Cast Iron Cooking

Several years ago, on a whim, I bought a 14" Lodge dutch oven at Sams Club.  Back then, they were $50.  I seasoned it and cooked a few things.  Then life got hectic and I stuck it in it's box and stuffed it in a closet.  I took it out last year, determined to start using it.  A friend had gotten me a dutch oven cookbook for Christmas and I wanted to try out some recipes.  I retrieved my oven, only to find it rancid and gross.  I stripped it and re-seasoned it.  I used it a couple of times last summer.  But, I must not have let it dry before re-seasoning, because this year when I took it out, I found the seasoning bubbled and pitted. 

I stripped it to discover lots of rust under the seasoning.  I scrubbed it really good, dried it on the grill and re-seasoned it.  

Here is a link to an excellent site on dutch ovens.  It includes directions for seasoning and restoring. It also has recipes (I made the garlic potatoes on the page - delicious !!).  There is also a chart for figuring out how to achieve different temps with different ovens - you just enter what oven you have, what temp you need and if you are baking, frying, etc, and it will tell you how many coals on top and how many on bottom.

Dutch Oven Dude

So, last weekend we went camping.  I brought my dutch oven, my cast iron griddle and my hobo pie iron.  I had re-seasoned my griddle and pie iron the previous week.

Here is an excellent link for pie irons:
Pie Irons

And here is one for some great pie iron recipes:
Great Camps hobo pie iron recipes

Here is a link to Lodge Manufacturing's page.  Lots of cool stuff !!
Lodge

Lastly, here is a site that has a lot of good information about cast iron cookware, how to care for it, season it and use it:
What's Cooking America

Cast iron needs to be cared for, but in return you have lifetime of cooking from it.  If you want to start small, get a cast iron frying pan and start there.  There are many things you can do with one of these.  If you do decide to jump right in and buy a dutch oven, be sure to get one that has legs and a lid with a lip - this allows you to put coals under and on top of the iron for proper cooking.  If you already have one that doesn't (I have one that has no legs or lip) - don't worry - it is still a great, useful pot.  You can either put it on a rack over a fire or coals or hang it from a tripod.  You can't bake in it, but you can cook all kinds of delicious soups, stews, and more.
Now, for the recipes and instructions !!

On our camping trip, I made cherry coffee cake:
1 large can of fruit pie filling (I used cherry)
4 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon for topping
1 stick butter cut into small pieces
At home, I mixed the sugar and Bisquick in a gallon freezer zip lock and wrote the instructions on the outside of the bag with a sharpie.  In a small sandwich bag, I mixed the topping.  In an empty water bottle, I mixed the water, milk and egg and stuck in the cooler.  I also cut up the butter and stuck that in the cooler as well.
At the campsite, I preheated the aluminum foil lined dutch oven with 11 coals on bottom and 17 top.  While it was heating, I dumped the water/milk/egg into the zip lock with the dry ingredients and kneaded it until well mixed.  When oven was warm, I dumped the can of pie filling in.  I snipped the corner of the bag of the batter and pushed it out of the bag all over the top of the pie filling.  Next, I opened the topping bag and sprinkled that on top.  Lastly, I dotted the butter all over the top and recovered the oven.  I let it bake until the cake was done.  I think it was about 45 minutes. I did replace some of the coals during that time.  I had also stuck a container of cool whip in the cooler to serve with it.  This cake is delicious when it is still warm out of the oven.  If I were making it at home, I would serve with ice cream.

I also made beef Philly steak hobo pies.  While the pie iron was heating on the fire, I made up the sandwiches.  I had sauteed onions and green peppers at home and stuck them in the cooler.  You just put some deli roast beef on white bread, add some onions and green peppers.  Top with a slice of provolone cheese.  Butter the outsides of the bread.  Cook in a warm pie iron, flipping after a few minutes.  Delicious !!

I cooked a hearty breakfast one day on the griddle.  First, heat the griddle over some good wood fire coals.  I cooked the bacon first, then while that was sitting cooling on some paper towels, I dumped a can of Mary Kitchen corn beef hash on the hot griddle and cooked till browned and crispy.  Lastly, I cooked some onion and pepper (prepped at home) till tender, then cracked some farm fresh eggs over it and cooked till done, scrambling as they cooked.  This was a breakfast that lasted all day - no need for lunch that day !!

Cory also cooked some fresh breaded walleye on the griddle.  Out of this world !!

I hope my blog inspires you to do some cast iron cooking !!  It is fun and while you can splurge like I did while camping and cook some real treats, you can cook very low fat in well seasoned cast iron, since food doesn't stick to it and you don't need oil. 

My Duck Pond

I get a lot of questions about my duck pond so I thought I would do a quick blog on how I built it.  I had a Rubbermaid sheep trough from when I had dairy goats.  I no longer need it for the goats, so it has been laying around the farm unused.   A few years ago, I hurt my knee and needed surgery.  Since it was hard going up and down the porch stairs, I had the trough brought up to the deck, where I planted a garden in it that I could easily tend to.  Here it is as I was removing the dirt and preparing to pull it off the deck.

Before placing it in the duck pen, I hauled some gravel, then some rocks and topped that with more gravel in the spot where the pond would be, raising the trough up about a foot.

I had Cory get a valve for the drain hole that had a shut off.  The plastic flexible hose I have for my sump pump fits on this spigot for easy draining of the pond.  I just stretch the hose out so the water all goes at the base of the maple tree near the barn.  

Then, I gathered some old wood planks, some dead fall trees and limbs and placed them around the pond for a way for the ducks to easily get in and out.  I used branches from an old Christmas tree to fill in all the gaps and give it a more protected and natural feel.

Next, you simply add ducks and enjoy !!!  Since these pics were taken, I added a plank along the other side of the pond to allow them to get in and out easier on that side.  

Cleaning is quick and simple - the plank along the front hides the spigot.  To attach the hose, I simply lift out the greenery branches and stick a long handled screwdriver down to tighten the hose clamp.  I drain the tub, then put the garden hose in and let the pond flush.  I use a gong brush to do a quick brush out of it.  After the water is clear, I close the valve and let the pond fill up.  With two call ducks, the pond stays clean about a week.  With bigger ducks or more than 2, it needs to be cleaned a couple times a week.

This summer, I want to add more trees, greenery and rocks to the remainder of the pen to give them a nice woodsy home.

The Fleecing of my cages.............

Fleece is awesome in critter cages !!!

While I was researching building a cage, I came across A LOT of folks who are using polar fleece for their guinea pig, rat, ferret and rabbit cages.  So many that there are now quite a few sites selling custom made fleece for C and C cages and Ferret Nation.
I decided to not only use fleece in Hoppy's new palace, but to see if I could redo the degu's FN cage in fleece.  The first thing I did was to test fleece with them.  Goos are chewers and mine LOVE to chew.  But, there are some things they don't chew on - they don't like hard plastic and most fabrics.  Because they had had polar fleece hammocks and blankets before, I thought they would do well with fleece.  To test it out, I covered the shelves in the cage with fleece and hung a fleece scarf that I got for a buck as a climbing toy.  After a week of no chewing, they were ready for their cage do-over.  I was pretty excited at the prospect of no more nasty, stinky pine shavings that just get kicked out all over the floor, only to clog up the vacuum.
First, I will show you the bunny cage.  The cage is 28 x 56 (2 x 4 C and C), which is a popular bath towel size.  First, I lay a towel down (I have stacks of stained towels I got free from a local resort):

Then, the fleece goes down.  Because my bunny is reliable with his litter box and is a non chewer, I just use some fleece blankets I got at Menards for $1.50.  They are rather thin, but that doesn't matter.  I cut the fleece to fit the cage.  At first, I just pulled some fleece through the corner and zip tied it in place:

 After I saw fleece was going to work out in the cage, I hemmed the cut edges and sewed a little bias tape to the corners for ties:

 I smooth the fleece out in the cage and then tie the corners up.  That is all there is to it.

Because Hoppy uses his litter box, cleaning the cage is simple.  Just pull out the litter box, dump out and refill with new shavings and hay every couple days.  Once a week or so, sweep up any stray poops on the fleece.  When it looks soiled or has alot of shed hair on it, toss it in the wash !!  Because he doesn't pee outside of his litter box,  I haven't had to wash the towel yet - it is still fresh and clean.

I also plan on making shelf covers for the rabbit condo.  I will do it the same way, making ties for the corners, although I might try just making small bias tape loops that can be zip tied to the cage.  Here is a preview of what it will look like:

Now, for the goos Ferret Nation cage.  There are a lot of people selling fleece pads made for the FN, but since I know my goos will simply burrow under the pads, I knew I needed something that covered the entire pans.  The first I used were the cheap Menard blankets, but because the goos dig and their hay cubes get pokey, I switched to a heavier fleece.  The FN cage is easy to fleece:
First, I lay a pan out on my center island.  I lay dog wee-wee pads on the bottom.  I fit towels to the bottom of the pan.  Some edges, I fold under, but if they are too big, I cut.  On the upper level, I add an extra towel piece where their water bottle hangs.

Then, I just lay the fleece over the top of the pan and cut any excess (leaving several inches on each side tor tucking under the pan):

I push the fleece into the bottom of the pan and then use spring paper clips around the edges to hold the fleece in place.  On the top pan, I make a cut to help tuck the excess around the cut out in the pan:

As I slide the pan back into the cage, I tuck all the extra fabric under the pan.  For cleaning, I just use a whisk broom and dust pan I got at the dollar store to sweep up all the poops and hay chunks every day or every other day (takes only a couple minutes).  Then, every other week, I just toss the fleece and towels in the wash.  Easy Peasy !!!  Mine has never soaked to the weewee pads, so I never have had to replace them.
I didn't show how I do the shelves, because I am going to redo them.  I have the old style FN, with the flat plastic shelves.  I taped a wee wee pad to the shelf insert, then cover it with a fleece "pillowcase" I made, then insert it into the shelf wire.  It is hard because of the thickness of it.  My new plan is to sew "pillowcases" out of a thin, absorbent cotton diaper clothe I bought and slip them over the insert.  Then, insert it in the wire and cover with a fleece pad made with two corner "pockets" and two corner elastic strips to hold it down on the shelf.
Here is the upper level of their cage.  The extra shelf is just a C and C grid zip tied to cage and covered with a chunk of fleece folded to fit.

Here is the lower level.  This houses their wheel and I just added that "shavings pit" - I got a reptile container from Petco and filled it full of pine shavings so they can dig and burrow.  I have a medium size one of those containers for their nest (see above pic) and a small one for their dust baths.

New Rabbit Condo

So, after admiring the rabbit and g pig condos on the internet (do a search for "Guinea pig condo"  "C and C cage"  "storage cube rabbit condo", etc, and it will bring up TONS of ideas), I decided to build one myself.  I scoured the local stores for the storage cubes and found none.  I was able to order them off of Amazon.com - they were $26 per pack of 17 and eligible for super saver shipping.  I ordered 3 packs and got them lightening fast (ordered on a Sat, got them Tues).  

Other materials needed for the cage part are zip ties and pliers. 

About this time, I found a cute Holland Lop rabbit for sale.  He is a 10 month old broken blue buck.  He weighs just 4 lbs.  His name was Spooks when I got him, but one of the residents at the long term care facility I work at renamed him "Happy Hoppy".  Not really a name I would pick out, but Hoppy he is !!

Since I get home from work at midnight and the house is pretty quiet, I spent that time over the next few days putting the cubes together with the zip ties.  I decided to make my cage 2 panels wide by 4 panels long.  Making it 2 panels high would give enough room to add a second level.

I made one wall at a time, using 3 zip ties per side of panel to hold them together.  Where four met, I criss-crossed two zip ties.  Then, I zip tied the back and two side walls together.  I made the front with two doors that swing out (leave those zip ties just a little looser so the door swings easily.  I made the top by zip tying 8 panels together, but did not put it on yet so that I would have more access to the inside as I built the shelf.

Next, I headed to Menards and bought a sheet of 3/8" plywood for the floor, castors, some 1x2s for the edge around the bottom and the shelf supports, one 6' 1 X 12 for the shelves, and one box of self adhesive vinyl floor tiles.  I also dug through the cheap "utility wood" for pieces for shelving and misc building.  In this bin, I scored a 35" long 1 x 12 for less than a buck !!!  I made sure to get all untreated wood so the bunny can safely chew on it.  I got mostly pine, but did pick up some hickory on another trip to Menards.  These scrap bins are great places to get materials for critter building !!!
We headed up to Cory's workplace to cut the wood.  First, we cut the plywood base.  We cut it an inch and a half longer and an inch and a half wider so that we could screw 1 X 2s around the perimeter to keep the bunny raisins contained (he is pretty reliable with his litter box, but has a few accidents).  We left a 30" opening in the front of the base so the doors can swing outward.  
Next, we flipped the base over and screwed castors down to it so we can move the cage around easily.

When we got home, I tried out the cage in the base to check the fit.  If there had been any problems, we could fix them now before laying the tile.

I took the base and covered my kitchen center island with a blanket and set the base on it to install the tiles.  The whole box of tiles was less than $15 at Menards and they were very easy to cut and to install.  You can cut them easily with a utility knife and you just remove the paper backing and press down.

I used little nail on plastic fasteners that are made to fasten co-ax cable to walls to fasten the cage to the base.  
For the shelves, we cut 1 x 2s for the supports - these go right through the holes in the grids.  We then screwed untreated lumber down to them for the shelves.  We made a shelf on each side of the cage from a 1 x 12.

We then screwed that scrap 1 x 12 that I got from the utility bin at Menards across the two side shelves to make a back shelf.

Once all the shelving was in, I zip tied the roof on.  
There was a lot of wood left for plenty of other projects.  We made a little hidey-hole tunnel out of a few pieces.

   
This was a fun and easy project.  I have absolutely NO wood building skills and with very little help, was able to build this awesome cage inexpensively.
Hoppy loves his new bunny condo !!  I put the base from his old cage in it and that is what I use for his litter box.  Because Hoppy is not a chewer, I am using polar fleece for his cage liner.  It is nice and soft and gives him the traction he needs for running and hopping (he likes to popcorn back and forth across the back of his cage).
I will do a separate blog on the fleece liners for his cage and also for my Degu's critter nation cage.