After missing last Monday night's dutch oven cooking because of extreme wind, we made up for it tonight with some special occurrences. First, we had a friend join us for dinner. We met Anne during our orientation sessions back at the beginning of May. She works at the registration desk at the Yellowstone Hotel. I see her fairly often, as I have to check with the desk before I go to do a job in a room. We discovered that she has Monday's off too, so we invited her over to have dinner with us.

The second occurrence was an idea Ken came up with. Tonight was the first time that we were using all 3 pieces of cast iron cookware, which includes the 10" skillet. The problem with the skillet is that it has a domed lid, which is hard to put coals on for baking purposes. Ken and I had talked about how we could solve this problem, but hadn't decided on any one solution. As we prepared to start cooking, Ken said he'd be right back. He disappeared for a few minutes, and then came back with his invention. You'll need to see the pictures to find out what it is, but I can definitely say that it works and that we didn't mind "acquiring" the materials used in it's design.

Tonight's menu included Coca-Cola Chicken, Cheesy Hash Brown Potatoes, and Pumpkin Crisp for dessert. The chicken is an old Boy Scout recipe that I found on the internet. I don't recall any of my scouts ever making it on any of our campouts, but they sure should have. It's VERY easy and extremely tasty. The potatoes are a recipe that Jenny has made that we like that I adapted for the DO. I didn't mix all the ingredients before starting to bake it, but did mix them once it was done. I don't believe that it made any real difference in the taste of the dish, but it probably would have been a bit creamier if I had done it right.

I guess the hit of the evening was the Pumpkin Crisp. When isn't dessert the hit of the meal!? Pumpkin turns out to be one of Sandy's favorite things, so she seemed to especially enjoy it.

This was a really easy and simple meal to put together. All of the dishes took only about an hour to cook, so timing them out was a snap. I prepared the sauce for the chicken and the pumpkin filling in the afternoon and kept them in the fridge until we were ready to start cooking. I had all 3 dishes started within 10 minutes. That's nice, because it gives the cooks the chance to sit and relax as things cook.

All in all, a very nice evening.

Coca-Cola Chicken

8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 cloves garlic; minced
1 can Coca-Cola
1 Tbs. onion powder
1 1/2 cups catsup
2 Tbs. chili powder

Arrange chicken breasts in an oiled 12" Dutch oven. In a large bowl add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. Spoon sauce over chicken. Cover oven and bake using 8-10 briquetttes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top for 60-75 minutes or until chicken is cooked through basting with pan juices every 15 minutes.
Serves: 8
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Pumpkin Crisp

1 can pumpkin (about 16 oz)
8 oz evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
tsp cinnamon
1 box yellow cake mix
cup chopped pecans
1 cup melted butter
Mix first 5 ingredients, then pour into lightly
greased 12 inch Dutch oven. Sprinkle cake mix evenly
over mixture. Sprinkle pecans evenly
over cake mix. Drizzle melted butter over mixture.
Bake at 350 F for 1 hour until lightly browned on top. Serve hot with whipped/ice cream or at room temperature, as desired.

This is Anne, our friend that works at the Yellowstone Hotel.	Here are the 3 pieces of cast iron cookware that we currently have. Notice that the skillet on the right has a domed lid, not a lid with a lip on it.
In order to hold coals on top of the skillet, Ken came up with this idea. Can you figure out what it's made out of?	Yup, we recycled!
You can see that it fits fairly well. And Ken wants me to mention that the patent is pending!	See, it even works!
This is the first time I've used all 3 pieces at the same time.	Here's the Pumpkin Crisp before we started baking it.
Here's the main course, Coca-Cola Chicken.	These are Cheesy Potatoes, a recipe that Jenny gave me that I adapted for DO cooking. They tasted great, but I didn't mix the ingredients until it was done, when I should have mixed them in the beginning.
Here's the finished Pumpkin Crisp.	Pumpkin Crisp with a bit of Butter Pecan ice cream.
Sandy grabbed the camera and caught Ken and I cleaning the DO's.