It’s December and for me that means it is “blog every day month” an effort for which I have long since concocted a list of blog-able reflective topics called my December-ish posts each of which should do little more than offer a leaping off point for some rambling writing to fill up my daily blogging quota.

Today that topic is…

What’s something you should have cooked in 2025 but didn’t?

It’s fifteen degrees below zero and snowing heavily as I write this so it seems pretty unlikely that in the remaining fourteen days of this year I’ll convince myself to clear a path to my outdoor fire pit and settle in for a campfire cookout in the backyard.

I don’t know why we didn’t make that much of a priority this past year.

I mean, we had some mixed weather this year, sure, and I was distracted with other projects, too. But not once—not even one time—did we set a campfire in the backyard this past summer, let alone have anything resembling a cookout out there.

That is significant in the context of the history of this blog. A lot of people still hit this site via the URL that I set up way back five years ago at the beginning of 2021. My writing as the Cast Iron Guy was meant to be a reflection on a lifestyle as much as a cooking tool. We were mid-pandemic and I had it in my mind that I should give myself some motivation to live a simpler lifestyle (at least in my off time) and step away from technology a bit more. Cast iron cookware was kind of symbolic of that in both a literal and an abstract way. Abstract because cast iron is hardy and simple and grounded in an idea of legacy and making something better through using it. Literal, because part of that lifestyle was literally me buying a new and improved backyard fire pit and doing a bunch of cooking over an open fire out there, a lot of it leaning into cast iron as the key tool.

Four summers later and I seem to have strayed from that mission.

So here we are in the deeps of darkest winter days and I have this thing I should have done a lot of last summer but didn’t, stuff I should have seared, roasted, toasted, and grilled over the open flames in my backyard fire craft zone… but did not.

Grilling season 2026 is a long way off as I sit here in my pjs wrapped in a blanket huddling to keep cozy and warm from the cold, but maybe realizing that I missed the 2025 season in its entirety should be a kick start to watch the weather more closely in the new year and get my matches ready.