Cooking Pans – Which one are you?

I was cooking the other day, (yes, given my schedule it doesn’t happen that often) and I noticed something about my two favorite types of cooking pans.

I have a cast iron pan that my grandmother gave to me. It’s a great pan. Sturdy. Well worn. It’s seen its share of fried chicken and country style steak. The only thing is, no matter what I cook in it, things always seem to get stuck. Doesn’t matter how much oil I use, stuff gets attached to the pan and you have to use a lot of elbow grease to get it off there when you’re trying to clean it.

The other favorite pan in my cupboard is my Teflon coated pan. I use this when I’m cooking eggs or giving something a quick sauté. There have been times that I’ve been in a hurry and just tossed the eggs in without giving a quick spray of Pam, and ya know what? It still didn’t stick. Things just came right off the pan. No elbow grease required for cleaning.

Looking at the pans got me to thinking.

Quite often, we’re like these pans. Things will be said to us, or something will happen and we allow it to get stuck to us. We become like the cast iron pan. We hold onto things. And like the cast iron pan, we sometimes hold the heat of the hurts. Cast iron pans are known for holding heat for a long time.

On the other hand, the Teflon pan folks have this ability to let things slide right off of them. When hurtful words or actions come their way, it may be there on them for moment, but it doesn’t cling to them. Doesn’t mean that they haven’t felt it and had to work with it a little while — but they are able to let it go. Like the Teflon pan, things don’t stick to them.

So, which are you? Do you tend to be like a cast iron pan and allow things to get stuck?

Or, are you more like the Teflon pan, with twith the ability to process and let go?

Bedelia Murray, MSW – Clinical Director