For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

This week vitamin C fights colds for real, working out less may be more and why you’re eating more than you realize.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato,  Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• Vitamin C Is Beneficial Against the Common Cold, Review Suggests <<Finally the science is consistently supporting something I’ve suspected for awhile: vitamin C does appear to help with colds. It seems it reduces cold incidence in stressed people, and shortens the duration in some cases. (ScienceDaily)
• Confessions of a recovering diet food junkie <<This story is very much like my own, except that I lost 15 pounds when I stopped dieting. (Washington Post)
• Why Four Workouts a Week May Be Better Than Six <<Interesting new study about  how overexercising may have unintended negative consequences. Four workouts per week seems to be the happy medium, at least for busy older adults. (New York Times)
• Dark Chocolate and Red Wine the Food of Love and Health <<No really, Valentine’s Day can be healthy. (ScienceDaily)
• How Advertising Targets Our Children <<Have kids? This will make you want to unplug the TV for good. (New York Times)
• Yet another food worry? Nanoparticles. <<Looks like the FDA is ignoring another mystery substance that is now in our foods and other products. Should be a fun ride. (Food Politics)
• Infant Gut Microbiota Influenced by Cesarean Section and Breastfeeding Practices; May Impact Long-Term Health <<Very interesting new data on the importance of gut bacteria, and how they are shaped at birth and as an infant. (ScienceDaily)
• What’s the Right Way to Season a Cast Iron Skillet? <<I learned a lot from this. Smart stuff. (Lifehacker)
• egg salad with pickled celery and coarse dijon <<Egg salad is one of my favorite foods, and now I’m dying to try it with pickled celery. (smitten kitchen)
• Calorie Detective <<Although I’m no fan of counting calories, I’m also not a fan of lying about them. Keep in mind that if you’re eating pre-made or packaged foods, you’re almost certainly eating more than you realize. (New York Times)

What inspired you this week?

Kapani

I recently acquired a cast iron skillet and have been dreamily brainstorming all the fun I get to have with it.

Obviously my first adventure had to be this Spanish tortilla recipe, which turned out awesome. But I also had visions of recreating my grandmother’s slow-cooked spaghetti sauce and being able to make perfect steaks in my BBQ-less apartment.

But I knew there had to be more I could do with such a big, heavy object–so I turned to the coolest people I know for suggestions:

I must admit, my favorite answers didn’t exactly involve food:

But by far the most touching reply I received was a link to a Posterous post from @GregKnottLeMond. I encourage you to click over and read it, it’s short and sweet:

The post describes how the adorable skillet bird above came to be:

For @SummerTomato ‘s Consideration

The creativity was not, of course, restricted to metallic critters and demolition:

These blogs that specialize in cast iron cookware were also recommended:

Cooking In Cast Iron

Black Iron Blog

Derek on Cast Iron

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the collective inspiration! Here is my consolidated list of ideas:

1. Clonk someone (@thescramble)
2. Cure alcoholism (@mcnee)
3. Bicep curls (@JeffACSH)
4. Nut crackin’ (@RtReview)
5. End a romance (@cookerguy)
6. Fry chicken (@cookerguy)
7. Break stuff (@cookerguy)
8. Work on two-handed tennis backhand (@cookerguy)
9. Fight zombies (@benhamill)
10. Frame a picture (@omewan)
11. Plant bonzai trees (@omewan)
12. Stop burglars à la Home Alone (@leslieconn)
13. Burn thermite (@mcnee)
14. Hit John Mayer (@foodiemcbody)
15. Make metal critters (@GregKnottLeMond)
16. Deep dish pizza (@bob_koss)
17. Squeeze paneer (@newtomato)
18. Burgers (@thescramble)
19. Steaks (@thescramble)
20. Corn bread (@lonelygourmet)
21. Spoon bread (?) (@virginiagriffey)
22. Roast meats (@jameswcooper)
23. Crustless pies (@blee27)
24. Pancakes (@bob_koss)
25. Sauté zucchini (@JeffACSH)
26. Pineapple upside-down cake (@HeatherHAL)
27. Hashbrowns (@arielmanx)
28. Seared meat (@arielmanx)
29. Spanish tortilla (@FBloggersUnite)
30. Bibimbap (@annemai)
31. Tarte tartin (@annemai)

What are your favorite things to do with a cast iron skillet?