I love to cook. The wandering lifestyle that I now lead leaves me without a kitchen to indulge in my culinary passion so I have had to find new ways to fulfill my desire to create meals that do not come pre-packaged.
On the camping trips that I guide I cook all of the meals and have access to four propane run burners which allow me a lot of cooking creativity on the stove top. My latest outdoor cooking tool obession however has been the cast iron dutch oven.
Last season I was introduced to this method of cooking and prepared many lasagnas, mexican casseroles and brownies for my groups. Then in the fall I purchased my own small dutch oven to use on the road and since that time have been experimenting with many new recipes.
The concept is fairly simple. Heat the cast iron from below as well as on top and bake as you would in an oven at home. Using charcoal is the quickest and most consistent form of heat, but cooking on a wood fire also works.
During the spring as I traveled around Alaska with my boyfriend Goose and our friend Not Ryan (many of my friends are known by nicknames or trail names) we decided to try a new dutch oven recipe every day. Most recipes were successful, cookies however were not. Our successes included biscuits and gravy, a variety of muffins and cakes, chili, hash brown and egg casseroles. Our favorite experiment however was a bacon lined baked macaroni and cheese. We covered the bottom of the dutch oven with strips of bacon and then filled the dish with a pre-cooked macaroni and cheese (we used Annie's deluxe brand) to which we added more crispy bacon, fresh spinach, sautéed garlic & onions, then we topped with shredded cheddar. The bacon on the bottom made a crispy crust for the rich and creamy macaroni dish. I have since made variations of this dish, including vegetarian versions and all have been amazing! Tonight I experimented with the double high stacked dutch oven cooking method... lasagna in the bottom cast iron and brownies in the top dish with layers of charcoal in between. I was impressed with how the tower looked and even happier when both dishes turned out so well.
Goose recently purchased a cast iron deep dish pan with a lid that can double as a skillet. He has made a couple of great breakfast dishes with his new kitchen toy. We hope to continue to grow our cast iron collection, although will need a living space larger than our current tiny mobile home in order to house the collection that we dream of someday owning. Until that time we will enjoy experimenting with the cast iron that we own and the ever increasing list of dishes that we would like to try and make.
Cooking over a campfire has always been an extremely enjoyable experience. Cooking in cast iron is a tried and true incredible tool. Combining the two to indulge my culinary passion has been a lot fun and I am super excited to continue to create new tasty delights to share with others, no kitchen needed!