You know what’s blacker than Black Friday? Beautiful, glistening, well seasoned cast iron cookware.
Oh, yeah, baby. Screw waiting in line for some discount plastic crap or overpumped electronica that’ll be in a landfill in 6 months anyway. If you must shop, shop for something hewn from the living, molten rock of Earth. Something hefty enough to stop a bullet. Something that holds heat so well a steak will tremble and bow down before it. Something you can pass down to your grandbabies. Something strong and heavy and black enough to rival Black Friday itself.
Shop for cast iron. Something like this Lodge Five Piece Cast Iron Cookware Set. Or better yet, don’t shop at all. Enter to win this set without even having to even put on your pants. Hey, I have a three-year-old. I am well aware of how overblown pants are as a “thing” in our society.
Thankful, Joyful, Turkeyful, etc.
You may remember this set from the recent post on Skillet Brussels Sprouts. I couldn’t get it out of my head, but I couldn’t justify buying it for myself, given that I really do have quite enough cast iron, thank you very much.
Solution: Giveaway!
You see, as I type this post it’s Thanksgiving evening and I’ve had a few glasses of my husband’s excellent homebrew, so I’m feeling all “I love you, man!” towards my readers (except for the douche-waffles, but we are ignoring them). It is a screaming blessing to be the girl behind the keyboard of this blog, to be able to connect with, and inspire, and be inspired by other gardeners and productive homemakers. It is an honor to learn from you and to share what I’ve learned, and to help connect questions to answers.
So, this Thanksgiving I thought I’d give thanks for my readers by giving cast iron, which is – as we all know – the heaviest way to give thanks.
Enter To Win
Update: This contest is now over. Congratulations to winner Benita, who is “thankful that my 28 yr old niece was able to come home for Thanksgiving. She recently finished up radiation from her 3rd major diagnose of cancer since she was 23.”
To win this five piece set of Lodge cast iron, simply leave a comment on this post telling me what you are thankful for this holiday season.
This set includes a 10-inch griddle (excellent for pancakes, crepes, etc.), an 8-inch and 10-inch skillet (excellent for, well, everything) and a 5-Quart Dutch oven with lid (necessary for No Knead Bread). It’s a pretty awesome starter set of cast iron. There is very, very little you couldn’t cook on these pieces, and I say this as someone who cooks on cast iron about three times a day.
And look, I know I don’t have to convince you guys – you already know this – but nonstick is bullshit, ok? It’s not good for you or the people you feed (kids? grandma?). It turns out inferior food, and it scratches if you glare at it strongly enough. And according to the Environmental Working Group, “Toxic fumes from the Teflon chemical released from pots and pans at high temperatures may kill pet birds and cause people to develop flu-like symptoms (called “Teflon Flu” or, as scientists describe it, “Polymer fume fever”).”
Cast iron when well seasoned is also pretty dang nonstick but it doesn’t give you flu-like symptons. It just slightly boosts the iron content of your food which is, unless you are very atypical and drink liver smoothies for breakfast, a very good thing. It also goes from stove to oven to table without missing a beat and will help you cook like you really mean it.
So leave a comment and enter to win. I want to buy someone these cast iron pans.
Fine Print Stuff
This giveaway is for the cookware set described here. Contest entirely self-sponsored by Northwest Edible Life (that’s me!). Contest open until Thursday, December 5th 8 PM PST. Winner will be contacted by email. Contest open to residents of the US only, due to shipping costs. Sorry international readers. I still love you, but cast iron is really, really heavy. Fulfillment of prize via Amazon.com. One entry per person. Multiple entries will be disqualified. Void where prohibited by law, blah blah blah. Best of luck everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving, all y’all. Thanks for being the best readers a blogger could hope for.
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Great blog. Generous giveaway. So glad I found this!
I am thankful that, despite all the ugly, I see mostly beauty. I’m thankful for this strange and wonderful experience called life, which affords me the opportunity to have a good time every day, regardless of resources.
Thankful for many things, but especially a job this year.
I’m grateful for my family and time to spend with them.
I am thankful for an incredibly fulfilling job of teaching young people, and I am also thankful for the great exposure to learning that I get for free each day as I read the blogs of talented people such as you. Gardening and cooking are even more fun when one gets great new ideas from the web!
Thankful to be alive on this “Living” planet
I’m thankful for the land I have that provides me with fresh fruit and veggies.
I’m thankful for everything in my life! The good times and the bad. I’m especially thankful for my wonderful friends and family. I’m thankful for the roof over my head and food in my kitchen. I’m thankful for my crazy zoo of rescue animals. I’m thankful for the traveling and new experiences I’ve had just this year and for the job that sometimes drives me crazy but allows me to enjoy the things I love. I’m even thankful for the hard times that have hit us this year because they have only made us stronger and taught us to appreciate the good times even more.
I am thankful for the little things and the opportunity to take part in this contest.
I am thankful for many things, but this holiday I am most thankful that my husband and family and their love. Also, I am thankful for this giveaway! So exciting. 🙂
I am thankful for my generous husband, precious daughter, supportive community, and nourishing food. I am thankful for 8 wonderful years with Panda Bear my wiggly loving dog that died last month.
So much to be thankful for this year, this life….
It took me a long time to realize that I am grateful for all of the challenges that make me just exactly who I am, where I am and what I am, as I am just where I need to be…I’m grateful for all the opportunities that give me a chance to use my voice in support of community health and wellness, shared fate and community. I am grateful for my friends, family and loved ones, and strangers who acknowledge our shared fate and live like we are, indeed, all connected. I am grateful for all those I know that build community and do good in a world that seems less than good. I am grateful for each meal that I share, every time….I am grateful for the sudden shift in perspective that came with a time of less than abundance….from scarcity to looking at the way we eat as an almost sacred connection – a link with one another, the environment, our community, history, tradition, our ancestors…. I am grateful for the abundance in this life, in this year, and I am grateful for all the ways that we acknowledge the joy, immediacy and love in connection over eating well.
I am thankful for my health (doing fabulous with a new knee!), my family, the friends who have become family, and those friends whoa may not be close but with whom I can always connect and reconnect with a smile. I am happily appreciative to have a job that I love, a comfortable little home to return to, and that I can call mine. Life is wonderful!
I am truly grateful and thankful for my life on this earth. I have lived 67 Thanksgivings on this planet and am amazed by sights everyday. Watching the sunsets over the Straits, the reddish purple glow of Mt. Baker in the evening, and the sounds of the harbor in foggy weather. I am truly blessed to live in such a place. Thinking of Thanksgivings past with great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and siblings, I am thankful for having known all of them and loved all of them. Each year when using the same recipes and some of the same utensils, they again share the season with me. I am thankful for the blessings of this life.
NW Edible is the best thing since the Whole Earth Catalog. I’m grateful for your knowledge and experience and thankful you’re so willing to take the time to share them — year round.
I am thankful for this very moment where I am warm, safe, and surrounded by love. No wait, for this moment, no, this moment. Thankful f
I am thankful for the supportive friends and relatives the hold out their hand to help pull you up whether you need it or not. I am thankful for the random acts of kindness from strangers, whether it’s holding a door open, or just making eye contact and smiling. It really is the little things that change how the day goes.
I’m thankful for love. The love I get and the love I’m so lucky to give.
I am thankful for our wonderful Icelandic sheep who keep our pastures mowed and bring so much peace and joy to our family farm. I am also thankful to the wonderful online fiber folks who have welcomed our little family wool business.
Thankful for friends and family and the health of my children.
I am thankful for my family and our adventures together!
I’m thankful for my spouse, my dog, and stuffing with challah bread with pecans and dried cherries.
I am thankful for my wonderful husband and our little furry family, as well as both of our extended families!!!
I am thankful for the 16″ cast iron skillet that I inherited from my mother, who inherited it from her mother. I cook with it all the time and it has a beautiful non-stick, seasoned surface even though it has 60+ years of use. I don’t need any more cast iron, but I enjoy your blog and appreciate all the time you put into it. Happy Holidays!
I am thankful for my family. This past year i have been suffering with depression and without them I honestly dont think Id still be here. They are why i wake up everyday. Thank you!
So thankful for another year with my family (both the biological and the spiritual), on this piece of land, and in this house. So many blessings!
I am thankful that my husband’s entire family sat down to eat with us yesterday, even his brother with PTS from his tours with the Army was there (sometimes he just won’t come).
I’m thankful for have the luxury of being able to learn (and sometimes fail) how to grow more of my own food. If it weren’t for the farmers and their hard work we’d be in a world of hurt.
This year I am thankful for my children and family. I am thankful for the friends that have stood by me. I am thankful for the blessing that have fallen my way to make life better for my kids.
I’m thankful for my kids, my garden, my new glass greenhouse, and the fact that we own a house that gazes out onto a lovely valley. No more irritating landlords and rent hikes. Sure we have to pay for everything that breaks down, but it’s worth it.
I’m also thankful for people who put information on the internet for free!
Love this website and would LOVE this cookware! Happy Black Friday!
I am first grateful to God for my salvation, them my children and grandchildren. I am then grateful for my sister who has taken me in since becoming homeless. It is a humbling experience. I have nowhere to go but up and am looking forward to a better future,
I am thankful for family, both near and far away.
My thankfulness is focused on enough health and energy to garden organically, to enjoy my little place in the country, to be able to share extra with the food bank, and to be able to enjoy retirement.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in October & had a bilateral mastectomy in early November. My surgeon said it was a phenomenal catch by the radiologist who read my mammogram. I am recovering & will start chemo next week. Thanks to my amazing medical team, I can look forward to many more Thanksgivings and watch my kids grow up. So blessed !
I am thankful for all the things I’ve learned on this blog, for family and friends, and to for a God that sustains all things.
My husband who grows a great garden and loves me, my (adult) kids for making wonderful lives for themselves and sharing with us as often as possible, my employment for helping to keep this house our home and my wonderful family for letting me love them back!
Thankful for my cute house – love owning a home and fixing it up the way I like it. My grandparents and parents used cast iron and I would love to make skillet cornbread.
I am so thankful for family this year. So many ups and downs, but we’ve been there for each other!
Always thankful most for my family.
Haha, pants really are over-rated, and cast iron is not! I’m so very thankful for my family this year – this spring my parents moved out to California and we are now close enough to enjoy family holidays all together. I’m also grateful for how well my family gets along with my husband’s family, and that we could have a wonderful thanksgiving together and include dear friends with us too.
I’m simply grateful for my family. This year has been tough and they’ve been there for me.
I am thankful for the internet where I have easy access to recipes, education, news and entertainment. I think the internet is just about the best thing ever. And this blog is one of my top favorites.
I am thankful for my 2 children.
I’m thankful to share what I have, what I have grown in my garden or made from yarn or fabric with friends, family or donated to those in need.
I am thankful for many things this year (my health, my family, my partner, my garden, etc) but right now I am most thankful for my support network of friends, family and classmates. I recently quit my full time job to become a full time grad student. Without my support network this transition would not have been possible. Friends have helped with everything from meeting for a beer to de-stress to replacing my laptop’s hard drive when it died. My family has helped pay for my books and contributed towards my tuition. And my partner has taken on most of our household expenses and the majority of our meal prep.
Personally, I am thankful for my in-laws. We were unexpectedly honorably discharged from the Air Force this past summer, and without the generosity of my husband’s parents, we would be struggling in so many ways this year. They have given us a stress-free place to stay for as long as we need it to finish our respectively educations to the point of being hire-able in our chosen fields, which won’t be until Spring. My mother-in-law has taught me everything I know about growing my own food, and helped to teach my children, as well. I learned how to can from her this Fall. My father-in-law taught me how to build things and work around the small farm that they have. I grew up in a beach-town so I had the will, but not the knowledge to pull any of this off on my own. I am so grateful that I am allowed to live in this beautiful corner of the world (Northeastern WA, about 25 miles south of Canada), and experience the absolute splendor of the wilderness, here, and that my children got to spend their summer playing in the crystal clear Kettle River. Without these people, life would be very hard for us right now, because my husband is now disabled from his service, and we were in for 3 months too short to receive monetary benefits for separating. Don’t know what we would have done without the kindness of our family.
I’m thankful for many things, including cast iron cookware!
I learned how to cook in cast iron, & have gotten away from it for a very long time. I would
L-O-V-E to own this set! I just made a brussel sprout dip (Gluten Free Canteen blog recipe) that was delicious & was photographed in glistening cast iron!! It makes me want to get back to my cast iron roots!
And in answer to your question-yes! Becoming a gardener IS a political statement.
Hey mum it made me smile to see your post in my inbox. Funny how technology can connect us when we are hundreds of miles apart. Remember those really cool corn shaped cast iron you used when I was little? I really kick myself for not keeping those. Hope you’re enjoying your Thanksgiving leftovers. Hugs.
I am so thankful that my hubby was able to find a job after being laid off, in such a short time. Made our Thanksgiving even better! I am also thankful for our amazing family.