How to Clean and Care for a Cast Iron Skillet

How to clean cast iron

My favorite pans to cook in are my cast iron skillets. I use them everyday.  They are the most versatile and  indestructible  cookware that I know of.  They are the best non stick type of pan as well…better than any of the most expensive  teflon type pans in fact.  They also add a bit of iron to our food which is something I’d prefer over adding a bit of aluminum.

They need to be seasoned to create the wonderful non stick effect. This is really easy to do and nothing to be afraid of.

First, I’ll address seasoning a new cast iron pan, then I will talk about cleaning and caring for older pans.

1. Congratulations, you bought a beautiful brand new cast iron pan! You are so smart! The manufacturer has coated the pan with a coating to keep it from rusting in the store. This needs to be scrubbed off  before you first use the pan. So, squirt some soap in the pan and scrub it with a scrubby. Now, add a little water to the pan, just a 1/4 inch and put it on the burner to boil the water. After it is boiling, dump out the water and watch the remaining water evaporate.

2. Next, add a generous dollop of vegetable oil to the hot pan. Wipe it around with a paper towel. Wipe the inside and outside of the pan.

3. Put the oiled pan into a hot 350 degree oven. “Cook” the pan for a 1/2 hour or so then take it out.  It is now seasoned and ready to be put to use…for the next 100 years or so!

Every time we use a cast iron pan, we add a bit of oil and heat it up so we are in a sense, seasoning it. The best way to maintain and season a pan is to cook in it, a lot!

Now, here is what you need to know about caring for an older pan.

Some people say that we should never use soap in a cast iron pan and we should never scrub it. They advocate a little salt to swish around and wipe it ‘clean’. Some people say that it is a crime to use water at all and all you should do is wipe the pan out with a paper towel and not wash it at all!  Yuck!  I have always use soap, a scrubby and lots of hot water.  After, time and many family dinners, a fully seasoned pan will be simple to maintain.

1. First thing to do is to wash the pan just as you would wash any pan…with soap and water.

2. Now, scrub it well.

3. Next, add a bit of water to the pan, just a 1/4 inch will do. Put it on the stove and turn the burner to high.

4. Dump the boiling water into the sink and watch the remaining water evaporate.

5. Finally, after the water has evaporated, put a tablespoon of vegetable oil into the hot pan and wipe it with a paper towel. Truth be told, if you use your pan everyday, this step can be skipped more often than not.  I do it about once every few weeks. But then again, I am seasoning my pan every time I cook so I guess that I am not really skipping this step.

Take care to never put a damp pan or dish nested inside a cast iron pan. It will rust and make a mess. If this happens, simply scrub off the rust and season it again with a little oil.

One more tip: To make the pan work like non-stick cookware, heat up the oil (and pan) before adding  other ingredients. Food will stick to a cold pot but not to a hot one.

Done! Now get cooking! Try this wonderful corn bread recipe…I changed it a bit by putting the batter into my cast iron pan and popping it into the oven.  The crust comes out golden and crispy. Yum!!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmothers-buttermilk-cornbread/

Enjoy the day!  -Peg

The Big Reveal: Guest Room Before and After

The guest room is finally together. I have a few things left to touch up, but it is finished and awaiting its first new guest! Remember when I started working on the guest room? I cleared everything out and started with a ‘White Box Challenge,’ just like on Design Star! Well, this season of Design Star is now complete (yay Meg!), and it took me a lot longer than an HGTV designer to get this done. I was in no hurry, but I may want to reconsider thinking about going on Design Star, ever. Remember what my guest room looked like before it was cleaned out? It was boring and not cohesive and not welcoming to my guests.

Well, I cleaned it out and took everything out (and gave away that awful, ugly treadmill) so I could start anew. The Guest Bedroom Whitebox Challenge was born! I gave myself a strict $200 budget to make this into a welcoming, warm, colorful space.

White Box Challenge

I managed to stick to the budget by using things that I already had, making things that I needed to add, and using one Crate and Barrel gift certificate to add a few new things.

Things I kept:

• Bed (Ikea)
• Bedspread (Dwell Studio from Target)
• Side Table (Estate sale find)
• Chair (Crate and Barrel, part of my 6 piece dining set)

Things I made:

• Paint chip art
• Pelmet
• Marshmallow bench
• A few pillows
• Mirror border

Things from ‘shopping’ my house:

• Mini desk (Ikea, used to be my sewing table, but I barely used it)
• Artwork (other than paint chip)
• Lamps (Vintage)
• Vase and Billy Button flowers (from the garden)
• Books
• Typewriter
• White bedspread (Vintage, replaced from my bed with a brand new steal of a deal from C&B.)

Totally new things:

• Carafe (Crate and Barrel)
• Mirror (Home Depot)
• Gray paint (Home Depot)

Take a look at the new space.

I love it! But there are still a few things I would change. I like the lattice border around the mirror (see way below), and I think the pictures above the bed are a bit small in scale, so I might paint a border on that wall too, or add some new or different art. I think there needs to be art above the tables on either side of the bed as well. Also, the wall by the floor lamp, below, needs to be filled with something, too.

The bench isn’t quite finished yet. I still have to put the tufted buttons on. There was a delay since I didn’t have any upholstery thread, and my other thread just snapped. That is on the to do list.

I have a white garden stool outside, that might look good in this room, but I’m not sure if it needs it, or where it should go.

Here are a few more detail pictures. Yay!

Doesn't it look comfy and colorful? Just how I like to decorate!

Will you come visit me? You’re welcome to stay in my new guest bedroom!

I hope to share a few of my projects more in depth over the next few weeks, so be on the lookout!

-Liz

Linked to: Flaunt It Friday, Amaze Me Monday, Creative Bloggers Party and Hop, Sunday Showcase Party

Korin’s Updated Living Room: Before and After

Remember when I helped out Korin come up with a scheme for her living room? Well, she invited me over to her condo the other day to update me on the changes she made. Her changes varied a little from the geometric scheme I suggested, and it turned out quite nice!

Here is a picture to jog your memory on what Korin’s living room looked like before:

Between May and September, Korin accomplished:

• Painted the walls a light gray
• Added a few new lamps (isn’t the yellow Crate and Barrel lamp fabulous?)
• Found a new rug with green organic shapes (barely pictured)
• Installed a deconstructed poster gallery wall.

Here it her living room now:

The art on the wall above her couch is made up of an Andy Warhol print of the Brooklyn Bridge, cut up into 9 pieces and installed in vintage frames. Korin came up with this original concept by herself, and I think it adds a very homey, eclectic feel to a room that needs a little touch of something DIY.

I think it’s quite amazing how different, and more cozy, her room looks with just a few changes. She didn’t add any new furniture or really any huge or expensive new elements, but with a bit of color on the walls and a fun lamp, the whole space is tied together.

I still love those West Elm side tables the best though!

There still are a few other changes that need to be made, like installing some floor to ceiling drapes on the windows to give the room even more warmth, and Korin would like to replace her coffee table with something that fits in better.

Here is another view with the kitchen and a new funky bookshelf.

What’s your favorite piece?

-Liz

 

Laundry lines

laundry is something that we all do. Most people look at doing laundry as a chore that can’t be avoided. I enjoy laundry. I like the  fresh smell of clean clothes. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment of having stacks of folded shirts and underwear. I get a certain thrill when I have removed an especially difficult stain. Call me weird. Go ahead, it wouldn’t be the first time…

I have posted about my laundry room in the past. Check out the  floor cloth I painted here.  There is more to my laundry room than just a pretty floor.   This may look like an ordinary cabinet.  You may think that I keep cleaning supplies in there. You may be right but there is also a secret behind those doors.

Check this out! I can hang and dry a full load of laundry on my retractable clothesline. I can also hide the line to tidy up before company comes over.  I rarely use my dryer anymore.  I feel good that I am being a good citizen by saving energy.  When I hang clothes in the winter, I appreciate the added humidity from the drying clothes.  During good weather, I open that window and enjoy a fresh breeze to help dry the load. I have tried using a collapsible wooden clothes rack but it takes up so much floor space and doesn’t really hold a full load of clothes. This works much much better. Here is the clothesline that I use but there are others out there that would work too. I replaced the plastic piece that pulls the lines out from the wall. I made a wooden one that is sturdier and can hold the weight of wet clothes. Make sure that you anchor both ends of the clothesline into studs in the wall. A load of wet clothes is heavy. I hope I have inspired some of you to put up an indoor retractable clothesline. It’s a good thing.

As an aside, I found these clothespins at an estate sale. I imagine that a very kind man painted these for his young wife.  She thought of him every time she  washed his overalls or her children’s dungarees. Her laundry line was between his vegetable garden and her flower garden, near the barn. He was the kind of husband who helped his wife with household chores. He washed windows. They probably held hands on walks together.  He brought coffee to her each morning  in her garden. He was a sweet, sentimental man. They both died within 2 weeks of each other,  happy and content after 60 years of marriage.  It is my honor to take care of these clothespins.   Happy laundry!  -Peg

Faux Bois Floor … or How I painted a fake wood floor

I just returned home from a relaxing 10 day retreat to my tiny cabin in the northwoods. It is my favorite place in the whole world. The cabin is  minuscule, just 20 x 20 feet.  It is an old bunk house that has been rescued from a fishing camp deep in the wilderness near the US and Canadian border and the  Boundary Waters Canoe Area or BWCA for short. It has  no running water, just an out house.  I have been slowly fixing it between kayak and canoe trips. Painting the plywood floor was my project this time. Picking blueberries was my other project!

I painted the plywood a pretty grayed blue. I liked it but I wanted to camouflage the plywood AND I wanted to put a pattern on the floor that would hide dirt. I decided to use a wood grain tool that I bought at my local hardware store.  I painted the top layer a very light gray over the blue. I think it inserts a sort of Scandinavian feel to my little getaway.

Here is what I did:

1. Scrubbed the heck out of the old floor. Let it dry.

2. Taped around the edges where I did not want to paint.

3. Painted the floor blue. I cut out the edges with a brush then used a roller. Let it dry.

4. Painted the floor a second coat. Let it dry.

5. Painted a stripe of gray paint over the blue and immediately used the graining tool to make the pattern. Rock the grain tool a bit to make the knots.

6. Worked in sections until the floor was finished. Let dry.

7. Painted on water based (made for floors) polyurethane. I covered it 4 times to get a durable finish.

I used latex paint, the kind for walls. I have been on a kick to get rid of old cans of paint in my basement so this color is the result of dumping three different blues together. I figure that the 4 coats of polyurethane will make the floor scrub-able.  You could use porch paint that is made specifically for floors. I would still poly it though. I think this process could be successful on concrete floors or even old linoleum. I would love to see other projects!

Here is the finished floor! It is suppose to be a temporary fix until we put in a real wood floor but I’m not sure. I never thought I would love it so much.

Here is the whole room again. I will post about making those chair slip covers sometime. I should also make a tutorial on the braided rug. It is made from old jeans.

The exterior of the cabin. It is a work in progress.

The reason I love to go north.

I did go blueberry picking!

Until next time – Peg

Linking to: Amaze Me Monday, Creative Bloggers Party and Hop, Tatertots and Jello, Sunday Showcase Party, DIY Home Sweet Home

Installed Skylight ‘After’

Some of you asked for some ‘after’ shots of the skylight. I was a little hesitant to put these up because they look so awful. But you asked, and I will publish.

It’s really hard to take a good photo of a big blob of light in your ceiling!

-Liz

Light up my life!: How to Install a Skylight

Sorry for the cheesy title.

We did something amazing last weekend. And by ‘we’ I mean Brentan did the work and I signed off on all the decisions.

We cut a hole in the roof.

And then installed a skylight. In the kitchen. It’s amazing. It’s life-changing. I want to spend time in my kitchen now. It’s a huge transformation and cost about $150. We should have done it two years ago when we moved in. I loooove it. The kitchen is bright and I’m happier in it. (ha! My husband made a change to our house that makes me want to spend more time in the kitchen!)

1. First, cut a hole. Make sure you don’t get sawdust all over your dishes and appliances.

2. This is what a cross section of my roof looks like! The wood screwed to the top of it made sure it didn’t fall down and crash in the inside of our house. That would be bad. 

3. Then you can make some breakfast with your little brother who happens to be visiting.

4. Then you install the skylight. Make sure it is sealed well so when the rain starts in the fall you don’t have water gushing into your house. We still have to double check this.

5. You might need some tools.

PS. Just as I suspected, we had a tie on the poll from last weekend. The Decorated Shed and the Spaulding house have equal pull for Just About Home readers!

 

Succulents in Baking Loaf Pans

Hey there! I told you earlier that I found some interesting containers for my succulents!

I went epic estate sale-ing with Brentan and Sarah this weekend and found a cute ceramic bowl at the first stop, and found a stack of small and medium loaf pans at sale #4 in Alameda. Loaf pans! Who would have thought that I would be inspired to plant things in them. I think it’s because I like the old school metal school lunch trays at the Alameda Antiques Fair a while ago, and am feeling the vintage metal bake ware.

So I have a stack, and planted a few full. One now sits on my kitchen table (below) and one is on my bedside table (not pictured).  And you can sort of see the pile of the rest of the pans in the left side of the picture below waiting to be planted. 

I also took this long ceramic vessel that my brother made for me a few years ago and planted some succulents in there. It’s sitting on my coffee table and I love all the colors!

So I may not be Flora Grubb yet, but I’m working on my container gardening skills.

I’m still on the lookout for some larger containers to hold my larger plants. I saw a good sale on containers at Crate and Barrel, so maybe I’ll pick up one of these blue guys.

-Liz

Linked to: Transformation Thursday, Strut Your Stuff