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.

With fall just around the corner, Dusty is preparing his fire pit for an afternoon cook-out sometime  in early October.  We’re having a few friends, family, and our neighbors over for some great food, fun, and entertainment.  I’ll get to that in a minute!

The menu for the day is, of course, the roasted pig, but my favorite (especially since I’m not much of a meat eater), are the baked beans, casseroles, and grilled veggies we’ll be cooking in various cast iron cookware.  I plan to grill the zucchini and a medley of vegetables on our reversible cast iron griddle.  Dusty and I tested the cast iron griddle last month on our gas grill on the deck.  We laid the griddle across the flames and cooked zucchini, squash, potatoes, and minced garlic.  Wow, was that ever tasty!

For entertainment, we plan to play some music…me on guitar, our friend Rob on banjo, and Dusty on the upright base.  We’re working on growing our repertoire but there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day to practice and do everything else we love to do……can’t wait till we can retire!!!!

For the kids (and adults) we’ll have tomahawk and knife throwing, we may shoot the muzzle loaders, and we’ll definitely play some West Virginia Horseshoes!  I’ll see if I can get Dusty to describe that game…it’s hysterical to watch!

Anyway, it’s good to be back blogging and keeping in touch with everyone.

Until next 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’!

If you’ve been tightening your budget lately, you’re not alone. Across the country—and the globe—people of every economic standing are cutting back, trying to save more, and stretch what they have a little further.   Many times people look to their food budget to save money, and meats and vegetables are often the first to go.  Steak is definitely expensive, but you don’t need to buy filet mignon to have a delicious piece of meat.

Some of the more cost effective cuts, which we tend to think of as being tough, are ideal for use in your cast iron stew pot. During the low and slow cooking process, the fats and connective tissues in the meat break down, adding flavor and tenderizing the meat.  Stews are also a great way to stretch your food budget, as you can add more stock to increase the volume and the leftovers always taste better anyway.

We would love to hear about your budget-busting cooking strategies!

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!

Hey folks, it’s been quite some time since Pam and I have posted to our blog site, but we’re back in town and at it again.  We apologize for the hiatus, and thanks for visiting us again.  We hope to continue to provide y’all with useful info about using and caring for cast iron cookware, great recipes, and stories that will entertain you.  I don’t know about you, but when I read blogs that are always serious, contain no humor, and seem to come from a machine rather than a live body with a personality, I get a little skeptical of their intentions.  Yeah, they might be trying to sell something (like we are), but you know, if you can’t have fun doing it, it probably isn’t worth doing.  So much for the philosophy lecture for today – and I’ll try to keep that kind of stuff to a minimum.  Anyway, thanks again for visiting us and we would love to share your recipes and stories of how you use your cast iron cookware with our readers.   Hope to hear from you!

When my children were younger we used to congregate around the table every evening to eat dinner as a family and share our stories from the day. As the children have grown older however, it’s become increasingly difficult to find time to get everyone around the table together.  We’re lucky if we eat as a family more than once or twice a week. Still, I like to prepare home cooked meals to ensure everyone is getting the nutrition they need.

Since everyone eats at different times, I have to think of ways to keep the food warm and fresh for a couple of hours at a time. Dishes like stews and chilies are the obvious choices, but you certainly can’t serve them every night. One of my personal tricks for keeping the food warm is using cast irons pots and pans. When I cook a meal in a cast iron pan, it retains the heat for much longer, which means I don’t have to reheat the dishes or keep the oven running indefinitely.

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.

When I first started using cast iron cookware, I was camping at rendezvouses (primitive camping) with a friend of mine and I did all of the cooking.  I had always enjoyed cooking over an open fire, but using cast iron was new and I discovered that it was a lot of fun.  I especially liked baking in my dutch ovens, but I had a long learning curve before I was whipping out perfectly baked cornbread, cakes, and cobbler in my dutch oven.  It wasn’t until I was cooking for a few other friends and one of the ladies was kind enough to teach me how to tell if what I was baking was cooked all the way through.  Have you ever cut into what looked like the perfect pan of cornbread and found out that the center was still liquid or gooey?  Well, believe me, it’s embarrassing.

If you are new to baking in cast iron, here’s a helpful hint to tell when your cornbread (or cake) is done:

• Insert a toothpick into the center and quickly remove it.  If it comes out clean, or with only a few dry crumbs attached, it’s done.  If it has moist batter on it, it’s not done.  This is the method I use most.  You can actually test it with a fork in the same manner.
• You can also look at the edges of the cornbread. When they start to pull away from the sides of the pan, it is probably done.  However, if the cooking temperature is too high, the edges may look like it’s done, but the center may still be too moist.
• If the cornbread rises at the center, you can touch the surface near the center and if it is done, it should bounce back without leaving a finger imprint.