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.

Dutch Oven Garlic Herb Bread

After a long day at work, we were ready to put this bread together, bake it in the Dutch oven and serve it up with the Venison Chili that had been cooking all day long in the crock-pot.  So, we were sure disappointed when it started raining- a lot.  Too much to make it very easy to cook on the coals.

Luckily, we had recently been given a 10" Lodge Dutch oven without legs.  So, I guess the rain gave us an opportunity to bake Dutch Oven Bread inside.  Anyway, though this site is mostly dedicated to outdoor cooking, we make the rules! :-)

Loaded Baked Potato Dip- 10" D.O.

We had an early Christmas celebration with family last weekend at the family farm in Southern Iowa.  Rather than having a big meal before a small fireworks display (Shhhhh.... don't tell on us!) and present opening, we fixed up a variety of appetizers.  We contributed this dip, cooked in our 10" Dutch oven, for the festivities.

This recipe is based on one found from www.kraftrecipes.com, but has a few changes to it that met our tastes a little better.  This would be a great appetizer at the campground while you are cooking up a hearty meal in your other Dutch Ovens!

Anadama Bread

We sure hope you all had as lovely of a Thanksgiving as we did.  We are certainly thankful for all that we have been blessed with: great kids, great family & friends, a new home, plenty of food, gainful employment, and the list goes on. 

We hosted Thanksgiving this year- just a small little gathering.  Though small, it still is a lot of work to put together!  Wanting to make at least one dish with a Dutch oven, Matt did a search for a bread recipe wanting something new to us and "fall-like".  He went with Anadama Bread, a sweet yeasted bread made with molasses and cornmeal.

Beef Stroganoff

It was a guys camping and fishing weekend, and Matt was in charge of the food.  After talking up the biscuits and gravy we made a few camping trips ago, Matt's friend Nick requested them for breakfast.  For suppers they made chicken fajitas and beef stroganoff.  

The picture here were taken on Matt's phone- so it doesn't really do the dish justice.  Matt said that the dish was really good even before the sour cream was added.  But, if you leave the sour cream out, it isn't really a stroganoff, right?

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.