Woods

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)


"Judge every day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you sow." - Robert Louis Stevenson


Saturday, November 13, 2010

Dutch Oven Cook'n

Last weekend I tried out my newly season camp ovens/Dutch ovens. They are the ones that have three legs and a lid that you put coals on top for an even bake in the fire pit.

I've been building up the garden with compost and also bits of chard wood. Its very good for your garden, along with ash but not to much ash. Chard wood does a whole new thing to your garden. I first heard about the ancient ways of gardening called Terra Preta, its adding biochar as an amendment to your garden soil;

Get some time check this out http://www.philipcoppens.com/terrapreta.html.

So in my garden I'm making little burn spots , cook my food cover the fire with soil to burn out and not have to move it from firepit to garden. So I also started two biochar as well as cook our meal .

I made two dishes one a chicken in wine and another is ,oh boy peach cobbler.

I don't drink wine mostly because it makes my nose numb and I get really sleepy but I've been hearing how good it is to cook with so I gave it a shot and yum yum was the chicken tasty. Such a different flavor this wine gave the chicken.


Here is the cheap bottle of wine I got , I'm sure not a wine connoisseur so I just went by the pretty label, thought it looked good with all the leaves falling.




Well they say to cook with wine that you like so hubby and I had a sip



I didn't care for it but hubby did. I like coffee :)

So cooking the chicken in the pot tell brown, I only used half a chicken breast b/c I didn't know how this was going to go.






Then the chopped onions cooked a little. I cooked both the chicken and the onions using the chicken skin for fat , then removed . Worked out good.




After adding the chicken back into the oven w/ the onions I added the wine and pulled off the fire to simmer with just a few coals underneath of the oven.








No need for putting coals ontop of this dish. Simmering in the garden




I checked and tasted and knew this was going to be good.

Now while the chicken was cooking I worked on the peach cobbler and had that on another little firepit.



Peach cobbler cooking, almost done





On this dish I put coals on the top to make it more like a oven ad get that nice brown on top.




Ta Da!! Its done, a little to brown on the bottom , but not to bad for first time, yum




I also tossed on a couple of potatoes and an onion wrapped in foil. Slice those taters in almost half and pry open and tuck in some butter, sprinkle with pepper. The onion quartered, add sugar and butter. Oh these have a smell that will make the wood critters go crazy. Yum good! Just toss em in the coals and check with fork.






Dinner, hubby and I ate outside, it was a beautiful fall day and dinner was delis






Cup of peach cobbler, oh this was good








Thoughts on camp cooking and cooking with wine. I loved it. Food is always good cookedoutside.


I did do a little over cooking aka burnt on taters and cobbler, but still was able to eat.


I would do a cooking in wine again using different wines. I love cooked onions and the onions did not have a good flavor but the chicken was excellent. So its experimenting with this dish.


I used a simple cobbler recipe and very easy . If you need recipe let me know , most your cookbooks have cobbler recipes. So nothing fancy with this one , just turn out very good.


I thought I'd do a cookout this weekend but my workshop has been going non stop, getting out some Thanksgiving rush jobs out. I'll get a left over turkey recipe and make a dish , oh turkey pot pie in the Dutch oven sounds good to me.



I would like to hear your thoughts on cooking with wine. Got a good dish to share.


Doesn't need to have wine, so share those Dutch Oven recipes.


Thanks for stopping by , have a great week coming up !

tc linda

9 comments:

  1. Everything looks good to me :-)

    Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

    ~Ron

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  2. Oh Linda, everything looks so good. Esp. that cobbler. I have a thing for sweets with fruit, just yummy. Sounds like an absolutely delightful evening.

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  3. Goodness- your pictures made my mouth water! *Yummy!*

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  4. The cobbler looks yummy. I have never cooked directly in my dutch oven because I use it on top of my wood stove. I'm afraid the bottom will burn. But I use it like an oven to bake things inside. That works OK, but not perfect. - Margy

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  5. Looks very tasty!

    I love your blog ... now why haven't I been here before??? :)

    About Homesteadblogger, I emailed Lisa yesterday; she says the server is down, but someone is working on it. Hopefully it will be back up soon.

    I've signed up as a follower so I don't miss your lovely blog again!

    Blessings,
    Catherine :)

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  6. I just wanted to say I love how you change the look of your blog page along with the seasons. Your pictures always compliment so nicely, Linda.

    Just reading this post made me hungry!

    Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!
    Savanna

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  7. Hey..it's me (southernmomma). I have been missin' ya and thought I'd write to check on you and I hope all is okay where you are. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.I have moved my blog from HSB to http://froglevelhomestead.blogspot.com/

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  8. OMGoodness! They all look soooo delicious! Especially the peach cobbler! I am Southern after all and do we love cobbler! I'll have to ask my husband about making us a fire pit to cook in. We have 58 acres of timber here - surely there's a spot somewhere! ;-)

    Blessings,
    Dianne
    www.mysouthernheart.com

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  9. I have a dutch oven like that and I cooked a many and one whole chickens in it.I love mine and can't wait to do it again.Oh beef stew and chili is pretty darn good.Although cooking tomatoes in a cast iron isn't really recommended,that's what I was told.Something about the acids.

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