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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Demos & Classes, and Coaching, Oh my! (Much less scary than Lions & Tigers and Bears.)
I recall when I first started cooking with a dutch oven, there were lots of stews and more than a few burned cookies or biscuits. There were meals that have multiple parts, some of which were still on the fire and others had already cooled down and needed to be reheated. There were times I had so much charcoal leftover it could be used to start three or four campfires and other times that I had to relight coals in the middle just to get the meal done. Now this is not a complicated form of cooking, but there is definitely a learning curve. Over the years I’ve had the…
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Minimalist? Nah.
Have you ever played with a puppy with a squeaky toy or some sort of a throw toy? They get all excited about those things. While playing, have you ever taken a second toy in your other hand and held a hand on either side of the dog’s head? (I know that’s teasing it, don’t judge me, I’m just painting a word picture.) What happens then, in my experience, is that the pup can’t decide which way to go and all it does is shake its head back and forth. It’s kind of funny to watch but from the dog’s perspective it’s got to be frustrating. Instead of enjoying the…
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How do I get started?
Does Dutch oven cooking interest you but you’re hesitant to jump into it? You’ve seen some YouTube videos about Dutch oven cooking. Maybe you’ve been to a Dutch Oven Gathering, (D.O.G.), a Chuckwagon competition, attended a demo, a cooking class, or a chili cook-off and seen all kinds of various pieces of gear in use. Sometimes it’s easy to be overwhelmed when one looks at a website, a cooking section in the store, or a cooking video and you see all the accessories being used. True there is a lot of cool stuff to use as aides for Dutch oven cooks. There are cooking tables and stands. There are all…
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To line or not to line?
There are cast iron purists that cringe at the thought of lining a dutch oven with anything more than their favorite oil or shortening. Some consider it “cheating” if one is placing anything between the food being prepared and the well seasoned cast iron bottom of a dutch oven. There are folks who say when one lines a dutch oven, the food doesn’t taste nearly as well as when cooked directly on the iron. There are those who believe that eating food cooked in cast iron can help with iron deficiency and that liners reduce that benefit. At the same time, some cooks would never use any tomato-based product in…
