How to quickly clean a cast iron Skillet

Okay! I absolutely absolutely love to cook in my cast iron skillets!  When I get the skillet going and throw in some bacon and eggs, the smell reminds me of spending time at my Grandma's house.  I'm not sure she has ever owned anything but cast iron, and she is the best cook in the world. I have often wondered how she stayed sane all these years cooking 3 square meals a day in cast skillets and then cleaning them everytime?
I believe cooking in cast gives things a different flavor and think it is amazing!

But the down side of cast iron (Or what used to be the downside) is the cleaning of it afterwards.  ANyone who has used cast knows that sometimes things stick to it if you're not careful. Especially scrambled eggs!! Why is that?  They are cooking along just fine, and you go to stir them and you have like 1/4 of an inch of egg permanently adhered to the bottom of your skillet?  My fried eggs don't do this. I believe it is one of life's mysteries!! Anyways, back to the topic of this tip! 

Cast skillets are not to be submerged into your dish water as the soap wil take off all that great "seasoning" you have worked so hard to build up on it. (If you need to know how to season a skillet I will post that later.)  So you are stuck with scraping, prying, and cussing, trying to get the stick stuff out. Using a scouring pad to chisel out the left over stuff, totally wrecking your beautiful fingernails in the process!!  Think my grandpa told me once, to go find some good clean sand and put it in the toe of an old panty hoses and use that to scrub them out???? Okay, that sounds tricky on lots of levels. One where the heck do you find "clean" sand and two, who has panty hose anymore! he he!

Well, that process is gone! No More! Frustration, Aggravation, and ruined nails.  I stumbled upon this little gem of a trick somewhere (think an old cookbook) and I believe  people have been keeping this as a secret for years! Nobody ever told me this!!

Ready! Here is the oh so simple way to clean your skillet. 
Step 1- fill dirty skillet with water. enough to cover the stuff stuck on the bottom, and a little extra. If there is stuff stuck up the sides add a little extra, and cover with a lid.
Step 2 - Bring the water to a full boil for around 2 minutes!  May vary depending on how stuck it is. You will see the food begin to float around and break loose. 
Step 3- Run under a little water and WIPE OUT STUCK FOOD!!!!  ***Remember the skillet is HOT and the water you are pouring out is HOT!! So use a potholder, and be careful!

YEP! That's it! I swear that is a well kept secret.! It works great! I usually put the skillet on to boil while I am loading the dishwasher and wiping down the countertops, and by the time I am done it is ready to wipe out!
Then all your left with doing is using a paper towel to dry any excess water and rubbing a little crisco in it and you have a perfectly cleaned skillet ready for it's next use!

I hope you enjoy this tip! I know I have! Thank you to whoever came up with this.

Pinterest!!!! UGHHHHH!!

So, am I the only one out there who has officially become addicted to Pinterest?  I sit down to try and accomplish something on the computer, and before I know it I have logged onto Pinterest!!!!! UGH!!!

30 minutes later, I am looking at the coolest stuff getting lots of great craft ideas, but basically accomplishing nothing!!! I have wasted the small window of time I have to spend on the computer before a tiny body plunks herself into my lap and says, "I Help u?"  I do have some great ideas pinned onto my boards, but will I ever have time to create these things!

So Frustrating! Yet I simply can't stop!!  Who created this!! They so totally rock, and suck at the same time!

I wasted a good hour yesterday when my little one who is still at home was napping sitting looking at peoples pins! I created absolutely nothing! I cleaned absolutely nothing!  SO I decided to stay up late while everyone was sleeping and get to cracking on some projects. And do you know what? I walked downstairs where my computer is at with the thought of printing off a pattern I had saved and logged onto.... yep you guessed it!! PINTEREST!! I am so totally obsessed!

Well bout 8 minutes later I realized the error of my ways, turned off the computer and walked up to my craft room.  3 hours later I had accomplished sooooomuch!   2 baby blankets, 2 crib sheets, 2 wreaths, and 4 headbands!! YEAH YEAH!  Maybe my obsession is over! ha anyone who follows my pins will be laughing at that because I was on there again today!

For those of you who have yet to check out this site??!!  Do so with great caution!  You will find so many fun, interesting, funny, yummy things there that it just might suck you into the vortex of obsession too!! It is basically a place where you can post to your "bulletin boards" anything you see on the web that you like! It will link it to you and have a direct link back to where you first saw! Great amazing resource!!

http://www.pinterest.com/      Proceed with caution!!!!

Kids Craft success!!??!

Well I conquered my first kids crafting class!! IT was a bit chaotic, but everyone had fun, created their own projects, and no one was injured!! Yeah!!  The first time you put yourself out there in a situation like this you have a little stress about wether you are capable to pull this off, and if you have chosen projects that are suitable for the age range of kiddos you have coming.  I learned several things from this first class.

Hot glue is an amazing thing for 7 year olds. The little whispy strings that you can create and then stretch across the room are simply put, Mesmerizing!  I am pretty sure I looked like I lived in a spider cave when I left for the night because I had strings of glue all over me. I would lean across the table to help a child, and the one that was standing next to me would pass the glue gun over my back to the girl on the other side of me, thus creating glue strings across my back and into my hair! Great!! And those of you who have seen me lately know my hair is already crazy so adding this affect really helped out!  Not really a big deal, but after awhile they are troublesome!!

I also now have a much better idea of what projects can be completed by different ages, and how long projects will take the kids to do.  I want to thank the parents that submitted their kiddos to my "guinea pig" class.  I learned alot from your kids, and I hope they had as much fun as I did!!

So I will be offering more crafting classes for kids! Yeah!  SInce the first time with 7 kiddos they each managed to create a fuzzy pumpkin, a pose-able mummy, and 3 bottlecap magnets. Everyone had fun, no one was injured and did I say it was fun!  Thanks again parents and kids! You Rock!

Check back often to see when the next class will be offered. Think a fall wreath project for adults, or maybe Christmas Present ideas for adults. and then we will go back to the kiddos for a Thanksgiving/fall class!!

Thanks
and Happy Crafting!