Refined

In our recent quest to live healthier, I have stumbled upon many bloggers who delight in the awesome that is their cast iron skillet. And as I read these blogs, I think "Wait, I have two cast iron skillets and neither are awesome." Queue sad face.

I couldn't figure it out. Why were theirs so awesome and not mine?

I had been give two cast iron skillets from my loving parents. Because cast iron skillets are awesome and everyone should have at least one. I got lucky and got two. My problem is that I never knew how to properly care for these skillets. So they had been soaked in water. Washed in soap. And left unloved for the last 5 years. I am so ashamed and certainly not worthy of these skillets...

So while Andy is off on his grand adventure in Nepal, I am having an adventure of my own scrubbing my skillets down with sandpaper and covering my kitchen on rust and soot. All with the hope that maybe I can fall I love with my cast iron skillets too.

So how does one "re-season" cast iron? The process starts by sticking your cast iron into the oven and setting it on "self-clean" Once that has been completed and the iron is cool, we'll submerge the iron into a bath of water and vinegar for 1-4 hours. After the water vinegar bath, the cast iron needs to be dried, and scrubbed of all the rust and grim. It takes a lot of elbow grease. After the the scrub down. We put a light layer of oil all over the pan and bake it for 45ish minutes. It has be done a few times but well worth it in the end.

Here is some of our progress:

This guy just finished with a vinegar/water bath

Scrub. Scrub. Scrubbing away the rust and grim!!

Its Hip to Be Square! This square fellow has completed the
re-seasoning process. And passed the test!!

While the round skillet is still being re-seasoned, the square one is complete! I wish I had taken better before pictures of the both of them, so you could get a better idea of how far they've come. I was able to test out the square skillet. To be honest, I was terribly nervous! Every time we'd ever cook eggs or ANYTHING for that matter it would always stick to the bottom of the pan. Today, I made eggs over easy. Those eggs just slid right off the pan! I declare this a success!

But during all of my scrubbing of the rust and gunk, I found my self think about 1 Peter 1:7

1 Peter 1:7 (NLT)

7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world

It makes me think about all the "fires" I've been through. There are times, it seems, that situations I may find myself in could only burn me and leave me scarred. But that heat, that fire, only strengthens my faith. It cleans me up. It smooths me out. I'm left refined. God's love does that to me. For me. For us. It's beautiful.

-Danielle 

In other very exciting news Andy is in Nepal. He ended up being on the same trek last year. Many of the villagers recognize him and remember the team from last year. Before church this morning we heard from the other trekking team. Within 3 hours, two people were brought to the Lord!!! They've only been trekking TWO days and there is a week left of visiting these villages!!! God is doing a great work in those mountains!! 

Andy with the village elder that remembered him.