Show us your life Friday

Today's Show us your life is Pets.  I thought I would join in today because my pets are my babies!  I call them my Chocolate Children. They are human I swear!  ha.

They are both Chocolate Labs.  Banjo is the big dog,  he's our 2 year old lab.  Birdie is the little one, she's now 10 months old.  We had just gotten her in the picture below.

Below is Birdie Now.  She's a little on the small side for a Lab but shes spunky and loving all at the same time.  She will make a good Duck Hunting dog one day, that's what we got her for!

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  Birdie Loves to play with Balls and enjoys sleeping. 
  
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  Birdie snores worse than a fat man and loves to give mommy kisses.
  
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  She's small for her breed (around 40 lbs) so she loves to cuddle in mommy's lap
  
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   Her favorite snack food is blueberries. 
  
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  Birdie is trained to sit, stay, come, and fetch but she's still learning!!
  
  
  

This is Banjo, He is a beautiful Big, Chocolate Lab.  He's a Great Duck Hunter, he just has really bad hip problems.  He was hit by a car when he was little and it broke his hip.  We found out during x-rays that he had very bad Hip displasia. (sp?)  He has since gotten worse, so we try to keep him from being too active, it's just really hard because he loves running around on the farm.  He's really laid back and has the funniest personality! 

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  Banjo loves to carry things around in his mouth, whether its a stick, a piece of straw, or a leaf, he always has something in is mouth, always!
  
• He loves to have his belly rubbed and will walk up to you and paw at your hand until you rub his belly, it's quite annoying.
  
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  Banjo is whistle trained to fetch, sit, stay, and he is very good at it!  He enjoys staying close by and staring at you while your eating because usually he gets little bites, he really likes deer meat! 
  
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  Banjo can shake, roll over, and pretty much do whatever you want him to. 
  
• His favorite toy is his cloth duck, that got ran over by the lawnmower and is now just a piece of fabric, it's quite sad. 
  

They are both the most loving dogs I've ever been around.  They sleep in the bedroom with us on their dog beds and follow us around everywhere.  I love my dogs!! (it's probably unhealthy!!)

One day I will have children that will replace my obsession with my Dogs, but for now my Chocolate children are my babies :)

Skillet Cleaning

So I was complaining about the mouse in my house the other day and how it was living under my sink. He had also moved into the house next to the sink, The pots and pans cabinet. So anyway I was complaining about how I had to clean out under my sink and wash all my pots and pans now that the mouse had ran all over them. I mentioned I had a cast iron skillet and I was asked if I knew how to properly season it.

Season wah??
(for the record the Mouse gone and his house is clean)

Anyway Caroline informed me that after using the skillet clean it out with Vegetable oil and put it in the oven until it dries. Don't use soap and water it will ruin the seasoning of the pan. Thanks Caroline!!

So Sean's mom gave me another cast iron skillet the other day to make corn bread in. It has individual holes for each little slice of bread. It had also been sitting somewhere unused for a few decades and was covered in rust. (I think it was Sean's grandmother's) 

Anyway I couldn't figure out how to remove the rust.  So I surfed on over to Ehow.com and got some directions.  When they didn't work I called Sean's mom who gave me some extra tips

So here are the steps I used to remove Rust From my Cast Iron Skillet

• Use equal amounts of Salt and Veggie Oil about 3 table spoons and pour into pan and work it into the pan. 
• Scrub the pan with steel wool to get all the loose dirt out.  Just fair warning this is going to take some elbow grease if it's really dirty.
• If it's really rusty, as mine was, fill with water and boil on stove for about 20 minutes
• Repeat salt and oil scrub.  Scrub with the steel wool until you think your arm is going to fall off.
• Finish with soap and water and let dry (for the record this takes a while)

Next I started the Seasoning process

• Brush Veggie oil all over the pan
• Put in the oven for thirty minutes on 250
• Re brush the veggie oil on the pan, burn finger.
• Put it back in the oven for thirty minutes, don't forget that it's in the oven and let it sit for another hour then jump up in the middle of the movie you're watching and run to the oven and turn it off.  Not that I did that or anything...
• Let cool and wipe out with papertowel  and store for future use. 

Don't ever use soap on a seasoned pan, use veggie oil and put it in the oven to dry!!  And don't ever accept a rusty skillet because it's really a pain to clean. 

Now, if only I would use my cast Iron Skillet to cook....

All you girls that read this probably already knew this info, but it was news to me so I thought I'd share!