Cooking in cast iron pans is not difficult, but you do need to keep a few basic rules in mind. First of all, once the pan is warm, it retains heat better than regular pans, so it is best to start cooking on medium high, then turn the heat setting to medium or low once the food begins to cook. Cooking on too high of a heat setting will cause the food to brown too quickly, or maybe even burn.
The other really important rule is never to set a cast iron pan that is cold, or even room temperature on a hot burner or in a hot oven. Also, do not add cold liquids to a hot pan. Cast iron will crack if the temperature change inside the pan is too sudden. If additional liquid must be added during cooking, warm it up before adding it.
Always use hot pads. Special hot pads are made specifically for cast iron pans because they get so hot and will quickly burn through towels or hot pads that are not designed to deal with high heat.
Now that you know some basic information about cooking with cast iron pans, here is how I cook a pot roast in a cast iron Dutch oven.
The first step is to gather all of your ingredients together. Here is what you will need:
2 teaspoons Butter
Beef pot roast
Meat rub
Garlic powder
Pepper
Salt
Worcestershire sauce
Potatoes
Carrots
Hot Water
Put the pan on the stove, turn the heat setting to medium high and add the butter. A wood fired stove that is just starting to heat up or a grill or campfire whose flames have died down will also work.
Allow the butter to melt, then add the pot roast. Season the top side of the pot roast with a teaspoon of meat rub, a teaspoon of garlic and pepper. Sprinkle each spice over the top of the pot roast.
Once the bottom of the roast is brown, which will take about 10 minutes, turn it over so the other side can brown.
Sprinkle enough Worcestershire sauce over the top of the pot roast to cover it. This will add flavor and help tenderize the meat.
Allow the meat to simmer in the butter, Worcestershire sauce and its own juices for about 10 minutes.
Add carrots and brown slightly.
Cut whole potatoes into thirds and add them. Once they are all added, stir the potatoes and carrots together, then carefully lift the meat up high enough so the meat lays on top of the potatoes and carrots. If you desire, add salt and additional seasoning at this point.
Add enough hot water to almost cover the potatoes and carrots. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and sit in on the top rack of your oven if you are using a stove, otherwise, simply put the lid on and continue cooking.
Once the pan is inside the oven, close the oven door, turn the heat to 350 degrees F and cook for 3 hours or until the meat is tender.
That’s all there is to it! Remember to remove the food from the cast iron pan as soon as it is finished cooking. Place the dirty pan in the sink, making sure to rinse it off well with hot water. It is not necessary to wash cast iron with soap and never use steel wool. If something sticks, use a wash cloth to scrub it off or a soft brush.
Once the pan is clean, place it back into the oven, or on top of a heat source so all the water can be removed. If this is not done, the pan will rust. Finally, spray the cast iron pan with grease or use a rag to rub it all over the pan if necessary. This is done to season it and prevent food from sticking.
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals by on Jan 9th, 2011. 3 Comments. 
This should maybe be named how not to cut your head off when making your own home video! LOL! I like how the video itself turned out except for that one flaw, so I am uploading it! The salad contains a variety of greens, lettuce, red mustard, purple basil, rose petals, dill and parsley – all organically grown in my early spring garden. Enjoy!
Filed under Edible Flowers, Stylish Edible Decor by on May 31st, 2010. Comment.
The trick to creating the perfect herbal tea recipes or desert is moderation. You don’t want everything you serve to contain herbs or you may find your guests a bit burned out on the taste. Offer both herbal and non-herbal teas and deserts so that your guests may mix and match according to their personal preferences.
One of my favorite herbal tea recipes is for this Spring Garden Herbal Tea.
10 fresh sage leaves
16 fresh lemon balm leaves
12 small mint leaves
Petals from 1 red rose
2 rose-scented geranium leaves
6 cups boiling water
Add leaves to a pot and pour in boiling water. Allow to steep for 10 to 20 minutes.
This tea is great anytime of the year but was named because these are often some of the first herbs to come up in the spring garden.
I always use fresh herbs when they are available, however dried herbs are an acceptable substitute. If you purchase herbs or flowers to use, be sure that they have not been sprayed. An herb shop, grocer or health food store can often get these items fresh or dried throughout the year.
Herbal tea recipes are very easy to make. You can take a handful of your favorite herbs rather they are peppermint, chamomile or whatever your personal preference might be, steep them in hot water, add a touch of honey or milk if you prefer and enjoy. Pre-packed herbal teas may also be purchased although I prefer to use herbs from my garden.
Filed under Herbal Beverages by on Jan 22nd, 2010. 2 Comments.
If you heat with wood there is a good chance the top of your wood burner is cast iron or metal unless of course you have a fireplace. If the top of your stove is metal or cast iron there is no reason why you cannot cook on it. Before you begin, get a wood burner stove thermometer that will monitor the temperature of your stove. This little gadget is magnetic and should be placed on top of the stove.
The next thing you will need is some cast iron pots and pans. You can buy new ones or used ones. If you get a used on and it has rust on it, use steel wool to scrub it off.
Cast iron should be washed in warm soapy water before the first use. Do this by hand, then sit it on top of the wood stove to dry. Never allow cast iron pans to dry naturally. Always use heat to dry them. Once the pan is dry, oil it, especially if this is the first use, then dry again.
To season, heavily coat the inside of the pan with lard, vegetable oil or another type of edible oil, you can then let it dry on the stove or put it in an oven. If you use an oven, turn it to 300 degrees F and leave it in there for about two hours. Use caution when removing the hot pan or simply let it cool in the oven.
Now that your pan is seasoned you are ready to begin. Let’s say you want to make a roast. A cast iron Dutch oven would be the pan for the job. Fill the pan with carrots, potatoes, the roast, a cup of water and whatever other ingredients you wish. Cover the pan. If you prefer, you can brown your roast in the bottom of the pan before you add the other ingredients.
Check the temperature on your wood stove. It should be about 250 degrees to 300 degrees. You do not want it too hot since putting cold cast iron on a hot stove could cause it to crack. If you are satisfied that the temperature is right, sit the pan on top of the stove. Allow this to cook until the meat is tender. Remember to stir it from time to time so the roast does not stick.
If you wish to bake bread, biscuits or cornbread to go with your meal, you can use a Conservo Oven, which can be found at antique stores or flea markets, or simply lay the pan on top of two bricks and cover.
The more you cook on your wood stove, the more you will learn. The temperature is the most important part. Learning to control the temperature takes time and practice. Once you get a steady fire going though you can add small pieces of wood from time to time to help keep it going.
Filed under Wood Stove Cooking by on Jan 18th, 2010. Comment.
If you are growing your own peanuts or simply have access to a batch of peanuts at a good price, why not make your own peanut butter?
Homemade peanut butter is good for two weeks from the day it is made. It does need to be kept in the refrigerator. It is easy to make and tastes delicious. All you need to make your own peanut butter is 1 ½ cups unsalted, roasted peanuts and 1 tablespoon of oil. If you have peanut oil, that is the best choice, if not use what you have on hand.
For a smooth peanut butter, mix the peanuts and oil in a small dish until the peanuts are coated with the oil. Then put them into a food processer and grind until the mixture is smooth. Once you are satisfied with the texture, put it in a sealed container and refrigerate.
If you prefer crunchy peanut butter, simply omit ¼ cup of the nuts from the food processor. Process as above, then add the ¼ cup of nuts to the mixture and process again until you get the right texture. You will not want to process it the second time until it gets smooth, just until the nuts are chopped up enough ton suit you. This mixture will also need refrigerated.
Sometimes the oil will separate from the peanut butter. If this happens, simply stir the peanut butter up so the oil is mixed back in. Use this as you would any commercial peanut butter.
Filed under Peanut Butter by on Jan 9th, 2010. Comment.
Making your own butter is not hard, even if you don’t have milk animals. Butter can be made from cow, goat and sheep cream which comes from their milk. You can also buy heavy whipping cream at the store and make butter from it.
If you are using raw or home pasteurized milk instead of store bought, the easiest way to separate the cream from the milk is with a cream separator. However if you do not have one, the other way is to sit the milk in small containers such as canning jars in the refrigerator, once the milk is cooled. The cream will slowly rise to the top. This process can take several hours to overnight. Use a spoon to dip the cream off. You will not get as much cream, but you will get some.
To increase the amount of butter, feel free to add store bought heavy whipping cream to the cream you skimmed. You will get some milk in the cream you skim as well. Leave it in the cream. It will not hurt anything and will make the butter easier to churn.
Regardless of the type of cream you use, the easiest way to make butter is to use a standard kitchen blender.
Sit the cream you are going to use on your kitchen counter about ten minutes before you intend to churn it. The warmer the cream, the easier it will turn into butter.
When you are ready, put the cream into the blender and turn it on. If there is too much cream and not enough milk the blender will have trouble churning it. Simply add more milk to solve this problem. The butter should float freely in the liquid.
Once the butter is made, remove it from the blender with a spoon. The remaining liquid is buttermilk. It can be strained and put into a glass jar for use in biscuits, breads, pancakes or other recipes that call for buttermilk.
Once the blender is empty, rinse it with cold water, put the butter back in it and cover the butter with cold water. Blend briefly, dump the water off the butter and repeat.
Continue this process until the water runs clear. The more of the buttermilk you can remove, the longer the butter will last. When you are satisfied that the butter is clean, add salt to taste. You can also add herbs at this point.
Mix well with a spoon to distribute the salt and herbs. When you are satisfied that the ingredients are well distributed, put the butter in a covered container in the refrigerator and use as needed.
Filed under Butter by on Jan 5th, 2010. 3 Comments.
Are you looking for a really cool project to chase away the winter blues? Why not make a solar oven? It is an easy project that you can make, possibly with materials you already have on hand. When spring comes around, you will be ready to set your new solar oven outside and see what you can cook with it!
Making a solar oven is not hard. You need a few simple things such as a two large cardboard boxes that can nest in one another, aluminum foil, black paint, perilite, tape, an oven thermometer and an old window.
Begin by taping the aluminum foil to the inside of both boxes. We used clear tape to do this so we did not cover any of the aluminum foil with dark tape that may have interferred with the solar cooker working well. As you can see from the first photo, over time, the clear tape begins to yellow. We chose to use duck tape on the outside of the box because we thought it would hold better than the clear tape.
Then cut enough one inch strips of cardboard to put every couple of inches inside the bottom of the larger box. Bend these strips so they zigzag, then lay them on their skinny sides in the bottom of the box. What you are doing is creating air space.
Pour in the bag of perilite. You want about an inch of this in the bottom of the box. Sit the smaller box into the bigger one and fill the sides equally with more perilite. Tape the two box flaps together and trim off the excess. You now have your oven assembled.
The next step is to cut a large piece of cardboard the size of the bottom of the smaller box. Cover it with aluminum foil, then paint it black. The black side will face up when it is set in the bottom of the oven and your pans as well as the oven thermometer will sit on top of it.
The old window will go on top of the box to seal it. You can use plexiglass if you prefer.
Your solar oven is now ready to try out. Recipes will be coming soon so keep a watch on this site for them!
Filed under Solar Oven by on Jan 3rd, 2010. 4 Comments.
Making your own cheese is easy. You can use fresh milk from a goat, sheep or cow or buy store bought milk. If you buy store bought milk, be sure to get vitamin D milk so it has plenty of cream in it.
The first step in making homemade cheese is gathering together your equipment. You will need a large pot, large enough to hold a gallon of milk. You will also need a strainer, thermometer, cheesecloth meant for food use, vinegar, milk, salt and herbs.
Once your tools are gathered, wet the cheesecloth with cold water and if possible, line the strainer with it and put it in the freezer. If you cannot freeze it, that is ok, but the colder the cheesecloth, the better.
Slowly begin heating the milk. You do not want it to boil, or burn. Heat up the milk until the temperature reaches somewhere between 100 degrees F and 125 degrees F. The warmer the milk gets, the drier the cheese will be. If your milk gets hotter than this, you can still use it but the cheese will be drier.
As soon as the milk hits the temperature you need, remove it from the heat and add in ¼ cup plain white vinegar. Let this sit, off of heat for at least 15 minutes, if it sits a bit longer, that is ok.
Put the strainer in the sink. If you have outdoor animals such as cats or chickens, you can sit the strainer in another large pot so you can catch the whey that drains off the cheese and offer it as a treat. Dump the contents of the pot into the strainer. The cheese will remain in the cheesecloth and the whey will drain through.
Once all of the whey is drained off the cheese, put the cheese into a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and herbs to taste. We like to add 1 tablespoon of dill and 1/8 teaspoon of garlic. Mix well and refrigerate. This is delicious as a dip or spread.
Filed under Cheesemaking, Cow Cheese, Goat Cheese, Sheep Cheese by on Jan 2nd, 2010. 1 Comment.
Nothing compares to the tender, spicy taste of BBQ beef ribs. Beef ribs are easy to make if you know how. The trick is to cook the ribs long enough that the meat is falling off the bones. This recipe will take two and a half hours to cook. The temperature to cook the ribs on is 350 degrees F.
I cook my ribs in a blue enamel ware oval covered pan. If you don’t have one of these pans, you can use any pan and cover it with aluminum foil.
The first step is to assemble your ingredients. If you have a large rack of ribs, you will want to cut them down so they will fit in a frying pan or an electric skillet. Try to leave three bones per section of meat.
3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon chicken fat or bouillon
2 tablespoons safflower oil or olive oil
2 tablespoons dried rosemary or 3 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon dried savory
1 1/2 cups red wine
2 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon A-1
To taste: garlic powder, McCormick’s Montreal Steak Spicy Grill Seasoning, salt and fresh ground pepper
Begin by putting the rosemary, chicken fat or bouillon and oil into a frying pan.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to gently bubble.
Flour the beef ribs so all the sides are covered. Then put the ribs, one section at a time into the frying pan.
Brown the ribs.
As the ribs brown, set them into the pan that they will be baking in. Once all the ribs are in the pan, add the additional spices to taste as well as the soy sauce and A-1 sauce.
Pour the beef broth and wine in the bottom of the pan. Then add enough water so the liquid is covering the sides of the ribs. See the photo above to get a better idea of how much water to add.
Cover the pan and place it in a 350 degree F oven. Set the timer for one hour. When the timer goes off, check the ribs to make sure there is still plenty of water in the pan. If there is not enough water in the pan at that point, add more being careful not to get it on the top of the ribs.
Put the pan, covered back into the oven for another hour. When that hour is up, check the ribs. The meat should be tender enough that it will easily fall away from the bone using a fork.
Once the beef ribs have cooked for two hours, remove the pan from the oven, remove the lid, check the water level one last time. If it is low, add more water.
Before putting the ribs back into the oven for the final half hour of cooking, cover the top of the ribs in BBQ sauce. How much you use will depend on what your family likes. I like to put it on thick. Remember the heat will cause it to run and thin.
Cover the pan again and put it back in the oven. Set your timer for thirty minutes. When the timer goes off, the beef ribs are done.
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals, Meat Recipes by on Dec 10th, 2009. 15 Comments.
Do you like lasagna but think making it is a hassle? Three pans is all it takes. We use home canned sauce, but you can use store bought sauce if you like. We use the old fashioned lasagna that you boil, but there is an oven ready lasagna noodle available now, which would cut the pans needed down to two. You can even make lasagna in a solar oven, but that is a post for another day!
To begin, gather your ingredients. The basic ingredients are hamburger if you want meat, bacon – or you can use a bit of bacon grease for flavor, lasagna noodles, tomato or spaghetti sauce and cheese. If you like your food spicy, gather your favorite herbs or spices such as garlic, peppers, rosemary, basil, chilli powder and fresh ground pepper.
Begin by browning the hamburger in your skillet. I like using an old fashion cast iron skillet, but do use whatever skillet you have.
When the hamburger is brown with no more pink showing, it is time to drain it. I dump my hamburger into a strainer positioned in my kitchen sink. Using hot water, I wash the hamburger to remove the excess grease that will not just run off. I also rinse the skillet out. Be sure you use hot water to do this. Once you have returned the meat to the pan, remove the strainer from that side of the sink, squirt a bit of dishwasher detergent into the sink, then use hot water to rinse the sink again and wash the detergent down the drain. This will help stop the grease from causing a clog in your drain.
Put the pan filled with meat back on the stove. If I am adding bacon bits or bacon grease, now is the time I do it. Do not add more than a tablespoon of bacon grease, less is better. If you are using crumbled bacon or bacon bits, add a generous handfull.
Have the sauce you are using and the spices assembled on the stove. Tonight I added two tablespoons of garlic scapes to the meat.
I put the fresh garlic scapes into a food grinder so they would be ground up when I added them to the meat.
This is a photo of the garlic scapes ground up. They smell pungent enough without being ground, so imagine that smell ten times stronger! I preserved my fresh garlic scapes in sea salt, so there will not be a need to add additional salt to the sauce when I make it.
In addition to the garlic scapes, I added two whole garlic cloves, a tablespoon of basil, one small red chili pepper, a tablespoon of rosemary, a teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper and a teasopoon of chili powder. The homemade sauce I used was also pre-seasoned with basil and Italian herbs.
Once all the seasonings have been added to the meat and stirred in, go ahead and add your sauce. Mix well. Lower the heat to a low or warm setting. All you are doing now is keeping the sauce warm and allowing the flavors to mix.
Once the sauce is warm, add some fresh grated cheese to the sauce. Mix well. The amount of cheese you add will vary depending on how thin your sauce is. You want to add just enough to make the sauce thick. Generally I find if I cover the top of the sauce as shown above, that is all I will need to do.
Once your sauce is done, keep it warm while you boil the water for your lasagna. A pinch of salt along with a drop of olive oil should be added to your water. The olive oil will keep the pasta from sticking.
Once your water comes to a boil, lay the pasta in the pan. It will stick out of the pan at first. This is ok. Allow the pasta to sit like this for a minute or so, then gently push it down into the water.
Once the pasta is completely submerged in the water, cook it according to package directions. This generally takes somewhere between ten and twelve minutes, but can vary so do read the directions on your box of lasagna.
When the lasagna is fully cooked, drain it into a stainer positioned in your kitchen sink. If you have a sprayer, turn on the cold water and hose the pasta off, if not, use your faucet and turn the pasta so it all gets rinsed.
Dump the pasta back into the pan and fill with cold water. This will stop the pasta from continuing to cook. Take the pan filled with the water and pasta back to your stove. Put one layer of pasta on the bottom of the pan.
Add a bit of sauce to the first layer of pasta. Be aware the sauce will thin during cooking, so do not fret that is does not evenly cover the pasta. Add a thin layer of cheese on top of the pasta.
Continue layering the lasagna, the sauce and the cheese. If you are using a variety of cheese like I do, feel free to alternate them or mix them, whichever you prefer.
This is the top layer. I put some sauce on it, homemade goat cheese and a sprinkling of Mexican cheese. I use a variety of cheese on my lasagna, usually an Italian, a Mexican and whatever other type of cheese I have on hand.
The last step is to cover the pan, put it in the oven and cook it at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. The buzzer just went off in the kitchen. I can smell the spicy mix of herbs, cheese and garlic flowing this way. Time to get off here, make a nice slice of homemade herb bread and butter and eat.
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals, Pasta Recipes by on Nov 11th, 2009. 17 Comments.
