Dutch Oven Saturdays

For my birthday Eric and the kids got me a dutch oven. I have talked about getting one for a long time and is something I wanted to try and learn how to cook with successfully. Since we were away on my birthday we celebrated the next weekend with our Easter. 

When I was looking at them I had done quite a bit of research on them but I wasn't totally confident on how to use them to cook something that looked and tasted good. Also I wanted to make sure I knew how to store them and take care of them because they are pricey but if I knew how to store them it would be something you only have to buy once. 

We had to pick up a few more things like the charcoal and and chimney starter and we both decided that our saturdays would become dutch oven Saturdays.  After some thought I really wanted to start with something simple to see if I could figure out how it cooked without undercooking or burning anything. So I started with what are called dump cakes. 

Which is basically dumping all the ingredients in and letting it cook. This was a raspberry dump cake, and with the fact that it took a little longer to cook then the recipe stated (which I figured out was because I had a deep dutch oven so I needed to add a few more coals) We added some whipped cream and it was a successful first time go around. The next meal I tried out was a smothered bbq chicken. This was the first time that I tried meat and was a little nervous about it. But I it turned out really good! It is said that meat done well in a d.o. is really good and I would have to agree : )

Even though it was getting warmer though out the summer I was finding it was nice to use the d.o. outside. This way I could cook longer oven type meals without heating up the house, so it was another advantage I didn't think about. This one is a chili and corn bread baked on top. At this point I was becoming more comfortable with the d.o. and more willing experiment. I did just use a jiffy mix for the corn bread but I added some of my dad's maple syrup in the bread and it added a nice sweetness to the chili dish. It turned out yummy but it made a lot so this was a good one to keep in mind when we have a bigger group of people : )