Here is what I accomplished today:
- Got Boo ready for school and took him there
- Cleaned up a roll of paper towel that the cat had shredded in the kitchen
- Put homemade vegetable beef soup into the crockpot
- Completed training module on backup infrastructure
- Got off my butt and got going on something else for work
- Got Boo from school
- Fought a running battle with the Clan of the Soccermom to retrieve bread, milk, and bananas
- Cleaned up another roll of paper towel that the cat had shredded in the basement
- Prepared the rest of dinner
- Served dinner so that Irish Woman could attend a 6 PM work meeting
- Kept a lid on the kids so that Irish Woman could attend her meeting in peace
- Maybe I wasn’t so successful at this one
- Got Boo ready for bed
- Read “Elmer the Elephant” to Boo after he noticed that Girlie Bear’s pajama pants matched the patchwork elephant.
- Put away dinner
- Did the dishes
- Made buttermilk blueberry pancakes from scratch for tomorrow’s breakfast
- Cleaned and seasoned two cast-iron skillets
And now, if you all don’t mind, I’m going to get some rest before I have to get up tomorrow and do it all again.
DaddyBear’s Den 
Mad Jack
/ January 29, 2014Looks like you had a full day. Nothing compared to what I had to deal with, but certainly a full day.
Here’s what I did today:
Woke up and made some coffee. Drank coffee.
Saw critter that’s been leaving tracks in the snow. I can’t tell if it’s a fox or a coyote – I think it’s a fox, but I’m going to check again tomorrow.
Wrote review of Robert Burns dinner and published it.
Screwed around.
Thought about backing up system, then forgot about it.
Thought about exercising because an actor on some TV show said that he had to exercise 3 hours a day and go on a low carb diet to get in shape for a part motivated me. Lost interest 10 minutes later.
Did some other stuff, but I can’t remember what.
Had a drink and perked up.
Decided to call it a night.
Told you your day wasn’t anything compared to mine. Later!
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Elizabeth
/ January 29, 2014sounds productive 🙂
may i ask your method for the cleaning and seasoning of cast iron? i acquired my grandmothers’ cast iron and some of it is in more than rough shape… and every article on the net on how to save it is DIFFERENT, argh. sigh.
thank you!
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daddybear71
/ January 29, 2014I scraped a bunch of stuff out, filled them with water and brought them to a boil for a few minutes, poured out the water, scraped them out again, wiped them out. Then I gave them a good wipe down with bacon grease and put them in a 250 degree oven. Left the oven on for about half an hour, then shut it off and left the pans in the oven overnight. I’ll repeat the oven treatment a few times to give them a good seasoning.
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Elizabeth
/ January 29, 2014THANK YOU. i keep reading people using oven cleaner and EW!
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daddybear71
/ January 29, 2014Yeah, the iron will absorb just about any chemical you add, and it will take a lot to get it out. Dishwashers are the worst.
You want to remove surface stuff, not remove the oils that are impregnated in the pan. Scrape, boil, scrape, wipe. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary to clean, then reseason with solid fats. Liquid oils get gummy and are sticky enough to capture hair and dirt while in the cabinet or on the shelf.
Luck!
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Elizabeth
/ January 29, 2014sooo… any suggestions on how to rehabilitate a gorgeous cast iron dutch oven that got left on the wood stove for years with very hard water in it (humidity assist)?? the mineral buildup is almost thick enough to sell to a mining company!
my family. sigh.
thank you again! 🙂
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daddybear71
/ January 31, 2014That’s a tough one. Anything you put in the pot to dissolve the mineral buildup is going to get pulled into the cast iron. I’d start with carefully scraping/chipping away what you can, followed by boiling with a water/vinegar mix. Hopefully that’ll loosen it up enough so you can scrape the rest out.
Of course, some of that vinegar is going to be absorbed into the pot, so you’ll have to do several rounds of boil, rinse, boil, rinse to get most of it out.
After that, give it a good seasoning.
Let me know how that works out!
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