Alas...

Unfortunately, other plans made cast iron cooking impossible last night.  I am thrilled to mention that I used my 17" skillet for food prep during a party on Saturday.  I took two family sized bags of chicken fingers and baked them in the iron pan.  The positive effect was that they reheated nice and even, did not stick in the slightest, and stayed warm for quite awhile due to the heat retaining iron.  The chicken was one of the bases for a topping bar including queso con carne, fresh organic tomatoes (diced), shredded lettuce, black olives, sharp cheddar, sour cream, diced green onions, sliced jalapeno and other colorful peppers, and skillet-fried bacon.  In addition to the chicken, there was a variety of chips as well.  There was a load of food, but strangely, there was no dutch oven cooking.  Unusual for this group and this party.  It was our friend Lori's birthday party.  She is a die hard Twi-Mom, so there was lots of theming.  Clearly, there was no scene where Edward or Jacob lovingly or putingly seasons a pot, or bakes a cobbler.  My sister Paula is outcooking me like crazy, though.  She is a cooking machine, and I will look for some of her pictures and notes to add here.  I did see the Lodge cast iron wok last week.  Very sexy hunk of metal.  I know, I know, I promised.  Maybe I can sell off some of my "old" hobby stuff to supplement my cast iron addiction.  I am supposed to meet for a mentoring lesson soon with J.H., dutch oven genius.  Looking forward to that.  I was hoping to run support service for him at a cooking event this coming weekend, but it looks like I will be working.  Drat!  Anyway, I have my pot pie recipe, and need only pick up the ingredients.  I am also rarin' to try making bacon cheddar drop bisquits in the dutch instead of the oven.  There is a lot of heat involved, so I am a little unsure about moving forward until I am more confident in my temp control skills.  I will, as always, keep you posted.  Love and iron,  Del