Cooking

In the last couple of years I've rediscovered cast iron cookware, and have come to wonder why I ever wanted stainless steel. The cooking properties of cast iron are just so superior - nice even heat that comes from a massive thermal mass which is sort of like a big cooking hug for your food. I guess the one downside is that it is so incredibly heavy, so is not well suited for any sort of fancy cooking that requires flipping or fiddling with the pan. But that sort of cooking is a little pretentious anyway, even though I do like to indulge in it from time to time like for example when flipping pancakes. Speaking of which, check out this video I made a while back on just how awesome cast iron really is.

Once you've been convinced that this really is the cookware for you, you have to learn how to take care of it properly. I've watched a lot of videos on this subject, and there seems to be just about as many ways to look after cast iron as there are people using it. Which is a good thing - that means it is pretty hard to screw it up as long as you follow a few very simple rules. I'll try to state those rules as simply as possible.

With the family away in Nova Scotia our little house has seemed awfully big the last week, especially so on the weekend. So I've been spending my time going crazy with preserving food! It was high time I tried out the new food dehydrator I'd bought a few months ago, and of course there was lots of canning to be done, too.

On Saturday morning I walked down to the Parkdale Market at the end of the street, just to see what was in season at present. I was not sure what I'd end up canning, but I was pretty sure the Market would tell me. And sure enough it did! The first thing that caught my eye was a large basket of absolutely wondeful-looking carrots that were on sale for 3 bucks. 3 bucks! I asked and the guy running the booth said they were 2 days old now so he wanted to get rid of them. 2 whole days? Wow! Gawsh I love my market! So I picked them up and when I got them home, weighed them in at 15.5 lbs.