Friday, February 4, 2022

Cast Iron Saturdays- on a Woodstove

  Welcome to Cast Iron Saturdays, where I search out recipes using our cast iron pieces.

  We have had a very rough several days here at the lake-very low temperatures, high winds for days, snow-so drifting snow, and just plain very cold. Friday begins the warm up-wonderful to wake up this morning with no wind swirling the snow everywhere. I did manage yesterday to get allot of snow off the steps-but there is ice on the bottom so I need warmer temps and sunshine to melt that off-that will come on Saturday. 

   Today when it warms up to the high teens I want to tackle getting the steep hill cleared for a path to the mailbox. We have not been able to get up there all week since this winter storm hit. Later today we are suppose to reach low 30's-a heat wave smiles.

  These past several days, I have really really missed our woodstoves. We had two going at each end of our woods home and they both had flat tops so I could cook on top of them-loved that when we were snowed in especially or days with out electric in the winters too.

  I know of at least two of my readers have woodstoves, but these recipes can easily be made on a conventional stove.

How to cook on a wood stove here  This link is full of information and photos. Once I started cooking over a fire in my dutch ovens-it finally occurred to me that cooking and baking is pretty much the same except for your heat source-so same recipes that you love just may need to be adapted a bit to that heat source. I always enjoyed cooking-baking with coals and I have cooked on top of our woodstoves too.

From the above link here are several recipes she used on her woodstove



Nice site here with recipes



here is one of the recipes Wilderness Pumpkin Skillet Cake, gluten free as well



Fresh bread on a woodstove here also a gluten free version



another site with tips on using your woodstove



Hoping this gives you some idea if you also have a woodstove and haven't thought about also cooking or baking on it.  and those of us with no woodstoves can easily use our cast iron on the stoves we do have.

I am not sure where this winter storm is headed next-but if you are in it's path stay safe and warm.


25 comments:

  1. So much wonderful food! thanks FOR sharing, hugs, Valerie

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  2. Delicious recipes. I make quite a lot of food on the wood stove. At the same time, the house heats up and electricity is saved. Our wood stove is made of brick.

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    1. that is awesome!! I so miss our woodstoves there is one here at the lake house but it needs a new chimney liner before we can use it

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  3. There are so many wonderful recipes I want to try baking; the pumpkin skillet cake is a must. Take care and just enjoy being safe and warm. The mail will wait.

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    1. Good morning, I want to make that recipe too-I pinned it to my cast iron board over on pinterest. well I did make it to the mailbox-and discovered sometime last night the road plow came through but they totally buried our way out of the driveway-sigh. the ice is so thick under the snow that I decided to leave the rest of the snow on the hill so I could climb up there to get the mail-they will be mail from several days for sure. not sure what fedex will do to deliver our pkgs that are coming-should have a pretty substantial thaw over the weekend

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  4. This looks delicious. Your weather sounds awful, but similar to mine. :-(

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    1. thanks-yes this has been a rough week here at the lake-I discovered today we are snowed in too-but we will get mail service today-first all week. the snow plow that did our road here-has snow piled up high in front of all the driveways here-at least 4 feet tall ugh

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  5. Mostly rain n the NE, except New England will have some snow. The rain has taken all our NJ snow away. Snowstorm was pretty, but one storm was enough! Delicious foods!

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    1. thanks-hoping this was our storm for this season-it was a rough one allot of ice first and then at least 8 inches of snow here maybe more and drifting snow was bad as well

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  6. I hope you have a better time of it with the weather. Under the snow, it can be very slippery.
    Alas, no wood stove, but I dream of having one someday.

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    1. I so miss not having a working woodstove I think we are in for a warm up now-finally yes allot of ice here under the deep snow

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  7. You did have some wintery weather Kathy. We had a bit of snow and some ice pellets. But at least we didn't get icy trees like some places and lose our power. I've cooked a few times on top of the woodstove, usually more heating something up, but it does take some getting used to. I found the link to cooking on the woodstove informative. Thanks. Have a great weekend. hugs-Erika

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    1. yes this quite a winter event here, and so thankful we did not lose our electricity.
      I have made breakfast on the top of the woodstove-eggs-bacon, hashbrowns, and I have made soups and chilis from scratch on the woodstove top-simple things-I didn't try any baking though-that would be tricky I think.
      I am happy you enjoyed one of the links-happy weekend for you as well-hugs

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  8. We have a really mild winter this year..those recipes sound really awesome!

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  9. When I lived in my house in MO, it was quite old and only had one floor heater, which was in the dining room. Not enough for a nine room two story house. I bought a wood burning fireplace and installed it myself. There had been one before, because the flu was already there and I had it and the chimney inspected before I attached anything. It had two burners on it and I always kept water in a big cauldron on one of the burners to add humidity to the air. I would occasionally cook something on mine, but it was always on a weekend, because I was never home during the week, what with school and work. I made soups and stews but never tried baking bread. Heck, I couldn't make bread in a bread maker (grin)!

    I was watching a cooking show the other day and it reminded me of you. They were cooking fried chicken in a cast iron skillet. The idea was to heat the skillet in an oven (or possibly over a fire) until the skillet reached 450 degrees F. Here are the instructions from their web site:

    "Many of us crave fried chicken more often than we're willing to put in the time and effort to make it. We wanted to find an easier way to get that crunchy, deeply seasoned exterior and juicy meat we all love—without deep frying. This meant using the oven instead of the stovetop. We started by preheating a 12-inch cast-iron skillet in a 450-degree oven. Next, we dredged the chicken in a well-seasoned flour mixture; added just ½ cup of vegetable oil to the preheated skillet; placed the chicken, skin side down, in the skillet; and returned the skillet to the oven to “fry” the chicken. We flipped the chicken halfway through cooking, which helped crisp both sides of the chicken. Is this oven-fried chicken absolutely indistinguishable from true deep-fried chicken? No. But because it is fried in just ½ cup of oil, it is quite a bit easier to make and has many of the same attributes."

    They started with a whole chicken and even showed how to cut it properly. Not sure if your oven is working right still, but you might enjoy making it this way.

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    1. Good morning Elizabeth, thank you soooo much for sharing your story with your woodstove-and the recipe sounds good-Larry loves fried chicken and I never make it-so I saved your recipe thank you so much-hugs

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    2. ps loving the technique of how this is "fried" too

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  10. Forgot to mention (and I wish I had remembered because I am tired of picking out boats, crosswalks, and traffic lights so my comment will publish), we got 5.8 inches of snow Tuesday night thru Wednesday morning and 6 inches on Thursday. Now all that is left is a bit snow and sludge. I can't believe we got that much, because a lot had melted before I got around to taking a photo. We didn't get the ice you did, though, which was lucky for us. Mailman came. Saw his footprints, but it's too cold to go out and get the mail. And I don't even have to leave my porch. I'm such a wimp!

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    1. We got a bit more snow and allot of ice-my mailman was such a dear and walked my packages down the icy hill for me-I worked on a path early this morning from the top down and added allot of ice melt. I will check on it later today-finally no wind and warmer here

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    2. We actually got above freezing today. Sunday we should get close to 40 F. Time for my sleeveless tops and shorts (NOT!).

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    3. similing-we made it to 40 degrees later this afternoon, I was so tired by late afternoon that I fell asleep for a couple of hours after our 2 pm meal and the dishes were washed. the 20 degrees in the morning felt like a heat wave too-tomorrow I am hoping to see some thawing where I shoveled instead of the thick ice

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