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!

I think we’ve mentioned a time or two that we have a teepee (or tipi) set up in the woods out behind the house from late September to early May.  It is really a unique experience and our friends love to come over and hang out.  The great thing about the tipi is that we have huge, roaring fires right in the middle of it, and when it’s 20 degrees outside, it feels great.   It’s extremely hot and humid here in Maryland right now, and just thinking about sitting in the tipi while it’s freezing cold outside with snow on the ground, mentally cools me off for a while.

Anyway, one of the most memorable tipi parties was our Cajun Night when we cooked crawdad etouffee in a cast iron dutch oven right on top of the wood stove.  Oh, I forgot to tell you – when it’s really cold outside, we have a wood stove and an open fire cranking inside the tipi.

Crawdad etouffee is relatively easy to make.  The recipe below uses 1 pound of crawdads, so just do the math if you want to make more.

Ingredients

• 1 lb of crawdad tails
• 1 onion – I prefer a mild flavored onion, but if you like that zesty taste, go for it
• 1-2 bell peppers – I like using 1 red and 1 yellow
• Garlic – at least 1 teaspoon per pound of crawdad
• Flour – at least 1 tablespoon per pound of crawdad; adds a little body
• Butter or margarine – 1/4 stick per pound of crawdad
• Water (optional) – add to consistency of choice
• White rice

Put the dutch oven on low heat and melt the butter/margarine.

Add the onion, peppers, and garlic and saute slowly – still at low heat.

Stir in the flour.

Add water – optional.

Add the crawdad tails and let simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Serve over hot rice and season to taste.

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.

Although many folks enjoy using real hardwood coals, I have to admit that using modern charcoal briquettes can be quite handy, especially if you’re pressed for time or have several dutch ovens going at once.  I found a handy reference on line that can help give you an idea of how many briquettes to use to cook at a specific temperature:

Size of the cast iron dutch oven x 2 = the number of briquettes needed to reach an internal temp of 325 degrees.  For example, if you are using a 12″ dutch oven, you would need 24 briquettes to reach an internal temp of 325 degrees.  Adding one briquette will increase the internal temp approximately 15-20 degrees:  example, 12″ oven with 25 briquettes = 340 – 345 degrees.  

Most folks put the majority of the briquettes (or coals) on top of the dutch oven.  You can also place some under the dutch oven and/or around the perimeter.  The cooking characteristics can be drastically different, so be sure to experiment before cooking that gourmet meal or dessert.

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.

It’s just about rendezvous season and we’re already thinking about the delicious desserts we will be cooking in our cast iron dutch oven.  I think I’ve already told y’all that I prefer using coals prepared from burning down hard wood, but you can prepare this, and other recipes we share, using other heat sources.

One of our favorite apple dishes is a very simple dessert baked in a dutch oven.  The size of the dutch oven required depends on the number of apples you want to prepare. 

Ingredients

• Apples – peeled and cored; this is a whole apple with the core removed
• Butter or margarine – real butter makes them more flavorful
• Powdered cinnamon
• Sugar
• Rum (optional, and you can try different liquors)

Preparation

• Dry the peeled and cored apples with a paper towel or lint-free towel.
• Spread butter over the entire surface of the apple – to include inside the hole.
• Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the entire surface.  You can mix the cinnamon and sugar together first, then sprinkle over the apple.
• Place the  apple (s) in the dutch oven so that the hole through the apple is parallel to the bottom of the dutch oven.  This helps keep more of  the yummy stuff inside.
• Cover the bottom of the dutch oven with rum, or whatever liquor you want to use, or just use water.  The liquid is just to catch the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon.
• Put the lid on the dutch oven and set it on one layer of coals.  Cover the entire lid with coals.  You can also place a few coals evenly around the perimeter of the dutch oven.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes – depends on how firm you like the apples.  They tend to absorb more of the flavor when cooked longer.
• Remove the apples and stir the liquid remaining in the dutch oven.
• Spoon the liquid over the apples and enjoy!

In Part 1 of this mini-series we got as far as listing the alternatives for coals you can use as a heat source when baking in a cast iron dutch oven.  Just a quick review – you can use charcoal briquettes, commercially available hard wood charcoal, or coals formed from burning down hard wood, and that is my choice.

Even if you don’t have much to do around the camp site, I imagine you’re like me and want to spend as little time as possible cooking your delicious gourmet camp meals.  So, if you’re going to burn hard wood to make natural coals, you want a fire that starts fast and gets hot quickly.

I learned early on in my Boy Scout days that the best way to start a fire quickly is to build what is called a tipi fire.  Once that is going good, you can add larger pieces of wood and have a roaring fire in very short order.

• Start with a good fire starter.  I don’t recommend using gas or other liquid starters simply due to the safety hazard – especially if there are kids around.  I prefer to use the commercially available wax and sawdust type starter block.  Just a small piece is all you need.  Lay it in the bottom of the fire pit.
• Next, stack small, dry sticks in the shape of a tipi all the way around the fire starter.  Leave an access point to the starter. You can usually find plenty of kindling in the woods.  When the kids were little, we would send them out to gather kindling so they wouldn’t be in the way when we were trying to pitch camp.  If you’re camping and there are no woods around, you can bring some with you from home.  We just fill a paper bag full and that will provide enough for several fires.  Remember – you’re just starting the fire with kindling.

• Continue to stack progressively larger sticks around the fire starter.   I usually end with sticks about 3/4″-1″ in diameter.

Light the fire starter and watch it burn!  Stay tuned for Part 3.

Folks who rendezvous (i.e., primitive campers) are no strangers to using cast iron cookware on a daily basis, and many people who don’t rendezvous use it on a regular basis for cooking on their stove or in the oven.  However, using cast iron cookware outdoors in the elements adds a bit of a challenge.  It takes a little more effort to keep your cast iron skillets and dutch ovens in excellent condition when they are exposed to temperature gradients and moisture.  I can’t remember the last rendezvous that Pam and I went to where it didn’t get near freezing at night, pretty darn warm during the day, and rained at least a couple days.

Temperature gradients can cause condensation to form, especially in a dutch oven if  the lid is left on it.   And if the moisture stays in the dutch oven for a couple days, it may result in some superficial rust.   If that happens and you catch it quickly enough, you can usually just wipe it out with a textured cloth and a little bit of oil.  Of course, the simplest and easiest way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to keep your cast iron cookware out of the rain, away from the fire when you’re not cooking in it, and don’t store it with the lid on.  So, caring for cast iron in the camp is just like at home – cook in it, clean it, dry it, and lightly coat it with oil.

Last night we had 6 friends over for what might be our last tipi party for winter. Spring seems to be right around the corner.  Pam baked a few snacks up at the house and our friends brought some snacks, too.  However, by the time we take the snacks down to the tipi for the evening, everything is cold.

I went down to the tipi before everyone arrived to get a good bed of coals going in the fire pit.  When Pam and the guests came down to the tipi, we wrapped the snacks in aluminum foil and placed them in the dutch oven on the grate over the fire pit.  For a great tip about using your cast iron dutch oven,  see my post titled, No Mess Baking In Your Cast Iron Dutch Oven (1/25/10).

Pam made potato skins filled with cheddar cheese and bacon, and our friends brought croissants – some filled with cheese and others with ham, cheese, and onion.  It was all delicious!