protective detail and cast iron cookware

Rocko knows that when he is with Lisa, he is working. If she explicitly says, "Working!" he becomes especially attentive and does his best to shut out the typical doggy distractions.

Yesterday afternoon he accompanied her when she headed down to the big rock at the northeast corner of the back yard. This morning he spent a couple of hours on his Army blanket at the foot of the bed; Lisa started vomiting last night during supper. "The hamburger is delicious," she said from the bathroom after eating 1/4 of the burger, "but I can't eat it now."

She describes it as feeling like anything solid that she swallows catches in the esophagus; she can't even keep an anti-nausea pill down, so I am letting her slide on taking her morning meds. All of them are important, but they won't do her any good if she just throws them back up.

She tried eating yogurt, reasoning that it should be able to get around any blockage, but that didn't help either.

It was a good burger, though. They were part of a Christmas present from my folks, an Omaha Steaks collection. I cooked them in a cast iron skillet, with a little sausage grease, after seasoning the raw patties with a spur-of-the-moment mixed spice concoction.

Lisa has a nice collection of cast iron cookware.

At first I didn't like it very much, but it hadn't been kept up properly by her family since she had been confined to bed by her disability.

Once I got the hang of keeping cast iron properly seasoned, and especially since I got a couple of tips from Lisa's mom, it is all looking great and cooking even better. I try to use all of the different skillets, covers and griddle regularly. If I haven't used one of them for a while, I'll put it on the stove, heat it, wipe it out and season it. I also use different greases for seasoning. Usually it is Crisco, but sometimes a little bacon grease or sausage drippings. Varying the seasoning agent seems to prevent sticking better than using a single agent.

One thing that I learned from Nanny Ruth contradicts common lore, but has proven to be a boon to me. If a skillet has cooked-on food that can't be easily wiped out, it won't hurt the cast iron to let it soak in hot soapy water for a little while. A well-seasoned piece of iron cookware doesn't need to soak long for debris to get loose. Then you can even use a metal scrubber like Chore Boy to get stubborn bits out without damaging the skillet. If you have to scrub extra hard, it's OK. A few good seasonings will refurbish the surface. This is also useful for covers, which collect evaporating water and splashing grease. The first time I took a scrubber to my favorite cover, I was amazed at how much better it looked once I took off years of grease and water buildup.

After that you let it air dry, towel it even drier and put it on the stove. Heat at medium to evaporate any remaining moisture; the skillet will start to look very dry. At that point you can turn off the heat and grease the pan well. Spread the grease evenly with a paper towel, and then take that greasy paper towel and lightly wipe down the exterior of the skillet. Do not overdo the bottom surface unless you like a smoky kitchen and screaming smoke alarms.

Following this routine has made my - sorry, Lisa's - cast iron look and cook like new. I love cast iron. I've even used it to bake a cake, and it came out perfect. The same can be said of cornbread. Let that cool for 15 minutes or so and flip the skillet onto our pizza board, and the cornbread falls out of the skillet cleanly, with a lovely golden crust on the bottom and sides.