Fresh Strawberry Upside Down Cake

     I am always on the hunt for a good upside down cake recipe to make in my dutch oven, when I saw this Strawberry Upside Down Cake on allrecipes.com I just knew I had to give it a try.  This cake is downright delicious, it's sweet like a dump cake but the fresh fruit and incredibly moist cake bring this strawberry shortcake-like dessert to a new level.  You'll never get the cake out of your oven in one piece without parchment paper.  The marshmallows magically disappear into the cake while baking making the cake more delicate to remove.  Let it cool in your dutch oven for a good 20-30 minutes before inverting onto a platter.  You need to crush the strawberries well so they will release enough juice to absorb the gelatin powder.  I ended up pulverizing them with a potato masher.  The cake baked in 35 minutes with 12 coals in a ring around the bottom and about 22-24 on top.  During the dog days of summer treat yourself to a cool piece of this refreshing, colorful dessert.

Fresh Strawberry Upside Down Cake
2 cups crushed fresh strawberries
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin mix
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1 (18 ounce) package yellow cake mix, batter prepared as directed on package

     Lightly oil or spray a 12 inch dutch oven and line with parchment paper.
     Spread crushed strawberries evenly over parchment paper in oven.  Sprinkle strawberries with dry gelatin powder and top with mini marshmallows.
     Prepare the cake mix as directed on the package and pour on top of the marshmallows.
     Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees or until center of cake is firm to the touch.
     Cool cake in dutch oven for 20 minutes before removing.  Carefully invert onto platter.  Store cake in refrigerator.

Sprinkle gelatin over crushed strawberries

Add mini marshmallows

Pour cake batter over topping

Let cool for 30 minutes before inverting onto plate

Sweet and moist, like an upscale strawberry shortcake

Hot Pepper Jelly Kielbasa Appetizer

    This recipe from Stonewall Kitchen should be nominated for the Keep It Simple Stupid award of the year.  I cannot begin to tell you how amazingly good this little appetizer is.  The flavors are hot, sweet, and spicy all rolled into one.  The sugary glaze coats the Kielbasa and the tiny pieces of pepper surprise you with a jolt of heat.  I made this in my 8 inch dutch oven with only 12 oz. of sliced Kielbasa so I cut the hot pepper jelly down to 1/2 cup.  If you are cooking for a crowd it could easily be doubled in a larger oven.  In 20 minutes with 8 coals in a circle around the bottom and 14 on top the glaze was bubbling and the sausage had caramelized.  I also ran across a similar recipe online where they added 2-3 tablespoons of butter to the melted jelly and served it over rice.  I usually have Hot Pepper Jelly at Christmas when I pour it over a brick of cream cheese and serve it with crackers, this Kielbasa dish has now rocketed to the top of my list of favorite appetizers.  It couldn't be simpler and it's made for outdoor cooking.  Serve it hot with toothpicks or mini-skewers right out of your oven, when people ask you for the recipe they won't believe this delicious snack is made with only two ingredients.

Hot Pepper Jelly Kielbasa Appetizer
1 lb. Kielbasa
3/4 cup Hot Pepper Jelly

     Lightly oil or spray an 8 or 10 inch dutch oven.
     Cut the Kielbasa into 24 slices.
     Place the Kielbasa and the Hot Pepper Jelly in the oven and stir until kielbasa is well coated.
     Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees until heated and slightly caramelized, stirring several times during the cooking process.
     Serve hot with toothpicks.

Mix jelly with sliced Kielbasa

In 25 minutes, bubbly and brown

Serve with toothpicks or skewers by the campfire

Alphabet Casserole

     There is an old saying, 'Hunger is the best sauce'.  Imagine yourself riding back to camp, bone weary after sitting in the saddle for twelve hours and ravenously hungry.  If someone handed you a plate of this beef and biscuit casserole you would feel like you were dining at a five star restaurant.  This basic but tasty dish from my local PTA Community cookbook is another one of those ridiculously easy meals that you can make on the trail or in your backyard.  It's a made for camping recipe.  Saute onions with the beef, drain, stir in the soup and slap on the biscuits.  I made it exactly as written with the exception of fresh ground black pepper and a sprinkling of garlic powder.  It was very good and I was surprised by the amount of vegetables that you can find in a can of soup.  This is a great basic formula for a hamburger dutch oven casserole.  You can substitute one or both of the soups and doctor it up with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce,  A-1 sauce, barbecue sauce or whatever tangy ingredient you have on hand.  The secret to not having soggy bottomed biscuits is to make sure you bring your meat mixture to a good bubble first and having the temperature high enough to cook them all the way through.  Because I haven't had the best luck when cooking refrigerated biscuits as a topping in my 10 inch oven, I would suggest using your 12 inch oven.  After you brown the beef over a full spread of coals, move them to a circle around the bottom and bake with 22-24 coals on the lid.  After 10 minutes, or when the beef and soup is simmering, add the biscuits.  You can literally feed four people for around six dollars with this easy, Dutch Oven 101, camper's casserole.

Alphabet Casserole
1 pound ground beef
2 10 1/2 oz. cans condensed vegetable (Alphabet) soup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can of Grands type refrigerated biscuits

     Lightly oil or spray 12 inch dutch oven.
     Brown beef and onions over a full compliment of coals until onions are soft and translucent.
     Add the two cans of Vegetable Soup (Do not add water).  Stir well.  Move bottom coals to outside of oven, cover and cook with coals on top until soup is bubbling, about 10-15 minutes.
     Add biscuits and bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until biscuits are brown and cooked through.
     Serves 4.

Saute beef and onions, stir in soup

When beef mixture is bubbling, add biscuits

Bake for 15 minutes more or until biscuits are brown and ready

Great for camping or beginning dutch oven cooks

Cornmeal Scones

      When I saw this recipe for Cornmeal Scones from Food.com I thought they would be great to serve with soup and chili.  This savory scone is somewhere between a biscuit and cornbread, crispy on the outside and soft and buttery on the inside.  Their golden color is highlighted by a slight crunch of cornmeal in every bite.  Bake them in your 10 inch oven for 20 minutes with 10 coals in a ring around the bottom and completely cover the lid with 22-24 coals.  You need to blitz them in a hot oven, give them a quick peek after 15 minutes to make sure they are browning evenly.  These might also be good with chopped green chilies added to the dough or maybe a handful of shredded cheddar cheese.  The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup of buttermilk, I thought the dough was a little on the dry side so I added a bit more. Serve them with honey or your favorite hot pepper jelly but be sure to try these unique, tasty scones. 

Cornmeal Scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 to 1 cup buttermilk
2 Tblsp melted butter

     Lightly oil or spray 10 inch dutch oven.
     Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.
     Cut in butter using pastry blender or 2 knives or until mixture looks like fine crumbs.
     Stir in buttermilk; mix until dough leaves sides of bowl and forms a ball.
     Roll batter into biscuit sized balls and place in dutch oven
     Brush with melted butter.
     Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until scones are lightly brown and crispy on top.
     Serve hot, makes 11-12 small scones.

Brushed with melted butter and ready for a hot oven

Golden and crispy after 20 minutes

Serve with hot pepper jelly for a zesty treat

BBQ Bean Soup

    
     A bowl of this healthy, filling soup from The Essential Best Foods Cookbook by Dana Jacobi will have you feeling good all over.  It is brimming with vegetables and is very low in fat.  The chilies in the canned tomatoes along with the barbecue sauce give it a warming kick and a real depth of flavor.  Cut your prep time in half by chopping the vegetables in your food processor.  The recipe calls for a half package of frozen collards but I used the full 10 ounces, a body can never have too many greens.  I made this in my 10 inch oven over a full compliment of coals then covered the lid with enough coals to bring it to a low boil.  Cover the oven with the lid and coals while you are sauteing the vegetables, you need to sweat them down to draw out the juices. Add some sliced smoked sausage or cooked chicken with the liquid to make it an even heartier stew.  I don't eat collard greens very often but now that I have found this excellent recipe I will be making this mess o'greens, down home soup on a regular basis.

BBQ Bean Soup
1 Tblsp canola oil or olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large rib celery, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large or 3 medium chopped scallions, green and white parts
4 cups water
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with jalapeno chile pepper
1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained
1 cup cooked chopped collard greens or 5 oz. (1/2 package) frozen chopped collards, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

     Add oil to 10 or 12 inch dutch oven and heat over a full compliment of coals.
     Saute onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic and scallions over high heat, covered with coals on lid, until vegetables are soft and almost dry.
     Add the water, tomatoes, beans, greens and barbecue sauce.  Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until greens are tender.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Makes 4 servings.

Saute vegetables over high heat until almost dry

Add water, beans, collards, tomatoes and barbecue sauce

Simmer for 20 minutes or until collards are tender

Fast, flavorful and good for you too

Mom's Baby Back Ribs

      My Mom makes the best, fall off the bone, tender baby back ribs.  Her secret has always been, wrapping them in foil, placing them on a cookie sheet and baking them for three hours at 300 degrees.  The recipe couldn't be easier and the clean up is a snap.  On a recent camping trip I thought I would adapt her technique to dutch oven cooking.  To really simplify things, I wrapped the ribs before leaving home and kept them ice cold in a cooler before cooking them a few hours later at our campsite.  Basically all you do is slather the ribs with your favorite barbecue sauce on a large piece of aluminum foil and wrap them up like a package, rolling the seams to make the packet air tight.  I cut a 2 1/2 pound slab of ribs in half and they fit perfectly in my 12 inch oven.  You don't want to stack the ribs in the foil, make sure they are placed side by side before sealing.  I cooked them for almost three hours.  They cooked in the hot sun with no wind so I only had to replenish the coals twice with 12 in a ring around the bottom and 18-20 on top.  I added more coals than probably needed but they threw the heat longer and I wanted to make sure I brought the oven temperature up to speed right off the bat.
      You really can't go wrong with this recipe, if you decide to cook them in a hotter oven, just shorten your cooking time by a half hour.  They definitely need a good 2 1/2 hours to cook.  This is a set it and forget it recipe, except for lighting more coals, you don't even have to lift the lid on your oven until the time is up.  If you are cooking for a larger group you will require a larger oven or even a second dutch oven to accomodate the extra portions.  I am not sure how they would come out but you might be able to stack two packets of ribs on top of each other in a deeper oven.  Of course the beauty of this recipe is the clean up.  Once I took the ribs out of the oven I was able to bake a quick batch of refrigerated biscuits without even wiping out the pot. Give these mouth watering ribs a try at your next camp out, trust me, they are finger lickin' good!

Mom's Baby Back Ribs
2-3 pounds pork baby back ribs, cut into aproximately 2 ten inch sections
1 bottle of prepared barbecue sauce
Extra wide, heavy duty aluminum foil

     Lightly oil or spray a 12 or 14 inch dutch oven.
     Tear a long piece of extra wide aluminum foil, at least 30 inches in length.
     Place rib sections upside down in center of foil.  Pour half bottle of sauce over ribs, spread sauce to completely cover underside of ribs.
     Turn ribs over and continue covering evenly with remainder of barbecue sauce. Bake rib portions side by side with the meat side up.
     Bring long ends of foil together and roll tightly to seal packet, as if you were wrapping a package.
     Seal ends of foil and roll tightly until ribs are closely wrapped and foil packet is tightly sealed. 
     Wrap in second layer of foil, repeating the same wrapping process.
     Place in dutch oven.  Bake at 300 degrees for 3 hours, replenishing the coals as needed to maintain a constant temperature.  Serves 2-3.

Ribs bathed in sauce then tightly wrapped in foil

Juicy, tender ribs served with campfire baked potatoes, corn and biscuits.

Line Camp Skillet Supper

     I really loved the history behind this recipe from Jean Anderson's One Dish Dinners.  This was a popular dish among cowhands running fences on the prairie and crewmen of the old Santa Fe railroad.  It is easy to see the appeal of this one dish supper and adding crackers became a good way to stretch a meal.  This would probably come together a lot quicker in a cast iron skillet on your camp stove.  It does take a good 15-20 minutes to cook bacon in a dutch oven, even over a generous amount of coals.  It was very good. The crackers add substance to the eggs and the scallions, bacon and tomatoes are a terrific combination. Cook this over as many coals as you can fit underneath your oven and connect with past with this satisfying scramble.

Line Camp Skillet Supper
6 slices lean bacon, snipped crosswise into julienned strips
6 large scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 medium-size vine-ripe tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded, and coarsley chopped; or one 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, well drained
6 large eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 Saltine crackers, coarsley crumbled

     Lightly oil or spray a 10 inch dutch oven.
     Fry bacon over a full compliment of coals until crispy, about 15 minutes.  Remove to paper toweling with a slotted spoon and drain.  Pour off all but 2 Tblsp of bacon fat.
     Cook scallions in remaining fat until soft.
     Add tomatoes and simmer uncovered until thickened.
     Meanwhile, beat eggs with salt and pepper until frothy.  Pour eggs into dutch oven with tomato mixture and scramble until beginning to set.
     Scatter in cracker crumbs and reserved bacon and continue scrambling until eggs are softly set.  Serves 4.

Saute bacon until crisp, add scallions

Heat tomatoes

Scramble eggs until set, add crackers, bacon and scallions

A hearty scramble for breakfast or dinner