I did a lot of dutch ovening this weekend, and it was all under kind of unusual circumstances. The best laid plans of mice and men, etc... Everything changed up.
On Saturday, our church men’s group (the Elder’s Quorum, for those of you who understand Mo’ Speak) hosted a dutch oven cookout activity in the park. I was in charge of planning it and pulling it off. The idea was to have us all gather in the early afternoon, and do some cooking. I’d be there to show how to do it, if the members were feeling unsure. Then, at about 5 or 6, we’d all eat what we’d all cooked.
The turnout was terrible. There were quite a few guys who had told me they were going to show up and cook along with us, but only one came (
That's Richard, in the picture). Later on, my wife joined us, as did one other guy and his kids.
I was pretty bummed, but I still had a good time cooking. I did a spicy turkey (a small one) and some no-knead bread. I added basil, oregano, and cilantro to the dough, and it made for a delicious flavor. The other Elder that came over and cooked made a chocolate and marshmallow pudding. Really, great food. Too bad so few were there to sample it.
Then, on Sunday, I had planned on cooking dinner for my father-in-law. I’d pretty much decided on doing a dinner-in-a-pumpkin, but he injured his back and was immobile, so he couldn’t come over. I decided to do it anyway, and it turned out great.
I’ve been working on an overall outline for a cookbook on yeast breads in a dutch oven, and I’m very excited about it. I’ve started writing some of the parts, and I’ll be posting them here as they come. Stay tuned for that!
Andy, over at the Back Porch Gourmet asked me recently for advice about bread baking. I was pretty excited about the question. I’ve thought for a long time it would be cool to write a dutch oven bread cookbook. I decided to use his question as the impetus to get that started. I wrote out an overview document to get started. At about 3500 words, it's way too long for a blog post. You can find it here.
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
