It’s been unusually and oppressively HOT since May…..only now are we getting a reprieve and some rain here in Md. Still, I can’t believe it is already August, and autumn is just around the corner.  Dusty is anticipating erecting the tipi and we’re already planning meals to cook over the fire pit in the backyard.

Here’s one I’m going to try in either my 3 qt Dutch oven London Broil in a Cast Iron Dutch Oven or my 3 qt. deep fry skillet.  My girlfriend prepared this in a Dutch oven (in her modern day oven) and it was delicious!   She calls it her ‘London Broil Delight’.

Starting with a London broil about 2” thick and 6” x 6” wide/long.  Pre-season it with:

• a pinch of sea salt
• one Tbsp. black or white pepper
• chop two cloves of garlic and fork it into the meat
• sprinkle some fresh basil (3 – 4 leaves) finely chopped over the meat

Place the meat in a shallow container and add 1/3 cup olive or canola oil and 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar.  You can add 2 Tbsp of Worcestshire Sauce if you like (optional).  I’m allergic to W. sauce so I leave it out.  Close/cover the container and let sit on your countertop for 3-4 hours.

When ready to cook, simply remove the meat from the container and place it in the pre-seasoned Dutch oven or skillet.  Bake in the oven at 385⁰F for about 45 minutes or if you don’t want to heat up the house you can cook it on the stove top making sure to keep an eye on it .  If cooking on the stovetop, set the temperature to low to moderate heat and add a little extra oil (2 Tbsps).

Dusty and I would love to hear how yours turns out!

Grocery shopping is not one of Pam’s or my favorite things to do, so some times the cupboard is lacking tasty snack foods.  Actually, that’s probably a good thing, but we can usually figure out some way to satiate our craving for salty crunchy snacks.  Last night I was bemoaning the fact that we didn’t have anything to munch on while watching a movie, and Pam came up with a great idea – homemade sweet potato chips.

We peeled a fairly large sweet potato and cut it into very thin slices.  We put about 1/2″ of vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet, heated it to about 300 degrees and dropped in the slices.  We like them sort of on the crispy side, so we let them fry until they were slightly dark on both sides, removed them from the oil, and blotted them with several paper towels.  Pam likes to dip hers in horseradish sauce and I like mine plain.  Try it – you’ll like it!

For the past several years, Dusty and I have had the opportunity to be invited to a huge summer cookout hosted by some of our friends who live in a very culturally diverse neighborhood.  This event is not your ordinary back yard cookout.  We’re talking about a huge fire pit covered with a welded iron grill and by the time the cooking starts, there is a bed of coals that is so hot you can’t get near it – the cooks have to soak down with water periodically.   With heat this intense, most of the cooking is done either directly on the wire grill or in some kind of cast iron cookware. 

The cast iron fajita skillet and huge cast iron griddles seem to be some of the favorites for many of the cooks.  Except for deep frying, you can essentially cook just about anything on a fajita skillet.  You would swear that these guys are professional chefs, and the food is by far just as good if not better than anything we’ve had in a restaurant.  Of course, there are the old standards – hamburgers and hot dogs – and then there are steak and chicken fajitas, shish kabobs of many types, flat bread, grilled peppers and jalapenos, cornbread pancakes, and many more mouth-watering recipes.  We can’t wait!

This recipe is a classic for athletes everywhere, particularly if your sport involves building muscle and/or putting on weight – football players, weight lifters and boxers.

Here’s how it goes:

Ingredients:

1-tablespoon vegetable oil
1-pound top sirloin steak (about 1 inch thick)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-tablespoons unsalted butter
8 large eggs

Preheat the oven 350 degrees F.

Preheat a large cast iron skillet with lid over medium heat until hot, about 5 minutes. Raise the heat to high and add the oil. Season the steak generously with salt and pepper. Place the steak in the skillet and cook, turning once, until well-browned, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the steak in the skillet to the oven and cook for 5 minutes more for medium-rare.

Transfer the steak to a cutting board. Cover it loosely with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

While the steak is resting, cook the eggs. Heat two skillets over medium-low. Melt a tablespoon of butter in each pan. Break 4 eggs into each skillet. Season the eggs lightly with salt and pepper, and cook until the whites are just set, about 3 1/2 minutes. (If you want the yolks to be cooked through, cover, and continue cooking for 1 to 2 minutes more.) Divide the eggs among 4 warmed plates.

Some moms like to fill Mother’s Day with elaborate brunches in fancy hotels and outings to their favorite destinations around the city—but not mine. In a typical week, my mom will cook virtually all of the family’s meals, do all of the laundry and clean the house. So when Mother’s Day rolls around, we welcome the opportunity to giver her a reprieve from her usual duties. 

We start the day by preparing her a gourmet breakfast in bed.  I prepare dozens of pancakes cooked on a cast iron griddle —using her recipe, of course—while the rest of the family makes eggs, cuts fruit and brews coffee. The rest of the day we perform random house chores and prep for the traditional family dinner in the evening—all while mom rests and enjoys a much needed day off.

Cast-Iron-4-Life

Well, it’s finally warmed up, and when it’s not raining on the weekends, I’m outside doing some kind of landscape project.  Lately, it’s been grading the ground above a retaining wall that we just built.  We will soon plant some kind of ground cover.  Notice I said I’m outside working.  Although Pamela is much handier at landscaping activities than I am, we’ve agreed that she will do the house work on Saturday morning while I’m outside working.   After working for several hours, I really look forward to Pam fixing one of my favorite weekend lunches – grilled turkey and pepper jack cheese sandwich prepared on our cast iron griddle. 

• Heat up the griddle and maintain low to medium heat.
• Use the bread of your choice and spread either butter or olive oil on one side of both slices.
• Slice the pepper jack cheese thin, or use pre-sliced cheese from the deli.
• Fry the turkey breast for a few minutes on the griddle.
• Place the turkey breast and cheese between the two slices of bread and grill the sandwich until golden brown on both sides.

Pretty simple, but filling and it provides enough energy to keep me fueled for another few hours.

One of our favorite dishes to cook at the rendezvoues is chicken breasts in a mustard wine sauce.  It’s so easy to make and is always a hit with our camp visitors.

Ingredients

• 2 plump fresh skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cups of your choice of red wine – we prefer Cabernet Sauvignon
• 4 Tbs Grey Poupon mustard
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• pinch of white pepper
• pinch of thyme
• pinch of basil

Preparation

• Mix the wine and other ingredients in a bowl and whip until thoroughly blended.
• Pierce chicken breasts with a fork on both sides.
• Place the chicken breasts in a cast iron sauce pan or a cast iron dutch oven.
• Add the blended ingredients to the sauce pan or dutch oven.
• Turn the chicken breasts over several times to ensure they are thoroughly coated with the blended sauce.
• Place over medium heat (over flame) until the sauce starts to boil, then place on low heat (over coals) and simmer for 20-30 minutes.  Cooking time depends on how thick the breasts are and the temperature of the coals.

We like to serve with rice pilaf and Italian bread with olive oil.

Bon Appetit!

P.S.  Hope you don’t mind eating purple chicken!

We had a great motorcycle trip to the rendezvous at Muddy Run State Park in Holtwood, PA this past Saturday.  Round trip was about 200 miles.  Although the ride was great, the highlight of visiting with our friends was when Roger cooked up buffalo burgers on his old – and I mean old – cast iron skillet.  He said he inherited the skillet from his mother who got it from her mother, who got it…..  Unfortunately, I left the camera at home so no pictures of the rendezvous and our friends in 1750 clothing this time.

As far back as I can remember, my grandma and mom always prepared blackeyed peas on Jan 1st to bring good luck in the New Year.  Well, I know it’s a ways past the New Year, but I think we can all use a little good luck these days.

Pamela makes a fantastic Good Luck blackeyed pea, sausage, and potato soup in a dutch oven right on top of the stove.

• Soak the blackeyed peas (one bag) over night.
• Drain the blackeyed peas, place them in a dutch oven, add enough water to cover the peas.  Place the lid on the dutch oven and bring contents to a boil.
• Simmer for about 20 minutes.
• Add spices (to your taste):  garlic, salt, pepper, basil, Italian seasoning.
• In a cast iron skillet, brown 1 lb of seasoned sausage.  We like using mild seasoned turkey sausage.
• Chop about  6 medium new potatoes into bite size pieces and add them to the dutch oven.
• Add the cooked sausage to the dutch oven, cover, and simmer for about 1 hour, stirring frequently.
• Add water as necessary to make the soup the consistency you like.

I like to splash just a bit of Tabasco sauce on mine.

My Meemaw taught this old classic to me before she moved to Florida to hang out with the other retirees. At least she didn’t leave me empty handed. Thanks, Meemaw!

Crust
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup frozen solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Filling
3 1/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Vanilla ice cream

Preparation

For crust:
Mix flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter and shortening; rub in with fingertips until coarse meal forms. Mix 3 tablespoons ice water and vinegar in small bowl to blend. Drizzle over flour mixture; stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch; turn edge under and crimp decoratively. Refrigerate while preparing filling and topping.

For apple pie filling:
Mix all ingredients in large bowl to coat apples.

For topping:
Blend the first 5 ingredients in processor. Add chilled butter cubes; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles wet sand.

Toss filling to redistribute juices; transfer to crust, mounding in center. Pack topping over and around apples. You can bake the pie in a traditional pie pan, or be adventurous and use a cast iron dutch oven.  If using a dutch oven, I suggest using a dutch oven liner so clean up is a snap.  Bake until topping is golden, about 40 minutes (cover top with foil if browning too quickly). Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples in center are tender when pierced and filling is bubbling thickly at edges, about 45 minutes longer. Cool until warm, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream.