Here are some tips from Serious Eats on how to care for your cast iron pan

These are the only rules you need to know to have a successful lifelong relationship with your cast iron.

Season it when you get it.

Even pre-seasoned cast iron can do with some extra protection.To season your pan, heat it up on the stovetop until its smoking hot, then rub a little oil into it and let it cool. Repeat this process a few times and you're good to go.

Clean it after each use.

Clean your pan thoroughly after each use by washing it with soap and water and scrubbing out any gunk or debris from the bottom. I use the scrubby side of a sponge for this.

Re-season it.

Rinse out any excess soap with water, then place the skillet over a burner set to high heat. When most of the water inside the skillet has dried out, add a half teaspoon of a neutral oil like vegetable, canola, flaxseed, or shortening. Rub it around with a paper towel. Continue heating the pan until it just starts to smoke then give it one more good rub. Let it cool and you're done.

Fry and Sear in it.

The best way to keep your seasoning maintained? Just use your pan a lot! The more you fry, sear, or bake in it, the better that seasoning will become.

Don't let it stay wet.

Water is the natural enemy of iron and letting even a drop of water sit in your pan when you put it away can lead to a rust spot. Not the end of the world, but rust will require a little scrubbing and reseasoning. I always dry out my pan with a paper towel and coat it with a tiny amount of oil before storage.

Ingredients

• 8 ears corn, shucked
• 6 fresh tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped*
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat grill to medium-high. Brush corn with a little olive oil. Grill corn until lightly browned, turning often to cook evenly; cool. When cool enough to handle, cut corn from cobs.
2. Toss corn with tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, pepper, jalapeno, cilantro, vinegar, and the 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Toss and marinate at least 2 hours in the refrigerator before serving. Bring to room temperature to serve. Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups peeled and cubed fresh horseradish root, about 250 g
• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Blend horseradish with vinegar, sugar and salt in a food processor until finely chopped but not puréed, 30 sec to 1 min. (Tip: Be careful removing the lid; try not to inhale the strong aroma.) Scrape into a 500-mL jar and refrigerate up to 1 month.

A great Mother's Day gift from Indigo!

Have plenty of cold refreshments on hand for all your guests with our lovely glass dispenser. Its clear glass shows off iced teas, punches or even bright lemon slices in iced water to pretty effect. Best of all, guests can serve themselves, leaving you with one less thing to do! For use with cold liquids only. Hand-wash. 253 oz. capacity, 12” high

Martha Stewart has 15 ideas and tips that will save you a lot of time in the kitchen.  It's a good thing.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dry mustard, preferably imported
• 1/2 cup hot tap water
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 Tablespoon bottled hot grated horseradish
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 teaspoon white granulated sugar
• 6 whole black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar, or pinch of ground black pepper
• 2 whole allspice berries, crushed in a mortar, or small pinch ground allspice
• A little dry white wine, or additional white wine vinegar if needed

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together dry mustard and hot water until smooth. Let sit, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring twice as it sits.
2. Place wine vinegar or rice vinegar, salt, horseradish, garlic, sugar, peppercorns, and allspice in a food processor or heavy-duty blender. Process until garlic and horseradish are pureed. Extract liquid by pressing through cheesecloth or a very fine strainer. Discard solids.
3. Add the spice liquid to the mustard in the top of a double-boiler. Stir constantly while cooking, about 5 minutes. It should thicken up. Remove from heat and let cool. It will thicken up even more as it cools.
4. Taste and add more of the bottled horseradish to suit your tastes. If it is too thick, add a few drops of white wine or wine vinegar.
5. Seal horseradish mustard in an airtight jar and refrigerate.

Yield: about 1/2 cup

Ingredients

• 1 cup peeled and cubed horseradish root
• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In an electric food processor or blender, process horseradish root, vinegar, sugar and salt. 
2. Carefully remove the cover of the processor or blender, keeping your face away from the container.
3. Cover and store the horseradish in the refrigerator.

Make sure the temperature of the oil is 375°F (190°C).  Once it is, it should take 8 to 10 minutes for the wings to turn golden brown and be cooked through. You can check that they are done by taking out the thickest piece and cutting into it, to verify that the juice is no longer pink.

It is very important that you do not overfill the fryer when you add chicken. You do not want the temperature of the oil to drop much below the 375° mark, or the wings will fry poorly, soak up more oil, and taste greasy. Allow the wings to reach room temperature before you cook them. Add them to the fryer a few at a time – certainly no more than will fit in a single layer without crowding. Turn them once while frying.

Once done, drain the wings on paper towels, You can keep them warm on a baking sheet in the oven set at 275°F (135°C) while you fry the remaining chicken wings.

If you are like me, your food photography needs some work.  Here are some tips on making it better.

Here are a few tips that will really make food images their best. They all apply if using the fanciest digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) or mobile phone camera.

Don’t forget the prep
Some of my favorite food shots have been made in the kitchen as the chef is cooking or assembling the plate. (Note: If you look a little hungry, the chef will usually give you a sample!)

Flash vs. natural lighting
Nothing will ruin an image faster than using your flash. Turn it off and find the most flattering light on the table. Shooting during the day is much easier than darker dinner situations. Sit next to a window and let the natural, indirect light fall on the plate. If you need a little extra light to fill the dark areas, hold a white napkin near the lens, bouncing light into the shadows. You will be amazed how well this works.

Candlelight
Candlelight is a special situation that is best shot with a DSLR because most mobile phone cameras do not perform well in low light situations.

Find a place that is lit evenly, but not too directionally, such as under a spotlight from overhead. Grab a candle from another table and have a friend hold it near your lens to boost the ambient light. If you have a tripod, use it and set your shutter speed to 1 to 4 seconds. This will allow you to yield a less noisy image.

Get low and close
I tend to shoot tightly, cropping into the plate to emphasize the beauty of the food. Keep the camera low so you can see some of the background. Don’t be afraid to move some elements on the plate to cover parts that you don’t want to showcase.

Tableware
If you are going to set the table formally, the fork goes on the left and the knife and spoon on the right. An easy way to remember this is that fork and left both have four letters. Spoon, knife and right have five.

Clean plate club
The first order of business once the finished plate arrives from the kitchen is to wipe off the edges of the plate. Even the best kitchens have trouble serving a perfect, pristine plate.

Move quickly
Delicate sauces and fresh garnishes look old in a few minutes, so be prepared to shoot immediately. Don’t be afraid to ask the kitchen for a few extra pieces of garnish if the ones on the plate look a little wilted or brown.

Meat
Although I am an enthusiastic consumer of all types of meat, I don’t particularly think it looks appetizing in a photograph. For example, chain steakhouses always showcase a fine cut of charbroiled beef in their advertisements, but I rarely think the image is appealing to the eye. Often, I choose to cover some of the meat with a sauce to tone down the amount of visible flesh.

From the Globe and Mail

After he went into the TV racket in Britain, that fierceness had an impact. The BBC TV guide, Radio Times, polled thousands of readers to determine “television’s most terrifying celebrity” and Ramsay came in at No 1. Cranky and sarcastic Idol judge Simon Cowell was way down the list. More recently, a Ramsay TV special in the U.K., Ramsay’s Great British Nightmare, drew many complaints from viewers. One pointed out that 312 swear words were heard in a program lasting 103 minutes.

The short temper and the swearing are part of the appeal of Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. But, in truth, Ramsay is a compelling figure not just because of the temper and swear words. He is absolutely confident in the rightness of his methods and the validity of his attacks. He’s one of those people on TV who manages to be gripping not because of egotism, but assuredness.

Mind you, MasterChef and Hotel Hell are far better shows than theKitchen ones. They are better because they are about quality cooking and, in Hotel Hell, customer care. On MasterChef , Ramsay and his fellow judges can be sarcastic and abrasive, but the point is to make the contestants better cooks. There is the usual flim-flammery about some contestants hating each other and feuds developing, but the show is mainly about food. It’s Ramsay’s personality that drives it, the brutally frank assessments of food and the effort put into its preparation.

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons of butter
• 4 scallions chopped
• 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 hot green chilli, finely chopped and seeded (or use dried red pepper flakes)
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• 3/4 to 1 lb crab meat, shredded
• 2 tb chopped fresh coriander leaves, if possible
• 2 tb finely chopped parsley
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 6 tb to 8 tb crab liquid or clam broth
• 2 c  bread crumbs
• 8 clam shells

Directions

1. Melt butter in skillet; add scallions, garlic and chilli peppers and cook until scallions are wilted. Add curry powder to this mixture and blend thoroughly. Add crab, coriander and parsley.
2. Add salt, pepper and crab liquid (if more is needed, add melted butter). Blend in bread crumbs.
3. Fill the mixture in 8 clam shells and bake at 400 degrees F about 10 minutes or until browned.

Serves 8 as an appetizer or 3 to 4 as a main course.

Ingredients

• 1 large ripe mango, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons Thai Kitchen® Sweet Red Chili Sauce
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Directions

• MIX all ingredients in medium bowl until well blended. Cover.
• REFRIGERATE until ready to serve.

Sophia Grace is a local Saskatoon company (one of the few things in Saskatoon not ridiculed by Rolling Stone magazine), that makes cool, fabulous and sexy kitchen aprons in a variety of patterns and looks.

Not only do they look good, Sophia Grace is also offering free shipping.  They are a great gift for a favourite foodie, lover of retro styling or anyone who wants to look nice in the kitchen.

You can purchase them locally at

Saskatchewan

• McNally Robinson Booksellers
• Skin Deep
• Alchemy Clothing and Salon
• The Uniform Choice
• Western Development Museum Gift Shop

Manitoba

• McNally Robinson Booksellers

Alberta

• The Tin Box

You can also purchase online at www.sophiagrace.ca

Peas and Thank You is a website and Vegetarian cookbook by Sara Matheny which features innovative recipes that are designed to appeal to the entire family, whether they are vegetarian or not.  Recipes like Tortilla Soup, Chickpea Curry Salad, or vegetarian Italian Wedding Soup.  They all look good.  You can purchase the cookbook via Amazon.com.

Jordon has heart disease.  He just spent several days at Royal University Hospital having blockages cleared and getting the scare of his life.  He is high risk because of his Type II Diabetes  but we haven’t watched his cholesterol like we should have.  Today I wandered out to Indigo! and bought some heart smart cookbooks which I will be trying out more and more around here and of course posting some recipes to The Cooking Blog in the new Heart Smart category.  I’ll also be adding this logo to the recipe along with the source.

This isn’t good

It used to be that people who just couldn't break the plastic habit to go plastic-freecould at least rely on certain types of plastics, usually those labeled #2, #4, or #5 in the triangle of arrows on the bottom, because those plastics weren't made using bisphenol A or phthalates, the two chemicals in plastic that are known to interfere with the way your body produces and handles estrogen. But a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives concludes that there really are no "safe" plastics, thanks to all the chemicals, additives, and processing aids that go into making plastic products. In a test of nearly 500 chemical containers, the authors discovered that nearly all exhibited some kind of estrogenic activity.

What does this mean?  Well first of all you need to stop using plastic containers in microwaves.

• Revamp your food storage. Glass, ceramic, and stainless steel are great food-storage materials that can go from stove to fridge to freezer easily.

• Buy less processed food. Most processed foods in the grocery store come in some form of plastic packaging. Buying fresh vegetables and ingredients in bulk (which you can package in your own plastic-free containers) will help you avoid most of it.

• BYO… You may already carry a reusable mug and reusable shopping bags to eliminate some plastics, but take the next step and start carrying reusable produce bags, too, when you shop. Like other forms of plastic, those flimsy plastic produce bags can leach hormone-disrupting chemicals into your berries and broccoli, and they're hard to recycle once they're contaminated with food. You can find regular and organic cotton produce bags online at Ecobags.com.

via

While I like how our kitchen at the lake has come together, you may not be thrilled with yours and if you are working in a small space, check out this list of ideas from Apartment Therapy.