These are seriously the best tomatoes I have ever put in my mouth and I LOVE tomatoes. It doesn’t hurt that these tomatoes (a “Siberian” variety gifted to us our favorite Mr. Damon) came from our garden. But I scooped out the seeds and filled them with a mixture of dijon mustard, parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and spices. They then went on the grill for a bit, got a little warmed and melty and oh my holy mama! Yummers!

Andrew Huff and I will be making 15 pints of Bacon Jam for attendees of the Bacon Takedown on 9/11 at Lincoln Hall in Chicago. If you like bacon, you should come see it and vote for us. Tis going to be yummers!

I’ve been nervous about reading reviews, especially those from strangers. But so far it’s been great. There is one on Amazon and one on Goodreads that I’ve encountered. I liked the one on Goodreads so much that I’m including it here:

“I don’t have a whole lot to learn about cast iron, really. I checked this book out of the library so that I could see if Cooper agrees with me. :)

But I’m going to need to buy this, because she includes a plethora of sauces, salsas, rubs, marinades, dressings and such that are just fantastic, and really useful.”

Lauren of The Hungry Knitter was fantastic enough to take a picture of The Croque Madame from the book. It’s essentially the fancy French name for a toasted ham sandwich a fried egg on top. It makes a great breakfast sandwich, or lunch, or even dinner. Thanks for the great shot, Lauren!

Oh, I’m so touched! A woman I’ve never had the pleasure to meet (or at least haven’t YET had the pleasure to meet) made two recipes from the Everything Cast-Iron Cookbook the first night she had it. TWO! And it looks delicious. So excited to see people putting the book to use. Thanks!

Cast iron pans work great on gas stovetops. If you have an electric stovetop with conductive coils, then they’ll also work great. However, if you have a ceramic-glass stovetop, you need to read your user manual before cooking with cast-iron pans. Most manufacturers will tell you not to use cast-iron pans or any pans without a flat bottom.

If you decide to use a cast-iron pan on your stovetop, here are a few things that may make it safer to use cast iron.

• Do not drag your pan across the surface of your stovetop. This can result in scratches which can degrade the surface and can cause the stovetop to crack.
• Don’t use a pan that is larger than the burner. Since cast iron conducts so well, this can cause heat to tough the surface that isn’t heated and can cause cracks.
• Don’t use heat that is higher than medium. Using lower heats can reduce the chances of heating up the surface of the stovetop and causing cracks.
• If your stovetop manufacturer instructions suggest a heat diffuser, consider using one of these with your stovetop. These discs will spread the heat over the surface evenly and permit you to use a larger pan over higher heat, while keeping space between your cast-iron pan and your sensitive stovetop and reducing scratches. Not all manufacturers suggest heat diffusers, so play it safe and read your user manual first.

And if you don’t want to risk putting the cast-iron pans on your glass-ceramic stovetop, heat them up in your oven to brown meat before cooking. It won’t quite be the same as browning over a flame, but it’ll be better than not browning meat before you bake ingredients in a recipe.

A few folks have asked me for advice about what they should get first if they’re going to start cooking in cast iron. I would suggest getting an 8”, 10” or 12” skillet to start with, depending on your family size. If you are mostly likely only going to cook for 1, go with the 8”, if you’re going to cook for 2-3, the 10” is just fine. If you’re going to find yourself cooking larger amounts of food more often, the 12” or 14” is what you’ll want to get.

I’m lucky that the lid that came with my 4-quart stockpot also fits tightly on my 10” cast iron skillets. But in case you don’t have a lid that can do double-duty, Lodge makes lids that fit their skillets as well. These are a great price and the glass means you can see how things are going without lifting the lid.

But almost all of the dishes in the chapters on cooking in skillets will permit you to use any of these sizes. The recipes were designed to use a 10” skillet, but you can decrease or increase as needed pretty easily. Baking recipes are a little trickier, admittedly. But good luck on your cooking foray.

This incredibly easy dish is similar to a Pineapple Upside Down Cake, but it uses puff pastry as a crust instead of having a cake batter poured on top of the caramel and fruit. The recipe for this dish will be available soon on Drive-Thru at GapersBlock.com