Sunday, May 13, 2007

Two New, But Old, Ovens!

I acquired two more ovens today! My step-father-in-law, Ray, finally sold his trailer up in the hills overlooking Bear Lake (on the border of Utah and Idaho). His wife (my mother-in-law) is getting too feeble to enjoy vacationing up there any more.

So, he brought home all of his things that he wanted to keep. Included in that were two dutch ovens. One of them is a shallow 10". I've been coveting this oven for a long time. See, I mainly use this 12" pot that I got about a year ago. But as great as it is, it cooks too much food for my small family of 4. Sure, I get some lunches to take to work for a few days, but that eventually gets old, and much of the food (as good (like the roast) or as bad (like the Kofta) as it may be) ends up being thrown away.

So, today, at our Mother's Day gathering, he told me that I could take them. If he ever needed them (which he doubted), he'd just borrow them back. I eagerly snatched them up. As soon as I got home and got the kids into bed, I scrubbed them and they're in my home oven getting reseasoned as I type.

So now, I've got six.

  1. The first one I ever got was one that my wife and I bought early in our marriage. It's a deep 14" oven. It spent most of its life in storage. Literally. I mean, I've been married almost 20 years, and I can't remember when I used it. That is, until we moved into this new home last winter. Then I found it, remembered it, and cleaned it up. It cooked our Christmas turkey and our Easter ham. Now, I store all my ovens in a stack in the corner of our kitchen, and it has the honorable place as the base of the iron tower.
  2. The one that really started all this was a simple Lodge 12" shallow that my wife bought me for father's day last year. I don't really know why she got it, other than that I may have mentioned that I'd like to learn how to do dutch. But I didn't feel any real urgency to get one. But, she got it, and I was excited. I decided that I wouldn't just let it sit and use it only on our campouts (once or twice a year), but that I really wanted to learn how to do it, and do it well. So, I began cooking our sunday dinners.
  3. Not long after that, we were invited to a friend's home to cook them dinner. I wanted to do a main dish, and Jodi thought it would be a cool idea to do a cobbler desert, too. So, on the way over, we stopped off and picked up a deep 12" pre-seasoned pot. The dinner went well, and I had another one on the team.
  4. Then, since I was enjoying it so much, my then-8-year-old son picked out a cool little 8" oven for my birthday. At the time, I thought it was cute, but I didn't think I'd ever actually use it. It turns out it gets almost as much use as my 12" workhorse. Sauces, preparing ingredients to be added to the main dish, deserts... It's amazing how handy that one is.
  5. Up until tonight, that was the entire collection. I re-discovered the 14", but nothing else was added. Now, we add the 10". I don't know the brand. It's shallow, and solid. I'm looking forward to trying it out.
  6. The last one is another deep 12". It's made in commemoration of the Utah State Centennial. It's got the centennial logo cast into the lid, and "Made in USA" and a serial number cast into the bottom.

So, I was originally a bit bummed that I didn't get to cook this weekend. But now my spirits are raised again!

2 comments:

  1. Do what we do and freeze a meal. We use the vacuum packs and can just throw the bag straight from the freezer to a pot of boiling water. I think your next pot should be a 10" deep. We love it for when a 10" is too small and a 12" is too big. My in-laws are from Australia and I wish they were able to bring over some of their dutch ovens from down under when they moved here thirty some years ago. What's on the menu for this weekend?

    Mark

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  2. I'm not sure. I had this idea for Philly Steak Sandwiches, where I'd cook up the steak slices and also bake the bread. I also read this recipe for something called "pizzarice". Looks really good. We'll have to wait and see...

    MRKH

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