Burnt Oil and Rubber Bands at 9:04 AM

Question: What involves cast iron, an outdoor grill, oil, paper towels, and a very good possibility of getting burned?
Answer: Seasoning a Dutch oven!

I've had a Dutch oven for a couple of years now, but I've never been able to use it. When you think of a Dutch oven, you think of black cast iron. Or if you don't, just work with me here. Anyway, when you buy a new oven, it's not black. I didn't know this, but the black color on the Dutch oven and other cast iron cookery is applied in a process called "seasoning". I don't know if it's the same for cast iron pans and whatnot, but for the oven you apply a thin layer of vegetable oil with a paper towel and then put it either in an oven or on a gas grill for about 45 minutes. You repeat this between five and eight times. This gives you a nice smooth, non-stick coating. The reason I hadn't done this before is because I didn't have a grill, and burning oil produces quite a bit of smoke (as you might guess). Also I wouldn't recommend putting a Dutch oven on your linoleum floor after it's been in the oven for 45 minutes at 400 degrees so that you can put some more oil on it.

So anyway, in order to force myself to season my Dutch oven, I volunteered for a Dutch oven dessert cookoff at the church this weekend. You may remember my chili competition story from my very first post, but probably not. The difference between my second place (by one vote, mind you) chili and this competition is that I've never cooked in a Dutch oven. I've eaten food cooked in one, but I've never actually done it myself. So we'll see how that goes.

But anyway, I only burned myself once on the oven while applying six coats of oil to the smoldering hot cast iron device, and that was enough. I thought it seared off part of my fingerprint, but it doesn't seem that way now.

In the "beating a dead horse" story of the day, it seems that Terrell Owens will report to training camp, but "won't be happy about it". Nice. Just the fact that he's trying to get sympathy for having only made $9 million last year in a place like Philly and its surrounding areas blows my mind. People pay at least $60 just to watch him play football. You think half of them wouldn't be down there if they could be, making a tenth of what he's making? Yeah. But as I said, that's beating a dead horse. So I'll move on.

If you haven't visited the shoeless one's blog in a while, you must do so now if only to check out the R. Kelly link. That goes down in the unintentional comedy hall of fame. I think everyone that regularly reads this blog probably reads his too, but for anyone that may be new to the office, this is for you. And for the hilarious article of the day, click here.

One more thing before I go: I heard the other day that my favorite local band in Utah (where I went to college) got a record deal. It's Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand. If you haven't heard of them yet, I predict you will. Their first single, "Dream Big", is fine but not their best. I'll be anticipating hearing "Banjo Boy" and "Simplify" among others. They've got other CDs for sale on their site, but the first with their new label comes out next month. It will doubtless have some of the same songs as the older discs, but they'll be professionally (read: more expensively) produced, so they should sound better. If you happen to hear they're coming to your town, their live show is fantastic. Check it out.

Song of the Day: "Banjo Boy", by Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand. Yeah I mentioned it already, but it's my blog and I can do what I want.