Dutch Oven Cooking Class

One of the best websites I know of for care of your dutch oven and recipes is Byron's Dutch Oven Cooking. Here you should find all of the information you need to be successful in your dutch oven endeavors.


Thanks to everyone who braved the cold weather and showed up for our Dutch Oven Cooking class. It was a lot of fun and I hope that a lot was learned about cooking in this unique way.

Special thanks to our three teachers, Brenda with her Mountain Woman Breakfast, Kiersten with her Barbecue Chicken and Potatoes and Val with her Cobblers. They were all yummy and it was great to have some new recipes to try.

And thanks to Paula for hosting our class and welcoming all of us into your home to escape the cold!

Dutch Oven Dump Cake

Light about 40 coals about 20 minutes before you want to start cooking.

Layer oven with heavy foil--this helps with clean up.

Put 1 can of pie filling (your choice) in bottom of oven. If using fresh fruit use 1 quart.

Add 1 cake mix (your choice).

Pour in 1 can soda.

Cut a cube of butter into tablespoons and spread over top.

When cooking your cake, place coals about 1/2 inch apart to cover the bottom area of the oven. Place oven on top of coals. Spread around the top cover of the oven 15-18 coals. Every 15 Min. rotate the whole oven 1/4 turn and then lift the lid and turn it back 1/4 turn. This gives even heat. Baking time is about 45 minutes. But it depends on the weather.

You can add an egg to make this have more of a cake texture. If you do this you will need to mix the cake, egg, and soda in a bowl before pouring over fruit in the oven. Then top with the butter.)

Mountain Woman Breakfast

1/2 cup butter
2 cups ham, cubed
2 medium yellow onions, diced
1 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
10 medium potatoes, sliced or bag of frozen southwest style hashbrowns
12 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups grated cheddar cheese

Heat a 12" Dutch oven using 18-20 briquettes on bottom until hot. Melt cube of butter. Add onion, mushrooms, bell pepper and saute until onions are translucent. Add potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cover and bake suing 8 briquettes bottom and 14-16 top for 30 minutes. Season eggs with salt and pepper then pour eggs over top of potatoes. Add ham. Cover and bake another 20 minutes. Stir gently every 5 minutes. When eggs are done, cover top with cheese and replace lid. Let stand until cheese is melted.

Serve topped with picante sauce.

Serves 10-2

(adaptation from papadutch.hom.comcast.net which uses bacon and bell peppers.)

Squash

Our first cooking and preparedness class was about squash. Our class presenters were Ellen, Annette B. and her neighbor, Suzie (I think that was her name). Ellen started off by showing us all how to make a pumpkin pie from the actual pumpkin. Did you know that you can make aproximatley 12 pies from one pumpkin? It depends on the size of your pumpkin of course. But how economical is that? Here is her recipe:

Crust
1 3/4 Cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 to 4 Tbsp. of ice water


Filling:
15 oz pumpkin
2 eggs
12 oz can evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sgar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat to 425. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce to 350 and bake for 30 to 40 more minutes. If using a 10-12 inch pie pan you may need to increase cooking time to an hour.

Our next demonstration was by Annette Bell showing us how to make Zucchini Soup. This recipe was super quick and we all agreed it was very tasty.

Zucchini Soup

3 cups zucchini, cut in cubes
1 cup Onions, chopped
1/2 cup bacon, diced uncooked
1 Tbsp. parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp. basil
dash pepper
2 cups chicken broth

Place all ingredients into a saucepan. Simmer for 15 minutes, puree in blender. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and croutons.

Our last presenter was Suzie who showed us four different types of cooked squash. I believe she had grown each one and she had spaghetti, butternut, delicata and acorn. We got to taste each one. It was interesting to try all of them at the same time and be able to tell a difference in texture and taste.

Can you name each one?

We learned that the difference between a winter squash and a summer squash is that the winter squash has a thicker skin. You can take the whole squash and cook it whole in your oven without cutting it up. This is how Suzie does it. She cut them open in front of us and you could see the steam billowing out. A great tip on how to cook them!

Darilyn May brought some Pumpkin bread that is made with whole wheat flower and very little oil. It is a recipe that you can use your food storage with. It was very good and moist. The recipe was found at Everyday Food Storage. Check out this sight. It's a must read for everyone wanting to cook from their food storage.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 egg whites (or 2 T. dryPowdered Egg + 1/4 C. Water)
1/2 cup fat-free milk (1-1/2 T. Dry Powdered Milk + 1/2 C. Water)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
2-1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease a nonstick 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Mix pumpkin, 1 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 3 of the egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened.

SPOON the pumpkin batter into prepared pan.

BAKE 1 hour to 1 hour 5 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife or thin spatula around edges of pan to loosen bread; cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove bread from pan to wire rack; cool completely.


The answer to the squash quiz is 1. Delicata 2. Acorn 3. Butternut 4. Spaghetti

Here we go

So here it is. The new Hazeldale ward's Let's Get Cooking blog. Here we can put all the mouth watering recipes, pictures of our adventures and any and all tips that just must be shared.

I'm really looking forward to this group and all the great things we will learn together.

This blog will evolve over time so look for all the changes in the upcoming weeks.