Our Real Foodie Circus in Florida, and More about the Best Stainless Steel Electric Frying Pan!
These days it isn't too tricky pulling off the real foodie thing around here – we're good in some areas, not so good in others. However, we don't travel often with the whole family, so in that area we're not real smooth yet, to say the least… A few examples from our Florida vacation last week:
- We hauled our hugemongo cooler down and around Florida and back. God bless Kent for lugging it everywhere, usually full of ice, and with nary a complaint. (Quite a few groans, though.) We had what turned out to be too much meat packed and couldn't get through it all, so we turned around and hauled a bunch back with us, too. (Kent loved that.) I'd forgotten that we'd be on vacation after all, and would want to eat out at least some… But we did save a lot by cooking good food in the condo. I took grassfed ghee, lots of healthy meat from our local farm (or if you don't have a local farm, you can order safe meat here), and we picked up anything else we needed at a nearby Whole Foods.
- We also brought our very favorite stainless steel electric frying pan (pictured above). As we walked into Disney one of the luggage guys said, “Wow, I've never seen anyone bring a frying pan in before, are you gonna cook in your room I take it?” (I wanted to say, “Have you seen the food in that food court?!“, but didn't. Aren't you proud of me?)
- As we were leaving, we had the big luggage cart piled high with our 6 bags, pillows, Kasey's stuffed animals, my computer bag, the big frying pan, a couple of bags with paper towels, ziplocks, sea salt, and other kitchen stuff, and also my bag of coffee supplies, including my beloved ceramic pour-over coffee maker. (I actually took that plus coffee and filters into gas stations all the way there and back to make my own coffee with their hot water, to avoid the crappy gas station coffee.) So we're heading out of the hotel and CRASH! How sad when that bag and a few others fell off the luggage cart and my ceramic doohicky broke into a zillion pieces. 🙁 Thankfully a couple of the girls working there saw and stopped to help get our circus show back on the move. Our oldest whispered to the youngest, “That is why you always walk a little ways behind the rest of the family…”
More scoop on the pan:
I love how big ours is (16″), but you can get the smaller size (12″) if that's all you need. It's bulky to store, but we keep it in a big corner cupboard in the kitchen. It also cleans up really well, and food doesn't stick as long as you use enough healthy fats, which we have no problem with, obviously. If anything does stick, then we just turn it on high, boil some water, then scrape it with a metal spatula and it comes right up.
Why an electric frying pan?
I love having an extra pan, because often my stove burners are full (since bone broth is usually bubbling on one of them), but even more, this pan is great because of its size. Instead of using two cast iron pans (I also love those, by the way) for something like pork chops or fried potatoes, I just use one. As you can see in the picture here, I can crank out grilled cheese for a crowd pretty quickly. (Which was especially nice when I was doing day care.) Basically we pull this sucker out 4 or 5 times a week because using it is just so convenient.
Get one here. or Read more here about why to avoid Teflon pans!
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Hi – Please tell us exactly where these electric stainless steel skillets are manufactured. We are looking for something that is fully made in the USA (or Canada) but not just “assembled in USA with components made elsewhere…”
Hope you give me the answer I’m hoping for. My “Buy” key is ready to click.
Thanks much,
Ron
Hi Ron, I’m not the manufacturer, I’m just someone who bought one, so I don’t know the answer to that. Let us know if you contact them and find out! 🙂
Kelly
Love the smart child who realizes to stay out of the way as to not be blamed, or yet have mom and dad embarrass you!!
Love it! Kitchen toys are my favorite and I love taking them with me.
I’m curious what the “nonstick” surface is made of, but might have to put this on my Christmas list if I’m not the lucky winner! You have already given away stainless steel straws, right?
It’s all stainless steel! For us it’s only “nonstick” because we use enough healthy fats. 🙂
But it does clean up well, we just boil water on the really hardened stuff and it comes right up with a spatula!
Kel
Sign me up for the give away!!! Would love to win a pan like that!!!
Marina
Hm, sounds awfully similar to our real foodie vacation this summer! We’ve also brought food back 🙂 Actually, we were forced to leave 3 days early because my husband got sick and couldn’t sleep in the ‘Chinese water torture’ cabin with a dripping shower head!
I actually write about it in great detail here: http://www.eco-babyz.com/2013/08/our-newfound-lake-vacation-story-photos.html
I would LOVE a pan like that! That would make it so much easier to make grilled cheese several times a week!
Thanks for doing this and including all of your subscribers!
Never seen anything like this — smart idea to take it with you on vacation. 🙂
LOL!! I was just imagining your oldest saying that to your youngest…..Did he want to crawl into a hole and die??!!
As you know, we are heading to Florida soon and flying, so we won’t have the “luxury” of taking a fry pan with us. I am bringing snacks of which I can read the ingredients (or they are whole food already), and we are planning breakfast in room/condo with a packed meal in the parks. I have resolved myself to the fact that I won’t be able to control much of this trip’s food, and I am remembering the 80-20 plan. Guess these 10 days will be the 20, mostly!
Way to go for you, though, since you could drive and take food you know is healthy for your family!
Blessings,
Sue E.
What a great idea for avoiding gas station coffee! Thanks!
Ooooh! I’d love to win this! We have been talking about traveling more but eating out really has me dreading it but maybe if I won this my worries would be over 🙂
I have really been wanting this pan.
Looks like a great pan!
This is a great giveaway (I am already a subscriber). I have another use for this–cooking outside in the summer when you don’t want to heat up the kitchen. I already do this with my Nesco Roaster (see http://artofnaturalliving.com/2011/08/02/beating-the-heat-summer-kitchen/) and the lightbulb went off yesterday that an electric frying pan would be great for this too!
So funny. When we travel (and yes to Disney sometimes) I always bring our Blender and popcorn popper as well as our skillet for omelets. Doesn’t everyone??? 🙂
What an awesome giveaway!!
I cook a ‘lot’!..and have looked at various electric fry pans thru the years and always ‘wonder’ and move along…be great to win one…thanks for the ‘review’ and how to use and cleanup…:)
Really great giveaway! I would love to win it, but if not it will be a nice item to add to my wish list too. Thanks!
So happy you enjoyed your time away!! Another coffee suggestion, taking a small French press? I’ve never had an electric skillet, why do you like it so? Do tell!!
Connie, I just updated the post to add more info on why I love the pan. 🙂
Kelly
Thanks, Kelly!! I guess this is one to add to my wish list!!
Beautiful….hoping!
Your vacations sound like mine! 🙂
Beautiful pan …