If you’re visiting my corner of the interwebs for the first time after watching Dr. Kim Mulvihill’s HealthWatch segment: Welcome, newbies!
In a nutshell, I document every single meal I ingest (almost) every day on this blog – whether I’m dining out or cooking for my family. [Curious about the Paleo diet? Click here. Wanna check out some of my Paleo recipes? Click on my recipe index. Interested in purchasing my iPad cooking app? Mosey on down to the App store by clicking here.]
If you’re one of my regular readers and missed Part 3 of Dr. Mulvihill’s weeklong series on the Paleo Diet, lookie here:
With that lengthy intro out of the way, let’s take a gander at my eats today…
When I cleared the hotel dishwasher this morning, I made an unwelcome discovery that made my blood curdle: my beloved, well-seasoned 8-inch cast iron skillet had been put through the wash.
Ai ya!
The Double-Os knew that I was upset. Perhaps the silent, angry tears rolling down my cheeks gave it away. They worked extra hard to put a smile on my face.
I’m totally kidding about being devastated, by the way. Don’t get me wrong – I was upset about the pan but I didn’t cry about it or lodge a complaint with housekeeping. I’m no drama queen and I knew the cheap-o skillet could be saved with a little TLC.
After I dropped the kids off at school, I came back to our house pronto to re-season the damaged skillet. Luckily, the hotel dishwasher didn’t strip off all the layers of seasoning and only a minor touch-up was needed.
I preheated the oven to 450° F, coated my pan with a thin layer of coconut oil…
…and popped it in the oven for 30 minutes.
While I nursed my skillet back to health in the oven, I reheated leftover Damn Fine Chicken wings and broiled asparagus for breakfast.
After a quick stint in the hot box, my beloved skillet was back in fighting form.
I’ll post an in-depth tutorial on how to season and maintain a cast iron skillet soon. In the meantime, please check out these fab tips from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. The only thing I do differently is I coat my pans with coconut oil or lard instead of vegetable oil.
Because I was returning to a week of night shifts in the evening, I spent the rest of my waking hours cooking. I baked another batch of sweet potato bars or “cake sponges" per the Double O’s requests…
…and coated some drumsticks with my sister’s green marinade.
At lunchtime, I tested out my newly re-seasoned skillet by frying a mess of omelets stuffed with basil, chopped frozen broccoli, and leftover Oven-Braised Mexican Beef.
Each one slipped out of the pan effortlessly. Phew!
After lunch, I went to bed for a couple of hours in preparation for my all-nighter at the hospital.
When I woke up in the evening, our family gathered around the TV and yelped and giggled as we watched our Paleo cooking segment on the local news. The piece made me miss our intact kitchen and our funny buddies, Jules and Charles.
Once the excitement had died down, I prepared dinner by roasting My Sister’s Phenomenal Green Chicken in the oven…
…stir-frying mushrooms…
…and spinach…
…and reheating roasted yam purée.
Here’s my dinner plate:
By the time we hustled back to the hotel, it was already past the boys’ bedtime so we hurriedly tucked them in bed. Then, I gathered my stuff for work and drove to the hospital. I knew it was going to be a good night because the last song I heard before pulling into the parking garage was The Black Keys’ Gold On The Ceiling. Now that’s a song I want stuck in my head all night.
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