While I’m not a huge fan of banana bread – meh – or even pumpkin bread, for that matter, I happen to lurve cranberry bread. I especially lurve cranberry orange bread. With nuts, please. As you know, cranberries are plentiful around here these days so the other day I made a Cranberry Nut Bread.

 Cranberry Nut Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
2 tablespoons shortening
1 egg, well beaten
1 1/2 cups cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Okay, not wordless because I know you’ll ask.

Recipe here.

As a child of the 70s I grew up with a mom who swore by her electric fry pan. She had one that was a lovely shade of harvest gold. You all know the kind I mean, right? Teflon was king and she made everything from boiled onions at Thanksgiving to our weekly rotation of American Chop Suey in that baby.

When I got married (the first time) she told me I also needed an electric fry pan. So I registered for one and it was a big heavy Farberware thing, I think. I never used it. It was cumbersome and awkward and I had skillets that were much easier to use. Teflon still ruled but by the time I married Dale we were hearing rumors that maybe Teflon wasn’t such a good thing. I continued to use it but I felt guilty about it.

Then. Oh, then. We became Civil War reenactors and everyone in the camp used cast iron. I had never cooked with cast iron before but we picked up a cast iron Dutch Oven at a swap meet and I started using it for stews and chilis. Soon after that I got a couple of  cast iron fry pans. And then,  I fell in love with the cast iron. It was non stick without using chemicals. It was period correct and easy to care for and so heavy that lifting it raised my heart rate. Silly me, though, I only used it when we were reenacting.

One winter night, after we had been reenacting for a couple of seasons, Dale and I were in the kitchen and reminiscing about camp life and talking about how we missed it. And suddenly inspiration struck and I had him go out to the garage and pull out my camp kitchen box and get my cast iron skillet. I put it on the stove and I melted some butter and I fried us up a steak and it was the best steak ever.

That cast iron skillet has lived in our kitchen ever since. I use it for steaks and fried chicken, for sauteing mushrooms and peppers and onions, for cooking bacon and pineapple upside down cake and just about anything else that gets cooked on top of the stove and even for things that get cooked in the oven. It’s easy to clean (I use lots of hot water and a Pampered Chef scraper to get rid of any leftover food and then I stick it back on the burner and heat it up until all that water evaporates then I hit it with a shot of cooking spray and I’m done) and I feel good about cooking food for my family in a pan that boosts their iron intake rather than, oh, giving them cancer.

Cast iron cookware is a very good thing.

Weird how there’s no family resemblance, right?

The other night we had Dale’s brother Glen, who is here visiting from WA, over to have dinner with us. Not being sure about his particular food preferences, I went with steak, baked potato & salad. Easy and universally liked, right? For desert I would have normally baked a pie but I was short on time and decided to make strawberry shortcake. It is strawberry season, after all.

And then I read this blog post and decided that strawberry cobbler sounded way better.

I was right and Dale and Glen both enjoyed it. Now I think you should make it, too.

That is all.

Does this photo look familiar? It should because I just used it yesterday. And the thing is, the only reason I used it yesterday is because I didn’t have a photo of ice cream and I figured a photo of dessert was close enough.

Anyway.

The reason I’m using it again today is because yesterday Patty asked about it. Actually, she said “let’s skip the ice cream and just go straight to that.” I think that’s a fine idea but we can’t do that if you don’t have all of the information you need. And so, in the interest of full disclosure, that is a photo of No Bake Peanut Butter Bars that I made for Frank Harlow Day last month. They were, quite simply, a-ma-zing. So good, so easy, and so dangerous for a peanut butter and chocolate lover like me.

And now, you know, I’m just sharing the love with all of you. I’m good like that.