Dutch Oven Cooking: Eggs, Potatoes, Cobbler

Dutch Oven Potatoes
(Sorry, no picture- I was too busy eating to snap a picture!)

1 onion
1/2 lb uncooked sausage
10-15 medium potatoes
1/4 cup butter
8 oz whole mushrooms
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
Peel and roughly chop the onion. Open the package of sausage and cut into small-medium chunks. Carefully wash and chop the potatoes (do not peel). Step 2 Preheat your oven. Proper heating is the key to good Dutch oven cooking. Get some good coals ready from your campfire. We used a block of hickory for our coals, most people just use charcoal briquettes. Once they are ready, spread them out evenly and place your Dutch oven centered over the top. At this point, all the briquettes should be on the bottom. Heat approximately for 15 to 20 minutes before adding the food. Step 3 Begin to cook. Place the chopped onion and sausage into the heated Dutch oven (they should sizzle as they touch the bottom). Cook the sausage thoroughly before adding the potatoes. To avoid burning, you might want to remove some of the briquettes from the bottom. After the sausage is cooked, stir in the potatoes, mushrooms, pepper and butter and transfer the majority of the heat to the top of the oven. There should be six to seven briquettes on the bottom and nine to 10 on top. Step 4 Cook slowly. The saying "patience is a virtue" could not be more true when cooking in a Dutch oven. Slow cooking is what gives the potatoes their rich taste and soft texture so while you may need to stir them occasionally, it is best to leave the lid on as long as possible to avoid losing heat in your oven. Good Dutch oven potatoes will cook for at least an hour before they are ready to serve, so start cooking early if they are on your menu. Step 5 Add cheese. When the potatoes are at the desired consistency (potatoes should be completely soft), you can add cheese if you like. We didn't. Remove the oven from the heat and sprinkle cheese over the top, then return the lid and let the cheese melt before serving.

Easy Peach Cobbler
 
1 lg. can sliced peaches

1 pkg. white or yellow cake mix
1/4 lb. butter (1 stick)
ground cinnamon, for dusting

Utensils: Dutch Oven: Prepare charcoal (35 pieces) for Dutch Oven baking.
Preparation: Line Dutch Oven with heavy duty aluminum foil. Rub the foil down with cooking oil. Place 8 pieces of charcoal under the oven and 20 pieces on top. When the oven is hot, pour peaches and juice into the oven. Add the dry cake mix on top of the peaches. Cut the butter into pats (small chunks) and place on top of the cake mix. Dust everything with cinnamon (lightly). Put the lid back on the oven and bake for 40 minutes.Check cake with a clean straw or knife. Do this by sticking the straw into the cake mix. If the straw comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, add charcoal to the oven and bake 10 more minutes. Check again.
*A double batch can be baked in a 14 inch Dutch oven. 2 cans of peaches makes a juicier cobbler.

If you don't have a cake mix? Use the crumb topping mix that I used for my blueberry pie. Still very simple and easy.

On the last morning of our campout we made an egg & potatoe skillet from the leftover stew(pictured on top), steak & dutch oven potatoes. Use the same briquette placement as you did with the beginning of the Dutch Oven Potato recipe and cook like you would on a frying pan on your stove. Add all your leftover goodies first, heat thoroughly then push the meat and vegetables to the side while you cook the eggs. Add about a Tbsp butter to the center of the oven before cracking your eggs one at a time into it. Make sure you don't have any briquettes under the center of your oven. This would cause a hot spot and the eggs would cook too fast. When eggs are slightly firm, stir- keeping them in the center away from the other ingredients until they are no longer runny. Once the eggs are finished, stir the entire dish to combine all the food. Grate some cheese over the top and remove from heat. Allow cheese to melt and serve.

Roast Beef Sandwiches, Beef Stew, Shredded Beef

Remember when I said I bought 16 lbs of beef? Well, it was actually 6 Crossrib chuck roasts. Here's what I did with them:

I knew there were a few meals that I'd be using these roasts for this month, so to simplify things, I just prepped each roast for a meal as I put it away last week.  

This one was cut up for beef stew. This makes it a whole lot easier when you're camping. I added some simple marinade to the bag as well before I put it away. I just added 1/4 cup Soy sauce and 1/4 cup balsamic vingar as well as 1 tbsp parsley and 1 tsp black pepper.This roast I actually refrigerated and cooked along with the roasts for Sunday dinner. Except when this one was finished I let it cool and sliced it up for sandwiches. This is what I've been sending with my hubby in his lunch. I again used the above marinade on this roast as well: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp parsley, 1 tsp black pepper.

Just my little plug again for saving the broth after you've cooked your roast. It makes an awesome soup base or gravy for another meal. Freeze it!

And this roast I quartered and seasoned for shredded beef. This will give us 2-3 meals worth of shredded beef type meals sometime this month.

Shredded Beef

2 1/2 - 3 lb chuck roast

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp red chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 cup salsa

1/2 onion, chopped

Cut roast into quarters. Combine seasoning and rub all over each piece of meat. (At this point you can freeze the seasoned meat, which I did- or continue.) Add meat to large slow-cooker along with salsa and onion if desired. Cook on LOW 7 hours. Remove beef pieces and shred with a fork. Return to slow-cooker and cook an additional 2-3 hours. Serve on tortillas with lettuce, tomato, and fresh salsa.

Lastly- we enjoyed the beef stew this weekend while camping. YUM! Really hit the spot as we ate it while huddled under blankets watching the snow fall around us...yes.. we were able to enjoy snow this Memorial Day weekend. Aren't we lucky?!

Easy Beef Stew

1 1/2 lb seasoned stew meat

4 cups brown gravy (I used some from my freezer- saved from a previous roast dinner)

2 cups peeled and chopped carrots

1 large green bell pepper, cut into chunks

1 onion, cut into chunks

5 potatoes, cut into chunks

Combine ingredients in 5 qt Dutch oven and cook over medium heat until potatoes and carrots are tender. We ate this while camping, so I pre-cut all the meat and vegetables at home. Made for a super-easy campout meal!