My Favorite Things

If you're a new reader or have been a loyal and steadfast Recipe Exchanger since the days of yore, you may have noticed a new little list I've got on the right-hand side (below "Where I Shop"): My Favorite Things.

It's a collection of things I use and love in the kitchen -- and wholeheartedly recommend. As well as some non-kitchen, but food-related, items.

If you've got any can't-live-without Favorite Things of your own, I hope you'll share; I'm always looking for the best kitchen tools to round out my collection.

Dena's Favorite Things

• Microplane Grater/Zester (The Classic: I love this microplane for zesting citrus and grating spices like nutmeg.)
• Microplane Grater (Medium Ribbon: If you're not grating hard cheeses and chocolate with a microplane, you haven't lived!)
• Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Skillet (The King of all pans. Deserted island + cast-iron skillet = just fine with me.)
• All-Clad Stainless Fry Pan (The King of the stainless pan. Seriously. All-Clad is worth the $$$.)
• Wusthof Chef's Knife (The ultimate chef's knife. Indispensable.)
• Chicago Metallic Jelly Roll Pan (The only baking sheet I ever want to use.)
• San Marzano Organic Canned Tomatoes (San Marzano tomatoes make the best sauce. They're far from local, but at least they're organic!)
• The New Best Recipe (This is my food bible. If you want the best recipe with exact instructions that has been taste-tested to perfection, the Cook's Illustrated folks are who you turn to.)
  
• How To Cook Everything (My secondary food bible. I love how Mark Bittman makes everything easy and simple, and shows you how to take 1 recipe and give it endless variations.)
• The Omnivore's Dilemma (The seminal work from Rebbe Pollan on how our current food systems do not work, and how we need to change.)
  
• Food Rules (The follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma that answers the questions you're left with after reading that book, "What should I eat? And how?")
  
• Like Water for Chocolate (The book: My very favorite novel about food and eating. It is as lush and delicious as your favorite meal.)
• Like Water for Chocolate (The movie: Amazingly, the movie version of the book is, in my opinion, actually better! I adore this movie. I laughed, I cried, I got really, really hungry.)

What am I missing/forgetting?

Gift Ideas for the Cook In Your Life

One of my very fave food and cooking blogs, Smitten Kitchen, just posted a fantastic gift guide for anyone who loves to cook.

The reasons I think her gift guide is so great, among the countless gift guides out there?

First, she knows of what she speaks. The woman can cook. And bake. And bake some more. I aspire to cook even one thing that could compete with her gourmet fare.

Second, she's a real home cook! She's a normal human being just like you and me (er, so to speak -- "normal" is not a word most would use to describe me, I suppose) and she really does cook and bake all that stuff in her own kitchen.

Third, she has a notoriously teensy little kitchen. So all of her kitchen things must be small or easy to store, which I think is another bonus point. I certainly have more space than she does in my kitchen, but I don't want to clutter it up.

As for me, a certain number of her recommendations are going on my list....

Enjoy!

Seasoning

Not the kind of seasoning you think, silly.

I'm talking seasoning a cast iron skillet. This is the first thing you do when you get it home, and something you can do every so often to keep it in good shape.

Unsalted butter is the recommended seasoner. (If you're vegan, you could use a vegetable oil with a high smoke threshold, like sunflower.) But let's be real: butter always makes everything better, doesn't it?

First, rinse your new skillet with hot water and dry it off. (And that's it -- NO SOAP.)
Then take your butter or oil and give your skillet a light coating all around the inside.

Then put it in your oven and set it to 400F. Leave it in there for about 15 - 20 minutes or so -- enough time for the oven to get hot and the pan to really get all seasoned, with the butter baking in.

Take the pan out and let it cool down on your stovetop. Careful -- your pan will be very hot!

Once it's cool to the touch, wipe it down with a paper towel to get rid of the excess butter.

And now you can store it and cook in it, full steam ahead.

I do this with my cast iron skillets every so often, to keep 'em in tip top shape. This cute little 8" skillet you see here is a new one I brought home this weekend (joy! and thanks, honey!) and needed some seasoning TLC.

I've fried up an egg and other such things in him since, and he's non-stick and perfect, as expected.

Ode to the Cast Iron Skillet

There was a fantastic little article in the New York Times last week by the writer of gorgeous works, Jhumpa Lahiri, whose books I love.

She wrote about realizing the simple beauty and perfection of the cast iron skillet while summering on Cape Cod -- and I wholeheartedly agree with her.

A while ago, I was searching for alternatives to non-stick skillets, due to their total health hazardness and total non-eco-friendliness, and was finally swayed by my dear friend Winston into abandoning the non-stick toxicity and going for the classic, true non-stick skillet: cast-iron.

Part of a cast-iron's skillet's beauty is that it is so inexpensive and so easy to take care of: I got a Lodge 12-inch pre-seasoned (this makes all the difference!) cast-iron skillet for $24.95! You can't beat that price. (A hint: if you live near an REI, order it to be shipped to the store for you to pick up, to avoid paying for the -- literally -- heavy shipping costs.)

And a cast-iron skillet's care and handling is even simpler than any other pan: just never, ever use soap on it or set it to soak, and it will literally serve you loyally for decades. (Think I'm just talking out of my arse? Some of the first cast-iron skillets made more than 100 years ago are still in use! When Lodge says your children's children will be making cornbread in your cast-iron skillet, they aren't kidding.)

To wash, simply clean under slowly-running hot water as soon as possible after cooking, scrubbing with a soapless sponge (we use one that I've dedicated to my loyal cast-iron workhorse that has never had soap on it). Then make sure it's fully dry after washing (to prevent rust) by heating on your stove. Once it's totally dry, turn the burner off and your cast-iron skillet is good to go. Genius.

They're also very environmentally friendly: they are made of only one (duh) material, and that's it: no toxic chemicals or toxic production process.

And one thing Winston alerted me to, that even the brilliant Ms. Lahiri failed to mention, is that cooking in cast-iron actually boosts your iron intake! Especially if you cook with tomatoes (and then you're getting lycopene, which is even better!) or other acidic foods. (A side note: I don't notice a metallic taste when cooking with my skillet, ever.)

So there you have it: too many reasons to count why cast-iron cookware belongs in everyone's kitchen.

Do you have cast-iron? If not, why not? I used to be afraid of it and feared that it really wasn't 100% non-stick. Since taking the plunge, I can tell you that my fear was totally unfounded.


P.S. Ohmigod after spending way too much time perusing Lodge's site, I so want a Camp Dutch Oven someday, for camp cooking. How awesome. Okay and I also definitely want one of these someday. (Uh...yeah. Hubby is reading this going, "Oh GREAT. More kitchen stuff; just what we need." Hi honey!)

P.P.S. Why are this and this so cute? I want one. For what, I don't know. And then there's this, which is just too cute for words. Mini ears of cornbread! (Hi again, honey!)

Ah, All-Clad. But is it worth it?

Okay, look. I drool over All-Clad cookware like the rest of us. I often wonder if it's a scam and I am merely falling for a pretty pan.

But I don't think that's true. Every test and comparison I've ever seen or read about always puts the All-Clad at the top. And this is why my very few All-Clad pans are prized possessions. They say an All-Clad pan is becomes an heirloom; your grandchildren will be cooking out of it, someday. I hope that's true.

I found a blog post where they answered the question: "Why is All-Clad cookware so much more expensive than Cuisinart or other brands? Are the materials and construction far superior, or are we just paying for the All-Clad name?"

And I very much appreciate the answer. The two best tips from this article are:

• Because All-Clad pots are so costly, skip the sets that stores like Williams-Sonoma push. Instead, we suggest you buy just one pan at first.


• Buy irregulars. The 2 quart sauce pan is $139.95 on Amazon and $140 at Sur La Table. The same pan -- as an irregular -- is $95.20 at Cookware 'n More. That's a savings of more than 30%. Cookware 'n More runs occasional sales that cut the prices even lower!