Orange Glazed Ham & Dutch Oven Potatoes

A few weeks ago, we went camping at Rocky Mountain National Park with Matt's brother & family and Matt's parents. It was his parents 40th anniversary so we tried to cook some special meals to celebrate the big occasion. We made a wonderful glazed ham in the D.O. and also made some really tasty cheesy potatoes. Then, to top it all off, we made the same chocolate cake that I've already mentioned in this blog.

So, here are the recipes we tried while in Colorado.

Great Food in the Great Outdoors

For Labor Day, we went camping in a state park which happened to be near where some of Matt's extended family lives. We had such a fun time with people visiting us at the campground and heading into town to visit some more.

We made 3 different Dutch oven recipes over the weekend- Baked Spaghetti, Pastel Chileano, and Easy Chocolate Cake. All of them were good (which isn't always the case when you are trying new recipes).

BBQ Nachos and Pizza Monkey Bread

Earlier this summer, we went camping with both Abby and Maple (the dog) for the first time. We've camped a lot, but we've never taken the dog and of course, hadn't camped with Abby yet.

Even though we didn't go too far from home, we still felt like we were able to get away for the weekend. Maple and Abby did great. For those of you who know our crazy dog, that is a surprise. She barks a lot and loves other dogs, but on this camping trip she was SO good. Abby, of course, was a gem- as she always is.

Anyway, getting to the point of things, we tried a couple of recipes in the Dutch oven that were super easy and simple. We figured we would do simple things since this was a first camping trip with the girl and the dog. Both were good, and super easy. Great if you want something simple when in the great outdoors.

Dutch Oven Lasagna

We are big fan's of another Dutch Oven Chef's blog- Mark's Black Pot. We've tried several recipes from his blog site with much success. So far, our favorite one is Dutch Oven Lasagna (http://marksblackpot.blogspot.com/2007/07/lasagne.html).

We first made this when we were camping in 2008 at Glacier National Park in Montana. Who knew that campers could have such a hard time finding ingredients for a simple lasagna? But, we did. We stayed on the eastern side of the park which is shy on services & grocery stores. We ended up finding the stuff we needed in Canada.

Dutch Oven Buttermilk Biscuits- OH SO GOOD!

Biscuits in the Dutch oven are better! Up until now, our biscuit making was either out of a can, frozen, or from Bisquick. We had never really bothered to attempt to make a homemade, flaky biscuit in the Dutch oven or, for that matter, inside with our regular oven.

Well, there are all sorts of biscuit recipes out there: some with buttermilk, some with cold butter, some with oil, some with eggs, and so on. Seems like everybody has a different way of creating, what is, seemingly, a fairly simple little circle of bread. Matt’s requirement for this venture was to make these biscuits flaky. So, to the internet we went- searching for a flaky biscuit recipe.

Dutch Oven Apple Crisp

So, last week we made apple crisp in the dutch oven. This isn't our first attempt at apple crisp, though.

First Attempt at a Dutch Oven Pizza

Our first attempt at dutch oven pizza was so good we're afraid that we aren't going to be able to replicate it. Even Abby thought it smelled so good that she had us bring her swing out to watch it cook.

Let the Blogging Begin...

Matt and I have really appreciated all of the help the web has given us as we have started our Dutch Oven cooking adventures. In an effort to share great recipes and handy techniques that we learn on our journey, we created this blog.

So Welcome! Sit back, read, and enjoy!