Adventures and misadventures with a cast iron skillet

The holiday season is over and all the gifted items are put away at our household — well almost.

It’s also below freezing here in Iowa and we are spending a lot of time indoors which leaves plenty of time for cooking — ironic as we are also trying to get back on the exercise bandwagon.

One of our favorite gifts this season was a cast iron skillet. I can’t believe we’ve been married five years and have never had one!

This skillet is amazing. Ten inches of heavy, black metal waiting to infuse my dishes with delicious goodness.

Unfortunately I’ve already partially ruined it — no surprise there — but I’m confident we can still make this thing work.

Lesson #1 — DO NOT leave your cast iron skillet soaking in the kitchen sink overnight. It only took us two uses to make this mistake.

Our skillet came pre-seasoned so it was ready to go. So we (and by “we” I mean JT, I was at workout class) popped it on the stove and got to work on the simplest steak recipe we could find. The ribeye’s were delicious! Of course they were homegrown from Spencer Farm’s so how could they not be?

With one success under our belt we quickly started planning our second dish. Hello Skillet Bacon Mac’ n Cheese.

As you can tell from the photo this dish was also a success. Warning: this dish is not workout or diet plan approved.

You will literally have several pots in the fire when making this. And I would suggest using a larger cast iron skillet if you have one, because inevitably the creamy cheese sauce will run down the side of your skillet. And then you will be tempted to soak your skillet to get that cheese off — BAD IDEA.

So we left the skillet soaking overnight. And into the next day, at which point a coworker mentioned you can’t soak cast iron or it will rust, oops.

I rushed home to dump out the water and check the damage. Half of the seasoning was off of bottom of the skillet – good thing I got there when I did!

A little oil and a dry towel made it somewhat better, so all was not lost. But we’ll be taking extra special care of this skillet from now on, including reading the care tips of the Lodge website. Were those there before?

Do you have an amazing cast iron skillet recipes we should try?

She's here!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend! 

I did. And I even got some sewing in on the new machine! Here's a sneak peek.

Before a revel, here's what I learned about the last three brands. 

Pfaff. I was unfamiliar with this brand, but a local quilt shop sold them so I wanted to find out more. I researched the brand and heard good things about older machines. I also got one report from a person who owned one that said they were quite finicky. The model in my price range was the Passport 2.0. It seemed to have a comparable number of stitches, bells and whistles as the other brands and while being light weight, the sales lady assured me that it could handle everyday use. The interesting thing about this brand is that the machines have a built in walking foot that you can engage on the back of the presser foot. I was told you could use this for quilting or for everyday sewing to make sure that all your material layers move along at the same rate of speed. Apparently, Pfaff was the first to have this technology and other companies have since improved on it and made the foot wider—allowing for more grip on different types of fabric. All in all, I just didn't love the look and feel of the machine and couldn't envision myself sewing on it every day.

Janome. This was my last stop as a dealer was a bit harder to find. All in all the after visiting with the dealer I believe that to get a high quality machine you have to spend more. This manufacturer makes some nice machines and offers a wide range of options, but there just weren't anything options that appealed to me in my price range.

Elna was a pleasant surprise at the same dealer as I visited for Janome. I did not know much about this brand, but was very impressed. The dealer told me they are known for having good tension and very few problems—which is good to know considering I have read a lot of comments about sewing machines in general having tension issues. Additionally, the dealer told me that compared to other brands she stocks, Elna had hardier engines and offers a higher quality machine for less money, which was appealing. One model from Elna I would would recommend to anyone for review is the Elna Lotus. These machines have a carrying case that is built in around them and folds down into a table. Plus the one I saw had the start/stop feature I have come to value and a quilter’s throat plate, which includes all the angle markings a quilter uses. But in the end I just couldn't fall in love with the look and feel of the Lotus either.

So, what did I get? Can you guess?

I got the . . .

Baby Lock Rachel. She came in at the best price and value due to a Shop Hop sale. Plus the shop is just a few blocks from my house, so getting my classes and support will be easy. In the end it did come down to combination of quality, support and price. I purchased a high quality machine, from a dealer I trust who will offer convenient support all in my price range.

Here she is!

What does everyone else have? Any different experiences?

Sew, what do you know about machine brands?

I'm back. I'm sure you're all dying to know what machine I got. But alas, it hasn't come in yet. 

So instead, here's what I found out about the first three brands: Bernina, Viking and Baby Lock.

Picture from Bernina website.

Bernina truly is the Cadillac of sewing machines. What I learned is that they are essentially the only all metal machines left—and you pay for it. I visited a dealer and must say I was quite impressed with the brand. one interesting thing I learned is that Berninas have front loading bobbins. So instead of having a plate that you slide open and drop the bobbin in from the top, Bernina bobbins have a round case that the bobbin sets in and then the whole case snaps into place underneath the throat plate in a vertical position. This was very weird to me, but the sales lady assured me that it gives more flexibility with tensions and fabrics. She demonstrated some very neat stitching techniques with the machine that demonstrated this. I was also impressed by the flexibility Bernina provided on the stitch width and length as there were no limitations on how high you could adjust these on every stitch. Even though I was looking at a basic model, the Bernina 350 PE, it came with some nice bells and whistles like the hands free foot adjustment, which is a lever you move with your knee. This features works similarly to some of the sensor systems other machines have in that it allows you to move the presser foot up and down without ever taking your hands off of the fabric, only this Bernina feature is mechanically controlled by your knee and has no sensors involved. Another fun fact is that all of the Bernina presser feet are interchangeable on all their machines, which is helpful, because when a walking foot costs $200, you are going to want it to work on any Bernina machine you own in the future.

Ok, the bad news . . . this base Bernina model was over twice the price of comparable machines in other brands.

Husqvarna Vikings. The most interesting thing about this brand was the bobbin case and what it is made out of. Not sure what it is called, but it is a Teflon like material that is friction resistant. The limiting factor for me with this brand were the options in my price range. The H Class 100 was what I was looking at and I was not convinced that it would serve me completely well for everyday sewing given it was light weight. Additionally, I wish there were a few more digital options in my price range.

Fun fact, apparently Pfaff and Vikings are both owned and made by Singer.

Picture from Baby Lock website.

Baby Lock. In reference to my previous comments about lack of selection in other brands, I am extremely impressed with the number of machines Baby Lock has in a lower price range.

The ones I concentrated on were in the A-line series. I was immediately drawn to three of these machines and then asked questions to determine which would be the best for every day sewing. I asked about weight and use for larger projects, tension settings, and stitch adjustments. I happened to be taking a class at the shop that sold Baby Locks and the owner let me sew my project on the machine I had in mind! These machines are actually made by Brother but to a higher specification and from what I understand have few problems and are very good machines.

Ok, that’s three brands, I’ll review the other three and then reveal my choice, so stay tuned.

My Big Summer Purchase

I recently embarked on the most fun shopping experience I have had to date—getting a new sewing machine! It was a lot of information to take in and tracking down dealers in my area and doing research to know what questions to ask was a lot of hard work. In the end, I’m glad I did my due diligence and am happy with the machine I chose.

To date, I have been sewing on my great-grandma’s 1950’s Singer. This is truly an extraordinary machine, especially considering it is over 60 years old and I have used it for the past ten years to sew nearly 50 quilts! I’m a little nostalgic about doing my first quilt not using this machine—I have now christened her Old Dorothy because both of her owners were named Dorothy and every good machine needs a name—but I’m super excited to use my new machine for the first time.

So . . . what did I get? We’ll, its on back order, so let’s talk about what I learned first and then I'll post photos of my new machine. Hey, if I have to wait you do too!

When I started this process I did some online searches to see what the best machine was. Most of the feedback was not that helpful as everyone said that the most important thing is support and to make sure it “does what you want it to do”. Ok, so I want it to sew and I want to have someone I can call to help me through issues. That led me to focusing on purchasing from a dealer and not a box store. For me that was the right decision as I am looking to gain new skills and expand my project base. But it still didn’t tell me what brand to get, seeing as I am now brandless since Singers are not the same machines that my grandmother bought.

The next issue I ran into was price range. There are a TON of beautiful, capable machines out there today. But honestly, thinking of going from a 1950’s basic Singer with no digital anything to a deluxe, sensor-equipped smart machine was a bit daunting. Don’t get me wrong, I completely wanted to step into the 21^st century and get a machine with some digital capabilities, but I’m not quite ready to start sewing on a touch screen machine—as my friend said, it would be like going from a model T to a rocket ship. Additionally, my price range was nowhere near what the top of the line beauties cost.

So, what do you get for a nice, basic machine when you are looking to upgrade—somewhat slowly—and have room to learn and grow on a budget? I checked out Bernina, Pfaff, Viking, Elna, Janome and Baby Lock, and looked at machines between $500 and $1,000.

Reviews of each brand, and the big reveal of what I got coming your way soon!

Growing, growing . . .raccoons?

Growing up in rural American we grew a sweet corn patch every year. It was on the edge the field by by grandparents house and was oh, about a quarter of a mile long.  Once the corn was ready we would have two weeks of all you can eat sweet corn at every mea. And then two days of a family corn freezing party--it was a hot sticky mess, but delicious to have home grown corn right out of the freezer in the dead of winter. But first we had to battle the raccoons. I don't know exactly how my grandpa got rid of the raccoons and manged to save some corn -- it might have had something to d with our farm dog . . . but I definitely didn't expect our own raccoon visitors to show up in our garden. Who new?! Raccoons will STILL get in your sweet corn, even if you live in town!

But it happened, one morning we went out to the garden and had several downed ears. The raccoon had clearly been hard at work first nibbling the plants and then shucking the corn. Quite the resourceful little fellow.

Our dog is too little to battle a raccoon, and we don't have an electric fence, so we tried a couple other options. And while we never caught the raccoon, he eventually stopped turning up and destroying our almost ready ears. In the end,we got to enjoy a pretty bountiful harvest.

First corn of the season, YUM!

Gather round — Our new table!

It may be old fashioned, but JT and both grew up eating dinner around the table with the family every night. It was hallmark of our childhoods and is something we still do every night and want to continue to doing well into the future.

Our first dinning room table was a handme down—ok, so all the furniture we had when we got married were handme downs, which was fine, but we finally saved enough to replace it—Yay!!

Then beganthe shopping and learning and comparing. We had replaced other pieces of our furniture before this, but nothing that would be quite so permanent and central to our lives. I mean, we will eventually replace our couches, but this table we will have  for almost the rest of our live AND we will use it every day.

Who knew there were some any choices when picking out a table? I'm a decisive person, but you when throw 10 different wood types, 20 different stains, 30 different chair styles, edge finishes, and too many different table styles to mention you have one overwhelmed girl. Luckily, we took our time, did our research, visited Redekers (those of you in Iowa know that this is THE best furniture store), and came out with the perfect table that will last us forever.

Its a pedestal table which we love because you don't get boxed in with legs, plus the pedestal has supports that remind us of a barn. The top is called a Pioneer top and we chose Hickory as the wood with a medium to dark finish. Add six window-pane style chairs with lumbar support and you have our table. Let the dinner guest arrive!

Hot off the grill - Baby Back Ribs

One of the things I love about having grown up on the farm is the endless supply of home-grown, farm raised pork and beef. Growing up we never really purchased meat at the grocery store, we just went to the basement deep freezer that was always fully stocked. Everyone where I'm from has deep freezer and those deep freezers are always full of beef and pork that either you or your neighbor raised.

For our wedding, my parents gave us a deep freeze full of meat, which was . . . Awesome! . . . except that we lived in a one bedroom apartment. I'm pretty sure we were the only people in our apartment complex with a deep freezer in the dinning room.

But now we have a house with a basement, which is exactly where deep freezers belong and we are putting it to good use. The latest meat I commandeered from my mother's deep freeze stash--she has two freezers--are baby back ribs. That's right, fresh, home-grown baby back ribs, now just to figure out the best way to grill them . . . I'll left the grilling up to JT (its best that way).

 Two hours later, he did a pretty good job and the sweet corn went with it perfectly!

Here's a link to the recipe we used.