with salt and bitterness. You add salt to eggplant because it leaches out the natural bitterness. If you find yourself with anything that's a little too bitter try adding a little salt.

There that's better.  But I wasn't done with this beer yet. I had counteracted the bitterness some but it was still too deeply flavored for me and the sour notes were getting to me too.  Hmm . . .

Ah about 1/2 a cup of apple cider will add a nice sweet fruitiness.  We practically have a cocktail at this point! Orange juice would be a delicious substitution too. All cocktails need a little . . .

ICE! Now it's icy cold, bitter sweet, and not quite as strong tasting as it was.  I find myself stuck with 4 of these babies from a variety pack so I'll be trying them in a little beer bread later in the week.  Wish me luck!