How to wash a pan

This is my Uncle John’s method for washing a frying pan. Enjoy! 😀

Take a cast iron skillet or other heavy duty pan, not Teflon coated. Heat it over medium high heat. Add a teaspoon of oil and wait until it just starts to smoke. Add a nice cut of steak or other nice piece of meat. Don’t touch it for two minutes. Flip it over after it is nice and brown and let it cook for another two minutes. Remove the meat and put it on a plate. Cover it loosely with foil. Turn down the heat to medium and add one cup or can of beef stock. Stir with a whisk to remove all the stuck on bits and meat juices. Let it cook down until there is only half as much. Add a teaspoon or two of cornstarch mixed with a little water and bring to a boil. Add a pat of butter to this if you want and season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the steak or the rice or potatoes you are serving with it. Turn off the heat and take the pan to the sink. Add some warm water and soap. Brush out the pan with a scrub brush, rinse and return to the still warm burner. When the pan is dry, put it away and eat the steak and potatoes. 😀

When my siblings and I started leaving home for college, our family put together a family cook book for us to take with us. It starts with basics like “How to boil water”. Seriously. Need to know how to boil an egg? Got that too. All the way up to “How to host a dinner party.” It also includes all the family lore that goes along with every recipe and has all the family favorites including Great Gra’ma’s “two crust lemon pie” which is comfort food indeed. It’s been updated over the years by the extended family and friends of the family. 24 years later the latest edition, all 460 pages of it, arrived just in time for the marriage of the first great grandchild and that new generation! My twins like to read it just for the family history and stories and we have lots of fun choosing what to make for dinner, or dessert, or breakfast, or brunch…

twindragonsmum