I love to cook, but what I do not like is cleaning up all the pots and
pans after I am done. Therefore I try to come up with meals that can
be cooked in one of my cast iron pans. For breakfast, my favorite meal,
I will cook up sausage in the pan with onions and green pepper. When that
is done I will add some potatoes that I have cooked in the microwave and
cut up in small pieces. Once the potatoes are browned, I add 6-8 eggs in
the pan and stir until done. Add a little sour cream on top or your favorite
salsa and you have a great breakfast with only 1 pan to clean.

Nothing starts a Saturday morning out better than fresh hot Blueberry
muffins and they are easy to make.

What you need:
1 egg – 1 Cup milk – 1/4 cup salad oil – 2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar – 3 teaspoons baking powder – 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberry’s or 3/4 cup drained frozen blueberry’s

Grease the bottoms of your cast iron muffin pan, heat the oven to 400 degrees
Beat the egg in a bowl and stir in milk and oil. Add remaining ingredients until
flour is moistened. Add blueberry’s and fill cups 2/3 full.
Bake until golden brown about 20 – 25 minutes.
Then enjoy!

One of the most versatile tools in my kitchen is my
cast iron flat grill. The one I have is reversible so I can cook pancakes or french
toast on one side and hamburgers or chops on the other side. The side with the
ridges helps drain the fat for the burgers and gives beautiful grill marks on steaks.
If the weather is bad and you can’t grill outside, think flat grill. Want to make several
grilled cheese sandwiches at one time, what better tool than a flat grill. It works better
than a round skillet because you don’t loose any grilling room.

I have beautiful cast iron cornbread pan that I received as a gift. The problem is I don’t
like cornbread. I never acquired the taste for it. What I use it for now after letting it sit
around for a long time is to make stuffing in it. This makes a beautiful presentation.
Another fun thing to do with it is to make pancakes for the kids in it. You will need to
bake the pancakes verses the way you make them on the stove. Kids love them. Want to
try something else fun, try cooking hamburgers in it. The next thing I am going to try
is making yellow jello in it for the kids. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Now that Christmas is over and we have had snow on the ground for
more than a month, I am ready for Spring. One of our favorite things
to do is to go camping with our horses and friends. For us, nothing beats
riding our horses in the high meadows for the day and then coming back
to camp and cooking a nice meal with our cast iron cookware. The funnest
way to do it is to cook a great stew over an open fire. Although we are not
real cowboys, doing it this way makes us feel like we are back in the 1860′s.
Sure, we could cook dinner on a stove, but having everyone gathered around
the fire for dinner is much more fun.

This is a simple and inexpensive recipe that goes great with chicken
or any other type of meat. It takes about 20 to 30y minutes to prepare.

What you need.
1. White rice   2. Broccoli   3. Butter  4. Teriyaki sauce
5. 1 large onion   6. Extra virgin olive oil
Using one of your cast iron cooking pots, add 1 cup rice with 2 cups water.
Cut up Broccoli in bite size pieces and add to rice and water. Bring to boil.
After water starts to boil, put on lid and simmer until rice is tender.
While rice is cooking, chop up onion and add it to a sauce pan with 2 tablespoons
of olive oil. Cook until tender. When rice and broccoli are done, add the onions
to the pot. Stir in butter and teriyaki sauce to taste. It’s that simple. For added
taste you can sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top.

If you have cast iron frying pans in your kitchen, you know how versatile  they are. They are the best pans for cooking on the stove, then putting them in the oven and taking them straight to to table to serve. Unlike Teflon pans you can cut your food right in them without worrying about hurting the surface. There is no need to always try to find a rubber spoon or plastic knife to use in the pan. And with pre-seasoned cast iron frying pans you can cut down on how much oil or butter you use. If you haven’t tried cast iron, you are in for a treat.

What you see above is an Old Mountain cast iron fish corn bread pan.
Now we don’t really like corn bread, but we do use it too make eggs in when the
nieces and nephews come to visit. We take some eggs and whisk them in a bowl.
Then we spray some Pam on the pan and fill it with the eggs. Then we put it in the
oven and bake it at 350 degrees until done. The kids love them because they look like fish
when they come out. You can even garnish the plate with some fruit so it looks like bubbles
are coming out of the fish. If you think about it, you can have a lot of fun with your cookware.

There’s just something about cast iron that makes a house feel
like a home. There are so many fancy gadgets that you can buy
now to put in your kitchen. Lots of things cook automatically
and you better have plenty of plug ins to run them all. Many people
buy their foods already cooked and just heat it up. I know we are
all short of time, but cooking your own food and doing it, dare I say,
the old fashion way is fun, relaxing and you get better food. Pull out your
cast iron cookware, your favorite stew recipe and have some fun.

It’s the holiday season with Thanksgiving over and Christmas just around the corner. It’s also the season when people start getting sick. As you are around more people than usual your chances of catching something is greater. Tea is good for you and makes you feel good when you don’t. I give up my coffee when I am feeling bad and get out my cast iron tea pots  and cook up my favorite tea. There are so many great teas to choose from these days you will have a hard time choosing. There are also many specialty tea shops where you can try the tea before you buy it. Get some tea now so you have it when you need it, or just when you want a great cup of tea.