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Did I mention how much I love my cast iron pans?After much research and recommendations from friends, I finally got myself my first pieces of cast iron cookware a few weeks ago.
Cast iron pans are the ideal non-stick cookware. They don’t contain nasty chemicals, you don’t have to worry about scraping them, and as long as they are well seasoned and well taken care of, they’ll last for many many years and only get better with use. My objective is to replace all of my teflon pans. Luckily I only have three. I’ve been using the 10″ skillet above nearly every day for the past few weeks and I have to say I love it more each day. It’s amazing for cornbread and I’ve used it to roast potatoes and other vegetables in the oven, do simple stir fries, and anything else I can cook in a skillet. The large grill has seen less use. It’s quite large so I don’t really use it if all I need to grill is a couple bean burgers. I’ll use the skillet for that. But this week I found the ultimate use for it. Roasting vegetables in the oven. I sliced two eggplants and a zucchini, tossed them in olive oil, oregano, salt & pepper and placed them on the grill and put it in the oven at 400F. I flipped them half way through. This is the result:
This makes amazingly versatile meals starters. I used the grilled eggplants on my steelcut oats in the morning and have also had them for dinner with angel hair pasta:
And mixed it with some leftover quinoa & tomatoes to make a wonderful lunch salad:
11 comments to Did I mention how much I love my cast iron pans? |
 Hi, I'm Alexandra. Born in Brazil, Canadian by choice, and having lived in exciting Barcelona for a year between 2006 and 2007, my earliest childhood memories revolve around food and food is what I remember most about every place I’ve ever lived. After writing a more general blog for the past few years, it was time to organize my writing about food in one place. © All pictures on this blog are taken by me unless otherwise noted. About the title of this blog |
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Fiquei babando, e olha que eu almocei faz pouco tempo…
[...] Mato and Maple Syrup – we don' need no steenkin' red dot – nothing rocks harder than cast iron. [...]
I totally agree that cast iron is the best. No need for spooky teflon that erodes into our bodies and environment. Getting back to the basics is the way to go.
I’m so happy I finally got a cast iron pan. If only people knew how much easier it is to cook with it and what amazing results one gets from it.
I’m with you – cast iron is the way to go. My daughter was just gifted a family heirloom cast iron pan WITH A LID!!! I’m dieing to find one – in your research did you see any with lids?
Yup, cast iron is fabulous. We threw out our “non-stick” frying pans about two years ago and have been using either stainless steel or cast iron ever since. Stainless steel for anything that has a lot of tomatoes, cast iron for just about everything else. The cast iron pans are only getting better.
We love our small cast-iron frying pan for making omelettes.
(I covet your grill pan!)
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for the visit. I also use stainless steel for anything else and I was interested on your comment about using it for anything that has a lot of tomatoes. Should I be avoiding cooking tomatoes in a cast iron pan?
giz,
If I’m not mistaken, Lodge has lids as well, but I think they sell them separately. Take a look at the site.
Hi Alexandra,
I just bought a pre-seasoned grill but I don’t think that is enough and I should do more.
How did you season yours?
Hi Melody,
I only re-seasoned one of my pans and left the other one with just the pre-seasoning. Both work well.
I basically rubbed vegetable oil all over it and put it in the oven for an hour. I followed the method described here but I skipped the step that asked to wash it with soap since I didn’t really want to remove the seasoning it came with.
We have a cast-iron pan passed on to us from a grandparent. These things last, and last and last. I use it just about every single day. Between that and my Le Crueset dutch oven that I got as a wedding gift, I really don’t need anything else!
Welcome Anna!
I’m completely in love with my cast-iron pan. It gets better and better every day. I can’t believe it took me all these years to get one. Sad to think I spent SO much money in really expensive non-stick pans when this is so much better and cheaper… I’m on a mission now to convince my friends. Some have the erroneous assumption that cast-iron pans are “trickier”.