August 8, 2008 

  inally bought myself a cast iron Dutch Oven last week. I have been wanting one for years, only having my wonderful cast iron pans (and my stainless steel ones my good friend gave me as a gift for Christmas). I have been looking for used ones, but to no avail. Just before we went on our trip, I found one at the right price which held two chickens to cook at a time. I think it is 12 quart, but I have not measured it out yet. 

There was no time to properly season it, so it literally had a 'trial-by-fire' as we did all of our cooking over a firepit. It was not my preferred method for seasoning cast iron, but it seems to have somewhat worked. Until someone built up the fire too high, (unknown to me) and the kettle became a huge flame from the chicken fat!! Amazingly enough, the chicken dinner was not scorched and was still edible. I grabbed a stick, put it though the handle and lifted it over to the other firepit which was not being used. With the heat source gone, the flames from the pot soon quit.

So today was seasoning it properly (and getting the charred bits out of the bottom of the pot). It is nicely black now and soon will be as non-stick as my largest frying pan (on the left side of the photo). Since I cook most of the winter on my woodstove, this new addition will be most welcome. These will take the heat of the woodstove all day long so I will not ruin my stainless steel pots & pans.

The three remaining kittens are growing like weeds. The tuxedo coloured one on the far left will be picked up sometime this coming week and go to her new home. They like hanging out on top of the electronic equipment at the guys' house where they can revel in the heat it produces. This was the first chance that they were holding (mostly) still to snap a photo. Their mom was spayed weeks ago to help prevent more kittens in the world....