Old Fashioned Molasses Cake with Caramel Sauce

Where have we been???? 

I can't believe it has been Almost 6 months since we last posted.  This spring has been really busy for us at the new place- Matt built a cedar picket fence (you can see a bit of it in the pic below) and a lovely garden shed, we planted 15 fruit trees (apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry), planted black raspberries, a couple grape vines, put in a huge garden that seems to take a ton of time, and oh yeah- all of our normal family and work stuff.

Well, we're finally able to slow down a little bit- last night we grilled Pork Burgers, made salads from home-grown produce, and baked this lovely cake in the Dutch Oven.  It was just perfect- sweet, but not too sweet.

Extra Special Banana Cake

We're bananas for bananas!  Cake, cookies, bread, pie, pudding- you name it we like it!  Topped with your favorite chocolate frosting, this cake is sure to please all of your hungry campers!

For this recipe, we lined the 10" Dutch foil just to make camp clean-up easier.  We don't normally do this because if you've got a good season on your pot you shouldn't need too... I just didn't want to even bother wiping it out with a damp cloth.

Dutch Apple Pumpkin Crisp

Another Fall Dessert- seems like we are always doing a pumpkin or apple something.  Well, now we are doing a Pumpkin and Apple something.

This was quite delicious, but if I were making it for a crowd again, I'd make more.  We ate it all up and I think some folks would have had seconds if they were there.

Sour Cream Apple Dessert

We didn't disappear, we just haven't been cooking in our D.O.s for a long time.  Winters in Iowa aren't the easiest time to cook in our Dutch ovens- especially with a 2 year old.  Then, on top of that, we've sold our house and are living (temporarily) in a condo while working through a land purchase/house designing/building process.  Then add on top of that the fact that a new little one will be arriving in less than a month (July 7th, hopefully), cooking in our black pots has not been on our radar.

But, last weekend, we took a day trip with some new friends to Ledges State Park (near Boone, IA).  Armed with some steaks and pork chops, we took a couple Dutch ovens and cooked a great feast.  We made a corn casserole (which I've previously blogged about) and a new apple dessert recipe.

Pumpkin Apple Dessert Pizza

We love fall.  It is the best season of all the seasons here in Iowa- dry, sunny days, cool nights, leaves turning, harvesting the crops, apple picking time, etc.

Fall is also a wonderful time to camp- bugs are gone (mostly), its no longer humid, days are sunny, and nights are cool.

So, before this trip, I decided we needed to make a "fall" dessert.  Only, I knew I didn't want to make apple crisp, apple turnovers, or pumpkin cobbler (all things we've already done in the D.O.).  Well, ultimately, we decided to make this dessert pizza based on a recipe from Very Best Baking.  You will have some canned pumpkin leftover.  Just save it to use for pumpkin pancakes the next morning.

Cinnamon Apple Bread Pudding

While at Rocky Mountain, we made sure to make dessert on both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday night we made the chocolate cake, which we've already featured on here once.  On Sunday night, we made this TASTY bread pudding recipe.  I mean, what isn't to love?  Substitute bread cubes with cut up cinnamon rolls?  Diced fall apples and a brown sugar crumble topping?  Heaven.

Rustic Apple Pie- In a Pie Plate in our 14-incher!

We've been dying to use our new 14 inch Lodge Dutch Oven.  We got in months ago, but alas, there just isn't a whole lot that you can make in a 14-incher that would suit two people.  But, after watching Billy & Sue Ruiz on Cowboy Flavor (RFD TV) make a Rum Raisin Pie in a regular pie plate then placed in a 14" DO, we thought, "we can do that!"

Erin's parents brought a sack full of fresh apples from their orchard a short while back.  We've been eating on them, but there are still a lot left needing to be used.  With a hankering for an apple pie and desire to use the 14-inch DO, we set out to bake a Rustic Apple Pie.

As American As...

Apple Pie?  Well, these aren't quite apple pie... they are apple dumplings!  These little treats are to die for!!!!  And, not only that, they are as easy to make as they are good.  

Unfortunately, our 12" Dutch oven is a deep dutch oven so it takes a few more coals to cook things than a regular depth Dutch oven would need.

Green Chile Rice and Pumpkin Pie Cobbler

Here are a couple recipes that we fixed just last night for a little barbeque we had  with Matt's cousin and his wife.  We pulled out both Dutch ovens (a standard 10" and a deep 12") to cook up a side dish and a dessert to go along with barbeque chicken breasts on the grill.

Both recipes are really good and super simple to make.  Simple enough that we would do these while camping too.  

Apple Pie Baked Apples

One word:  Yum!

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).

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.