They say you spend a third of your life sleeping. Sometimes I feel like I spend half my life washing dishes! I don’t mind too much though. I do some of my best scheming when I am elbows deep in suds.

Yesterday after lunch I went into my kitchen to wash up our dishes and make Brent some coffee. And as usual my mind started to roam as I looked around our kitchen. My eyes settled on a set of old cast iron pots. They were handed down to me by my mother who got them from my grandmother who got them from my great grandmother. Three generations of woman have owned them, loved them, and fed their families with them. Now they belong to me. The history of these pots is powerful and resonates somewhere deep in me. But I felt a sense of loss looking at them as I haven’t used them since I went raw. I reached up and took one down. I felt the weight of it, how cool it was. I placed it on the counter and started slowly oiling it and then it dawned on me.

Early in the week when I was working late one night, Brent had gone out and ordered a pizza. He came in to offer me a piece and I took one whiff and decided I wasn’t hungry afterall. The pizza was completely unappetizing to me. That was a first. I became raw “vegan” for health reasons not ethical ones. So I am at a slight disadvantage compared to all of PETA’s lemmings. I believe I am on top of the food chain end of story. I can be in a restaurant quite content with a bowl of salad and not at all offended with the piles of meat on my fellow diners plates. It just doesn’t bother me. I choose to not eat meat but meat itself does not offend me.

But I digress.

As I put back my cast iron I realized that what I missed was not consuming cooked food… I missed making it. Now my kitchen is filled with other interesting gadgets but it’s not the same. So I grabbed my keys and wallet, walked up to the grocery store and picked up a two pound chuck roast. And for the next three hours I caramelized onions, deglazed a jus with a good bottle of white and braised a perfect roast. All in my cast iron who has probably seen hundreds of roasts in its lifetime. And then I served it to a very surprised husband and watched him with an amazing sense of contentment as I happily ate a shaved beet and kale salad.

So there you have it. My “cooked food addiction” (a ridiculous phrase in my humble opinion) isn’t for the food itself but the process of making it.

How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet/Saucepan

Disclaimer: The following involves the use of animal products. If this offends you DON’T READ IT. If you are a vegetarian or vegan and want to season a cast iron skillet simply substitute the lard (pig fat) for shortening (vegetable lard). Happy seasoning!

If a cast iron pot or skillet is properly seasoned it will conduct heat perfectly, never rust and maintain a beautiful shiny black luster on the interior and exterior. If you have just purchased a cast iron ignore the fact that the tag reads “pre-seasoned.” It’s a vicious manufacturers lie and besides you can do a much better job than any assembly line.

1) Visit your butcher and ask him to give you enough fresh pork fat to fill the skillet or pot you are seasoning. Pour about 1/8 inch of water into the skillet and then fill with whatever fat you are using. Put the skillet into an oven that has been heated to 225 degrees Fahrenheit and slowly melt the fat (will take an hour or two).

2) Remove the fat from the pan and wipe out the excess. You should never have to wash it again. Just wipe it out thoroughly after each use (using either vegetable oil with a sprinkling of salt or bacon grease.) The salt helps to preserve it and prevents food from sticking to the surface.

If you need to wash it always use cold water. Dry and oil it immediately. Time consuming but well worth it as you will have a piece of history to hand down to your children.