Heavy Cookin'

These last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of heavy cooking.  By “heavy cooking” I mean, “a lot of dishes being prepared and cooked all at once, that need to all turn out really really well”.  High-pressure stuff.

Two weeks ago, some good folks from Cedar Fort came out to take some pictures for the cover of the first book.  I had to prepare some wonderful dishes for them to take pictures of, dishes drawn directly from the recipes in the first book.

The night before, I toasted up a sweet pumpkin and made some puree.  That morning, I started the day out mixing and kneading the dough for some butter rolls. Then, I did a couple of chicken roasts, side-by-side in my 14”-er, using the basic herbal poultry recipe and the spicy paste turkey rub. While that was cooking, I made the pumpkin pie and got that on to bake.  Brendon came to my aid and made his world-renowned Dutch oven baked ziti, and my old standard chicken and potatoes rounded out the collection.

They were wonderful folks, and after quite a while of primping and photographing the food, we all sat down and feasted.

A few days later, I got to see a preliminary layout of the cover, and I’m very excited.  Since it’s not a final, they won’t let me post it here, yet, but as soon as they do, it’ll be on the blog!

Then, this last weekend, our family went up to Bear Lake to spend some time with other families with children with special medical needs.  The group we went up with is called Hope Kids, and they sponsor family activities, mostly donated. Once a year, at the very end of the season, they get a bunch of cabins at the Bear Lake KOA campground for a weekend.  It’s amazing fun.  Even Brendon had a blast being able to connect with other siblings of special needs kids in a completely non-contrived way.

Well, I brought up my two 14” deep dutch ovens, at the request of the organizer.  Those were added to a larger collection of Dutch ovens in various sizes,  and Brendon and I helped them cook up Mountain Man Breakfast for the entire gathering.  We had them all stacked as many as three high, cooking along.

After resting a while, I cooked up the Nouveau Mexican Cafe pulled pork with beans and rice and we had a few of the neighboring families over for a bit more feasting.

When it was all done, I collapsed into a heap.  I slept really, really well that night.

Next Sunday, I’m going to do my Apples and Oranges challenge dish, and NOTHING ELSE!  Just a simple dish and call it good.

I mean, it feels good to cook all that food for all those people, and it feels really good to hear them enjoying it and telling me how great it tastes.  And after it’s all done, it’s time to simplify...







Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Pancakes on the Dutch Oven lid

If you talk about doing breakfast with a dutch oven, two things immediately jump to my mind:  The Mountain Man Breakfast and Pancakes on the Lid.  These two dishes are about as common as cobblers and biscuits in the dutch oven world.  They’re both pretty easy, too, so you can do it while you’re still groggy-headed and haven’t had much time for caffiene-laden drinks and waking up.

Here’s my take on the pancakes.

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes on the Dutch Oven lid

12” dutch oven lid, inverted on a trivet
20 coals underneath, with more in a side fire

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ Tbsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tbsp white sugar

• 2 1/2 cups milk, with as much as an additional cup to the side
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 apple, finely chopped
• 1-2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp of nutmeg

First of all, I lit up some coals, and when they were getting white, I put about 20 of them under a Dutch Oven Lid Trivet.  This is a little metal device, like a stand that can hold the lid up by about 2-3 inches.  The lid should be inverted, with the handle down.  Now you can use it like a griddle.  I spritzed it with a little bit of oil

Then, I mixed the other ingredients.  The dry ingredients went into the bowl first, then the wet, and finally, I chopped the apples and added the spices.  How much cinnamon you put in depends on your taste.  I like a more edgy flavor, so I put in more.

Then I whisked it all together.  I like to have my pancakes be a little thinner.  I think it cooks more evenly.  So, I make the batter thinner with the extra milk.

Once the griddle-lid was well heated, I poured about a cup’s worth of batter onto it.  I was using my Lodge lid, so it was concave, forming a shallow bowl in the center.  Since all of the batter flowed toward the center, I couldn’t cook more than on pancaked at a time, so I decided to make it a big one.

The idea is to cook it almost all the way on one side, then flip it over for just a few minutes on the second side.  If I’d had a second lid stand, I would have gotten two lids going at the same time.  As it was, it took quite a while to finish the batter.  They sure tasted great, though!








Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Mountain Man Breakfast

A Cry for Help


About a week ago, I got this kindof panicked email. It was from a lady who'd been volunteered to dutch oven some breakfast for her husband and friends. With her permission, I'm including it, and the ensuing conversation, here:

It began:



If you have the time and energy to help me, I would really appreciate it. . .

First, let me say, that I feel so lucky to have found your blog today. I bookmarked it and will be reading it more often.

Second, I am a NOVICE. Please notice the capital letters. I am soooo inexperienced. So far in a Dutch oven, I have made 3 apple crisps (turned out good), 3 cakes (pretty good), seven layer dinner twice (the first time okay – the second time with improvements RAVE reviews) and chicken and rice (never again with rice, I thought it was never going to cook). My cooking experience is with the Girl Scouts, so if I make a mistake, there are always hot dogs and smores.

(Note from Mark: OK, maybe a novice, but from the bits here, not a bare-bones beginner...)

But, my HUSBAND (you know – the guy I originally bought the Dutch oven for) has GRACIOUSLY volunteered me to cook BREAKFAST in the Dutch oven at tailgating on Saturday morning – for our FRIENDS. (Can you say – dog house?)

SOO, I need a no-fail recipe. I looked at breakfast pizzas, but I’m scared the crescent rolls and eggs won’t cook. Can you help?

Trese



It was pretty easy for me to reply. I immediately thought of the Mountain Man Breakfast. It's easy and quite impressive. It's one of those dutch oven traditions, like doing the dump cake cobblers. Everybody's done one at some point.



I replied:

Ah, your story sounds soooo familiar! It took me a while to figure out how to do rice. The most common problem is not enough liquid for the rice to absorb. If the whole thing is too dry, the rice will never cook.

There really is no such thing as a "no-fail" recipe. There are ones that are difficult to pull off, and ones that are easy to pull off, but I have learned from sad experience that even the simplest ones can fail. I must hang my head in shame and admit that even the simple dump cobblers have kicked my sorry butt from time to time.

As far as breakfast goes, I usually don't do breakfasts. I'm not usually up early enough! :-) However, there are a few cool things you can do. One relatively easy one is called "mountain man breakfast". I've done it a time or two and it's only failed me once (and I know why, and I won't do that again...)

You start by putting some coals (15-20) under your dutch oven and browning some breakfast meat (sausage, bacon, or some combination of that). You could even cook the meat on your home stove the night before. Then, slice or dice some potatoes. Frozen hash browns (shredded or cubed) works well for this, too. The one time I messed this recipe up, I shredded the potatoes too early in the process, and they got all brown, and when they cooked they were an ugly black. Yuck. Cut the potatoes right before you cook them.

You can dice some onions and green peppers, too, if you like. Mushrooms are good, too.

In the bottom of your dutch oven, create layers. Start with the potatoes on the bottom, then the meats, then the veggies. Season it with salt, pepper, and anything else you like. (Note from Mark: One time that I did this, I also cooked some fresh spinach and added that as a layer, to give it a "quiche-ish" taste)

Finally, whip together 6-8 eggs and some milk. Pour that over the whole mixture. It will soak through all the layers.

Put it on some coals (if you've got a 12" oven, put 8-10 coals underneath and 16-18 above (depending on how cold and windy it is outside), and bake it for about 30-45 minutes, or until you can poke a fork in it and have it come out clean. Then, take it off the coals and sprinkle the top with shredded cheddar. Put the lid back on and let the residual heat melt the cheese.

Serve it up!

BTW, I'm also glad you found my blog. If you don't mind, I'd like to put your letter up and respond to it on the blog with a more detailed recipe of this. Would that be OK?

...and I hope the husband gets out of the doghouse soon. Be forgiving. It won't be the last mistake he'll ever make... :-)

Mark



She replied:


I don’t mind if you use this at all. I can send some photos, too, if you would like. I will use this recipe as my husband loves potatoes and we aren’t big egg fans – another reason why I was thinking “Breakfast, really???”. So this will be perfect as it seems the eggs are just sort of binders?? It will be like a breakfast bowl? Add some salsa and we are rockin’ (I hope.)

Thanks, I’ll be in touch to let you know how it goes!

Trese




And a few days later, I got this update:



You will be happy to know that my husband is out of the dog house. If not for him, we would have all been eating frozen mountain man’s breakfast.

Here’s the backstory to the whole thing. . . Just so you don’t think I’m crazy. It was my turn to provide food for tailgating food for our alma mater’s football game and I had said I would make something in the Dutch oven. (I was thinking something I had made before that I knew I could make.) We both graduated from Middle Tennessee State University and are season ticket holders for football. Well, ESPNU decided to televise our game last Saturday against Ole Miss on the condition that we move our game from 4 pm to 11:30 am – which is no big deal, except, I don’t know how to make breakfast in the Dutch oven. (I’m not really confident in my Dutch oven cooking as my chicken and rice experience was a total bust, but I was going to try it – sans rice.) My husband piped right up for me and volunteered a warm breakfast prepared in the Dutch oven. UGGH! Luckily, when I googled Dutch oven recipes, up came your blog.

We woke up on Saturday to record breaking cold weather. We actually had to get the hats, gloves and coats out of the coat closet. We live in Tennessee and were not prepared for the cold front that had settled in the night before. We were, however, prepared for the breakfast – thanks to you. You scared me with your story of black potatoes and there was NO WAY I was going to risk that. I used a 1 ½ pound package of frozen O’Brien hashbrowns (with the peppers and onions already included) and had pre-cooked a pound of Sage sausage. I had already scrambled the 8 eggs and a couple teaspoons of water at the house too and I bought 2 cups of shredded cheese. I even lined the Dutch oven with foil and had sprayed it down with Pam before leaving the house.

(Note from Mark: Many dutch oveners don't use foil. If there's a good black coating on your dutch oven, the food doesn't stick much, and then you don't have to worry about getting bits of foil in your food.)

I had read almost every one of your blogs on Friday and took heed from the guest blogger who had mentioned not being able to cook directly on the ground at a recent competition. I don’t really know why that is a rule, but I figured it was for safety purposes, so I used a 16 inch stone paver to cook on in the parking lot.

(Note from Mark: There are two reasons why I don't cook directly on concrete or pavement. One is that it can get very hot and actually damage the concrete or pavement. Another is that a lot of your bottom heat is used up warming up the pavement, rather than heating up your food.)

It was freezing cold and windy and just as I was getting out of the car to start setting up the chairs and the table, it started to mist. Fabulous! I had decided that was should get some coals started and “preheat” the potatoes and sausage that had been in the refrigerator/cooler all night. That plan went “to pot” quickly because I could not for the life of me get my charcoal to start. Finally, my husband saved me. He must have seen the flashing SOS on my forehead because he stepped right in and said, “Let me take care of these coals and you can do something else.” Something else like stand over his back and pray with all my heart? Cuz, that’s exactly what I did. I looked around at my friends and they were saying, “It’s fine. We have time. There’s enough other food here. It’s okay.” I felt like a tailgating ZERO. But my dearest husband got the charcoal started and I was back to the original plan very soon.

I took the first 10 coals out and put them under the pot. I scattered the potatoes and the sausage and let them warm up while the rest of the coals heated. Then I added the 20 coals to the top and let just the potatoes and sausage cook for 10 minutes. Then I added the eggs and let them cook for 20 minutes. Then added the cheese and let it cook for about 5 more minutes. We served with salsa and Texas Pete. (I was going to do it again, I would add more meat – maybe a pound of bacon, too. You can’t ever go wrong with adding bacon.)

I cannot tell you how impressed people were when I opened that oven after 20 minutes and they saw all the steam billowing out of that pot. (I have to say, I felt relief.) My friends had watched me worrying over that chimney and pot for more than an hour. It turned out great – a bit stressful, but definitely tasty. The food was all gone in about 20 minutes. So I went from tailgating zero to HERO in 30 minutes (thanks to you). AND everyone was happy b/c the Dutch oven and the chimney (eventually) provided us all with a heat source. (Did I mention that it was COLD??? And Windy? And Wet?)

Everyone decided that I should definitely be in charge of cooking for tailgating this week. Ummm – not ready for that yet. It’s my turn to bring cookies and drinks for the kids – I’ll stick with that.

So how’s that for making a short story long?

Reader’s Digest version – It turned out great. It was a huge hit and now I owe you those 700 thank you’s! I don’t think I’ll be cooking stuffing in pumpkins anytime soon, but I will be cooking something. And I will be reading your blog. You were a huge help. (BTW – MTSU lost and I’m not even going to talk about the Tennessee Titans.)

I only snapped a couple of pics b/c of the misty rain but I will get them to you soon.

Thanks again!


Trese


So, I was glad to hear that it worked out, and that I could help out in a small way. Congrats to you, Trese! And thanks for allowing us all to hear your story.


A Call for Your Recipes and Stories


So, folks, I'd love to hear some of your dutch oven stories, too. I'd like to start including more of that here in the Black Pot Blog, like the one about Andy and Melissa's cookoff experience. Send me your favorite recipes. I'd love to try them, and then share them here. Of course, I'll credit you, and even link back to your blog or site, if you have one...

A Taste of Dutch, 2009

(Written Sunday, the 19th)

It's finally spring, here in Utah. It's been a wet and cold month so far, with winter hanging on and blasting us from time to time. But today, I'm sitting on my back porch, watching the coals burn down under a pot of split pea soup with a meaty ham bone. Every once in a while, the breeze will hit me just right and waft the smell of ham, herbs, and veggies past me. It's gonna be good, here, in about an hour.

Yesterday, I had an amazing opportunity. I got to cook for the Taste of Dutch again at the Spring Convention of the IDOS. It was a lot of fun this year, just like it was last year, but this time there were some very special moments involved for me.

One was getting closer to a new friend. I've known this guy, Steve, for about a year or so. We'd bump into each other at church and talk dutch ovening a little bit. He's been really excited about it, but hasn't had a lot of experience so far. He and Brendon and I did a dutch oven demonstration for our ward's scout troop. He did the dump cake/cobbler, and Brendon and I did pizza.

So, about a week ago, we decided to go to the Taste of Dutch as a team. We spent a couple of days figuring out our menu. We would start by hybriding a traditional mountain man breakfast recipe with quiche-like ingredients, to make our own new recipe. Then, for the lunch crowd, he would make a Dutch Oven chicken soup, Brendon would make dutch oven pizza, and I would do some bread.


(Written on Wed, the 22nd)

So, we started Saturday morning very early. I'd been up late the night before getting all of our ingredients and equipment gathered. Steve arrived and we loaded up and piled in. After a short stop for a fillup (Donuts and Diet Coke*), we were on our way.

The Davis County Fairgrounds were easy enough to find, thanks to Google Maps, and setup was pretty quick. I could tell right away that it wasn't as big of an event as last year. There were fewer cooks. I heard later from Omar (the Chairman this year) that four teams had cancelled at the last minute. Many other traditional participants in the Taste of Dutch were involved in other ways, and unable to participate. Still, there were some good folks cooking and we joined in.

Setup went pretty quick, and we got started right away making our "Mountain Man Quiche" (recipe to come). All three of us joined in on that game. It went pretty well, and we had fun cooking and prepping together. I was honestly surprised how focused and involved Brendon was. When he cooks at home, it's easy for him to get distracted by friends, TV, the Wii...

The Taste of Dutch works like this: A lot of dutch oven cooks each occupy a booth around the perimeter of this big expo building on the fairgrounds. Then, people who are visiting wander around and watch the cooks prepare the food. Then, when it's ready, they get little sample cups of what each person is cooking. It was open to the public at about 9:00, but it didn't really get busy until about 10:00 or so.

Once we were serving up the quiche, Brendon decided to get started on his pizza (recipe here). I offered to help a couple of times, but he wouldn't have it. He wanted to do it completely on his own.

In the meantime, Steve started on his Chicken and Rice Soup, and I started on my Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread. I had started the sponge for the bread the night before, and it had risen well, but I was more than a little nervous that the bread and the pizza dough wouldn't rise right, since it was about 60-65 degrees out or so. Then I came up with the idea of putting the dough in the car, where it was quite warmer.

Brendon kept arguing with me. "The dough is ready!", he'd insist. "A little longer," I'd reply. "Who's the pizza chef, here?" Finally, he prevailed, and he brought in the dough.

We got it stretched in the dutch ovens, and put on the toppings. All morning, Brendon and I had been telling people to come back for the pizza, so they were pretty excited to try it. When it was finally done, and we started slicing it up, I tapped Brendon on the shoulder and pointed to our left. He looked up and saw a line, no lie, three full booths long waiting for his pizza. He felt ten feet tall. But at the moment, there was no time to gloat, because we had to get busy serving it up.

Before long, Steve's soup was ready, and it was delicious. He didn't have quite the line that Brendon had, but he still had no problems giving it away. Right after that, the sourdough came out, and it tasted great. It was a bit too crusty on the bottom, and I had forgotten my bread knife, so it was tricky to cut it up with a chef's knife, especially one that's not that great to begin with.

Steve had also gotten a bit of notoriety there for his homemade chimney. A lot of people came by to look just at it and talk to him about how he made it.

Then we packed it up and came home. Actually, we met up with my wife and went to an afternoon easter party, and Steve went home. It was a pretty full, fun day. Brendon has decided that he wants to participate in the youth cookoff next year, too.

And at the end of it all, I got to take no pictures, and I only got to taste Steve's soup. Here's a link, however, to the IDOS page with some great pictures of the whole event.

See you next year!



*The Breakfast of Champions. It contains elements from all of the four fundamental food groups necessary for sustaining modern life: Chocolate, sugar, caffiene, and preservatives.

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... Rank: wait... Traffic: wait... Price: wait... C: wait...

Another Big Dutch Oven Day

Yesterday, thanks to Ranes Carter, the Storm Mountain IDOS chapter head, I got to participate in the Spring Convention of the International Dutch Oven Society (IDOS). Held at the Utah Davis County Fairgrounds, there were three buildings in use. One held classes, one had vendor booths, and the third one had cooks. There were two parts for the cooks, one was called “A Taste of Dutch” which is where I got to be, and another was for a Youth Cookoff.

Mark Goes Public

I’ve not had many opportunities to cook for the public. This really was only my second time. The first was last year’s Eagle Mountain Pony Express Days cookoff. This wasn’t a cookoff (at lest not where I was) so we weren’t competing, it wasn’t a Dutch Oven Gathering (called a DOG by those that do them), it was really more of a demo, but on a bigger scale, with lots of cooks and booths.

When I arrived, I really had no idea what to expect. Fortunately, I was sharing a booth with Ranes, who was the organizer of the TOD part of the event. So, he knew what was going on. I was scheduled to cook a breakfast dish and a lunch dish, so I got there pretty early, and got set up and cooking right away.

Mark Becomes Official

Pretty soon, someone came by and let me know that in order to comply with health codes, I needed to wear either a hat or a hair net. I had seen some hats for sale at the IDOS main booth, so I jumped and ran over there. I’ve been intending to join IDOS for a long time, but their website doesn’t take credit cards or paypal, and I never had the cash in hand at any of the moments that I had the opportunity to sign up.

So, I signed up and bought a hat. I also got this years membership pin, which I proudly displayed on the hat. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that in my hurry to pin it on and get back to cooking, I had pinned it in upside down. Oh well.

The doors opened to the public at about 9:00 am, and people started coming through. I had been cooking my dutch oven biscuits and gravy, and just about the time that real visitor traffic hit, at about 9:30 or so, it was all ready. The biscuits didn’t turn out as well as last week’s. I’d pulled a different recipe, and it just didn’t turn out as well. I could tell it wasn’t going to be the same, because the dough was heavier to begin with. But the gravy turned out great. I chopped the biscuits into sixths and put them into little tiny sample cups and poured some gravy on each one.

A lot of people liked them. I hope so, because I never got to taste it! All of a sudden I realized that it was all gone! I did hear lots of compliments, so that was a good sign.

Mark Sells Out

The folks at Rhodes Bread were part sponsors of the event, and in addition to doing a class over in the lesson/demo building, they also donated a ton of cinnamon rolls and other doughs for us to cook up and serve. So, since that was a part of the booth where Ranes and I were, I chipped in on that, especially after the biscuits and gravy were done.

Now, I’m a “make it from scratch” kinda guy, generally speaking. Last Halloween, for example, I decided I was going to make pumpkin pie, so I made it from pumpkins. Still, I gotta say, these frozen rolls turned out really nice. They take a while to thaw, and then to rise, but they cook up well. In this setting, especially, where you gotta make a lot for the people coming through, it worked out great.

Once we’d started cooking, one of the vendors came over and asked us to demonstrate his product. It’s an aluminum foil dutch oven liner. It looks basically like those disposable roasting pans that you can get in your grocery, but it’s shaped to fit into a standard 12” dutch oven.

At first I was skeptical. And, in some ways, still am. But Ranes and I agreed to help him out. So, we started cooking in them. In some ways, they were very convenient. The biggest benefit I noticed came the next time some of the Rhodes Rolls were done. Normally, when you’re done cooking bread, you have to grab a couple of gloves or hot pads, heft up this huge, heavy, and hot dutch oven, and flip it over onto a table to shake out the rolls. With the liner, you just lift it up, and turn it over. It was much easier.

Cleanup, of course, is much easier. I don’t have much problem with that, though. My ovens have a pretty good patina on them, so I really don’t have a tough time cleaning them up. A few scrapes, a few rinses, coat them again, and I’m good to go.

When you’re doing breads, and you’re basically heating the air around the bread, the liners work really well. In the afternoon, I did Masaman Curry, and I tried the liner for that as well. It took a little longer to sautee the onions, and to heat up the curry pasted to activate the flavors. I think that’s because there was no direct contact between the pot and the food, but there was a layer of air and another layer of aluminum.

Also, I’d gotten an email a couple of weeks ago from a company making bacon flavored salts, and they offered to send me some if I’d review them here in the Black Pot. They arrived the night before, so I took them with. I can’t say that I gave them a fair trial, though, because I only used them in the Biscuits and Gravy for the morning. The gravy had lots of sausage in it, so that would have affected the flavor, too. Plus, like I said, I never got to try anything I cooked, so I couldn’t tell you how it tasted! But I will try them in something I cook up and let you know. I did use it when I made some eggs for dinner at home, but that wasn’t in a dutch oven. Still, it tasted good!

So, for lunch, I did the Dutch Oven Masaman Curry. That had a lot of people wondering. Many who walked by had never heard of it, nor had ever tried anything like it. Still, they seemed intrigued and said they’d stop by again when it was ready.

Well, when the time came, and I was ready to declare it done, I looked up and saw a line of visitors waiting for their sample. I swear the line was three booths long. I was floored! And the other booths at the time were in between dishes, and all the people in the line were looking ahead at me.

Wow! I suddenly panicked! I started filling up the little cups as fast as I could. First the rice, then the curry. First the rice, then the curry… Finally, just about the time that the crowd started to fizzle, it was all gone. I mean gone. A completely full 12” shallow dutch oven was empty.

At that point, I was exhausted. I started cleaning up my station, because I knew that Ranes had promised that space to someone who was going to come in and cook an afternoon dish. I did help Ranes with a couple more batches of Rhodes breads, and helped him serve the line waiting for his Jambalaya (which was REALLY good). Then I came home and crashed and burned.

I know this post is a long way to scroll down, but thanks for following!

Here are some pictures of the event:

I didn't get the names of these two guys, but they were participating in the youth cookoff. Initially, Brendon was going to attend with me, and maybe even participate, but then we found out that you have to be at least 12 to do the cookoff. And then, he wanted to go to a friend's house for a sleepover the night before.

Anyway, I think these guys did a barbecue sparerib dish in their dutch ovens. It looked really good, but I don't know how the judging turned out. If anyone that went to the event visits the Black Pot here, and knows who won, please post a comment!

There were probably about 15 or more cooks in the taste of dutch. It was a lot of fun gathering and seeing people that I've met at other meetings and events.

This lady was serving up some barbecue sausages, and her friend had made stuffed mushrooms. I've been thinking about doing that as the appetizer for my mother's day dinner, so I watch her with interest. This picture also gives a bit of an idea of the crowds that were attending.

There aren't too many pictures of me here at the Black Pot. There's a couple of reasons for that. One, as a dumpy 45 year old who's losing his hair and his mind, I don't really consider my dashing good looks as a major selling point for the blog, here. On a more practical level, since I'm the one with the camera, and I'm the one cooking, it's not always easy to get a picture of the chef.

The guy in black, behind me, by the way, is Ranes. A really nice guy, even if he is stressed!

Finally, this guy's shirt caught my eye! You can't really see it unless you click to enlarge the picture. Still, that image summed up my Dutch Oven experience!

General Conference Cinnamon Rolls in the Dutch Oven

Like I said before, at our church's Televised General Conference, I decided to relive and revive our old family tradition of making sweet cinnamon rolls in the morning. Normally, we would have done this on Sunday morning, but now that I live out here in Utah, we watch conference on Saturday, too. So, I did the rolls on Saturday morning.

General Conference Cinnamon Rolls

12” dutch oven
8-9 coals below 16-17 above

• 1 Tbsp dry yeast
• ½ Cup warm water
• ½ Cup warm milk
• 1/3 Cup sugar
• 1/3 Cup shortening
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 3-4 Cups flour

• 2 Tbsp softened butter
• ¼ Cup Sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• Small handful of brown sugar
• A few shakes of ground ginger

So, I got up really early and started this off. I let the yeast activate and foam up in the water. I added all the other ingredients (except the flour) and mixed all that up. Then, I started adding in the flour, a cup or two at a time. I don’t remember exactly how many it took for me this time.

Then, I started kneading it on the table. I added shakes of flour onto the table as I go along. I’ve been learning that in the past I’ve not been kneading it enough. This time, as with the last time I made a yeast bread, I kneaded it until I felt it loosen up. It takes a while, maybe 8-10 minutes. Then I set it aside to raise.

It raised slowly, and took about an hour and a half to double. Once it had doubled, I put it back on the floured tabletop and rolled it out flat, into a square (or as close to it as I could get). I spread the butter over the surface, and then sprinkled it with the mix of cinnamon and sugar (we actually had some already mixed).

Then I rolled it up, and sliced it into one inch lengths. These I set into an oiled 12” shallow dutch oven. Once all those rolls were in the oven, I set it aside to raise. That took about another 40 minutes. Even with that, it didn’t really raise like I’d expected it to. I sprinkled the brown sugar over the tops of the raised rolls, and then shook some ground ginger on top of that. Not much, though.

I put that on the coals, and let it bake for about 40 minutes. When it was all done, they were delicious!

Pancakes?

So, this morning, my son gets me up and asks if we can cook pancakes in my dutch ovens. I've been wanting to get him more and more involved in cooking, so I jump at the chance. We start up the coals, and then come inside to mix the batter up.

Then I have him spread out the coals around my lid stand, and we put the lid on top, and we start waiting for it to heat up.

...And we wait

...And we wait.

Finally, I think it's hot enough, and I tell him to pour on some batter. By this time, of course, he's lost in his Gameboy, capturing Pokemon. But he sets it down and pours on the batter.

And we watch it start to cook.

Sort of.

It does finally cook enough to flip, but it's not really a golden brown, more like a pale white. Pretty soon, he goes inside with the air conditioning, leaving me to sweat it out in a 90 degree morning over a hot griddle. Well, a sort of hot griddle, anyway.

I did manage to cook all of the pancakes, but it never really got hot enough to cook them right. I'm not sure why. I guess, I just need more coals, and need to have them lit a little longer before I put on the lid. Hmmm...