Look Around

Look around your kitchen. How much plastic surrounds you? I can't help but look around my kitchen and wonder what I can replace with something that's NOT plastic. Some things are easier than others. Some things maybe only came into being with plastic. What did we use before we HAD plastic stuff to use? Let's think about it.

Toaster... plastic. Let me get a metal one next time. I'm so tired of buying a cheap plastic thing, only for it to break after just a few years. Give me a sturdy toaster that will last decades, with someone to repair it, too, when it does break. Hand beater? Plastic crap! They are terrible. I mix by hand when I can, and maybe a big old KitchenAid mixer is the way to go... with counter space, of course. Those things used to last forever. Pay a little more? It lasts longer and you aren't laying out the money all over again in 2 years. Didn't vacuum cleaners used to be metal? And repairable? Now they are all plastic pieces of crap, and when something breaks, go get a new one. 'Cuz plastic can't be repaired.

Sure, those are the big things. What I really meant to get into was all those little things that add up. I'm slowly but surely coming out of my plastic ways and replacing with better materials. Big spoons, stirring spoons and spatulas etc? We do NOT need plastic. For cast iron, a metal spatula is great. For enameled wares, bamboo is perfect. For how much sauce I cook? Bamboo doesn't stain! Repeat that: Bamboo does not stain. And it's durable. And inexpensive. And biodegradable. And it grows plentifully and without pesticides. Measuring cups? Why are those plastic? Metal, for sure. And Pyrex. Measuring spoons? Metal. Why did we start buying these things as plastic? Cheaper? Fun colors? I don't know. These are things we can keep around the kitchen for a LONG time; there is no need to go cheap plastic. Plastic stains. Plastic holds odors. Plastic melts. Case in point: you have a turkey baster in there, don't you? Most of us do. What do you squeeze all up into that? Boiling hot oils, right? What do we know about plastic now? Hot liquids leach chemicals out of it. We've been serving our gravies with chemicals. How do you feel about that? Did you know you can find inexpensive glass basters? Of course the squeeze past is still silicone or rubber, but the tube is much better. Scared of glass in your kitchen? Get out. Now. Remember those metal ice cube trays? Remember they were kind of a giant pain in the ass? But remember we still used them? And we survived, and we still had ice, and we didn't die? Many people have ice makers on the fridge anyway, but really, those plastic trays? They break, they get to smelling... they are convenient but not necessary. Pause for a moment to think how many of them have ended up in the trash over the years...

We're phasing out all our plastic containers and replacing them with Pyrex. Or jars that I save. I can't wait to have a big old pantry just filled with jars. I can't wait to have no more plastic in my kitchen where there is a better product to use. Salt & pepper shakers.... pepper mill... all these little things... they add up. What can you phase out of your kitchen to make it a better, healthier room?

Easy Things

On a perfect rainy Sunday afternoon (rare in Southern California), my perfect thing is to make sauce for a nice rainy-day dinner. The simmering smell takes me back and makes everything feel extra homey.

Cooking is fun for me and I love when I can do it. I like spending time in the kitchen, I love my enameled cast-iron (as constant readers know), and I get to thinking of things as I prepare ingredients. Today, it was of chopping onions. We have so many fun tools to chop onions, so that our hands don't have to smell. So that it's fast and easy. So we don't cry from the odor. I've had these things. They are made of plastic. When they break, we throw them away, because hey, they are cheap, and wow, you can't fix them AT ALL. Plastic things, when broken, are usually rendered useless. I would actually never remember to grab this thing. I like chopping onions with a knife. A good chef's knife is the best thing in the world for your kitchen. I don't care that my onions pieces are not uniform. I don't care that my hands smell like onions for a few minutes afterwards. I don't mind that it takes a few extra minutes.

Why this driving need for ease and convenience and making everything so darn mess-free? Why do we not give a second thought to what we are doing in the long run, simply because we think the worst thing in the world is to have to handle an onion for a few minutes? To me, activities are more worth-while if I have to spend time and care on them. So, why all this stuff? Choppers, cutters, food processors, every single one of them made of cheap plastic and designed to break after just a little bit of time, so that a new one needs to be purchased by the same consumer.

Isn't that kind of insane? Is it me? I think it's a little insane. How long do we keep a good knife over a lifetime, versus how many of these things? What are we doing with all this extra time we have from these things? Why don't we just value the time it takes to do things anymore?

Nothing.

Where Have You Been All My Life?

So I have overcome the brain-washing and the duping and have learned that a cast iron skillet does wonders for the simplest most humble grilled cheese sandwich, and everything else, too. And I have this base desire to own a whole set of Le Creuset in yellow - no, green - no, yellow... well, whatever. That will have to wait until I have my own TV show or something.

This holiday, though, found me gifted with a beautiful enameled 5 1/2 quart dutch oven. (My coworker listens to me when I talk!) We have a plain cast iron one, but you can't do just anything in those. So this was a welcome addition to my kitchen. And I did not wait long to try it.

How I feel about mine!

I'm convinced I will not have awesome pasta sauce again until I make it from my own home-grown tomatoes and I jar it for a supply over the winter (this IS the plan for next winter), but I thought, well, let's see what we can do here. Chopped my onions, chopped my garlic, got my chicken "sausage" ready. Put my onions in with a little oil. Oh, this is troubling, look, it's getting brown stuff stuck on the bottom. Well, I guess this will take some getting-used-to. Can't be great and right the first time out all the time. Garlic in. OK. Definite stickies. Sigh. I'll do better next time. Sausage, in. (Meanwhile it smells extra good, I AM noticing that.) But wait... what's this? The brown goodness stuck on the bottom came right up and off! Could it... could it be... stuff doesn't STICK to this when used properly????

The lid, so nice and heavy, is keeping all that flavor in! That iron is keeping the heat so nicely distributed! OK, so I still have a little mark on my hand because I had the heat up a LITTLE high and the bubbling sauce got over-zealous. But I am pretty sure that is the best sauce (I'm not from Jersey, it's sauce, not gravy) (and it's not "red sauce" it's just sauce) I have made while relying on those horrid jars of crap. (Yes, I do feel dirty, why do you ask?)

It's the wonderful beautiful heavy pot that made my sauce extra good, I know it. I just made chicken noodle soup in it today. My Hunny got a cold for the holiday, and what better excuse to try it out on soup from scratch? Yes, it rocks.

So where has this stuff been all my life?? Yeah, it's pricey, but with good care, it will last probably the rest of my life. Remind me again why we stopped using this stuff in favor of lighter cheaper just-plain-crappier crap? Because I cannot remember. Piece by piece, I will grow my collection. And when I make sauce from my own home-grown tomatoes with my own home-grown garlic and my own home-grown onions and herbs, it will be EPIC. :)

The Process of (Un?) Re-Learning

The more I look around, observe, read, learn, the more I realize the depths to which we have been led around and duped. It's so much that there will be a series of these over the next few weeks.

One such moment came up as I used our trusty, not very old but definitely favorite, cast iron skillet. We pretty much leave it on the stove all the time, since we use it SO much. I think back as to why these have been replaced in most of our lives. Cast iron pots and pans last forever. In fact, the longer you use them, the better they get. The cheap crap pans we use nowadays, the light, "non-stick" things, do not last very long at all. And you have to use plastic spoons on them. Which also need replaced all the time. Unless you use bamboo, but I don't know of a majority of people who do that. (They should, those things are great.) It's a vicious cycle, and the manufacturers, corporations (can you say DuPont? I can) prefer it that way. Am I hinting of a conspiracy theory? Not so much but yes. (LOL) I was an X Files avid viewer. Let's just say that, over time, as we know, most things we use that used to last forever have been replaced by planned obsolescence. This is not a new statement for me, you know that. But I'm really starting to laser-focus in on it now.

Like my pan, as I pondered it today, as my onions caramelized nicely... When did we move away from them? And why? What were the reasons? Let us examine:

1) Stuff sticks.
No, it really doesn't. Once that pan is properly prepared and seasoned, nothing sticks to it. And I mean nothing. DuPont just wanted to sell Teflon, so they spun it, and we fell for it.

2) They are heavy.
Yeah, they are. And we are WEAK. Heck, I lift it for a good core exercise. I realize that older or infirm people would have a hard time with them, but your average everyday homemaker should have no problem. We are weak and lazy, and that is that. Heavy shmeavy. Get a backbone.

3) They are SO hard to clean.
*Insert obnoxious buzzer sound here.* Couldn't be further from the truth. It takes a few times before the thing is properly seasoned, sure... but then, it is the biggest piece of cake to clean that thing. Oh... and no detergents or chemicals needed, so there's another incentive for the big companies to get rid of cast iron in favor of their stuff.

Some other pluses that are seen as minuses by those who want to make money off of us:

1) This thing keeps the heat very steady. I actually HAVE to use a lower flame to cook with it. Therefore, I save gas. That's bad when you want people to use MORE gas and energy.

2) Since nothing sticks, I don't have to buy stuff like Pam etc, thereby saving money and keeping chemicals out of my food. Another bad thing for those who sell all that crap. They don't make money if we aren't buying their crap.

3) It will last me the rest of my life.
Enough said.

Maybe you can't use them on those glass-top stoves. But I never liked those anyway. Restaurants use some awesome pans that are good and light and expensive and they use them til you can see through them... and that works... but you notice THEY don't use non-stick pans that we buy every few years. Those were sold to us under false pretenses and we fell for it and we are still falling for it. Let's stop, shall we? Let's UN-learn what they have spun around us and RE-learn what we used to know better.

And I have to say, I have NEVER had grilled cheese sandwiches that taste as awesome as out of this pan. I'm in love.

What are you un-learning?

Duped by DuPont

Non-stick cookware. Revolution of the 20th Century, right? Makes life so easy. So convenient.

For the sake of this conversation, we're going to completely put aside the FACT that Teflon is actually hazardous to human health. That should actually be common knowledge. Unfortunately, we know all too well that knowledge is rarely common. But we are putting that aside. Just type the word "Teflon" in Google, and you'll immediately get results about the dangers.

That aside. We had non-stick stuff, and of course I wanted to go greener in our cookware. Sure, I would love the super-beautiful enameled stuff, a whole big set of it, but it's a little cost-prohibitive. So we started getting regular good old cast iron, nothing fancy, one piece at a time. My husband immediately fell in love with them and takes care of them very well. Better than I, in fact. I admit, I was a little intimidated to start cooking with them myself. "Stuff sticks so bad!" I thought. "Such a mess!" I thought. Then, I cooked an egg.

These pans have been lovingly seasoned the proper way, and I used a touch of butter, which I used in Teflon pans anyway. To my complete surprise, there was NO sticking. Clean-up is not difficult. And the food tastes better and is healthier. I got to thinking, WHY have we turned away from this? Because it's heavy? (Oh boo hoo, we could all use a little more of a freakin' workout, people.) Because it's a pain to clean? (Nope, we're just that lazy.) Because it's a little INCONVENIENT? Bingo. It's not, but that's the bill of goods we were sold. We were told this is what we wanted and what we NEEDED because we are so so busy and oh after all cast iron is SUCH a hassle.

BUT IT'S NOT!!! But we were so easily led astray! We fell for DuPont's marketing for no real good reason whatsoever. They don't care about our time. They don't care about our health. They want profit. Of course they do. And that's all they want. They do not give one good gash darn that you have easier clean-up.

Let's open our eyes!!! Let's stop falling for this crap!!!  

Meanwhile, we are building a nice set of cast iron cookware that we will NEVER have to replace. Oh. look, saving money in the long run, and not adding to the garbage on the planet. How often do we have to replace non-stick? Too often. Oh... and now, we cannot use plastic spatulas etc... bamboo and good old-fashioned metal work nicely. Less plastic for everyone. Good side-effect I had not seen coming.