Grease Is The Word

My kingdom for a sandblaster!

Ok, I'm seeing the downside of having all of my kitchen gear stored for a year. First of all, my heirloom-quality cast-iron ebelskiver pan that I dug out of the bottom of a storage tote this weekend is was totally covered in rust. That really sucked.

Apparently, I forgot to season it before I stowed it, and well, it may as well have been sitting out in the backyard for the whole year. I swear it looked like something that came off of an old tugboat that had been sitting in dry dock for far too long. So I spent my morning with a copper scrub brush going to town on it. It wasn't easy, or enjoyable, but I finally got it cleaned up after far too many minutes of scrubbin'.

Once that little chore was finished, I washed it and dried it, then got it nice and hot on the stove, and and finished by covering it in a healing layer of Wesson oil. While I was at it, I also seasoned my new T-Fal stockpot, as per the enclosed directions, but that took maybe a minute--just heat it up for a few seconds, then put a teaspoon of oil inside, and wipe it down. Done!

Luckily, my other cast-iron pans had seen some action in the past few months, so they didn't need too much attention. But I used the big deep heavy skillet to cook up a few strips of bacon this morning, and coupled with a pot of hazelnut coffee, my new apartment no longer smells like fresh paint and carpet cleaner. It smells like home.

Another benefit of delving back into the tasty and mysterious world of bacon is that I now have a small container of drippings on hand, which anybody's grandma on the right side of the Mason-Dixon line will tell you is an essential kitchen staple, every bit as important as butter, flour, eggs, or hot sauce. I see a batch of sausage gravy in my near future...

Now that the cooking is done for a few hours and another batch of laundry is going, I'm gonna do a few odds and ends before heading out to fill the gas tank, get the truck washed, and pick up the Parmesan cheese that I forgot this morning. At some point, however, I've got to get some sleep. I'm back on the graveyard shift tonight.

Mikey