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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Fruit, eggs, batter and more; must be healthy…
When cooking for our own enjoyment and for that of others, to me, first and foremost, the mission is to fix something that tastes great. Since first impressions make a difference, it’s nice if what we prepare looks good too. A well made, Pineapple Upside-down Cake can meet both of those goals. Years ago my only experience with Pineapple upside-down cake had been what I had grabbed while in a cafeteria line where I ended up with what I remember as a dry white square piece of cake with a slice of pineapple on top and a cherry. It was not all that great. No, it wasn’t even a little…
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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…
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Challenge accepted! (Apple Dumpling Edition)
In a group we are both in, Lora, a camping friend of ours, posted the following: “I know someone said something about apple something…. Now I can’t find the post. Anyway here is my favorite apple recipe, maybe Uncle Mike can figure out how to do it in a Dutch oven. It is soo good!” What followed was a link to Genius Kitchen’s recipe for Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings. The instructions there are simple and the results delicious. The challenge was adapting this to a Dutch Oven and from the looks of the recipe and accompanying comments, it would be worth the effort. So, challenge accepted! Here’s our take on…
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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…
