Ever since I got my cast iron skillet, I have been going nuts with the cornbread. Based on this sausage & onions cornbread recipe, I made my own version with spinach and then a vegetarian and non-wheat version.  On Sunday I varied from that basic recipe once more by replacing the zucchini with 2 cobs of fresh corn and the kale with half a bunch of yellow chard.  I didn’t have any basil around so I sprinkled some goat cheese on top at the end of baking for some extra tanginess. There was, of course, some leftover so when I woke up uncharacteristically late on Monday, a brunch was in order. So I fried an egg over easy (again, in my cast iron skillet, which is the best non-stick pan I ever had), then stir fried some small cherry & heirloom tomatoes and voilà: our brunch cornbread. Very very yummy.

We are having friends over for dinner tonight and since we slept in, breakfast needed to be something quick. Alan said “we can just have some eggs with toast”. As he stepped out the door to pick up some milk and bread, I quickly chopped a couple small tomatoes (one yellow, one red), a small piece of fresh mozzarella, and a few basil leaves. Sprinkled with some olive oil it would be an ideal accompaniment for our eggs. As I mentioned before, I’m really into vegetables for breakfast.

I then whisked together four eggs with a bit of milk while I preheated my cast iron skillet. Once the skillet was nice and hot, I melted a teaspoon or so of butter and swirled it around. I then added the eggs and stirred it slowly with a wooden spoon. At some point in this process, I was casually browsing Deborah Madison’s book Local Flavors, where I came across a recipe entitled Fried Eggs with Sizzling Vinegar. It was very simple – after frying eggs, any style, remove them from the pan and add another 2-3 tsp of butter to the hot pan. Add to it a finelly chopped small shallot. Cook it for a minute or so and then add about 1 tbsp of sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar) and swirl it around to allow it to reduce a bit. Serve immediately on top of the eggs.

For an extra minute or two of preparation it really jazzed up the meal quite a bit. Serve with a few slices of French bread.

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: