Let the people rejoice! Amanda has internet at her humble dwelling!

Now, if only I had pictures... oh wait, I DO! haha. I'm gonna post them some time tonight before I go to bed. Maybe. And pictures from my new job too. Nice.

So I thought about blogging something related to the drama of the past couple of weeks, about how I didn't have any furniture for 3 weeks except for a card table and folding chairs, and how I slept on an air mattress which kept deflating and had to be revived every day, or maybe how I don't know how to shop for groceries, or that time my mom used the key to my house that she took from me to let herself in at a very inconvenient time... but no. That's not stuff you guys want to hear about.

Then I thought maybe I'll tell you about my "transitional period" conversation I had with my best friend/maid of honor Kara. We chatted for 2 hours about how the early 20's are the hardest because nowhere is home, you're leaving your family, you're trying to make your own life, etc. It was a good talk. But no.

Instead, this is my ode to cast iron. My cast iron skillet to be more precise. Make fun of me if you will, but I love that stupid piece of heavy black metal. So I bought this cooking implement when I first moved into my house (my mom had a cast iron skillet that I grew quite fond of but had to leave at their house). It's a nice skillet, a 12" one I believe, decently sized...

I haven't cleaned it since I got it.

So is the beauty of cast iron. I believe I've cooked just about every meal in that darn thing for the past 5 weeks (has it really been that long???) and I've never washed it. Sure I wipe it out occasionally, but that's about it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner... everything gets cooked in the good ol' Lodge Logic pan from Farm and Fleet. The more you cook in it (without washing of course) the more 'seasoned' it gets. At first, stuff sticks to it and you have to use oil or grease to cook, but after a while some of the liquids and oils seep into the cast iron and form a protective barrier on it... it's the same as non-stick cookware! [[But it's better for you than Teflon... I don't have time to go into that, but cooking on Teflon is not good for your health.]] So now you might ask, don't your pancakes taste like chicken/bacon/eggs/olive oil/porkchops/alfredo sauce? After all, when you don't wash out the pan, doesn't it all develop the same taste? There lies the hidden beauty... all the cooking, none of the cleaning, and stuff tastes wonderful. Of course, common sense says use a paper towel to wipe out your alfredo sauce before putting eggs in the pan. But honestly, everything tastes great in that pan!

Anywho. Other than that one night of eating ravioli out of a saucepan (lol) I have been faithful to my cast iron and it has returned my affection. The only thing I can't do is bake in it. Unfortunately, I have yet to conquer my fear of turning on the oven... but we'll save that for some other time...