Quote of The Week:

"Retirement life is a game. Happy people are the players. Unhappy people are the spectators. Which would you like to be?
from Ernie Zelinski's How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free"

— Ernie J. Zelinski

We finished painting the stage today. All I have left to do is reinstall some rope lighting on the outside, and it's ready to go. This is our second painting project we've finished since we've been here, and we should 3 more to go. We'll do another women's bathroom/shower building and then 2 men's bathroom/showers in the same buildings. I included a picture of the hat I've been wearing while we're doing these projects. It should be proof that I've been working a little bit.

I also posted a picture of our second Christmas decoration on the coach. Jenny ran an errand into town yesterday and came back wit it. It's hanging off of our right outside mirror.

Since it was Sunday, that meant I was cooking something in the dutch oven. I'vealways wanted to try a pizza, so I planned on that and for a dessert I was making a blackberry biscuit cake. In all honesty, these two recipes did not turn out the way I'd hoped. They were edible, and we certainly didn't gag or anything when we ate them. But they sure didn't impress us. I'm not saying they were failures, because they turned out the way they were supposed to. But they sure weren't that good.

First the pizza. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 lbs. of hamburger mixed with Italian seasoning and garlic powder, which is way too much. I'll be revising the recipe to use only a 1/2 pound of meat. And I'll change the hamburger to Italian sausage, so I probably won't need the seasonings. That's a personal choice, so maybe you would leave in the hamburger. Even though the recipe calls for crescent roll dough, I used regular refridgerated pizza dough. I like the taste better for "crusts" than the crescent rolls dough provides. The last thing that I did wrong was that I didn't use enough of the cheeses. I think it was because the mound of hamburger was so big that the whole thing looked way too big, so I ended up on skimping on the cheeses. You definitely should use all 8 ounces of both cheeses. I was very careful to turn the dutch frequently (about every 10 minutes) so that the bottom would not burn. But it still came out darker than I expected. I believe this is because the number of coals under the dutch the recipe calls for are too many. I'll reduce the number by 3 coals the next time I make this.

The blackberry biscuit cake was actually a blueberry recipe. But the store was out of blueberries, so I got blackberries instead. I made this dessert in a 10" dutch, and luckily I'd bought 2 15oz. cans of blackberries. I actually think that it could have even used a 3rd can. But in my opinion, the biggest problem with this recipe is the bottom biscuit dough and the top biscuit dough. It's just way too much biscuit. It was very dry and the amount of biscuit overwhelmed the berries. I'll be revising this recipe to use 3 cans of berries. If that doesn't balance it out better, then I think I'd eliminate the bottom biscuit layer and just have a basic fruit cobbler.

So even though the dessert came out well, I consider it the closest thing to a flop I've had. But it can be salvaged, so you might want to give it a try.

I've included both original recipes in case someone would like to try them. But if you do, you must promise to let me know how yours turned out!


Campfire Dutch Oven Pizza
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef Optional Toppings
2 tsp. italian seasoning 3 Tbs. diced red bell pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder 1 (8 oz.) can mushroom stems & pieces;drained
salt & black pepper to taste 12 black olives; sliced
2 Tbs. olive oil ½ medium red onion; diced
1 can crescent rolls 3 Tbs. diced greeen bell pepper
1 jar pizza sauce 1 Pkg. Pepperoni
8 oz. shredded Cheddar cheese
8 oz. shredded Mozzarella cheese

Heat a 12" Dutch oven using 18-20 briquettes bottom until hot. In a medium bowl add ground beef, italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper; mix together with your hands. Drop ground beef by small pieces into the hot Dutch oven and fry until brown. Remove browned beef from Dutch oven and wipe oven down with a paper towel.
Pour olive oil into Dutch oven and spread evenly over bottom of oven. Unroll the can of crescent rolls and line the bottom of the oven with a layer of flattened rolls. Spoon pizza sauce evenly over crescent rolls. Sprinkle evenly with seasoned ground beef, any of the optional toppings of choice, and top with Cheddar and Mozarella cheeses.
Cover and bake using 8-10 briquettes bottom and 16-18 briquettes top for 20-30 minutes until crust is browned on edges and cheese is bubbly.
Serves: 6-8

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Blueberry Biscuit Cake

400°
Oven Time: Preheat 15 minutes
Bake 20 – 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups baking mix
2/3 cup milk
4 tablespoons sugar
1 15 ounce can blueberries

1. Mix the baking mix and milk together thoroughly with a fork.
2. Pat out half the dough to fit the bottom of a dutch oven.
3. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the sugar over the dough.
4. Drain the blueberries, saving the liquid.
5. Pour the blueberries into the oven and cover with the remaininghalf of the dough – which has
been patted into a sheet about ½ inch thick.
6. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the dough.
7. After tucking in the sides of the dough, pour the liquid from the blueberries on top.
8. Close the oven and bake.


( A Variety of Pics )

At least, give me my dutch oven. I was able to prepare a meal in our dutch ovens again today. I've really missed doing these meals, so I was looking forward to it again.

But first I've posted some pictures of the site we're in this year. We're one loop over from where we were last year, but this site is even better. We get shade for almost the entire day here because of nice mesquite tree nearby, and we can get the wi-fi signal too. Can't get much better than that!

Now for the DO meal. I decided that I should finally do the most traditional DO meal going - beef stew. So I looked up a bunch of beef stew recipes and settled on one that sounded pretty traditional. I did modify it one little bit by adding biscuits on the top. I also found an interesting recipe for a rear custard cobbler. That sounded just too good to pass up.

Everything turned out very well, but I did learn a couple of interesting things. The beef stew recipe calls for cooking the beef in water until it's tender and then adding the veggies. Well, I decided to just throw everything in all at once. That was a mistake, because by the time everything was cooked and tender, the veggies were soooo tender that they all but disintegrated. Now I understand that you add the veggies after the beef is tender so that you have veggies to eat when the stew is ready to be served. I also should have removed some of the liquid from the stew before adding the biscuit dough. When I dropped the dough in, it just kind of sank out of sight (of course, there were no veggies to hold the dough up!) and soaked up alot of the liquid. If I had removed some liquid, the dough would have just sat ontop of the beef and veggies.....well, the beef anyway. But the biscuits did cook well and did taste like biscuits, so it turned alright.

This would have been what I would consider the closest thing I've had to a failure. But since Jenny and I both had two bowls, I guess it wasn't so bad. It tasted wonderful, and if the veggies had been normal it would have been awesome.

The cobbler was another interesting success. When I was researching recipes, I just stunbled over this pear recipe and it sounded very good. But I also noticed thta the vast majority of pear desserts usually have some type of other fruit mixed in with them, such as blackberries or raspberries. After eating it, we determined that although it was delicious, it was a bit bland compared to other desserts we've had. Clearly, that's why other fruits are mixed in with pears in other recipes. I guess this wasn't a failure either, because we took some bowls over to our neighbors and nobody turned them down.

It was an interesting meal, and I'm glad we did it. It felt good to cook again with the DO's. This meal really showed us how much better food tastes coming out of Do's.
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Beef Stew

INGREDIENTS:
• 1-2 pounds stew meat
• 6 potatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1 cup celery in 1 inch pieces
• 1 onion
• 1 package McCormicks beef stew mix
• 1 package McCormicks beef and herb gravy mix
• salt and pepper, to taste
• water
PREPARATION:
I use a 6-quart Dutch oven over ready hot coals. Put the beef in enough water to cover the meat, and put the lid on the Dutch oven and cook until the beef is tender. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion, and cook until potatoes and carrots are tender.

Last put in the gravy mixes and stir until mixed well. You may want to add more water if desired. Simmer for about ten minutes. Take Dutch oven off of coals and serve.
Servings: 6-8
Preparation time: 40 minutes

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PEAR CUSTARD COBBLER

This deep-dish cobbler has a custard filling and is made with canned pears.

Preparation time: 20 min Baking time: 40 min
Yield: 9 servings

Filling Ingredients:

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (29-ounce) cans pear halves, drained, cubed

Topping Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold butter
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, slighty beaten
1/2 cup chopped walnuts


Heat oven to 350°F. Combine brown sugar, 3 eggs, cornstarch and 1/4 teaspoon salt in small bowl; mix well. Gently stir in pears. Spoon into greased 8-inch square (2-quart) baking dish. Set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt in medium bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk, 1 egg and walnuts.

Drop dough evenly over pear mixture into 9 mounds. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until filling is set and biscuits are golden brown. Serve warm.



( Big River and Another Dutch Oven Meal )

Tonight was our last Dutch Oven Monday meal. A week from today, Jenny and I will have finished our adventure in Yellowstone and will be in Bozeman, Montana.

So Ken and Sandy and us began talking about what we should have for our final meal. We reviewed all of the meals that we had over the summer, and we all agreed that we wanted to do the cornish game hens again. The only difference was that Ken wanted more stuffing, so we decided to double the amount the recipe called for. The first time around, we had the banana dump cake for dessert with the cornish game hens. But Sandy wanted to have something with her favorite fruit, blueberries. So I found a dandy blueberry dump cake recipe that we did, and it turned out to be the easiest dessert of all that we did.

We were a bit worried that we might not get to cook out this evening because we had very cold temperatures and a threat of snow. But the forecast changed just enough (they dropped the threat of snow but the cold temps stayed!) that we were able to get the job done. It did get a bit chilly out there all afternoon, but it turned out to be well worth it. Just like the first time, the hens came out tender and delicious. And the dump cake was a big hit.

Just to make it easy on everybody, I'll post the recipe for the cornish game hens again, plus, of course, the recipe for the blueberry dump cake.

I'm not sure exactly how Jenny and I will continue to do dutch oven cooking as we travel, but we're planning on doing it. I'll be loading all of the equipment in the slideout tray in the basement of the coach so that it'll be easy to get to. I guess as long as there will be others to cook wityh and/or for, we'll be able to "throw" some dinners together. That's the fun of DO cooking. So I may not be posting dutch oven meals every week like I've been doing, but I will post them whenever we do them.

Cornish Game Hens

Use a 14” deep dutch ( a 12” will work too)
Use 18 coals on lid in ring around edge
Use 10 coals on bottom in checkerboard pattern
Trivet
Oven Thermometer
4 Cornish Game Hens
1 Box Stove Top Stuffing
¼ to ½ teaspoon ground sage
1 can (14 ½ oz.) chicken broth
Poultry seasoning
Salt and pepper
Paprika
2 cups hot water
¼ cup cold water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
toothpicks

Mix the Stove Top dressing according to directions on box except use chicken broth in place of the water and add ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground sage. Set aside.

Clean Cornish game hens and stuff with dressing. Truss up hens with string and toothpicks.

Mix poultry seasoning, paprika, salt and pepper (all to tatste) together and sprinkle over chickens.

Place treivet in dutch and add 2 cups hot water. Place hens on trivet with breast side up. Place oven thermometer in a chicken. Bake until thermometer reaches 190 degrees. Remove hens from dutch.

De-glaze bottom of dutch.

Mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch with ¼ cup cold water and slowly pour into liquid in dutch to make gravy.
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Blueberry Dump Cake Recipe (12)

Serves/Makes: 12

Ingredients:
1 quart fresh or frozen blueberries
1 can (8 ounce size) crushed pineapple, undrained
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 box (2 layer size) yellow cake mix
1 cup broken nuts, optional
3/4 cup melted butter

Directions:
Put berries in a 9 x 13-inch pan baking dish; cover with pineapple and sprinkle with sugar. Sprinkle dry cake mix in an even layer over the fruit. If desired, scatter nuts on top. Drizzle melted butter over all. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees F.



( The Last Meal )

It's Tuesday, but we did a dutch oven meal anyway. Last night, we had a Mexican dinner over at Fishing Bridge, so I decided to do a simple meal this evening. And surprisingly, a simple meal turned in to one of the best meals we've had.

Jenny received a very nice cookbook that features recipes from all over Montana and Wyoming as her exchange gift at the Christmas party. I was looking through it and spotted what sounded like a terrific corn chowder recipe. We had everything it called for, except frozen sweet corn. Guess you can't have a corn chowder without some corn in it! So I kept looking, and I found another recipe for a bacon and potato chowder that sounded really good. So it was decided that we'd make that along with a batch of biscuits.

Everything turned out very well, no thanks to mother nature. We had the forecast of rain later in the day, so I was hoping it'd hold off until we were finished. Well, the wind kicked up, the clouds rolled in, and it started lightly raining. I already had everything started, so it wasn't like I could change in mid stream and cook somewhere else. So Ken and I threw on our rain gear and stuck with it. It only rained a few minutes, so we lucked out.

This is a great meal for a crisp, fall day. It's fairly fast and very simple. I hope everyone enjoys it!

( A Real Fall meal )


Potato Bacon Chowder

8 slices of bacon, cut up
1 cup chopped onion
4 cups cooked and cubed potatoes
1 cup water
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 ¾ cups milk
½ teaspoon salt
pepper

Fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and saute onion in drippings. Remove onion and drain on paper towel. To cooked, cubed potatoes add water, soup, sour cream, milk, seasonings, and cooked onion and bacon, saving some bacon to crumble on top. Simmer, do not boil.


Making GOOD Biscuits


Take some Bisquick and mix it up with enough water to make a dough that can be spooned out in biscuit size amounts. (This will take a little practice.) You usually can put 16 or so biscuits in a 12 inch oven. This size oven is good for biscuits. Each biscuit must be rolled in oil (that's what makes them brown), so add enough oil to your oven to very lightly coat each one as you add them to the oven. Don't worry about their being round. It won't matter. Just crowd them to use up your dough. Now we are ready to add heat. Start with 8 charcoals on the bottom and 12 or so on top. When the biscuits have raised and begin to look like biscuits, reduce the heat on the bottom by two charcoals and cook until the sides begin to pull away from the side of the oven. You will see, as they pull away, that they are also beginning to brown around the edges. When this happens, remove the bottom heat and continue to cook on top until they are as brown and crusty on top as you like them to be . The biscuits will take about 30 minutes. They are very easy to do; always a big hit at your cookout

Boy, I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last posted. I guess that shows you how exciting our week was! :-/

Tonight was Dutch Oven Monday, and it was our turn to select the meal. We decided on beef tips with noodles or rice, acorn squash with an apple/cranberry compote, and a peach cobbler based on a recipe from the FoodNetworks Paula Deen.

The beef tips were actually Braised Sirloin Tips, and they had a wonderful sauce made with cranberry juice. It was wonderful! It had a kind of sweetness that wasn't too strong. It was really good.

The acorn squash turned out fantastic. It's baked in the oven with an apple/cranberry compote. It had a great flavor, and would make an especially nice autumn dish.

The peach cobbler was terrific. I figured it would be, since it was a recipe from Paula Deen on the Food Network. It had a nice touch of cinnamon with a bisquick topping.

I've posted all of the recipes for anyone that would like them.

Hopefully I'll have some fun and interesting things to discuss in another day or two, as we're going to Jackson Hole tomorrow and we'll spend the night. We'll be attending a well known "cowboy cookout" that's supposed just fantastic. I expect I'll be getting some good pictures.

Braised Sirloin Tips Recipe

Ready in: 1-2 hrs
Serves/Makes: 4
Ingredients:
2 pounds sirloin tips
1 tablespoon oil
1/3 cup cranberry juice
1 can beef consomme
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Cornstarch

Directions:
Cut sirloin into bite size pieces; brown on all sides in oil in skillet; add juice, consomme, soy sauce, garlic, ginger. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Blend small amount of cornstarch with water. (Use cold so it won't lump.) Stir into beef until thickened, stirring constantly.

Berry Tasty Stuffed Squash Recipe

Ready in: 1-2 hrs

Serves/Makes: 8
Ingredients:
4 Acorn squashes
Nonstick cooking spray
1 medium Onion -- peeled, quartered
2 Apples -- peeled
2 cups Cranberries
Salt
3/4 cup Brown sugar - (packed)
2 teaspoons Cornstarch
1/2 cup Chopped walnuts
6 tablespoons Butter -- melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut squash in half from stem end to tip; cut a small slice off the side if necessary, so that each half will sit flat (cavity-side up). Scrape out seeds and fibers. Line a baking sheet with foil; spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange squash cavity-side down on sheet; bake 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in work bowl of food processor fitted with steel knife blade, chop onion coarsely by pulsing 3 or 4 times; add apples, cranberries, 1 teaspoon salt and brown sugar. Sprinkle cornstarch over all; pulse to a medium chop.

Remove baking sheet from oven. Turn squash cavity-side up; sprinkle generously with salt. Divide filling evenly among squash halves. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts; drizzle with melted butter. Bake 40 minutes longer.

Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

2 (16-ounce) cans sliced peaches in heavy or light syrup, or in fruit juice, your choice
1 pint fresh blueberries, optional
1/2 cup baking mix (recommended: Bisquick)
1/3 cup sugar
Ground cinnamon
Topping:
2 1/4 cups baking mix (recommended: Bisquick)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
Cinnamon sugar (1/4 cup sugar combined with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; store in an empty spice shaker jar; shake well before each use)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray a Dutch oven with vegetable oil cooking spray
Drain 1 can of the peaches. Combine both cans of peaches, including the juice from the undrained can, the blueberries, if using, the baking mix, sugar, and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Place this mixture into the Dutch oven.
To make the topping: Combine the biscuit mix, sugar, butter, and milk in a resealable plastic bag. Drop bits of dough, using your fingers, on top of the peaches. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Place the Dutch oven into the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and crusty.






( Beef Tips and Squash )

We've missed the last 2 Dutch Oven Mondays because we had a cookout to go to and because we were in Fallon visiting Tommy, Dani, and Teagan. So we were happy to be able to get back to it tonight.

It was ken and Sandy's turn to select the meal, and Sandy chose another great one out of one of her Slow Cooker Recipes magazine. This one is called Slow Cooked Cherry Pork Chops. Again we adjusted a slow cooker recipe for the dutch oven, which really only means that we have to reduce the cooking time.

We also had au gratin potatoes, corn on the cob, and pineaple upside down cake. Everything turned out very well. I don't have the recipe for the potatoes, but I can get it if someone wants it. I just know that it included cream cheese in it.

We had one nice addition to our meal. Some friends of ours from Janesville, Bill and Carol Winkler, had contacted us to let us know that they would be coming through Yellowstone and they were hoping to stop by. We were delighted that they wanted to come by, so we invited them to our Monday meal. We had a wonderful time and it was fun to get caught up on some of the home stuff. We'll be looking forward to seeing them again when we get back to Janesville in October.

There was one other surprise tonight. Ken and Sandy had a little birthday present for me. It's the coolest T-shirt. I posted a picture of it. We've had a lot of fun with our dutch oven meals, and the T-shirt will always be a special remembrance for me.

( Another Yummy Meal )


Here's the recipe for the pork chops for anyone interested:

Slow Cooked Cherry Pork Chops

12” dutch oven

Ingredients

6 bone-in pork loin chops (8 oz. each and ¾ inch thick)
1/8 tbs. salt
dash of pepper
1 cup canned cherry pie filling
2 tsp. lemon juice
½ tsp. chicken bouillon granules
1/8 tsp. ground mace

In a 12” dutch oven coated with non-stick cooking spray, brown the pork chops on both sides over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a medium bowl, combine pie filling, lemon juice,bouillon and mace. Cover bottom of dutch oven with a layer of pork chops, spread half of the cherry sauce over the chops, place the remaining pork chops over the sauce and spread the remaining cherry sauce over the chops. Cook at 350 degrees (9 coals under the dutch and 16 coals on top) for 2 to 2.5 hours or until meat is no longer pink.

Serves 6

Our Dutch Oven Monday meal was a very special meal tonight, for two reasons. First, we have our friends Janice and Dean visiting for a week, so they joined us. And even though they don't care for fish (we're having orange roughy), they brought some steaks to grill and also some sweet corn. What a treat! We've been looking for some decent sweet corn, but haven't found any yet. Some of you may remember my sweet corn panic attack last July when we were in Idaho and we couldn't find any. So tonight's corn was a special surprise.

But the second reason tonight was special was because we baked a diabetic apple crisp recipe that Jenny created. We've been having some type of dessert almost every week, but few of them have been alright for Jenny to eat. So Jenny created her own recipe, and it was WONDERFUL!

We had orange roughy tonight. We sauteed the fish in olive oil, garlic and lemon pepper. It was really good. We also tried Rice-A-Roni's fried rice. That was not very good at all. It turned out kind of mushy and it had a strange taste for being fried rice. It certainly wasn't like any fried any of us had ever had.

But the star of the evening was Jenny's Apple Crisp. It was delicious.

I'm posting the recipe for anyone that might want to try it. I don't think you'd be disppointed.

Jenny’s Apple Crisp
(diabetic recipe)


12” dutch oven

Ingredients

6 cups sliced apples ( we used Fuji’s, but any baking apple will work)
¾ cup flour
½ cup sugar substitute
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbs. sugar free maple syrup

Peel and slice apples and place in a bowl of lemon water to keep slices from browning. When ready to proceed, drain apples and mix ingredients thoroughly with apples.

Spray dutch oven with a non-stick spray and pour mixture in.

Topping

1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
½ cup sugar substitute
½ cup brown sugar substitute
1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix topping ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut into mixture 2/3 cup of margarine or butter until crumbly. Put topping over apple mixture and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour. This should be 8 coals under the dutch and 16 coals on top.


( A Very Special Meal )

Another Monday has arrived, which means aother Dutch Oven Monday meal.

It was Ken and Sandy's turn to select the dishes we'd prepare. I think Sandy did most of the selecting, and she did a fine job if I do say so myself. She decided on Chinese Pork Ribs, Hash Brown Casserole, and Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding.

As usual, the ribs and bread pudding were recipes that none of us had ever tried before. The Hash Brown Casserole was a favorite of Ken and Sandy's and she wanted us to try it, so we allowed that one diversion.

Everything turned out great. The sauce for the ribs had orange marmalade, soy sauce, and ketchup. It was a wonderful flavor, and the ribs just fell off of the bone. The bread pudding cooked a little faster than we thought it would (it was a slow cooker recipe we converted to dutch oven), but we caught it in time and took it off the heat. It was warm when we served with vanilla ice cream. Those cinnamon rolls really made this bread pudding unique. I think it could easily be used for a breakfast dish.

Here are the recipes for the ribs and the bread pudding.

Chinese Pork Ribs

12” dutch oven

Ingredients

¼ cup soy sauce
1/3 cup orange marmalade
3 tbs. ketchup
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 – 4 pounds bone-in country style pork ribs

Directions

In a bowl, combine soy sauce, marmalade, ketchup and garlic. Pour half into dutch oven. Top with ribs; drizzle with remaining sauce. Cover the 12” dutch oven and cook at 350 degrees for 3 hours or until tender with 8 coals on the bottom and 16 coals on top.

Yield: 6 – 8 servings

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Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding

10” dutch oven

Ingredients

8 cups cubed day-old unfrosted cinnamon rolls
4 eggs
2 cups milk
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup butter, melted
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup raisins

Directions

Place cubed cinnamon rolls in 10” dutch oven. In a small mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, butter, vanilla and nutmeg; beat until smooth. Stir in raisins. Pour over cinnamon rolls; stir gently. Cover the 10” dutch oven and cook at 350 degrees for approximately 40 – 60 minutes. Use 7 coals on the bottom and 14 coals on top.

Yield: 6 servings


( Ribs and Bread Pudding )

We got back on schedule last night with our Dutch Oven Monday night meal. We're into the wet season here in yellowstone, and for the last few days, it's rained every day late in the afternoon. But the dutch oven gods were watching out for us last night, because it rained around 1:00p.m for a while, but stopped before we started cooking. and the rain held off until after we finished eating outside.

Jenny and Sandy had invited 2 couples from Fishing Bridge to join us, and Jenny wanted to have what we've always called Pull Apart Roast. This is simply pot roast that is so tender, that you simply pull apart the pieces of roast instead of slicing the meat. Unfortunately, the roast that we bought just wasn't of the quality that we'd prefer, and it didn't get tender enough to pull it apart. It was tender when we sliced it and ate it, but it just wasn't our pull apart roast. I think it's because we just can't find the quality meat that we're used to.

Along with the roast, we had mashed potatoes, carrots (cooked with the roast), and the mixed berry crisp that I made a few weeks back. we had that for dessert because I had 3/4's of a bag of frozen berries left in the freezer.

Because I've been asked almost every time I post information about our meals, I'm going to include the recipe for anyone that might be interested in using it.

Pull Apart Roast


12” dutch oven

Ingredients

Pot roast ( 3 1/2 – 4 lbs.)
2 pkgs. beefy onion soup mix
1 can beefy mushroom soup
1 bag baby carrots
1 medium onion
6 cups hot water


Place roast on trivet in the 12” dutch oven. Combine hot water, onion soup mix, and mushroom soup. Mix well and pour over roast. Add carrots. Peel and slice onion and add to dutch. Cover and cook at 350 – 375 for 3 hours.

Remove roast when cooked and keep warm. For gravy, strain cooking juices and skim fat. Pour juices into a saucepan. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth, gradually stirring into the juices. Bring to a boil and cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with mashed potatoes


Serves 8 - 10


( Pull Apart Roast - Sliced )

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.



( A Friend, A Good Idea, and Good Food )

This week's dutch oven menu was selected by Ken and Sandy, and it turned out to be one of Jenny's very favorite meals - Corned Beef and Cabbage. This was a fairly traditional corned beef and cabbage recipe which included potatoes and carrots. So it turned out to be a "one pot" meal, which freed up my 10" DO for something else. Sandy had mentioned once that she absolutely loved berry desserts, and since I'd found a recipe for a mixed berry crisp that I was wanting to try, I decided to make it and surprise her.

The meal turned out wonderfully. Ken did all of the preparation of the entree, and I took on the dessert. The recipe for the corned beef and cabbage called for cooking just over 2 hours. Actually we ended up cooking it for 3 hours, and it turned out well. I do think that it could have cooked a bit longer and it would have been a bit more tender. But it was fine, as was evidenced by the empty Do at the end of the meal.

The mixed berry crisp was a real nice surprise, and we all loved it, but especially Sandy. We added some vanilla ice cream, and with the crisp having just the right amount of sweetness/tartness, it was a wonderful conclusion to a nice meal.

Jenny and I have to decide what to have for next week's Dutch Oven Monday Night meal, and I have some ideas. But I think I want to try something really different, so I'll be checking for recipes. I'll let you know what we decide to do.


Corned Beef with Cabbage and Vegetables

Use 12 inch dutch oven
Use 8 coals on bottom in checkerboard pattern
Use 16 coals on lid in a ring
Trivet

1 4-pound corned beef brisket
3 pounds potatoes cut into quarters
1 12 oz. package baby carrots
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon beef paste or 2 bullion cubes
4 cups of water
1 small head of cabbage cut into quarters
10 small pearl onions
½ large yellow onion quartered
Salt and pepper to taste

Use a trivet in bottom of dutch oven. Place brisket, with fat side up on trivet. Season with salt and pepper. Add water, bay leaf, beef paste and yellow onion. Cover and simmer slowly for about 2 hours. Add potatoes, carrots, cabbage and pearl onions. Add enough water to cover and replace lid and continue to simmer slowly until vegetables are tender, but firm.

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Mixed Berry Crisp

The frozen berries aren't thawed before you use them, so this dessert is super fast.
Makes 6 servings.
Ingredients
2 12-ounce packages frozen mixed berries (such as blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries; about 6 cups), unthawed
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, diced

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine berries, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour and lemon juice in large bowl; toss to blend well. Transfer berry mixture to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Combine remaining 3/4 cup flour, oats, brown sugar, spices and salt in medium bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until topping holds together in small moist clumps. Sprinkle over berry mixture.
Bake crisp until berry mixture bubbles thickly and topping is golden brown, about 1 hour. Let stand 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.



( More Good Eating from The Dutch Oven )

Tonight was dutch oven Monday Night again. We had planned on cooking swiss steak with vegetables and baking powder biscuits. But when I got home from work, Jenny had already started the swiss steak in a crock pot. She was afraid that the weather wouldn't cooperate because we had storm warnings forecast for the evening. I said if the weather didn't turn terribly bad, I was still going to do the baking powder biscuits. I'd been thinking about them all week, and by golly, I was going to bake some!

This biscuit recipe was a first time recipe for me, but it was fairly easy. The recipe called for using a 2" cutter, but all we had was a 2 1/2" cutter. That extra 1/2" difference sure made a difference. I was able to only get 8 biscuits in the 12" DO and 7 in the 10" DO. The recipe said that it would make about 18 biscuits in a 14" DO.

The weather did cooperate, although the wind was a bit strong. So we put on a few extra briquettes to allow for the wind. The 10" DO cooked perfectly, but the 12" Do was baking a bit slower. Clearly it needed more briquettes, and once we put those on, it baked just fine.

The biscuits were delicious, and they didn't burn. Baking breads in a DO is one of the harder things to do, so to prevent hot spots and possible burning, the DO needs to be rotated about every 5 minutes or so. It looks like we rotated them just right!

Ken and Sandy will be deciding what we'll have next Monday evening. They're reviewing recipes even as I type!

Baking Powder Biscuits

4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Crisco
2 Tbs. baking powder
2 cups cold milk
2 tsp. salt

To a mixing bowl add flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir together using a fork. Cut in the Crisco until the mixture is like coarse meal with no lumps larger than a green pea. Add milk to the mixture and stir it with a fork until there are no areas of dry flour. You want the dough to be sticky and moist. This is what makes baking powder biscuits so tender and flaky.
Generously flour a large cutting board or smooth countertop making sure to coat your hands in flour too. Scoop the dough out of the bowl and put it on the floured surface. With the palm of one (or both) hands, press down on the dough and push it away from you. The dough will stretch into the shape of an oval. Next, lift the far end of the oval and bring it towards you, so it resembles a thick taco shell with the opening facing towards you. Then, rotate the dough a quarter turn and repeat the process, gently pushing, folding and turning, about 10 times. If dough begins to stick to your hand, it is fine to use a little more flour to cut the stickiness. Pat the dough into a circular shape about 1/2" thick.
Using a 2" cookie or biscuit cutter cut out biscuits by pressing cutter into the dough and then lifting it straight out. Make sure not to twist the cutter as this releases air in the dough causing the biscuits to turn out flat. Place biscuits in a greased 14" Dutch oven leaving 1/2" space between.
Place lid on Dutch oven and let raise for 10 minutes then bake using 12-14 briquettes bottom and 18-20 briquettes top (400° F.) for 15-20 minutes.
NOTE: For even browning make sure to turn the oven and lid 1/4 turn in opposite directions every 5-10 minutes.
Serve warm.
Yield: About 18 biscuits


( Baking Powder Biscuits )

Monday evening is dutch oven night. Since Ken and I get off work at 11:30, we have plenty of time to prepare a dutch oven meal. It was the girls idea, but we're fine with it because we enjoy doing it.

Since we're going to do this every Monday, we're going to alternate the selections for the meal. We select the menu one week, and Ken and Sandy will select the next week, and so on. This week was Ken and Sandy's turn, so they selected Cornish Game Hens. I've been wanting to try a new dessert called Banana Dump Cobbler, so I decided to make that too.

The meal turned out very well. We used the 12" DO for the hens and the 10" DO for the cobbler. Unfortunately, the recipe for the cobbler really needed to be made in a 12" DO, but as we were using it for the hens, I tried scaling the ingredients back to make it work in the 10". The cobbler turned out fine. In fact, it turned out way better than I expected it to. But it was a bit much for the size of the DO, so the top to the cobbler kept getting stuck on the bottom of the DO lid, which resulted in the top of the cobbler not looking quite right. But like the old expression says, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." Boy, was it good!

The main dish also turned out wonderfully. The hens were stuffed with a nice dressing, and we made gravy from the drippings in the DO. Jenny steamed up some veggies for us, and we had some French bread. The hens were tender and delicious. And you know what? Cornish Game Hens taste like chicken!

We're really looking forward to doing these every Monday. But after not having the right size DO for the cake, even Jenny mentioned that we needed to get a 12" deep DO. Oooooo, that'll be nice!

It's our turn to select the menu for next weeks meal, so I told Jenny to make the call. At this time, it looks like we'll be having Swiss Steak with potatoes and veggies and homemade biscuits. Sounds good, doesn't it? Stay tuned for the outcome!

Cornish Game Hens

Use a 14” deep dutch ( a 12” will work too)
Use 18 coals on lid in ring around edge
Use 10 coals on bottom in checkerboard pattern
Trivet
Oven Thermometer
4 Cornish Game Hens
1 Box Stove Top Stuffing
¼ to ½ teaspoon ground sage
1 can (14 ½ oz.) chicken broth
Poultry seasoning
Salt and pepper
Paprika
2 cups hot water
¼ cup cold water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
toothpicks

Mix the Stove Top dressing according to directions on box except use chicken broth in place of the water and add ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground sage. Set aside.

Clean Cornish game hens and stuff with dressing. Truss up hens with string and toothpicks.

Mix poultry seasoning, paprika, salt and pepper (all to tatste) together and sprinkle over chickens.

Place treivet in dutch and add 2 cups hot water. Place hens on trivet with breast side up. Place oven thermometer in a chicken. Bake until thermometer reaches 190 degrees. Remove hens from dutch.

De-glaze bottom of dutch.

Mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch with ¼ cup cold water and slowly pour into liquid in dutch to make gravy.

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Banana Dump Cobbler

Ingredients

1 package yellow cake mix
1 pound brown sugar
½ pound margarine
5 pounds bananas
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon


Procedure

Heat Dutch oven and cover with coals for 15 minutes. Slice bananas lengthwise and set aside. Prepare cake mix, and set aside. Remove preheated oven from coals
and melt butter in the bottom. Add brown sugar and mix well with butter. Add bananas and sauté for three minutes over fire. Pour cake mixture over bananas.
Fold banana-sugar mixture up over cake mixture a few times. Sprinkle with cinnamon and white sugar. Bake 35 minutes. For the first 10 minutes use coals on the bottom only. Then add coals to oven top and continue baking until done.



( A Good Dinner )

You regular readers will recall that while we were in Belfair, we bought some cast iron cookware in order to start doing some outdoor cooking. Specifically, we bought a 12" dutch oven and 10" skillet. We used them the first time when we cooked a big batch of raw fries for the fish fry we had at Belfair.

I've been wanting to do some more cooking with these, and I finally did some 2 weeks ago. I cooked a fairly easy breakfast, called The Mountainman Breakfast for Ken and Sandy and Jenny and I. It's simply a layered dish with hash brown potatoes on the bottom, then a layer of sausage that was browned first, then scrambled eggs, and it's all topped with cheddar cheese. It was GREAT.....but I forgot to take pictures. :(

Well, tonight we decided to cook 2 chickens in the dutch oven. It took just over 2 hours, and it was fabulous. We all really enjoyed the meal. For those not familiar with dutch oven cooking, I've posted pictures of the basic equipment used and some shots of the meal at different stages during the cooking. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I'm getting into this dutch oven cooking. I can't wait to try another meal!

( Dutch Oven Cooking )