Another Skillet

Mom has had this skillet forever. Well, maybe not that long, but still...

After I cleaned up the skillet I bought a few weeks ago, I decided I should clean this one up and re-season it. We use it all the time, for everything, so it was hard finding a time where there were a few days where we didn't need it!

Before:

It's a Lodge. Ick.

I cleaned it with the oven cleaner and re-seasoned it. I'm not too happy with how it turned out, but it's cleaner and looks better now, at least on the inside. It does have little pits inside, which I know isn't good, but I don't guess there's much I can do about that!

After:

I don't know why it looks rust-colored in the pictures...it's not at all!

I still have to tackle the four new ones I bought Saturday...

Downtown Days...and More!

Hey, y'all!

Our town has an annual festival...the Downtown Days. See, Jesse James robbed the bank here in 1872, so we celebrate it!

Yeah, celebrate the bank robbery. Hm. I guess we're hurting for entertainment 'round these parts. :D

Anyway, Downtown Days is a small festival and there's a reenactment of the bank robbery. This year there was a bunch of different music lined up, but we just saw our friends, the Lindseys, and part of another group's set. We really enjoyed hearing and seeing the Lindseys, and we saw a bunch of other folks we knew. I just love this small town! I also had a lot of fun talking to and visiting with a new friend that was there. :)

Here are a few pics of the fun!

You can't really tell much here, but they close the square in a block in all directions. It's not a very big festival, but it seemed like there were quite a few people that came out!

The Lindseys...

The bank robbery reenactment...

"Frank James" coerced Dave into holding the money...with a little persuasion. I don't think Dave looks near scared enough, considering the circumstances.

The festival was going on all day, but Dad was hungry so we came home to eat lunch. So, after we had lunch, Dad and Dave went out to tend to the bees. Now, with some people I've talked to, and mentioned us having bees, and they acted like they had no idea what I was talking about. I thought for sure I had posted it on my blog at some point, but if I'm crazy and wrong, I'm saying it now...pay attention.

Dad has bees. Dad has three bee hives. Dad likes bees.

So there.

With that established, Dad and Dave brought this to the house!

Isn't this incredible!!!??? We're all very excited about it! Dad doesn't have honey-extracting equipment right now, but that's never stopped us from anything! He decided not to take most of the honey, so that we have healthy bees through the winter, so we just have this little bit.

We all ate a chunk, but it was a little waxy...we don't know all about what part you should eat and which part you shouldn't! While we know that whatever we ate certainly wouldn't hurt us, it was rather...chewy and waxy. =))

I mean, we just can't get over how great this is!

Now, as I said, we don't have the proper extracting equipment. So, Dave suspended a piece of the comb on a wire rack above a pan, and placed the whole thing in the dehydrator set veeerrrry low, to make the honey warm enough to come out. I took a piece of the comb and smashed it all up in a bowl, with a fork. Then I warmed it a tiny bit above some hot water, and strained it out.

A while back, I bought this fancy honey (i.e. very expensive) that was supposed to be extremely healthy. It's certainly delicious!

Now, that's what I was going for, with my method of smashing everything up and straining it.

I think it worked pretty well! :)

We're all pretty happy our honey!

Now, remember that Wager Ware skillet I bought last weekend?

I've been working on it for a week, cleaning it up. Here it is today.

I am, of course, extremely happy with how it's cleaned up, but I am a little dissapointed in that it looks to be painted silver. I'd like to do something about that, because I don't care much for it, but I guess it'll still work like it is! I still have to season it. I'm thinking this would be awesome...why not? :)

I made another rug for our kitchen. I obviously need to work on my crocheting. I can't crochet straight to save my life, it seems!

Yes, we do have hospital or school-like floors. When I went to fiddle camp, I almost laughed out loud....the floors at ETSU look a whole lot like our kitchen! =))

Time for me to run...supper's ready! Talk to y'all later!

Cast Iron

I love cast iron cookware! We don't have a lot of cast iron right now, but the couple of skillets that we do have are always out when I'm the one cooking! The lastest issue of Countryside magazine has an extensive article on cast iron, and kept me reading for a while!

A lot of the antique stores around here have cast iron pans in them, and then there are the auctions! We'd never been to an auction before we moved here to KY, but here they seem to be a normal thing on Saturdays. I love going to the auctions, and not just to buy stuff. It's a good thing, too...hard to buy with no money, usually. I love the social aspect of the auctions, and I believe a lot of the other folks there go for that same social reason. It's a lot of fun. Back to the subject, a lot of the auctions have cast iron, but it seems like it's always so expensive! Of course, I think the hype of the auctions gets to everyone, and they end up paying a lot more than they would normally...

After I read the Countryside article, I got on Ebay. (That's a dangerous thing for me to do...if I do have money. I'm safe for now.) Unless things go haywire at the last minute, which, ok...is normal on Ebay, cast iron is a good deal on there. I guess you can always find deals...which is how I'm consoling myself since I didn't bid on some AWESOME skillets yesterday!

I asked Mama if she thought maybe you could register with Ebay when you get married. You know, people register with Linens-N-Things and Sears and all that...I think Ebay sounds good.

Anyway, there was a lot of rambling nothingness. It pretty much all boils down to me saying that I like cast iron, and I recommend the Countryside article for tips on caring for cast iron. I think I could even give up the infatuation I have with Le Crueset (sniff) for a good set of old black cast iron skillets, dutch ovens, and griddles.

Almost.