Greetings from the plughole and Cast Iron Love

 As I warned you, I did disappear into a plughole. The bathroom is almost done, some decorating needs still happen, but as we can use it, I have taken a bit time off to dig in the allotment. The lovely neighbour, hereafter known as the Gnome (garden variety), had been turning some of our soil for us. I saw him this morning and he admitted that it was because he was bored! I must say that his side is impeccable and nothing much can be done before the soil is warm enough to plant seeds into. Here in the northern England we are always a few weeks behind the warmer South.

The picture above is a teaser, a little bit of our spanking new bathroom. The rest will come, when we are finished properly.

On a kitchen note, I love, love, love cast iron pans. I have two; one we bought twelve years ago; a massive 28cm diameter one and a smaller one my parents bought to us from Finland. I wished for this specific, smaller size and a metal handle, so we can put the pan into the oven as well. The task wasn't easy, most this size pans tend to have a wooden handle. In the end this pan was found second-hand. Awesome! My Dad had given it a new oil treatment and it is as good as new. These pans will likely survive us.

The only downside is that they are heavy. At the moment we are fine with this, but if we get very weak at some time in the future they will be handed down to the next generation. In addition we also have a pot:

We would like to have bread tins made of cast iron as they cook the bread beautifully. Elf Husband has tried it in our pot and although it makes a nice rustic loaf, we only have one of them and the shape is not very handy for lunch packs. At the moment they are available in the US only. Sigh....I cannot read Polish or other Eastern European languages, so don't know whether they make some. Anyone out there, who knows? This is out of assumption that those countries might still make this old fashioned cookware. By the way, I am not interested in Le Creuset or alike, because they are enamelled. That in my mind totally does away with all wonderfulness of a cast iron cookware. The whole point is that they cannot be destroyed. The enamelling makes them vulnerable for scratching.

If you think that you can destroy a cast iron pan by washing it in soapy water, you are wrong. You might put it out of commission until it is re-primed. Here is the way you do it, if you need instructions to revive an old pot or pan. Do you have any cast iron favourites?

As the kitchen was the main work place for cutting tiles etc. it ended up very dirty. This forced me into a spring cleaning and as a treat after hard work I painted a bit of wooden dowel in black and hung some hooks to make a rack for some kitchen implements.