On our Colorado trip I did some thrift store shopping. I purchased three pieces. Get this...a square skillet and the round one below were marked $4. When I paid out...they were HALF PRICE! These are American made cast iron. The third purchase at another store was a Dutch oven for $18. I am really excited about the Dutch oven. It is THE name in old collectible cast iron - Griswold. :D Price in an antique store would have been $50 - $80 even without a lid.
Photo before cleaning and seasoning. Doris (friend in Colorado) could not believe I bought these as rusty as they were. Her husband told her, Oh yeah. They will clean up and look like new.
I did not need the skillets but look at every piece I see in junk/resale stores for American made at a good price for the kids. At our stop-off at John and Erin's on the way home I offered them one of the skillets - they picked the square skillet that did not need seasoning.
That left this skillet for Brook.
Since he is living in a camper right now, Jonathan just has a piece or two there and the rest is packed away.
A couple of weekends ago, I decided to set my oven on the cleaning cycle. GREAT time to burn off cast iron if you don't have a brush pile to burn. I grabbed the lid that fits my chicken fryer - which also fits my new Dutch oven - and tossed it in the oven too.
After burning, scouring with steel wool, greasing with lard, and baking in the oven...
I cooked with Brook's "new" skillet until her visit this weekend. It now has a new home.
My one piece of Griswold...
My first loaf of bread in my new Dutch oven...
Doris also took me to the Apple Shed. In the pottery area, I purchased a sugar shaker to replace my boring white sugar bowl.
See the dimple in the side? There's a mate on the other side for your finger and thumb to fit when you pick it up. If you look for it, you can see the hole on the upper right side of the slope...looks to be rimmed in red.
The Apple Festival was last Saturday and the shop had their seconds for sale...I told Doris if she saw anything she thought I'd like... ;)
I was informed by Tisme that I had not posted the recipe for the bread mentioned in a couple of my previous posts. Here it is:
Easy Bread
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon yeast (I use more like 3/4 teaspoon)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup water
Mix all. Dough will be shaggy. Spray or wipe some oil on a piece of plastic wrap. Press on top of dough and leave on countertop 12 - 18 hours.
When you are ready to bake it, flour your hands and scoop it out on a floured surface. Very lightly knead the dough. Leave it on the floured surface and cover with a towel. After 30 minutes turn your oven to 450 degrees and put your cast iron pot and lid in the oven for 30 minutes. After the cast iron has heated, remove from oven and gently dump dough into the pot; cover with a lid and return to oven. Bake with lid on for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake an additional 15 minutes or until browned enough.
Somewhere I have photos of my newest cast iron purchases. When I find the photos, I will post them.
Sam was out-of-town a couple of weekends ago attending a three-class lunch reunion in Bay City Texas. I cleaned house for two straight days. I got a few other things accomplished as well as watched a couple of movies.
I watched the latest Star Trek movie. I laughed all the way through Grease. I think it was because I subbed at high school for five years. The kids are THE SAME!
I wanted to cook something light. Earlier I ran across a recipe for roasted tomato soup...so that's what I cooked. DELICIOUS!
The only tomato soup I knew anything about was Campbell's tomato. That's enough to turn anyone off of tomato soup! On vacation one year, Sam and I ate at Crystal Lodge in Lake City Colorado. The French-trained chef prepared tomato bisque soup for the first course. First bite sold me on tomato soup!
This recipe is simple:
4 tomatoes, quartered
1 medium onion, sliced thick
3-4 garlic cloves, halved
Roast at 350-400 degrees for 30 or so minutes.
While that is in the oven, slice some good bread - I used a couple of slices of the bread I cooked in my "new" Dutch oven...photos will follow. Spray/sprinkle with olive oil and toast almost to crouton stage in your cast iron skillet.
Remove from oven, add 1 cup vegetable broth. You can blend in a food processor in batches or with a stick blender...I did the stick blender. Add salt, pepper, basil, any other Italian seasoning to taste.
Ladle into serving bowl, top with toasted bread. Sprinkle with bleu cheese and a spoonful of olive bruschetta.
DELICIOUS!
The photos did not load in order...so I will be hopping around.
Cody, Brook, Isabel, and Jonathan all came to the family reunion. I had to be careful at the reunion and watch what I ate because Brook had notified me that if it was okay she wanted to cook supper for us. Well YES! She pounded chicken breasts and rolled up around basil and mozzarella and seasonings...popped in the freezer to firm for a few minutes...then the flour, egg, bread crumb process and baked it then topped with a red wine mushroom sauce. I had the salad fixings: mixed greens, kalamata olives, pepperoncini, feta cheese, and a homemade vinaigrette. My homemade bread was sliced, buttered, seasoned and toasted. For dessert we had cannoli pie (cannoli filling in a baked pastry shell. MERCY!
Isabel and Jonathan played. He said that her idea of taking turns stacking dominoes and knocking them down was for him to stack them and she would knock them down. Then he would tell her that it was her turn. She would lay down one domino then tell him that it was his turn! ;-)
I made a couple of things for Isabel...a jumper...
...and a corduroy jacket. When Isabel saw the jumper, her eyes rounded. When she saw the jacket, she immediately hugged her arms and said, "I cold." She needed it Saturday evening and definitely Sunday morning! Isn't she such a cute model?! Yes. I think so too.
Sunday morning breakfast with a bacon grease face.
Sunset one evening...
We never had more than four hummingbirds. Then we got down to only two. The other night we had FIVE! They must have made a pit stop on their migratory trip. There's one on the other side of the bottle...the fifth was too busy flying in and out.
At the reunion, Isabel was the youngest...Bill Ray the oldest at 97...he will be 98 next month.
She did not know him so was not too happy to be that close. I was holding her, but it was still too close to him to suit her.
