Chuck Box

I finally spent the time this spring to build a chuck box for our little Gnometown pop up camper.

We always stored our kitchen wares in a deep plastic tote in the camper and it was a pain to dig through to locate the specific thing I happened to be looking for at the time.

Our Suwannee festivarian buddy, Wayne had a chuck box for his camp kitchen, and I always envied it.
After much procrastination I decided to tackle the job, and I think the end result is worthy of Gnometown.

Everything fits in it's place. I added a couple of plastic drawers on the left side to store small and/or loose items.

I originally designed it for legs, but it was a bit tricky to set up. I went back to the drawing board and bought two poly-type folding saw horses from Lowes to use as legs in camp. (Different saw horses shown in these pics).

Black Betty used her superior skills with a brush to stain and urethane.

Side view shows chest handles.

• There are lots of sources online to find various construction ideas. Many are from Boy Scout sites. 
• I literally took a look at what I wanted to put in it and designed the dimensions of the box and the shelving from that. 
• I checked and double checked to make sure it would stow away in the pop up, and fit through the door.
• I used 5/8 sanded plywood and pre-drilled, glued, and screwed every thing together.
• As you guessed by now, this thing is heavy. It will take two of us to set it up on the saw horses in camp.

Dutch Oven Venison Meatloaf

I am a hiker not a hunter but I do love the taste of game meat, so whenever folks offer it to me I am more than happy to take it off their hands. Recently I found myself in possession of 3 pounds of ground venison and I decided that a dutch oven meatloaf would be mighty tasty.

Mix together thoroughly:
3lbs. ground venison
1 lb. ground pork sausage
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup ketchup
2 eggs
1 pkg. Lipton onion soup mix

Form into a loaf.
Use the basket weaving skills that you acquired in college and neatly cover the top of the loaf with any thick sliced bacon that you would like.

Bake in a 12 inch medium heat Dutch oven for 1 hour or until meat reaches 160 degrees internal temperature.

Notes:
I used 20 charcoals on top and 10 on bottom. 
The sausage was added since the venison was so lean, the added fat was perfect.
About halfway through the cooking, I carefully removed the lid from the D.O. and drained the fat.
I mixed my loaf ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.
Let it stand for a few minutes after baking and before slicing and carving.
I use a digital remote thermometer, I love it.
I would have taken it off at 150 degrees, but went to 160 because of the pork.
This meatloaf was moist and delicious, everyone loved it. 

In the pot.

A thing of beauty!

Apple-Smoked Maple-Glazed Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin.

Smoky bliss!

I got this recipe from my good friends over at http://camp-cook.com/.  Camp Cook is a wonderful resource for campfire cooking, dutch oven cooking, grilling, BBQ, and everything or anything the camp cook needs to know. The real experts are over there, give it a look.

INGREDIENTS

For the Brine
2 cups water
1 cup Dale’s Seasoning
1 cup pure maple syrup (we stocked up in Maine this summer)
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp cracked pepper or coarse ground pepper
1 Tbsp rubbed sage
2-3 bay leaves
5 large garlic cloves, smashed 

For the Tenderloin
Pork tenderloin, (mine were 7 lbs together, so they were about 3 and 4 lbs each)
2 -3 lbs. sliced bacon
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Cracked pepper or coarse ground pepper
1 cup pure maple syrup 


HOW TO MAKE IT

Brine
Bring all brine ingredients to a boil, stirring to mix well.
Turn off heat and let cool.
When completely cooled pour into a plastic bowl with lid and submerge tenderloin. 
(Mine didn't submerge so I turned them a few times. The original recipe used 2 qts. of water in the brine. I didn't want to water it down that much and just used 2 cups).
Let these tenderloins soak overnight or longer.

Bacon Prep (Do this right before cooking)

Take the maple syrup and put in a bowl, add about 2 tsp or more of cracked pepper
Mix together well. Separate your strips of bacon and set aside. 

Pork Loin Prep
Remove loin from brine – DO NOT throw out the brine if you're smoking or grilling, set aside.
Pat loin dry with paper towel
Season loin with garlic powder, onion powder, and a little cracked pepper.
Take the tapered end of the pork loin and fold it over, hold it together. Dip 1 strip of bacon in the maple pepper mix then wrap tightly around the folded piece of tenderloin. Overlap your bacon and wrap tightly so you do not have loose ends or sagging pieces – if done correctly you won’t have to use toothpicks to keep the bacon in place.
Continue dipping the bacon and wrapping the entire loin. At the end of the last piece of bacon, tuck the end under another tightly wrapped piece of bacon to hold in place.

Take any leftover maple syrup that you dipped your bacon in and evenly pour over the loin.
Sprinkle bacon wrapped loins with a little more pepper (if you haven’t already gone wild with the pepper in the maple syrup and on the pork loin). Place the loins in the smoker and smoke at 200 – 220 degrees until the meat reaches 165 degrees, remove, wrap in foil and let rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting and serving. 

* By the way, the USDA now says that you can cook pork roasts to 145 degrees: USDA Recommended Cooking Temps 

I used my old charcoal smoker with apple wood chunks and chips. Any good smoking wood would be fine. 
The pork smoked for about 5 1/2 hours to reach the 145 degree temp.  It was moist, melt in your mouth delicious! I fed 6 adults and 6 kids, with plenty left over. 

If you decide to try this recipe, I would appreciate if you send me a comment and let me know how you liked it.

Thanks, Hometown Hiker.

Sliced and diced.

Black Betty served it up with mashed potatoes, corn salad, and green bean casserole.

Dutch Oven Pineapple Express

This is a little variation on my Brown Apple Betty that I like to make when we go camping. Instead of apples it uses canned peaches and pineapple and can be baked in either a 10 or 12 inch Dutch oven.

Before leaving the house, mix together the following dry ingredients and place in a big ziplock bag:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup oats
3/4 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg


When you are ready to cook, drain the syrup and juice from the cans of fruit and spread evenly on the bottom of the Dutch oven. I use:
2-29oz cans peach halves in light syrup
2-15oz cans pineapple chunks in juice.

Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the top of the fruit.
Slice one stick of butter into 1/2 inch pieces and place evenly around on the top.

Cover and bake with about 8 briquettes on the bottom and 13 on the top.
Cook for 45 minutes or so. The topping should be brown when it's done.

At home I serve it with ice cream, in camp I use whipped cream. (The canned stuff keeps just fine in an ice cooler). Either way it's delicious!

Dutch Oven Apple Brown Betty

Here's a quick and easy dessert that is delicious to eat. The dry ingredients can be mixed together and placed in a ziplock bag ahead of time if you want to fix this one while camping. To make things easier you can even prepare the apples before leaving home and put them in ziplocks in the cooler.

I used the recipe from Texas Treasury of Dutch Oven Cooking .

Grandma 20's Apple Brown Betty

Mix together: 6 cups tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced. (I used Granny Smiths)
                     1/2 cup sugar.

Spread evenly over bottom of Dutch Oven.

Top with:  1 cup brown sugar
                1 cup oats
                3/4 cup flour
                1/2 cup softened butter
                1 cup pecans (I used halves)
                2 tsp cinnamon
                1 tsp nutmeg

Bake in 10" or 12" dutch oven using 8 briquets on the bottom and 14 briquets on the top for 20 or 30 minutes.
It's done when apples are tender and topping is brown. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Dutch Oven Chicken Fajitas

I've been thinking about throwing this one together for a few weeks and finally got it in the pot tonight. It's a tasty and easy to cook meal which will feed the hungry family. I used a 12" camp dutch oven.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. chicken breasts cut into 1" pieces
2 tbs. olive oil
1 pkg fajita seasoning
1 red bell pepper, sliced and seeds removed
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced with seeds removed
2 onions sliced
4 small zucchinis, sliced
3 tomatillas, diced
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Preparation:
Start by firing up about 36 charcoal briquettes in the chimney starter.
When they are hot place a solid layer of briquettes underneath the dutch oven, heating the olive oil.
When oil is hot, lightly brown all sides of the chicken pieces.
Add 1/4 cup hot water and the fajita seasoning.
Add the veggies.
Put the lid on the oven.
Arrange briquettes so that about 12 are below the oven and the remaining 24 are on the top of the lid.
Cook for about 45 minutes.

Serving:
Eat them wrapped in tortillas or serve them over rice.
Some folks like sour cream and grated cheese with them.
We served them with salsa verde. Picante would be good.

The Verdict:
Pretty, colorful, and very good flavor. All the ingredients were perfectly cooked and tender. Black Betty and the kids liked them. I thought they were a little too wet. Next time I will omit the water.

Dutch Oven Braised 7 Hour Leg of Lamb

We received a call this week from our friends at Slagle Farms informing us our spring lambs were ready, so I ran down to take a look at the freezer and discovered that we still had one leg of lamb left from last spring. I decided to take the plunge and try a 7 hour wine braise on this one. I can tell you that I now understand what all the fuss is about. This is absolutely the best leg of lamb I've ever tasted. I did end up cheating a little, and although I used my good old 12 inch Lodge cast iron camp dutch oven, I cooked it in the oven instead of outside with coals. This was due to several things (other irons in the fire) I had going on, and I didn't want to have to spend the day babysitting the dutch oven.

Ingredients:
bone in leg of lamb (4-5 lbs)
sea salt, black pepper, dried basil, 10 cloves garlic
olive oil
4 large onions sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 lb. bag of little carrots
6 potatoes peeled and cut into 1-2 " chunks
2 cans low sodium chicken broth
2 - 3 cups white wine (I used a Chardonnay)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 300F degrees.
Stud the lamb with 10 or 12 fat garlic spikes.
Brush it with the olive oil and then rub in the salt, pepper, and dried basil. I would have used additional herbs but this was all I had in the kitchen.
Heat a few tbs. olive oil in the bottom of the dutch oven and brown the lamb.
Remove lamb from dutch oven and pour in wine. Heat to boiling and reduce. Meanwhile add remaining garlic crushed to wine. Add additional basil.
Add the sliced onions and carrots into the wine mixture.
Set browned lamb gently on top of onions and carrots in dutch oven.
Surround lamb with potatoes.
Carefully pour in chicken broth around the edges and continue to heat to simmer.
Add additional spices and herbs if wanted.
Place lid on dutch oven.
Bake at 300F degrees for 7 hours.
(After about 4 hours, I did carefully turn the meat over one time)

To serve:
This is a one dish complete meal. The meat is so tenderly braised that it does actually fall off the bone. I separated the meat from the bone and served it and the vegetables with the deliciously aromatic and flavorful juices.

The bottom line is that this lamb is tender, moist, and wonderfully delicious. As an added bonus, my house smelled heavenly all day while it cooked, and it was an incredibly easy one dish clean up.

Double Dutch Stacked Dinner/Stuffed Acorn Squash with Ham Patties and Potatoes

I called this one "The Double Dutch Stacked Dinner" because I liked the name, but in reality, it is baked acorn squash stuffed with apples and raisins in the bottom pot and ground ham patties with potatoes in the top pot. I'll break it down into two separate recipes.

Start by firing up 36 briquettes.

I used a 12" and 10" dutch oven.

I also used a 10" cast iron frying pan.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ingredients:

2 acorn squash

2 large apples (your choice) peeled, cored, chopped

4 tbs golden raisins

4 tbs melted butter

4 tbs brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Cut the squash in halves and scoop out seeds with a tablespoon.

Pour about 1/2" boiling water in a 12" dutch oven.

Place squash, cut side down in pot. Place lid.

Bake for about 30 minutes with 6 briquettes below oven and 18 on lid.

During this time combine the rest of your ingredients for the stuffing in a glass bowl.

Also prepare the following vegetables for top pot:

Top Pot Veggies

Ingredients:

white potatoes (a few handfuls) cut in half and sliced

1 onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves of garlic (I missed this one)

3 tbs olive oil

salt, pepper, dried herbs (your choice)

Place the olive oil in the bottom of a 10" dutch oven.

Put the remainder of ingredients in the dutch oven and place lid.

At this time carefully remove the lid from the 12" dutch oven and turn the squash halves over.

Stuff the center of each squash with the apple/raisin mixture.

Place the lid (coals still on it) back on the pot.

Stand the 10" pot on the 12" pot.

Put 12 hot briquettes on lid.

Let these cook for an hour.

At this point, I started preparing my ham patties:

Ground Ham Patties

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground ham (I bought a reduced sodium ham steak and ground it in the food processor)

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup soft bread crumbs

2 eggs

Combine the ingredients and form 6 patties.

Brown both sides in cast iron fry pan with olive oil.

Remove from pan when brown and set aside.

After the pots have cooked for one hour, remove the lid on top pot.

Gently stir the potatoes and place the ham patties on top of the veggies.

Carefully replace lid (with coals).

Bake for 30 more minutes.

Serve and eat... it's good stuff!

Dutch Oven Pork Roast with Apples and Onions

Ingredients:
4 lb. Pork Loin End Roast
Fresh Garlic
Fresh Sage
Fresh Rosemary
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
2 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 cup White Wine (I used Chardonnay)
2 cups organic Apple Juice (I wanted cider)
2 Granny Smith Apples, one sliced, one cut into 1" cubes
4 small Vidalia Onions sliced

Prepare the roast in the morning by trimming the visible fat. Stab the top of the roast with a sharp knife and liberally insert fat garlic slivers. Rub the roast with salt and pepper. Chop sage and rosemary, mix with olive oil, and rub on roast. Wrap meat and place in fridge.

To Cook
Prepare 22 charcoal briquettes.
Simmer the apple juice, wine, and cubed apple into a sauce pan on the stove top.
Place the hot briquettes underneath the dutch oven and brown the pork roast all sides.
When it's brown, take roast out of dutch oven and remove 15 briquettes from below dutch oven (leaving about 7).
Place sliced apple in the bottom of the dutch oven.
Set roast on top of apples, surround with sliced onions.
Pour heated juice over the top.
Place the lid on the oven and place the remaining briquettes (should be about 15) on top.
Cook for about 2 to 2 1/2 hrs until it reaches an internal temp of 170 degrees.
Remove roast, place on counter top covered with foil.
Pour juice in sauce pan and heat to thicken (I did use a little cornstarch).

To Serve
Slice thin, serve with au jus.
We ate the onions and apples on the side (in au jus) and served a green salad and cous-cous.

It's a keeper! It was a big hit with the fam and fed 4 hungry adults and 3 kids, with left overs.

The apple-wine-onion combination really worked and was something deliciously different to my taste.

Next time I cook this dish I will add more sliced apples. We wanted more!

Dutch Oven Savory Beans with Ham

Beans and cornbread are one of my favorite comfort foods. Growing up in a family with seven brothers and sisters I ate plenty of beans and cornbread as a kid. My dad was enlisted in the Air Force and it was an easy and inexpensive meal that my mother could fix to feed all of our hungry mouths. My kids in turn were also raised eating beans and cornbread and it remains a favorite around the Hometown Hiker's homestead.

For this bean dish, I used dried mixed beans, leftover ham chunks together with a leftover leg of lamb bone and cooked it in my dutch oven. I served it with my special buttermilk Mexican cornbread. Man oh Man! You can't go wrong with that!

Here's the deal:

Beans and ham
Ingredients:
big bag (2lbs. 8 oz) of dried beans
2 cups leftover ham chunks
leg of lamb bone
2 medium vidalia onions diced
sea salt and ground black pepper (to taste)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cayenne

I soaked the beans overnight.
In the morning, I put ham chunks and leg bone in the bottom of a 12 qt. dutch oven.
I added drained beans, onions, and spices to the pot and covered with boiling water.
At this point I put the lid on the dutch oven and cooked with 6 briquettes below and 12 briquettes on the lid.
I kept the fire going, replenishing briquettes two additional times and cooked for 8 hours.
The beans were perfectly done and delicious!

Hometown's Buttermilk Mexican Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

1 cup white flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 farm eggs, beaten

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter

2 jalapenos, diced

1 cup southwest style whole kernel corn

1 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients and blend well.

Add eggs and buttermilk and stir until smooth.

Add jalapenos, corn, and 1 cup of cheese. Stir it up!

At this point I melt butter in the bottom of my 11'' cornbread cookin' skillet.

Pour batter on top of melted butter.

Place in hot oven for 20 minutes.

Open oven door and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese on top.

Bake for an additional 10 minutes until golden brown and cooked to perfection.

                             

This stuff is to die for! Serve with a cold glass of milk and enjoy!

                             

                              

Dutch Oven Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder

Here's another cut of lamb that I cooked in my dutch oven this weekend. 

I browned two small (bone-in) lamb shoulders in a hot pan with 2 tbs olive oil on the stove top.
After browning I removed them from the pan and let them cool for a few minutes.
I scored the top of each shoulder with a knife and rubbed in a mixture of: garlic, fennel seed, basil, and rosemary which I crushed and then added olive oil, salt and pepper. (Sorry I didn't measure)
I placed the lamb in a 12 quart dutch oven.
I poured 3 tbs of lemon juice and 1 can of low sodium chicken broth over the meat and then tossed in 6 peeled cloves of  garlic.

To start, I used a hot fire placing 12 briquettes below the dutch oven and 24 on the lid.
After three hours I brushed off the ash and placed 6 briquettes beneath the dutch oven and 12 on the lid.
I left it to cook an additional 4 hours.

This is what I saw when I removed the lid:

I removed the bones and fat from the meat.
I placed the pan juices in a separate bowl and refrigerated.
(On this particular occasion I elected to cook the day before eating.)

Before eating, I skimmed the congealed fat off the top of the pan juices and heated it on the stove top. I warmed the meat in a low-heat oven. We served the lamb with mashed potatoes (with juices drizzled over) and green peas.

This lamb dish was unbelievably succulent. Although the shoulder cut is full of bone and fat, slow, moist roasting allows the meat to fall off the bone and the fat is easily separated. What you are left with is nothing but absolutely delicious lamb meat. We loved it!

Dutch Oven Beef Pot Roast with Beer and Veggies

I've bought some really good local beef, raised right, no hormones, no antibiotics, allowed to roam the fields. You know, good stuff, not your usual grocery store variety feed-lot beef. Hell yes, you can tell a world of difference. But anyway, I decided to break out the Dutch oven again. Here's what I did:

I had a 4 lb. fresh rump roast cut from this beef. I rubbed it with salt, pepper, adobo seasoning, garlic flakes, and lots of smoked paprika. I rewrapped it in the butcher paper and stuck it back into the fridge overnight. I prepared a hot 12" dutch oven with 12 coals underneath it and heated about 1/8 cup of cooking oil. When the oil got hot, I browned the roast on all sides, leaving it with the thin fat layer on top.
I then poured a bottle of beer (NA Coors is what I had) into the pot and added my veggie mix (which consisted of a quartered large onion, about 6 medium potatoes cut into 1" squares, a cup or so of baby carrots cut in half, and several chopped cloves of garlic). The veggies were seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried basil.  I placed the lid on the oven, gave it a spin to ensure that it was on tight, and placed 24 hot coals on the top of the lid.

I pulled the lid after two hours and stuck a meat thermometer down in it. It was still pretty rare at this point (120F) so I built back some coals and left it for another hour. This is what I saw when I pulled the lid the second time.

It was truly delicious; the beef was extraordinarily flavorful and the veggies were perfect. The paprika had a little heat to it, and added with the beer and juices, it was hard to beat. The family loved it, and no one seemed to want to back away from the table. It'll be a keeper, for sure!

Note: This roast ended up being more on the medium well side of doneness, which was fine for my daughter's family, but my wife and I could have eaten it more on the medium rare side. Next time (for us), I would probably take it off about a half hour earlier.

Dutch Oven Leg of Lamb

We bought two spring lambs from our friends Dan and Kathy out in Cartoogechaye. So now I've got a freezer full of delicious, local lamb, and I've also got a new Dutch oven that I've been wanting to break in.  So, what do you think I came up with?  I decided to invite the fam over for some Dutch oven roasted leg o' lamb.

Searching the net for Dutch oven roasted leg of lamb didn't really yield me too many results (most were for braised 7-hour lamb), but I did find a site about Dutch oven meat which gave me some good pointers. I followed its advice pretty closely, with a few changes.

This is what I did.  I studded the lamb with a generous number of garlic spikes and rubbed it with olive oil, black pepper, rosemary, salt, and more garlic and then let it sit in the fridge over night.  I placed it on a rack in my 12" oven, surrounded by potatos and onions which themselves were oiled and seasoned.  I placed 12 briquettes below the oven and 24 on the lid.  I cooked it for 2 hrs, took it out, and let it sit for another 20 minutes before carving it.  It was done perfectly, rare to medium rare; it couldn't have been any better!  The fam loved it; it melted in my mouth, just like prime rib. I would say that this recipe is a keeper!

This is what I saw when I pulled the lid off the pot: