Camping and Dutch oven cooking go well together and it seems to me that one always makes the other all the better. Recently we spent the weekend at Fairfield Lake State Park, one of our favorites, to camp and present a Dutch oven cooking demonstration. The demo was Saturday afternoon and so the order of the day was preparation of food items during the post breakfast mid-afternoon time frame. We fixed a pot of beans, a couple of batches of cornbread, and a peach cobbler dessert for the 2:00 event. By the time we were done with the demo, we were ready to clean the pots, pack up, grab something…
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What’s round, delicious, and easily customized?
What is he up to now? The stack of stainless steel rings on the tailgate does arouse the curiosity. In our house we have a weekly ritual that is known as, “Pizza Night”. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing, if we’re not already talking about getting pizza on Monday night, we are reminded by our favorite pizza fan what day it is. Over the years we’ve taken this love of pizza into the woods with us and had lots of fun with it. One of the great things about pizza is the unlimited variety of options. Dietary restrictions? No problem. In addition to the traditional blend…
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Stuffed Rice Ring
The first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Dutch oven cooking is a camping trip and campfire cooking. Camping meal ideas from past memories used to be primarily burgers, hot dogs or steaks, a pot of beans and maybe some foil wrapped potatoes baking in the campfire. Other campfire memories of meals include stone soup, chili, and stew. There’s no question that a Dutch oven works great for many of the above. When we limit ourselves to those choices though, we are missing out on some real flavor treats. When we think of it as more than a pot, but actually an oven, we open a…
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Chile, chilli, or chili?
Do you want to start an argument about chili? Is it “chili”, “chile”, or “chilli”? Are we talking about a country, a type of pepper, a seasoning, or a dish? There’s all kinds of camps that will jump at the chance to argue about chile, chilli or chili. I’m not talking about the South American country, that’s a whole other definition and word origin. When we’re on food, first there’s a question about the proper spelling of the word and whether it relates to a meaty, delicious, sometimes burn your mouth, food item also called chili con carne by some. Or, are we talking about the pepper or a particular…
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Melt in your mouth and mess up your hands…
Every time ribs are on sale, I buy a slab or two and frequently, some go straight to the freezer. With an upcoming project, freezer space is at a premium so time to make some room. My basic pattern for rib cooking is to use a dry rub of seasonings, place the ribs on a bed of sliced onions, then put the dutch oven on a ring of coals with another ring on the lid. The best way for tender results of most meats is cooking slowly over time. While they will be fully cooked in an hour or less, longer in this case equals more tender. I’ve found that…
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Creamy Pizza Rice
Recently, when shopping at Sam’s, the marketing efforts of Royal Basmati Rice paid off as the bright ink on the burlap bag caught my eye and somehow a 20 lb bag of rice that was not on my shopping list ended up in my cart. That afternoon I made a Creamy Chicken, Broccoli and Rice Casserole that will find its way into a future post. The next week, I decided to put together a Pizza Rice Casserole that is the subject of this post. Realizing that I had more rice than recipes, I posted a request on my personal Facebook page for suggestions. A number of folks responded so over…
