Working on my cast iron finds. After watching a video online, I washed them in hot soapy water, dried them completely, and rubbed oil all over them. Then I put them in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours. I am hopeful it will work but might have to repeat the oil/oven step.  If you want to start using cast iron instead of Teflon pans, I know my father-in-law bought one that was already seasoned at Fleet Farm for like $10.  If mine don’t turn out I am totally doing that!

A couple benefits to cast iron:

Cooks evenly

Don’t have to worry about toxic Teflon from flaking off

Last forever!

You don’t have to wash them…well sort of…  

We were having issues with crayons being everywhere!! I had to do something about it. Something easy for Elias to help put them away in. Here’s my answer. I used my Zippered Pouch tutorial to help me. Took me about 15 minutes. Gotta love a project like that!

After the kids were in bed last night, I had to get some venison that was thawed ground up.  I was chopping away at silver skin when I thought you might be curious to see how I do this.  Or not.  I decided to ignore the fact that I was in my PJs, glasses on, not a lick of make-up, and untouched hair for 36 hours.  Wow, that sounds terrible!  All well.  I’m pretty laid back around here.   Here’s the short little video I did with the thoughts listed below the video.  Enjoy!

Grinding Venison from Ingrid Barlow on Vimeo.

–If you want to use venison, but struggle with the flavor (FYI:  that taste is MEAT!) try foods that have a lot of added spices to the meat.  Tacos.  Spaghetti.

–Venison is wonderfully lean!  We don’t add extra fat to it when we grind it, because why take something naturally healthy and make it bad for you??  Last time I checked, we didn’t need to add any more fat to our diet.

–You don’t need to cook the heck out of venison.  I think that is what happens a lot so it gets a bad rap.  When we make steaks they are medium for me and medium-rare for Tony.  It is melt-in-your-mouth TENDER.

–Really clean that meat up as best you can.  Any extra silver skin/fat/connective tissue–get it off before you grind!

–We make steaks, roasts, and ground from our deer.  One deer usually lasts us one year.

–Encourage the hunters in your family to provide meat for the family.  If they are paying for a license anyways, you might as well get your moneys worth.  Plus, it makes them feel good to have you excited about something they enjoy to do.

The other day as I was running errands with a screaming child in the backseat, when I got a phone call.  I was tempted to answer, but decided that with running my own business, it was not very professional to have such lovely background noise.  Good thing I didn’t.  Janna Farley from the Argus Leader, left a message about how she was writing an article for the newspaper on the resurgence of handmade/do-it-yourself kinds of things.  She wondered if she could get my thoughts.   It made me smile.  (even whilst that snotty nosed child in the backseat continued to serenade me.)  That afternoon during nap {{peace and quiet at last–Alleluia!}} I gave Janna a buzz back and we had a nice chat.  My kind of chat.  Here’s the article she put together.  ”It’s a Craftier Time.”  I thought the spin on the recession having an impact was interesting–it makes sense.  Anyways, I don’t care why people are interested in handmade, but I LOVE it!!  Thanks for writing this Janna!

Here’s the article again, if you missed it above.  “It’s a Craftier Time.”

I haven’t knitted Tony anything in the past, so this last Christmas I decided to change that.  I found him a pattern called “Turn A Square” by Jared Flood.  (It’s FREE!)  I think I bought different yarn for this hat 4 times!  Could not make up my mind!!  So wanted to have the perfect hat for the man in my life.   I think if I did it again, I would probably only do a few strips near the ribbing and then do the rest solid gray.   But, I will for sure use this pattern again!   Mr. Flood had a great tip about changing colors of yarn on circular needles!!  Check it out if you are a knitter.

Elias found the hat the other night and tried it on.  It makes the perfect slouch hat for his little head!  I hope he always wants to wear handknits!!  (A mama can hope…)

I also made Tony these awesome mittens!  Again, a Jared Flood pattern.  Strago.  I rarely buy a pattern, but these I could not resist!  For less than $6, I totally thought it was worth it.  I think the Scandinavian vibe sold me completely.

I ran out of the dark gray yarn just at the tip of one thumb.  I seriously only needed like 2 yards more, so I didn’t want to buy another ball of yarn.  I decided to take some of the lighter gray yarn and dye it.  It almost worked.  I should have let it sit in the dye longer, but it always looks so much darker until you rinse and dry it.  So one thumb is a little different, but that is the great thing about handmade!

I had many a secret knitting nights before Christmas, so Tony knew that something was up, but I know he really appreciated the extra effort.  Yeah, he knows he’s special.  I like him.