06 June 09

Everything Cast Iron

CornishHenDinner
Pressed and Roasted Cornish Game Hen

I’ve been mulling over how and when to write about something that is consuming all of my free brain time and almost all of my non-work time. (And by work here, I mean day job work.) And I’ve been alternating between being freaked out by it and being jump up and down, butterflies in my stomach with the giddy, excited. It’s something that I’ve dreamt about doing, and thought about it, and joked about it, and now I’m really doing it.

I’m writing a cookbook. I have a book deal. I’m going to be a published author. And maybe it will all sink in if I figure out how to say it in a way that doesn’t sound like I’m bragging. Cause that’s not how I feel. I feel intimidated. I feel like this book would be the book on the subject that any number of people buy or are given and it’s intimidating and scary to feel like I have to know enough to provide them with all the knowledge they need to cook using cast iron. Cause that is the focus of the book. 300+ recipes on what to cook using cast iron cookware.

I’m giddy, ecstatic, overwhelmed, and I should be writing recipes instead of blogging. Because I still have more than 3/4 of the book to write. And I know that this is the perfect cookbook for me to write. If anyone has read many of my columns at Gapers Block called One Good Meal, you’ll probably know that I write about a lot of cast iron cooking. I love, love, love it. I adore it. And I honestly don’t use much of anything else. I have my stockpot, a 1-quart saucepan, a 2-quart saucepan and 4 cast-iron skillets and a cast iron dutch-oven that I use on a regular basis. There are a few other pans in the cabinet, but I rarely use them.

When Andrew was still in school his mother purchased him a set of stainless cookware that came with a stockpot, 2 saucepans, a sautee skillet, and a deeper skillety thing. The stockpot and saucepans are beat up, dinged, scratched, stained, and look like they’ve been used everyday for the past 13-14 years. The skillets? They’re shiny and sit in the back of the cupboard. I’ve used each of them once. But I dont’ like them. They seem finicky to me, hard to use. They require me to use too much oil and food sticks to them. I don’t like the weight, or lack of weight, I don’t like the handles. In other words, I don’t like them because they aren’t cast iron.

A few months ago now, we were making dinner and Andrew pulled one of these skillets out of the cupboard and put it on the stove. I gently moved it to the side and started to warm up the cast iron skillets (that never actually get put away). Since he was actually doing the cooking that night, he gave me a stern look, pushed the cast iron skillet aside and put his shiny skillet back on the burner. “Why don’t you ever use these? They’re good skillets! We should use them more often.” I shrugged and changed the subject. But he’s right. They’re perfectly good skillets. And I’m sure they have many uses and would create tasty food. Andrew has used them to create tasty food. But, you know what? I probably won’t use them. I don’t need to.

A week or so after we had this conversation and I was actually giving some thought to trying to use a different skillet, I got an email asking me if I would consider writing a proposal for a cookbook about cooking with cast-iron cookware. The acquisitions editor answered my pile of questions, guided me gently, and I wrote something that obviously must have been satisfactory. Because I now have, in a very thin file-folder labeled “book contract” a book contract. It’s been signed by the right people, it spells out what I have to provide and how I have to provide it. And one of these days the fact that I’m writing a cookbook will sink in. Until then, I think I’ll be fluctuating between freaking out, giddy.

Oh my gawd! I have so much cooking and writing to do. So much! And everything I eat for the next several weeks will be put into a cookbook. A cookbook! With a cover, and a dedication page, and an index! And it will have my name on the cover. Oh my gawd!

So I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record to the people I’m grateful enough to know in person. And if you have any family tested recipes, questions about care, or confusion related to cast-iron cooking, send them my way. I think I’m going to need all the help I can get to pull this off.

Comments

  1. woo-hoo! huge congrats — I can’t wait to prop up the book on the kitchen counter and try out your tasty recipes!

    — Christine on Jun 6, 11:47 am

  2. Congratulations. Go for it. From reading you I would say you will be a great success. I love cast iron cookware and enjoy talking with others and reading about it. Good luck and I will look for your cookbook. Remember “If you can’t see it before you see it, you will never see it”.

    — Doyle on Jun 6, 06:24 pm

  3. Hooray! I can’t wait for your cookbook! I’m definitely going to make Jacob try some of the recipes. ;) You are going to do an awesome job!

    — Carrie on Jun 8, 06:08 am

  4. you’re a superstar. i have completely faith in how outstanding this cookbook will be.

    — carolyn on Jun 8, 08:50 am

  5. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate your support. And thanks, Doyle. I’ve got an order I need to place with you.

    — Cinnamon on Jun 8, 09:54 am

  6. congratulations! that is so exciting. sounds like it is going to be a wonderful book and lots of fun to write. you are a woman of many talents.

    — tina on Jun 9, 12:49 pm

  7. Your post was worth a second read. I wanted to say something to you about bragging. Dizzy Dean (old baseball pitcher) used to say: “If you can do it, it ain’t bragging”. You most obviously have every thing it takes to write a great cookbook.

    — Doyle on Jun 16, 07:53 pm

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