I sat up right beside him in the cabin of that truck
Goin’ thirty miles-an-hour down a side road talkin’ ’bout the fish we caught
And I’m older now than he was then
If I could go back in time, I would in a second
To his beat-up blue jeans and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off

Lori McKenna, “People Get Old”

It amazes me how much stuff you can buy for cooking these days. Specific spices, special tools, one-off items. Every week I walk by an aisle in the store that has a slicer specifically for avocados. Doesn’t a butterknife work just fine?

It’s like what Crash Davis told Nuke Laloosh in the movie Bull Durham. For those who haven’t seen the movie, Crash Davis is an older baseball player sent to mentor a young minor league hotshot, Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh. Crash’s prime has passed, and Nuke is the big next hope for the team. So there is a natural animosity between the two. I’ve italicized the important lines below.

• Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: How come you don’t like me?
  Crash Davis: Because you don’t respect yourself, which is your problem. But you don’t respect the game, and that’s my problem. You got a gift.
• Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: What do I got?
• Crash Davis: You got a gift. When you were a baby, the Gods reached down and turned your right arm into a thunderbolt. You got a Hall-of-Fame arm, but you’re pissing it away.
• Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: I ain’t pissing nothing away. I got a Porsche already; I got a 911 with a quadrophonic Blaupunkt.
• Crash Davis: Christ, you don’t need a quadrophonic Blaupunkt! What you need is a curveball! In the show, everybody can hit a fastball!

To bring this metaphor home, you don’t need a superpowered combo grill with Bluetooth connection, 12 burner settings, Amazon’s Alexa service, and a built in JBL speaker to make great food. What you need is a curveball – or in this case, a stovetop, a skillet, and some seasoning salt.

Enjoy this week’s Skillet Seared Salmon recipe – just meat, seasoning, and heat. You can make it on any given Tuesday night. So go ahead – simplify your life with this one. We could all use a little more of that these days.

Let’s get supper on the table.

Commandment #4 – Use a hot pad. The whole skillet gets warm, including the handle.

When you start using cast iron cookware, you will get a couple of burn marks. It is easy to mistake how the whole assembly is one piece, including the handle. But the simplicity of the design allows for even distribution of heat, which in turn makes for evenly heated food, which in turn makes that food delicious. So yeah, just keep a hot pad nearby when cooking. Run some cold water on any burns, and then pass on your hard earned knowledge to others as a good cast iron Samaritan.

Enjoy the salmon. Y’all be good. – Hendo