Homesteaders

[rancher hicks]

I love cooking with cast iron and I have a couple of very well-seasoned cast iron skillets that were my grannys that I have been using for thirty years.  I think the best way to season new cast iron is to clean them well, then deep fry something in them like french fries, fritters or okra.  When you're done just pour the oil out & wipe them out with a paper towel - once I've done that several times they seem to be good to go.  
I have a 9" square cast iron skillet that was my granny's that I use to make cornbread, brownies and pineapple upside down cake.  It gets deliciously crispy all around the edges and on the bottom - we all fight over the corner pieces!  I also have her cast iron bundt pan which makes an amazing cake, very moist on the inside with a light crusty outside.  I'm not sure they even make them anymore.  

I'm making myself hungry.............. 

recipe please pineapple upside down cake?

 

[henless]

Sometimes you run across cast iron that are in pretty bad shape. Rusty and has lot of black, baked on coatings. We would put them in a fire and let the "crud" burn off. Clean them up and they look like new.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

hello!
A couple years ago I married my wonderful husband, who is an organic rancher/farmer. The baby girls are finally starting to get bigger and more independent and so I am beginning to work on getting our household as self-sustaining as reasonably as possible.
We already make our own flour. I am planning to begin baking now that it has gotten cooler. I have a small flock of chickens for layers and I am currently dreaming about getting a flock of meat birds next year to pasture over the summer months(I told dh that if he would kill them for me I would work them). I also want to expand my orchard next year. I figure I will just start small and add a bit every year.

 

[KlopKlop]

hello!
A couple years ago I married my wonderful husband, who is an organic rancher/farmer. The baby girls are finally starting to get bigger and more independent and so I am beginning to work on getting our household as self-sustaining as reasonably as possible.
We already make our own flour. I am planning to begin baking now that it has gotten cooler. I have a small flock of chickens for layers and I am currently dreaming about getting a flock of meat birds next year to pasture over the summer months(I told dh that if he would kill them for me I would work them). I also want to expand my orchard next year. I figure I will just start small and add a bit every year.

welcome to the thread! very cool about the flour. I bake my own bread weekly but have never tried milling my own flour. Do you grow the wheat too? i would love to try it some time, but we just moved to our farm last fall so we are still busy getting the farm cleaned up and catch up on maintenence from the prior owners. We have chickens, layers and broilers (now in the freezer), and plan on breeding our own broilers next year. We did a large garden this year (about 1/8 acre) and hope to improve the soil for next year. We have apples, some were here and some we planted this year.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I think

welcome to the thread!  very cool about the flour.  I bake my own bread weekly but have never tried milling my own flour.  Do you grow the wheat too?  i would love to try it some time, but we just moved to our farm last fall so we are still busy getting the farm cleaned up and catch up on maintenence from the prior owners.  We have chickens, layers and broilers (now in the freezer), and plan on breeding our own broilers next year.  We did a large garden this year (about 1/8 acre) and hope to improve the soil for next year.  We have apples, some were here and some we planted this year.  

Yes! My husband grows wheat for commercial sale, and I just steal from that. So right now we get our beef, flour, eggs, some veggies, and a few apples from our farm. I plan to expand, big dreams. What breed do you use for your broilers? I like my Barred rock hens.

 

[KlopKlop]

I think
Yes! My husband grows wheat for commercial sale, and I just steal from that. So right now we get our beef, flour, eggs, some veggies, and a few apples from our farm. I plan to expand, big dreams. What breed do you use for your broilers? I like my Barred rock hens.

We raised some Cornish cross and some Dixie Rainbows. We kept back 5 rainbow hens and one rooster. There was also one pullet in my all cockerel order of Cornish cross that we kept to see if she will breed.

The plan for the spring is to breed the rainbow roo over the rainbow hens, Cornish cross hen, and I also have 5 pure LF dark Cornish hens I will breed him to. We will see what happens, it is mostly a learning opportunity for us since we haven't hatched eggs before. If things go well we will select from the offspring for next years breeding

Our layers are a mix of barred rock, Wyandotte, Rhode Island reds, black Australorp, and leg horns.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

The plan for the spring is to breed the rainbow roo over the rainbow hens, Cornish cross hen, and I also have 5 pure LF dark Cornish hens I will breed him to. We will see what happens, it is mostly a learning opportunity for us since we haven't hatched eggs before. If things go well we will select from the offspring for next years breeding

Hatching Eggs is in the 3 year plan. It would be wonderful to do, no longer needing to buy chicks, but I wanted to get this chicken thing down first.

 

[Jackschicks]

Rancher Hicks - here is the recipe for pineapple upside down cake - I give you fair warning I don't normally cook strictly to any recipe so quantities are "guesstimates"

In a deep cast iron skillet (either a 9 inch square or 10" round) melt about 1/2 a stick of butter and then add about 3/4 of a cup of brown sugar and a half teaspoon of cinnamon Melt and brown over low to medium heat. It should cover the bottom of your pan at least a quarter to a half inch thick. Arrange slices from 1 can pineapple (save the juice) and cook on low heat for a few minutes then turn off the fire. Preheat oven to 350

Beat 1 egg until very light, add 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Add 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup liquid (I use the juice from the canned pineapple & then top it off with milk) then add 2 Tablespoons melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until smooth and pour over pineapple/brown sugar mixture in skillet. Place in your preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes until cake is done. Remove from the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and then flip it onto a plate. Be careful, the liquid will be very hot and sticky! If it cools in the skillet you will never get it out-still tastes the same but doesn't look as pretty and makes the skillet harder to clean.


My family loves pineapple upside down cake but we actually like this recipe better made with homemade pear preserves. Just substitute a jar of homemade pear preserves for the canned pineapple. Unfortunately, my pear trees are still young so I don't always get enough pears to make preserves.

 

[wyoDreamer]

My mom always put a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring - to make it pretty. I don't like pineapple, so I always ate the cherry, picked the pineapple off, ate the cake and got yelled at for not eating the pineapple...

 

[henless]

The recipe looks yum! Much better from scratch than a box I'm sure.