If you missed the other parts of my fun weekend, here is part 1 and part 2.
Sunday’s class was my favorite! Of course because it is food related, right?
Now there are 2 types of dutch ovens, the indoor ones with the smooth bottom and the outdoor ones with the little feet and lipped lid. They come in all different sizes and the best ones are made of cast iron.
The nice thing about these is that you can cook whatever outside and not have to heat up your oven. You can do casseroles, desserts, breads, rolls, roasts and not heat up the inside of your house, so don’t think they are just for camping! There really is no concrete story about how the name came about.
Before we prepped the food, we got some charcoal going with a chimney. No lighter fluid needed!
This person just lit that one, which is why she is so close to it. You don’t really want to stay that close 😀
We made several different dishes. I was on team dessert!
Take note of good idea here. Empty the brownie mix into a big ziplock bag. Then right the rest of the ingredients needed on the outside. You then mix everything up in the ziplock bag, saving the need to bring a mixing bowl to your outdoor event!
We lined the dutch oven with a parchment liner for easy cleanup and then layered in the graham crackers.
Then my partner mixed up the batter in the bag:
Then poured it over the graham crackers.
Then we lidded it up and took it outside. I checked out what others were making.
Lasagna. This was the mixing stage before layering in the dutch oven. If you take this camping or to a BBQ, it is easier to bring precooked meat as you don’t have to worry about cross contamination.
Then there was the veggie casserole. This was a mixture of beans and frozen veggies with some honey mustard dressing, topped with crescent rolls for a crust:
There was another chicken and rice dish which went out before I got a picture of it. And then as our first test item – cinnamon rolls. Just straight up Pillsbury. Semi-homemade at its best 
With a baked good like this, it is a good idea to use an inner dish on a trivet to keep the bottoms from burning. Nobody likes burned buns 😀
Now the lids go on and you put coals on top and coals underneath. There are equations and such to figure out how many coals, but you basically take the number on the lid (which is the size pot) and add 3 to that number for the coals on top, and subtract 3 from that number for coals on the bottom. This is a general rule of thumb.
Ours was a 12 inch pot, so that meant 15 coals on top and 9 underneath.
Can you believe that cooks the food? I was totally amazed by that. Of course, you will replace those coals a few times depending on what you are cooking, but that’s it! The cast iron gets ripping hot and is equivalent to a 350 degree oven with just these coals.
I am not really sure why we spread ourselves out so much, but that isn’t necessary. You actually can stack pots on top of each other using the coals on one pot’s lid to be the bottom coals for another. How cool!
Cinnamon rolls were small, so they cooked up first.
Yum! We frosted and ate these. Very moist, too. Who wouldn’t want that on a cold night in front of a fire?
Our dish had 2 steps. Once the brownies were almost done, we had to add marshmallows and chocolate chips and then lid it back up again for another 10 minutes or so for them to melt.
Dessert first? Yes please:
These were really good, I have to say! Ooey and gooey.
Check out the lasagna!
We used the no cook noodles in this recipe.
This was sooooo good!
The chicken dish was just some chicken with sliced red onions and honey mustard marinade on the bottom. Then a small rack with an old pot and a package of frozen brown rice was set on top to cook. Clever!
I did not try this one as I was full at this point.
Plus I am not a big fan of red onions. Others raved over it, though.
Then the veggie casserole:
Who needs just frank and beans at a cookout, right? I think I am going to get a dutch oven, at least one of the indoor ones and maybe an outdoor one just for fun!
So, a very nice weekend indeed at a beautiful place!
My husband is “famous” for his dutch oven dump cake:)
So where’s our souvenir s’more? 🙂
I can’t wait to get a proper stove so I can use my cast iron pots and skillets. For what, I don’t know. 🙂
Looks like you had a wonderful time, Lori. Thanks for sharing it with us – now please pass the lasagna? It all looks wonderful, the food and the scenery.
I was waiting for this post! That looks awesome. I am still looking for a dutch oven. I love the fact that you don’t need to be camping to cook over the coals like that.
That is pretty interesting. Did they use tongs to get the coals from the chimney to the oven? Pretty interesting how things got a nice brown crust on top too. I’m getting hungry lol.
Yes, we dumped the chimneys on the ground and used long tongs to move the coals around.
That is some fancy food in those Dutch ovens – I should have my husband look at this post…he and his Boy Scouts love to cook in Dutch ovens, although I don’t know if they do the coal thing – I’ve never heard of that method!
Love u girl! Gotta get that dutch oven for when I go to our farm, or when we have electricity cut outs! I will try baking cake and see how it goes. Thank you!
DANG.
love this and now I HUNGRY.
xo
Carla
OK, I just worked out & am hungry anyway & now more so – YUM and very cool!!!! How fun for you! Love cinnamon rolls!
That saying on the last pic – LOVE! Beautiful pics!
Lori!
I’ve so enjoyed this series of posts! Thanks so much for taking the time to document your adventure! Brought back some memories of girlscouting when my daughter was little. Hugs! deb
Very yummy looking recipes- I can *smell* the cinnamon rolls!
Not that anyone asked 🙂 , but here’s my theory on the term ‘Dutch oven’: the Dutch are supposed to be frugal, right? So a Dutch oven is a cheap oven!
Ahhh–YUM! Dutch oven cooking is the BEST!
OK Lori, of all the outdoorsy things you did, this is the one I would have liked to participate in. Not that I’ll be making coals anytime soon – that would require camping right? But the whole process is just fascinating!
I have friends who camp and the husband has become an expert frittata maker using a dutch over over a campfire. I bet you’d like that.
You can make coals in your driveway! I am so fascinated by the dutch oven process now.
That looks like a really fun class and the food that comes out of the oven looks delicious. What a great weekend you’ve had Lori.
Wow! That’s so cool. I have a dutch oven but have never taken it camping. I’ve saved this email for the next camping trip.
It was cool! There are tons of websites out there dedicated to dutch oven cooking, too. Who knew? Can’t take it along on a hike, but no reason not to for camping or picnicing.
So much fun Lori! Hey, if you want to find really inexpensive cast iron dutch ovens, check out this link:
http://www.ironpotsdepot.com/category_name_Cast-Iron-Dutch-Ovens-Pots_path_14064-14066-10410.html
I love my cast iron pans – I probably have 6 in all different sizes. 😀
Sweet – thanks!
This looks like such an amazing weekend!!!! Glad you shared all the photos/recaps with us. Thanks Lori!!! (I’ve gotta get me a dutch oven at some point!)
oh those cinnamon rolls look amazing! wow what a cool way to cook lori 🙂
I hadn’t seen a dutch oven in action till this past weekend so funny that you did a post about them too 🙂 When I went to the colonial thing down here on Saturday there were women dressed in colonial garb and cutting up cherries for a homemade pie they were going to cook in a dutch over. At the end of the day I saw the finished pie, very pretty, looked like it had been cooked in an oven. Thanks for your BOW weekend recap it was fun reading about all you did 🙂