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.

International Dutch Oven Society Spring Gathering

One of the highlights of my culinary life is the annual International Dutch Oven Spring Gathering (formerly known as the IDOS Spring Convention).  This is an evening and day of food and friendship as dutch oven enthusiasts from all over gather to cook and share their love of the black pots.  There are demos and classes, and there are vendors and auctions.  There’s a camp over the night before with a dutch oven gathering where everyone just kicks back and cooks and shares.

But the part of the event that I love the most is the “Taste of Dutch”.  This is where the main area of the pavilion is divided into booths, and each chef or team takes one space.  They cook whatever they want, whatever they’ve brought.   The doors are opened up to the public, who can browse from booth to booth sampling the fare and interacting with the chefs.  Asking questions, swapping ideas, generally having a great time!

Here's what it was like the other years that I went:  2009, and 2008.  I also attended in 2010, but (shame on me) I didn’t write it up.  Brendon and Jacob were the partners in my booth last year.

It all started for me when Ranes asked me if I wanted to help him in his booth back in 08.  We had a great time.  I helped him with the Rhodes Rolls that had been donated, and I made biscuits and gravy and a lunch of Masaman curry.

In 2009, I brought a long a friend, Steven Owen, and Brendon made his now famous pizza.

So, I recently got this email from Ranes, about this year’s event:

All,

The Annual IDOS Spring Gathering and Open House (formerly known as the Spring Convention) is on April 8th and 9th at the Legacy Events Center (formerly the Davis County Fairgrounds) in Farmington, Utah.

Information and details about the event can be found on the IDOS forums here

... and on Facebook here

So, you can participate in many different ways.  If you’re a dutch oven enthusiast and chef like I am (I’m tagging you, Andy J, and Toni, as well as many others), and you live in, or can get to, northern UT in April, sign up to be a chef in the Taste of Dutch.  The more chefs we’ll have, the more variety, and the bigger the event will be!

If you’re someone who loves outdoor cooking and wants to learn more about using dutch ovens, now is your chance to show up and taste a lot of great free food and learn from wonderful people.

Mark your calendars, ‘cause it’ll be a great time!





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

Updates and News

Here are a couple of bits of exciting Dutch Oven News:

First of all: Andy, over at Back Porch Gourmet, did his Beef/Leek/Cinnamon challenge dish!  It sure looks great!  It's a cinnamon glazed roast.  Check it out.

Second:  This weekend is the Spring Convention of the International Dutch Oven Society (IDOS).  Here's the details.  I'll be at Taste of Dutch again this year, but I haven't decided yet what I'm going to cook.  I'll probably do some kind of bread, and maybe a pasta dish. I haven't made up my mind yet.  But come on out and taste some great dutch oven cooking!

Here's what it was like the other years that I went:  2009, and 2008






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

Monkey Bread!

This weekend was our church's televised conference weekend.  That means we Mormons don't go to church to listen to our local leaders, but instead watch our global leaders speak on TV.  It's a great family time, as we all sit on our couch and watch.

It's also a great time for food traditions, and one of ours is that we make Cinnamon buns, in the dutch oven.

But this year, after conference, we were going to an Easter party, and there would be a lot of people, so I thought it would be better to make Monkey Bread.  That's basically the same thing as a cinnamon roll, but it's smaller, so more people can get a portion.

Many people make Monkey bread by taking canned "pop up" biscuits and rolling them in cinnamon sugar.  Then you stack them randomly in your dutch oven and bake them.  That's easy enough, but I love making things from scratch, so I jumped in and did it.  I also love yeast bread, so I did it that way.


Dutch Oven Monkey Bread

12" Dutch Oven

10-12 coals below
20-24 coals above

• 2 Tbsp Yeast
• 2 cup water (at about 110 degrees)
• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5-6 Cups Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs

• 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• Some sugar

First, I activated the yeast by stirring it into the water in a cup.  While that was getting all bubbly, I mixed, in a bowl, all of the dry ingredients, but only about 4 cups of the flour to start.  I sifted the flour.  I've gotten into the habit of doing that.  It aerates the flour, and I think it's a bit lighter as a result.

Then, I got out my pastry cutter and cut in the butter.  I guess another option would be to melt the butter into the powders.  Either way...

Finally, I added the eggs and the yeast mixture.  I stirred it all together, then turned it out onto our floured countertop and kneaded until I got a good windowpane.  Once it was all kneaded, I set it aside to raise.

In about two hours, it was nicely raised.  I mixed some sugar into the cinnamon until it looked like a nice blend and it tasted right.  I started pinching off doughballs that were about the size of ping-pong balls, rolled them in the cinnamon sugar and put them into the oiled dutch oven.  I don't worry much about the placement, just scatter them evenly.  After putting them in, I sprinkled the rest of the cinnamon sugar over the top.

Once the doughballs were done, I started up some coals, and when those were getting white, I put a lot of them (25-30) on the lid of the dutch oven to pre-heat.  That was heating while the dough was raising a second time in the body of the dutch oven.  Once they both were ready, I put the dutch oven out on (and under) the right amount of coals and baked them for about an hour.  I use the thermometer, and got them to the 190-200 range.

It got a little burned on top.  I wonder if that was the sugar.  They were sure yummy, and everyone at the party loved them.







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



Mark's Other Blog Posts: Making LDS Music

Come to the WCCO at the Sportsman's Expo!

This weekend is a big one in the Dutch Oven world.  At the Utah Outdoorsman Expo each spring, the International Dutch Oven Society (IDOS) hosts its World Championship Cook Off.  Teams from all over come to compete.  Come on out and see some incredible cheffery!

In addition, just north of the cooking area (if they set up like they have in years past), there's the IDOS booth, with membership information and a demo area.  They'll be staging classes all weekend long.

Yours truly will be doing a class on the basics of knife use on Thursday, right after they announce the day's finalists for the cookoff.  I'm excited to be doing it.  I'll be showing how to shop for a good chef's knife without breaking the bank, how to keep it sharp, and how to wield it on some chicken and veggies for a nice, easy chicken soup.  Come see how to swing a sword!

For info on location and discount tickets, etc... here's the announcement on the IDOS website.  Anyone interested in dutch oven cookery should be haunting that site anyway!






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

A Dutch Oven Gathering that Almost Wasn't

This last Saturday was my birthday Dutch Oven Gathering. I almost canceled it, because I didn't have many respondents. But in the end, we did it anyway. Only my good friend Andy was able to make it for some great outdoor cooking. We did move it from the park to my house, and that was cool, except that Andy had a really hard time finding my house. Eagle Mountain is not the easiest city to navigate.

We both cooked up some good stuff. I made some bread, and this honey mustard salmon crusty thing, that I'll write up later this week, and Andy made what he calls "Mushrooms Bellagio". I was blown away by it. It was essentially a stuffed mushroom dish, but it was totally different from all the other variations I've ever seen, in indoor or outdoor cooking.

First of all, there wasn't any cream cheese in the stuffing, second, it was all topped and blended with a marinara sauce! That alone turned it from a simple appetizer to a main dish. In my mind, I'm thinking it would be really cool on top of a plate of hand- rolled fettuccine! The 'shrooms would replace meatballs in the sauce!

But anyway, her's Andy's recipe:

Dutch Oven Mushrooms Belaggio

12" Dutch Oven

20 Coals Below
10 Coals above

• 6 pounds mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 pound sausage
• 1 pound Asiago cheese (get the real stuff)
• 16 oz Marinara sauce
• Dash Basil
• Dash Thyme
• Dash Oregano
• Dash Garlic Salt

Light the coals, and as they heat combine the precooked sausage, 1/2 the Asiago and all the spices. I mixed them in a ziplock bag to save on dishes. Stuff the sausage mixture into the mushrooms where the stems were. Layer them crown down in a 12" Deep Dutch Oven. Top each layer with the remaining Asiago, and pour any remaining sausage mix on the top. Cover with the lid and heat until the mushrooms are soft and the cheese is melted.

You may need to baste out some of the juices, and can save that as a mushroom gravy if desired. I found a large water syringe works well as a turkey baster if one can't be found... in fact, I'm going to nab the next one I find for my outdoor kitchen! Add the marinara and cook until the sauce is bubbling. Serve immediately.

--
Andy Johnson


Thanks, Andy! He's a great iron chef. It was wonderful to sit with him and talk about music and things, while the food was cooking down. Go check out his songs at his facebook page.

Oh! And I almost forgot! He gave me a wonderful birthday present: The Magic Dutch Oven Spoon! It's a big, wide, wooden spoon, and he's etched the heat/coals chart into the back! So, whenever I'm out cooking, and I need a heat guide: I can consult the Magic Spoon! Ingenious!

	Here's a shot of the Salmon. There'll be more on this one when I write it up in full recipe form on the blog. I cooked it a second time the next day for my parents and sister/bro-in-law. It's really good!
	Mark: Master bread maker or psycho killer with a knife. You decide, and comment below.
	Here's the magic spoon. Apparently, even though I aligned the picture correctly, it's not magic enough to display that way. I guess you just have to turn your head. Still it's invention is sheer genius!

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

Happy Birthday to Me... DOG

As I approach my birthday, I thought it would be a lot of fun to get a bunch of my dutch oven cooking friends together and have a gathering!

For those that are uninitiated, the DOG (or "Dutch Oven Gathering") is an informal event where people who like to cook in the black pots get together and do so. They each cook up one or two pots of something, and everyone eats a bit of what each other cooked. It's all pot luck, if you'll pardon the obvious pun.

So, as my dutch oven friends, all of you readers are invited. If you're in the vicinity of Eagle Mountain, UT on the 22nd of August (that's a Saturday), come on over! I'll soon be posting the details of the exact location (probably in a park nearby my home), and the time. We will likely begin to gather and cook at around 10:00 am, and start serving up food with a late lunch at around 2:00 or so.

It is informal, and families are welcome to come (there's a playground at the park). Still, so that I can get an idea of who might show up, please RSVP in the comments here. Just for fun, you might also mention what dish you might like to cook!

Hope to see you there!


Other thoughts by Mark: Mo' Boy Blog: The Book of Mormon Story of Zeezrom

The View From the Other Side

So, on Saturday, I had a very interesting experience. I was asked to be a field judge for the Eagle Mountain Pony Express Days Dutch Oven Cookoff.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I'd participated in the cookoff the previous two years, and had interacted with field judges each time. Still, interacting doesn't mean the same as doing.

I read over the instructions and the judging criteria the night before. They had all turned in their recipes. Part of what I was supposed to do was to make sure that they cooked their chosen recipes in a safe and correct way.

Actually, that's not entirely true. My job was to watch them do it and mark them down if they did it "wrong". It seemed that all of the criteria in the scoring was based on messing up. I thought that was strange. They got 3 points in each of five categories. The highest score was defined as "satisfactory", and the others were things like "Needs Minor Improvement", "Needs Major Improvement", and "Don't Eat Their Food". There were no provisions for someone doing something exceptionally well.

That would have made my job much easier. See, the teams all knew what they were doing, and did a pretty good job of it. So, with a few minor exceptions, they all did "Satisfactory". So, how am I to distinguish?

But it was a lot of fun. I got to know some good dutch oveners, and it was fun.

	Here I am, yours truly, walking out to the judges table from the cooking area. Like I have said before, it's not often that I get a picture here in the Black Pot, and that's probably a good thing! In addition to a fun new experience, I also got to keep the cool embroidered apron!
	These guys were new to competition, so it wasn't a surprise that they didn't place as high, even though their dishes were well done. When you've competed a while, you learn certain touches in presentation and style that really impress judges. I really liked their bread, and I want to try their spicy chicken, too!
	This guy cooked with his 14-year-old daughter. They made a great team. In addition to helping him cook, she did all his dishes. I wonder if I could work out an arrangement like that with Brendon...
	The judges table! The judges were an interesting mix. About half were local celebs, and one was the author of a food storage cookbook, and there were two that actually had some cooking skills. The judging was difficult, too. I was allowed to taste everything, but as a field judge, I didn't vote in the taste testing. In all but a very few cases, it was tough to pick a favorite!
	This one's the winner's main dish. It was wonderful! Ribs with a homemade BBQ sauce. I thought the shrimp on the edge was a nice touch, too.
	This one was incredible, and I want to make it at home sometime. A pork rib roast with a brown sugar and pepper sauce. Man, it was gooooooood.
	The winners! Not only did they win the prize, qualifying for the World Championship Cook Off next spring, but they also won the Mayor's Choice award (second year running!). This couple also competed for the first time with me the first time I did the Eagle Mountain.

The Feast Goes On!

Yesterday was the big day, and I had a blast cooking it this year. For those that are newcomers to the Black Pot, or are finding this post as their first introduction to the blog, here's the story, in a nutshell: Once a year, I cook up a big feast (a full 7 course meal) entirely in my dutch ovens. I start early in the day and cook until it's all done, when the guests arrive. I do it partly to celebrate Mother's Day, and partly to challenge myself and my cooking skills.

This year, I chose to do some pretty tough dishes, I thought, but I was pretty calm. I didn't stress so much as I did last year. It was more fun. Here, up above, you see me kneading the sourdough. This one I made from a yeast strain that I caught here in Eagle Mountain, UT. When I told the guests about that, we all started joking about how one goes about "Catching a wild yeast"! Crikey!

This was the first course, the soup. It was based on a recipe (Chicken Soup with Rice) from a good friend. I added some grilled chicken and shrimp on a skewer just for show. It kinda gave it a unique look, even if they were a little overdone. As a sort of appetizer, though, the soup worked pretty well. Fortunately, there were a lot of leftovers of this course, so I'll eat well for my work lunches for a long time!

I pretty much stuck to my friend's original recipe. I did use some home made chicken stock for the base, and added lemon juice. Other than that it was straight ahead soup.
The salad course, of course, I didn't do in my dutch ovens. The cheese is mozarella, the dressing a kind of twist of italian and pacific Island. The crumbled cheese is feta. I was going for this look that combined a lot of different circular foods, all on the plate at once, over a bed of spinach. It tasted great, and looked really cool as well.

I've been doing a lot of reading about presentation along with the actual cooking. I'm still not very confident in that area, but it's something I'm learning steadily.

These are all my guests. They're mostly friends from our neighborhood, and our ward at church, but also a few others from Salt Lake City. We were laughing pretty hard all through the evening, mostly at the expense of our kids!

We had a few couples that, unfortunately, had to bow out. While I missed them, and it would have been fun to have them there, it worked out. I had originally overbooked the guest list a little, and I wasn't sure if I'd have enough crown roast to go around. So, as Jodi and I talked about it the night before, we decided I should also do a turkey for some extra food. In the end, even though we had enough roast to go around, a lot of the guests had some turkey too, so it really all worked out well.

I did the same citrus turkey that I'd done for Thanksgiving last year.

This is the crown roast. I was really nervous doing this, because I'd never done it before. I didn't know how it was going to turn out. I decided to do veggies around it instead of stuffing, and I put some orange slices and an orange/molasses glaze on it as well.

As I had worked out the dinner in advance, I'd hit on this idea of doing it all with a sort of citrus theme all the way through. There was lemon juice in the soup, there were lemons, oranges, and grapefruit on the turkey, and oranges and the orange glaze on the pork.

The bread had the orange theme, as well, as I put an orange and brown sugar/cinnamon glaze on it as well. And... We drank Sprite mixed with orange juice.

I was really pleased with the way the bread turned out. I've learned a lot about making bread over the last year, and it really came together that night. I did it with a braided pattern, in a circle, intead of just hearth loaf. That made it more full in the dutch oven, as well as a little fancier. Half the point of this dinner is to have great food, and half the point is to just make it look more amazing.

The dessert was also great. I made this big circular banana bread, with almond slivers and chocolate chunks. Then, when we served it up, we smothered it in a bunch of sauces. One I made was a butter, sugar, and cinnamon sauce, then we also layered on chocolate and caramel sauces. Finally, a tip of whipped cream!

The food part of the evening was great, and I was proud of it, but that wasn't the best part, even. It was just a lot of fun to have a lot of good friends over and just kick back and laugh with them all.

And today, I could hardly move. But it was still all worth it!

Recipes and detailed stories to come!

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...

A Fun Dutch Oven Demo!

Tonight, Brendon and I did a demo for our ward's Relief Society Enrichment Night. If you don't know what that is, then you're probably not Mormon and it doesn't really matter. Suffice it to say it's the women's organization of the church. And they asked me to come demonstrate Dutch Oven cooking. I did my old standby of chicken, onions, and potatoes.

I asked if Brendon could come along, and he did. So, we did a short 20 minute demo where we poured all the ingredients into a 12" deep dutch oven while we joked back and forth, and then while the ladies went to some other classes, we put it on the coals to cook. After the evening was done, they all came back and sampled.

I prepared a handout with the recipe and instructions, which I just thought I'd include here:

Dutch Oven Potatoes and Chicken

This is one of the most flexible meals you could ever cook. The ingredients can adjust to whatever you have on hand, and that can include the spices and flavorings. You can prepare it in stages or you can do it as a “dump meal”, where you just dump everything in the dutch oven and cook it. It's kinda like a good jazz tune. It comes out different every time I cook it.

Today, we're going herbal, and we're going to make it simple. The recipe here is made for about 4-6 people, and can be done in a standard 12” dutch Oven

Basic Meats and Veggies:

• A few tablespoons of olive oil
• 2-3 medium to large onions, sliced
• 3-4 boneless chicken breasts, cubed
• 3-4 potatoes, quartered and sliced
• 2-3 carrots, sliced
• 3-4 stalks of celery, sliced
• 2-3 sweet peppers, sliced
• About a half pound of bacon, cooked crispy

Flavorings (herbal-style):

• 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
• Liberal shakes of:
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Oregano
• A few shakes (about a teaspoon or so) balsamic vinegar.
• And, of course, salt and pepper

Process:

Start by lighting about 25-30 coals. While those are getting glowing and hot, you can slice up your ingredients. Put everything into the dutch oven, and put on the lid. Make a ring of about 8-10 coals and set the dutch oven on top. Put about 16-18 coals on top. Leave a few coals aside. After about 10-15 minutes, put about ten or so fresh coals on those. They'll get lit, and by the time the coals on the dutch oven have burned down, they'll be ready to be replenished. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until the chicken and the veggies are done.

Here are a few other suggestions for flavoring combinations:

Some Like it Hot

• 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
• 1-2 jalapeno peppers, sliced. If you don't like it really hot, you can seed and core them first, or use less
• A few shakes of cayenne pepper, chili powder, or Louisiana-style hot sauce (tabasco)
• A few shakes of paprika
• About ½ of fresh chopped cilantro
• Juice of 1-2 limes
• And, of course, salt and pepper

Or, just pour in your favorite salsa

Springtime Lemon

• 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
• ½ cup fresh chopped parsley
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1-2 lemons
• And, of course, salt and pepper

Kick it Up a Notch

Some suggestions: Cook the bacon in the dutch oven over 15-20 coals, then remove most of the grease. Sauté the onions and garlic first in the bacon grease, until they're translucent and sweet. Then add the remaining ingredients, and cook as above.

After you take the dutch oven off the coals, but a few minutes before serving, coat the food with a layer of appropriate shredded cheese. Let the dutch oven's residual heat melt it. For the herbal flavorings, I'd choose a mozarella. For the hot version, cheddar or colby jack. With the lemon style, I'd crumble up a handful of feta onto the plate as it's being served.

IDOS in the Spring!

Hey, it's that time of year again! Time for the Spring Convention of the International Dutch Oven Society. It'll be Friday, the 17th and Saturday, the 18th of April at the Davis County Fairgrounds. It's a great time! There are classes and demos, vendor booths, and a youth cookoff (is that for youths cooking, or youths being cooked...?).

By far, my favorite part last year was the "Taste of Dutch". This takes up a whole building on the fairgrounds, and it's amazing fun. Cooks set up in booths all around, and they cook all day. The public, who are interested in learning about Dutch Ovening, come out and sample the food being cooked! It's great food, because many of the cooks there are past cook-off champions!

Last year , I did biscuits and gravy in the morning, and masaman curry for lunch. It was way, way too much fun.

Here's a link to the detailed information on the IDOS website . Come on out and tell them that you're a fan of Mark's Black Pot!

Chili on the Horizon

So, a couple of sundays ago, our Bishop announced in Sacrament meeting that our ward is having a Chili cookoff for an activity! I'm pretty stoked. Half of me wants to try something completely new, another part of me wants to do my chili boats again.

Hmmm...

Do you guys know of any good chili secrets?

Happy Mother's Day

Well, the party’s over, and the cleanup is done. I even had a day of rest today. Now it’s time to write it all up.

The cool thing about it is that all of these recipes were things I’ve done before, with the exception of the appetizer (the stuffed mushrooms). The dessert (the Paradise Pie) is one I’ve done, but I didn’t post the recipe, for some reason. I don’t remember why not.

The day itself, while long, went pretty smoothly. There were only a couple of bumps.

I started out making the dessert at about 10:00. It was all according to plan. The recipe follows here. I also started the sausage for the stuffed mushrooms, which also follows. The other recipes are posted here as links to the original blog entries.

That was all interrupted by a sudden need to run an errand with my wife. Brendon was kind enough to pull the cookie dough off the coals in time, so that went well.

At about 12:30 or so, I was getting the bread dough mixed and kneaded for the first raising.

After that, I started peeling the tomatoes for the soup, and preparing the other veggies. The next step was to prepare the roast meat and get that on the coals.

Soon after that, the bread had risen, so I shaped it into three long strips, braided it and put it in the dutch oven for proofing.

At this point, the soup was cooking, the meat was roasting and everything was in order. I started preparing the veggies for the roast. Also, throughout this effort, I would take a few minutes to work on the stuffed mushrooms. I also would step downstairs to prepare the tables.

The last thing I put out on the coals was the bread. This is where the panic hit me. After a little bit of baking, I came out to turn the lid and found that the bread had puffed up in the Dutch Oven so much that it had actually lifted the lid! I wasn’t sure what to do! Would it still bake with a big gap in the lid? Would the coals on the lid burn the upper crust? I didn’t know what to do!

In the end, I finally realized there wasn’t much I could do. I couldn’t transfer it to a different oven. The bigger ovens I had were either in use, or very cold, and would take time to heat up. I did notice, however, that since there was a gap in the lid, I could stick a thermometer into the bread. I’d heard somewhere that baking bread is done at a specific internal temperature, just like meat. Soft bread is done at about 200 degrees. So, that way I knew when it was done!

It turned out OK. It was delicious, even if it had a pretty thick upper and lower crust. I figured out what had gone wrong. I had forgotten that the recipe I used made enough dough for two 12” dutch ovens of bread. I had put all that dough into one. I had prepared an orange and brown sugar glaze, too, but since the lid was resting on the bread, I decided not to use it!

At last, everything was getting done. Guests started to arrive. I served the stuffed mushrooms with crackers and cheese upstairs as an appetizer.

The table was already set, but I first served the soup in bowls, with a slice of bread on each plate. The guests came down and sat ate the soup and bread. After that, I passed around the salad ( just a tossed salad with a couple of types of lettuce, radishes, carrots, celery, and mandarin oranges), and I served up the roast and the veggies.

We were all having a great time just hanging out and talking. Finally, we were getting ready for dessert. I put the 10” dutch oven back on the coals to reheat the cookie mixture of the Paradise Pie. I also made the cinnamon sauce in my 8”. Then I brought all that down and served that up.

It was a lot of fun. There were about 10 people there, and the conversation was lively the whole night. A great night, and a wonderful tribute to all the moms there, especially Jodi, the one that brought me our children!

The recipes:

Dutch Oven Stuffed Mushrooms

12” Dutch Oven

20+ coals below for the sausage
8 coals below, 16 above for baking

• ½ lb Italian sausage
• About a pound of fresh mushrooms (not portabello)
• 1 package cream cheese
• Parmesan Cheese
• Grated Cheddar Cheese

First, I put the sausage in the dutch oven over the 20 some-odd coals and cook it, crumbling it as I go. I want it in small crumbs, so they’ll fit better into the mushrooms.

While that’s cooking (or afterward, if circumstances are better), I rinsed off the mushrooms and break the stems out of them (if you’ve got enough to be picky, then just do it on the bigger ones, and eat the others as you go).

I pulled the cooked sausage off the coals and out of the dutch oven and let it cool. I’d actually leave a coating of drippings in the dutch oven. This time, I used the oven and the drippings to start the soup.

Meanwhile, I chopped up the mushroom stems and mixed that with the sausage, the parmesan, and the cream cheese. With a spoon, I filled each mushroom “cup” with the mixture and placed it into the greased dutch oven. Finally, when they were all in, I sprinkled on a layer of grated cheddar. I put that on the coals listed above for about a half hour. They’re great!

Chili’s Paradise Pie Knockoff in the Dutch Oven

Warning: This recipe has been officially condemned by many heart and health organizations worldwide. It is not recommended for anyone on weightwatchers, body for life, Atkins, or any other weight loss plan. It IS delicious, however…

10” Dutch Oven

7 coals below, 14 coals below

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

• 1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

• vanilla ice cream
• chocolate syrup
• caramel syrup
• more chopped walnuts

I started by combining all the dry ingredients in the first set. Then I blended the sugar and butter from the second set together, whipping it as best I could. I added in the other wet ingredients and mixed them all up, then added the dry mix from the first set. That was my basic cookie dough.

I put the 10” dutch oven on the coals and melted the butter with the sugar. While that was melting, I crumbled the graham crackers. Once the butter was melted, I brought it in, and added the crumbs, smoothing it all into a crust on the bottom of the dutch oven. Onto that went a layer of chocolate chips. I would have added the walnuts at that point, too, but my wife doesn’t like walnuts, and so, we don’t have them in house.

On top of that, I spread the cookie dough. That all went on the coals and baked for about 35 minutes or so.

Now, I did this early in the day, so I could focus on the main meal dishes right before serving. So, I came out and reheated the cookie part. If I were serving it right away, I would prepare the butter drizzle, and get out the ice cream and the garnishes and serve it right up. It is amazing!

I'm well into cooking the Mother's Day meal! It's exciting. Not overwhelming just yet. We'll have to see how it all goes.

Those of you that want to can follow the action on Twitter! Otherwise, I'll be posting the full write-up within a few days here at the Black Pot!

Mother’s Day

For a long time, now, I’ve thought it would be a fun and unique challenge to do a big, fancy meal, for a lot of friends, completely in my dutch ovens. I finally chose a day and just started inviting friends. I chose the day before Mother’s Day, so that I could make it special for my wonderful wife.

So, for the last two months, I’ve been pouring over past recipes, and new recipe books, planning out the menu. After I figured out what I was going to make, I’ve spent some time occasionally trying out recipes, in preparation. I didn’t want to do any of them for the first time that day. Here’s what I’ve ended up with:

• Appetizers: Sausage stuffed mushrooms with cheese and crackers.
• First Course: Tomato Soup.
• Second Course: Salad
• Main Course: Bacon Draped Pot Roast with potatoes and other veggies, and Orange Glazed Bread
• Dessert: Paradise Chocolate Cookie Pie

So, tonight, I laid out each course on a time table. I had to figure out when I would prep and cook each one. Otherwise, I would be an overwhelmed, nervous wreck by the end of the day. As it stands, it looks like I’ll be cooking starting at about 10:00 in the morning, and the pace will be pretty easy. I’ll never have more than three things cooking at any one time, and most of the time will have only one or two things cooking.

The Salad and the cheese/crackers will be prepared the night before. Just for less stress.

Then, at 10:00 I’ll start working on the Paradise Pie. At about 11:00, I’ll cook the sausage for the stuffed mushrooms, then I’ll prepare the filling.

At noon, I’ll start on the bread, mixing and kneading. I’ll set that aside to rise, while I prep the veggies and put the soup on at around 1:00.

At around 2:00 or so, I’ll get the roast on. Once that’s cooking, I’ll get the tables set up. I might do that earlier in the morning, or the night before, just to give me more time. Somewhere in there, the bread will probably have risen, so I’ll shape the loaf and put it in the dutch oven for proofing.

By 4:00, I’ll probably be ready to put the bread on the fire. That’s also probably about the time that I’ll add the veggies to the roast.

At around 5:00, it’ll be getting closer to Zero Hour, so things will start to pick up. I’ll put the mushrooms on to bake, and pull out the cheese and crackers.

Then, folks should start arriving by about 6:00. At that point, I’ll pretty much just be serving. I will probably put the Paradise Pie back under a few coals for about 20 minutes to a half hour, just to heat it up again, then I’ll just ladle on the ice cream and serve it up!

Now, of course, by writing this all out and telling all of you about it, I will have jinxed myself, of course, and it will all come crashing to a chaotic finish. But then, at least I’ll have something to blog about!

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!