Cast-Iron Cooking

So this post isn't a recipe, but a kitchen gadget recommendation. For Christmas, Mike bought me my very first cast-iron skillet. How in the world have I been cooking all these years without this?? One of my fondest memories takes place during a visit at my late Great Grandma Lela's house. Grandma Lela always sent us handmade ornaments every year for Christmas (and every year they were different), made each of Christmas stockings (which we still use at my parents' house), and was always so much fun to be around the few times we made it out to see her.
 
On this particular visit, she offered to make dinner for us—cheeseburgers. Never one to pass up a tasty burger, even in my younger days, I was ready for her to fire up a grill and get to cooking them. Instead, she pulled out a very seasoned, very loved cast-iron skillet. Nevermind that...a burger is a burger, right?
 
Wrong. They were delicious, juicy, one of the tastiest things I remember eating even to this day amid many recipes and travels. I am somewhat proud and only slightly ashamed to say I ate 3. And just to be clear, we're not talking sliders here...we're talking grandma-size, "you need to grow up to be big and strong" portions.
 
It only seemed right that the first thing I ate from my new kitchen apparatus was a burger.
 
**Sigh**
 
It was all I thought it could be and more. Don't get me wrong, my new skillet has a long was to go and many years and seasoning needed to achieve Grandma's levels of burger perfection, but I am definitely on the right track. I am all about grilling many tasty things, but I'll be hard pressed to through another burger on the grill when I have this cast-iron contrivance at my fingertips!


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