We were invited to a cookout a couple weekends ago and we were asked specifically to bring a big batch of my crawdad etouffee.     We posted a blog on June 24 with the recipe and talked about how we cooked it in a dutch oven on the wood stove in our tipi.

Since Pam is allergic to the peppers and onions, I had to prepare the ingredients outside, and I used the side burner on the grill to cook it.  The 3 qt deep cast iron skillet fit perfectly over the burner.  It worked great, didn’t heat the house up, and I won some brownie points with Pam!

Using cast iron cookware on the grill in the same way you use it on your stove is pretty simple, and if you have a large grill – especially with a side burner or two – you can cook a lot of dishes at the same time.

We have quite a few folks send us questions about what kind of cast iron skillet is best for a specific type of cooking.  My response is always, “It depends on what you’re cooking and how you like to cook.”  Some folks think a large 10″ or 12″ skillet is best and that’s fine, but I like using the smallest skillet possible, and I usually wind up using several skillets at a time to cook different dishes.  I must say, however, that using a large skillet to cook bacon, sausage, and eggs all at the same time makes the process a bit easier, especially when cooking over an open fire. However, sometimes you don’t necessarily want the different items to blend while cooking.  That’s why I like using separate skillets. 

One of my main considerations as to what size of skillet or how many skillets I will use is to answer the question, “What is the most efficient way to cook everything and just as importantly, what is the best way to keep everything warm until served?”  Again, I like using multiple smaller skillets when possible.

If I’m cooking on a stove top, I can use up to 4 skillets of various sizes, or a couple skillets and a long two-burner griddle.  If I’m cooking over a fire in a pit that I made, I can use several skillets at a time.  However, not everyone makes a huge fire pit, and there may be room for just one skillet over the fire.

However you do it, the great thing is, you’re cooking with cast iron cookware – the healthy choice for good ole home cookin’!

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!

Fall camping season is just around the corner and cooking outdoors over an open fire is just another fun adventure…especially if you have young kids.  Dusty and I have many fond memories of cooking hotdogs and hamburgers with our young children (now in their 20’s) using our cast iron pie irons.  I’ll forever have their squeals of delight imprinting in my memory.  Even the youngest (5 at the time) took such delight ‘in making his own dinner’, and clean up was no work at all.  To top it off, Dusty baked a delicious cherry cobbler in one of our smaller Dutch ovens…what a blast!  I hope Dusty and I will NEVER out grow our passion for camping and cooking outdoors.

Now you can get hamburger and hotdog cast iron cooking irons. How cool is that?

With the Autumn season fast approaching, Dusty and I are hoping to attend the Eastern Primitive Rendezvous in September and we’re looking forward to sharing some incredible meals with some wonderful friends, and with friends we haven’t even met yet.  That is one wonderful thing about Rendezvous;  nowhere that I know of, is there an environment that is so relaxing and safe.  You can bring young children to one of these events (which could be greater than 2000 people) and everyone looks after them, looks out for one another, and shares a genuine feeling of community.

Here there is no crime, no one is in a hurry to get anywhere, and we live as they did before 1840…..how refreshing and peaceful.  If you would like to socialize there is music most every night (guitars, banjo, violin, mandolin, harmonica, washboards, etc, and everyone has a great time.

At Rendezvous there is a great sense of community and a feeling of closeness to many kindred spirits.  Life is slow-paced, harmonious and carefree.  We have all day to cook our meals in our cast iron cookware.  From gourmet roasted pheasant to chicken in curry sauce over rice pilaf.

See you at Rendezvous!

Man it is hot here in Maryland!  A lot of folks think of Maryland as being “up north” but this time of year it sure doesn’t feel like it!  It’s been close to 100 degrees with high humidity.  In spite of the oppressive weather, we hope to take a motorcycle camping trip some time this summer and the planning involved is always a lot of fun.  Of course,  we plan to ride up north to cooler temperatures.  I like to look at the maps and plot a route that Pam and I have not yet taken.

We’re always amazed at how much gear we can pack and strap on our bikes – looks a little like the Beverly Hillbillies on motorcycles!  When we plan our trips to include several days at one campground, we always pack our cast iron skillets – at least two.  The transition from camping at the rendezvouses (primitive camping) to motorcycle camping and using modern gear is not really that great – other than the modern camping trips are much less involved.  Using cast iron cookware wherever we’re camping  just seems to be natural to us.

I sure do miss the homemade bread that my grandma used to make.  It was a yeast type bread and I swear I could smell it baking a block away from her house!   Grandma had somewhat of a schedule – or routine I guess you could call it.  On certain days she did specific things, and Sunday morning was always bread baking day.  They had moved from the farm into town a long time ago, but their internal alarm clock was still on farm time – they were up before the crack of dawn, and shortly thereafter, Grandma was baking bread. 

Although, I was much younger in those days, I wasn’t that much of an early bird unless I was going fishing or on a motorcycle ride, so I usually got to Grandma’s house after the bread was done.  I never thought much about it, but even when I arrived quite some time after the bread was out of the oven, she would cut a slice for me and it would still be warm.  Thinking back on it, and picturing the kitchen and the associated surroundings in my mind, I can see the cast iron bread pan sitting on the stove.  Those of you who cook with a cast iron skillet, dutch oven, or baking pan, know what I’m talking about.  They hold heat for a very long time after removing them from the oven, and your food stays nice and warm – even for the late-comers.  Ah, the good ole days!

It’s been a while since we have mentioned some of the basics concerning cooking with cast iron cookware.  I guess we get a bit wrapped up in trying to provide useful technical information and great recipes that we forget there might be folks out there who are new to using cast iron cookware and are looking for helpful hints and reasons to start using it.

There are many advantages of using cast iron:

• It is very inexpensive compared to most of the modern “technically advanced” cookware.
• Non-toxic – will not flake off like modern non-stick surfaces
• Ideal heat conductor
• Allows for even heat distribution and consistent cooking temperature without hot spots
• Extremely durable – will last a lifetime (actually many lifetimes)
• Old fashion way for fat-free cooking
• Non-stick surface
• Can be used on or in any heat source – on top of stove, in oven, over an open fire, or in the coals
• Healthy choice for every day cooking
• Easy to clean

If you’ve never used cast iron cookware, you will discover that you can cook just about anything with a few cast iron skillets of various sizes, and a dutch oven lends a lot of versatility to your arsenal of cooking implements. Give it a try and let us know what you think.  If you already use cast iron we would love to hear your comments, helpful hints, and personal recipes that we can share with our readers.

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!

Our son was home from college this past weekend and he and a buddy of his came over for supper.  Pam was out at the stables horsing around (literally),  so we just sat around and talked about old time when the kids were growing up in the old neighborhood.

I put some burgers on the grill, fries in the oven, and kicked back to relax.  Well, I checked on the burgers and the grill had run out of propane.  Yes, I had not planned very well and didn’t have another tank.  So, I brought the burgers inside and put them on the cast iron griddle across the large burner of the stove.  A few minutes later, we heard an odd cracking sound and saw a spark coming from the oven.  I opened the oven door and the heating element was on fire!  So, to summarize, the grill ran out of propane, the oven quit working and we were very hungry.

Cast iron cookware comes to the rescue again.  I put about 1/2″ of vegetable oil in my 3 qt deep fry cast iron skillet heated it up and cooked up the french fries while the burgers were cooking on the griddle.  In spite of our bad luck, the meal turned out just fine and it was great reminiscing with the kids.