Smoked Turkey & Biscuits

March 14, 2010: The snow has finally melted, and Matt and Erin can begin Dutch Oven cooking again.

We have had snow on the ground since the first week in December. So, not only did it snow a lot this past year, but it stayed and stayed. Just last weekend, there was still a lot of snow on the ground and it was pretty cold. Then, in the past week, we've gotten warmer weather and rain which has dissolved those snow piles quite rapidly. Finally, spring seems to be on its way, and we are more than ready to start our outdoor cooking.

Haven't we had enough...

SNOW, that is? Winter has been awful this year. I think Des Moines is going to break a record for total snow fall this year. Not only has there been a lot of snow, it has stayed. Piles and piles and piles of snow. When will it go away so we can start using our D.O.??

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.