Do You Cook in Cast Iron?

Do you own a cast iron skillet?  If so, do you use it?  Like good newlyweds we registered for a Lodge Logic cast iron skillet and didn't know what to do with it.  I made cornbread occasionally and that was the extent of my cast iron usage.  On the way back from my aunt's in North Carolina a few times we stopped at the Lodge Logic outlet and picked up a few more things, including a small skillet that needed to be seasoned.  Now, five years later, we don't even put the skillets away because they are used the most.

Farmer's Market sugar snap peas with a drizzle of olive oil, scoop of sesame tahini, salt, pepper, teriyaki and sesame seeds.

Lately, I've been reading about the health benefits of cast iron, especially for women.  Women are especially prone to anemia, as well as not taking care of ourselves.  If there's something we can do for ourselves that's simple, we should do it.  Everything that we cook from scrambled eggs to vegetables to chicken breast is cooked in the cast iron skillet and the extra iron gives us a little boost.  It also makes a mean corn bread in the oven.  The clean up is ridiculously easy, we just take pour a little drizzle of olive oil in the pan and wipe out.  No water, no soap and no scrubbing.  No matter what we cook in it, all we have to do is wipe it out, the seasoning makes it almost no stick.

Here are several links to articles about cast iron skillets that I found in a two second Google search. 

Anemia and Nutrition: The Importance of Iron
Anemia- Dietary Factors
Anemia and Pregnancy
Ever So Humble, Cast Iron Outshines the Fancy Pans
The Benefits of Cast Iron Cooking

If you have a cast iron skillet you should use it. Not only does it cook your food quickly and evenly, it gives you a little extra iron that you may not be getting from your diet.