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.

Motivated to find more Craft storage ideas!

Well, it wasn't long ago that I posted my idea for storing all the rogue ribbon I had running around my craft area. That got me on a misson to get the rest of my disaster area under control. Any of you who have had the pleasure (hee-hee) to see my craft area knows it is crazy. With three little ones who all help me craft it gets messy fast, especially when they are crafting and I am somewhere else in the house.  My craft area, or what my husband thought was going to be my craft area is the 2nd floor attic of our house. It is  an amazing space with sloped ceilings, and lots of windows. I Love it up there! It is just not fully functionable yet as our house is still partially under construction (which will probably be a blog story for some other time).

Any-hoo! I mentioned my husband thought it was going to be up there because my craft room has spread to the main floor, and yes even to the basement! He never really complains, I just think he quietly thinks I have lost my marbles!  So I looked around and corralled all my stuff that had gone rogue around our house and headed up stairs. It did take several trips, and technically I haven't even got it all, but it is in the process.  Once I got all my treasures up there I realized I had a HUGE mess. So began my hunt for better storage.

If you are like me you have a hodge-podge group of things containing your crafts. Rubber totes, those plastic pull-out shelf things on wheels, boxes, plastic bags, etc. Basically anything you could scrounge and get by with on the cheap.  I did get an awesome sewing type table at a yard sale, but it can't contain it all, and it just doesn't look pretty! I like things to look neat and orderly! Again those of you who have been to my house are thinking, ha-what! But I do! I just have a hard time achieving it.

So I decided my first misson was to find a way to get ride of the mix-n-matched small containers I have and I searched the web high and low and I found this idea!!!!!   I LOVE it! I will be creating this shortly!  Think of how pretty it will be!!


 

 I found it on this blog :http://knockoffdecor.com/storage-cube-work-table/.
It is simply two storage cube towers with two 2x6 beams on top that can be painted or stained! I plan to put a solid back on each cube set to keep items from getting pushed through onto my feet. I know my youngest would think that is the funnest game ever. Then I could simple get the coordinating storage cubes that fit the holes, and Tadaa! Awesome storage solution, extra work space for crafts, sewing etc. and it will look oh so pretty!

If you look at the picture again and notice her peg board. She has so nicely shown you the second storage system I was in the process of doing when I found this pic. Take old tin cans, wrap them in whatever fabric, or paper you like. Punch a hole the size of your peg board hook so it can run through the can, and yep you guessed it another tadaa! Great storage and easy access to scissors, pencils, etc.!!! 
I don't have a place for peg board so I am going to attach my cans to a magnetic knife strip nicely tucked out of the reach of my youngest!

Then if you happen to like her peg board, I do it just doesn't work in my craft space, you can create this yourself as well. I won't give details right now on how to do this, but if your crafty I'm sure you can figure it out! Just let me say don't be afraid to break out the power tools! I Love them!


So there you have it girls, two possibly three great money saving craft storage solutions!  Should mention I did create something similar to the craft table for my kiddos.  I found two night stands at a yard sale and paid like $5 for them both. Literally crammed, my sister will testify, them into the back of my already packed full car and drove off with no real idea of what they would be for. Just couldn't pass up the bargain. They are nice nightstands, not to look at, but well built.   My husband just thought again that I was nuts and just adding to my pile of lost ideas, but 5 years later, I showed him! Ha Ha!

I painted them in nice shades of brown, found some long boards that would fit nicely across the tops and created an extra long desk for my kids. There is two places to put chairs, and each of the older ones have a set of drawers to put thier treasures in! Perfect, and for under $15 you can't beat that.
Once I get my craft room presentable I will post a picture of this creation. I know you will be impressed. My husband was!

happy crafting
and feel free to post and craft storage tips you want to share. I would love to read them!

Cheap Ribbon storage!

Cheap and Easy homemade Ribbon storage!

Was sitting at my kitchen table the other day sorting out the mess my 2 year old had made of all the spools of ribbon I have. I was trying to create something a couple days ago, and she was happily playing "lets unroll  every spool of riboon", so I let her have her fun!  Now 3 days  later I am trying to make a couple clips and my ribbon is a total disaster. UGHH!!

So had a quick brainy moment and decided maybe I should roll these up, and find some way better to store them. My version of ribbon storage is chuck them into a box and call it good. Well that's okay if they are still sealed from the store, but mine of course are not. So the loose end becomes looser and looser and then the two year old strikes!! Ribbon disaster!

I looked on line, and there are some totally awesome ribbon storage systems! Seriously! Those things can make any sane crafter drool and really think about blowing her budget! But thanks to my dad's genes, I am CHEAP!! Thank you dad! (seriously) So I headed up to my attic/craft room/ catch all the junk room and started digging around and this is what came to me in a stroke of cheap genious!

Easy Ribbon Storage!!!!!!

Yep! It is just what it looks like!! A shoe box from one of my kids pairs of shoes. It has a wooden flower stake ran through the box, and the ribbon ran onto the stake, and Tadaah.......  Your ribbon is nicely contained! And I saved myself around $400.00 smackers!!    So read on and you will see some easy instructions on how to wrangle your own ribbon into containment!!

Step 1:    Collect your necessary items.  

  -shoe boxes to fit all your ribbon into (mine took 3 boxes like this and one man sized boot    box! Yikes didn't realize I had all that! he-he) 

-- wooden flower stakes, or small dowel rods, or even shish-kaboob sticks if they are long enough to go completely across your box. Basically anything you have that is a little longer then your box, and it will fit through the centers of your ribbon spools

-- scissors, or something to poke holes in your box and to trim the stakes or dowels if they are too long.

-- straight pins, or tape to secure the loose ends of your ribbon

-- a couple pieces of duct tape or really sticky tape

And that's it!!  So go get your items and get ready!

Step 2:

- look at you ribbon spools and take one of the bigger ones and sit it inside your box on one end. You are going to mark where you need to poke your hole for the stake. Make sure you aren't crowding it into the front or back as this will not allow your spool to turn easily when you are pulling out ribbon. Also try to keep it a little to the front or back as this will allow room to store excess ribbon on it's side behind the ones on the stake. (see last picture to show this) I divided my spools first by color and then by size; small, medium, and large. All the large ones I took out and put them into a boot box since my shoe boxes where kinda skinny. Think they had flip-flops in them.

                               

Step 3:

-- cut or poke a hole that is just a little smaller then your stake or dowel. Make sure it lines up with the approx. center of your spool. Becareful and don't jab your hand either! You want it to be a little tight so that your dowel won't go sliding out if the box gets tilted or dropped!

  

Step 4:

- Run your stake or dowel through the hole and straight across until it is touching the other side.  Now just sort of eyeball the dowel until it is running straight through the box and poke a matching hole in the other side of the box. Again make it a little small.



Step 5:

- Now pull the dowel out of one hole and start to run  your ribbon spools onto the dowel. Until it is nice and full and then stick the dowel back out both sides. I had to trim mine off a little so they weren't crazy long.  I then covered them with a strip of duct tape to insure they wouldn't slip out during use!  





Finished Ribbon Storage System!! LOVE IT!

Now go get your trash and turn it into functionable crafting treasure!!

Happy craftin!