Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

What the hell is a "stick" of butter? Butter in this part of the world comes in 1 lb. blocks.

@ Mr Guy
River stones from the river are water logged and may crack/explode when heated that high (girl guide cookbook warns of this). They may crack when dropped in the water as well. This may well work if the temperature of the rocks is kept below 212 degrees F. The mass of the stones will hold more heat than an equal volume of water.
Some N.A natives cooked in birch bark vessels using hot rocks to cook the stews.

Tequila.
John Wayne used to say it hurt his back. Every time he drank it, he fell off his stool.

A can of Habitant French Canadian Pea Soup.

@jocelyng: In the paint or tool dept. at Home Depot or any similar store.

Vinartarta.
Five laters of almond cake with prune filling and marzipan icing.
Living near the second largest Icelandic city in the world this cake is often found for sale in good bakeries here in Mb near Christmas. I don't bake or it would be consumed more often than the Holiday season.

I have a few different grade stones I use with oil and over 50 years of practice so it's not to hard to do. That said I found this tool last year and decided to give it a try
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=60002&cat=1,43072,43079&ap=1
and I must say I'm very impressed with the speed and results. Light pressure being the key.
I also found ceramic blade paring knives on sale (5.95) at a local market and are they ever sharp. I've been using one for five months for all vegetable work and it's still good as new except for a couple small chips from dropping it on the counter. They are fragile.

If your nettles are gritty then they've been picked too late. Just waiting for the flood waters to subside to go foraging for my spring fix-up. I often run into older Chinese women out foraging for nettles in season with all the shopping bags full that they can possibly carry. I only eat them as a green, but I will try some of the ideas I've read about here. Handle carefully and there is nothing to fear except the long wait till next spring.

There are three ways to heat a pan.
Conduction: The pan is exposed to direct heat as on the burners on your stovetop.
Convection: The hot air is circulated by mechanical means as in a convection oven.
Radiation: The heat is transfered to the pan from the pre-heated conventional oven.
When a metal pan is put in the oven the radiated heat warms the pan which in turn warms the food. If the pan is shiny it does not heat readily. When a glass dish is put in the oven the radiated heat passes through the glass directly to the food in the dish which cooks the food touching the dish more quickly. Usually when metal pans and glass dishes are compared it is suggested to use a lower temperature, usually 25 degrees, with glass so that the top will brown before the bottom burns.
A dark coloured food (brownies) will heat more quickly as well in a glass dish.
A black metal pan absorbs radiant heat better than a shiny metal pan and will fall somewhere in the middle.

Canola is a perfect oil to use.
Seasoning cast iron is an initial treatment for cast iron pans, it involves oiling the pan and heating for 1-5 hours at 350 in the oven in order to fill the pores in the iron with oil.
Lodge cast iron is preseasoned in a proprietary process at very high temps, so you shouldn't have to do it. You may need to do it sometime in the future though. If you leave water in it or use soap or cook an acid food it may require reseasoning. No big deal.
Enjoy using your great new pans.

Huh?
The heart of the continent.

Next time try the char. Fresh caught wild Arctic Char kicks Salmon butt.