“DO” ing Mother’s Day

For Mother’s day, Senior Management and I had both of our families (although incomplete) to our house for breakfast & a bike ride. Breakfast seemed to be a success.

The dish I made for breakfast is one that a member of the camp-cook.com forum shared during the Desert Week Cook off.  And it is actually the dish that won! Here is the recipe as Barb Anderson’s husband John put it for his Desert Week entry.

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Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
by Jennifer Jordan and Barb Anderson SoCal IDOS

2 ¼ Cup flour (I substituted a Gluten Free mix)
¾ Cup sugar
¾ Cup butter
½ Teaspoon baking powder
½ Teaspoon baking soda
!/4 Teaspoon salt
¾ Cup sour cream
1 egg
1 Teaspoon almond extract
8 oz, package cream cheese, softened
¼ Cup sugar
1 egg
½ Cup raspberry preserves

Barbra bakes this in a 10-inch Dutch oven or in a spring-form pan in a 12-inch Dutch oven. Grease and flour the pan you use.
In a large bowl, combine flour and ¾ cup sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup of mixture for topping later. To the rest add baking powder, baking soda, salt, sour cream, 1 egg and almond extract. Blend well. Spread over bottom and slightly up sides of oven or pan. Should be about ¼-inch think on sides.
In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, ¼ cup sugar and 1 egg. Blend well and pour over batter in pan. Carefully spoon preserves over this filling.
Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes until filling is set and crust is deep golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes. Cut into wedges.

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So that was it.  It was good but needs a bit perfecting for next time.  I think I’d add more preserves next time.

Here are some pictures.

I made it in a Silicone pan so I could quickly re-use my DO

MMMMMM Preserves

Made it in the 14″ in a Silicone pan

Final Product

No black Iron here…Maybe for Father’s day

Cedar Planks & Seasonings

I made a quick meal recently: Cedar planked Salmon with rice & red bell peppers.

This is my own recipe and it was a great time to try out some new sauces & spices I’ve found.  Being allergic to wheat severely limits what I can eat. Any food with a “Modified Starch – Corn or food” is usually modified with wheat.  This means that canned soups, soy sauce, yogurt, some cheeses, almost all salad dressings, & many other items that we wouldn’t expect to have wheat in them – actually do.  The same goes for medications packed in starches.  My conclusion:  If the United States has a wheat shortage -similar to ancient Rome- we’re going to seriously hurt.

Since starches are so prevalent, I was surprised when Senior Management & I met Ron Maurer.  This guy makes his own spices & sauces that are not only amazingly good but also wheat free.  Maurer Foods is the supplier for these two products.  I plan to work through their entire inventory(it is that good).

Living in the northwest, cedar or alder planked salmon is quite common and usually associated with this area of the United States.  I thought I would follow the stereo type and get in touch with my NW roots.  Baking Cedar Planks are expensive so I decided to make my own.  I purchased an untreated Cedar board (6 foot) at Lowes and machined my own planks with my table saw & planer.  As it turns out, this board cost me $3 and I can make about 25 baking planks from it.  Commercial planks are about $19 for 5 (business idea?).  I seasoned them just like one would season a Dutch Oven.  This way the food wouldn’t stick to them and I can reuse them (although after making this dish, I broke one…oh well I guess I can only make 22 more).

My Cedar Planked Salmon recipe:

2 salmon fillets (about the size of 1.5 decks of cards)
Maurer’s “Essence of the Northwest” Seasoning
Maurer’s “Spicy Ginger” Marinade

After rubbing the fillets with the Northwest Seasoning, I put the salmon into the marinade for about 1/2 hour (during which I got the DO warm).  Then I planked them & baked for about 20 min (or until the fish flakes).

The Rice was pretty plain & I don’t plan to repeat it so no use putting up a recipe for it.  It would disappoint anyone who plans to make it.

Overall, this is a fast meal (about 1 hour) and very good fish (although I’d rework the rice dish).

Maurer’s Sauces & Spices

Marinating the Salmon

My Kitchen

This is where I cook

I seasoned my own cedar planks

Final Rice dish

Baking the Salmon

A Close Up of the Baking

The Final Meal

It’s Dinner!

A Mini DOG

My high-school teaching life has been all consuming recently.  After 7 years of teaching, I have come to expect that a teacher, in the month of May, will accomplish one task: work my tail off until my students graduate from high school.  Consequently, progress on the jPod is merely a nice idea.  The only actual progress I’ve made is designing some graphics to cut out of sheet metal & embed in the counter top for the galley (see my other project that inspired the counter top).

However, I spared 1/2 of a Sunday, so that my family & friends were all able to put together a little Dutch Oven Gathering (DOG) at our house (Pictures below).  This was a great deal of fun & we hope to do it again.  Among my father-in-law, father, & I we have the following Iron:

• 1 – 10″ Camp Chef DO
• 1 – 14″ Camp Chef DO
• 2 – 5″ Lewis & Clark Commemorative Edition DO
• 1 – 12″ Deep Lodge DO
• 1 – 12″ Lodge DO
• 1 – 14″ Lodge DO
• 1 – 10″ Lodge DO

Our Menu was determined by each of us individually & we simply shared our eclectic mix of foods for our meal.

My Menu:

• Chili – Described in my previous post: Bent & Not Broken) – Gluten Free
• Biscuits – my first shot at a bread product and it turned out alright!
• Blueberry Buckle (adapted from Kellene’s Recipe) – My changes to her recipe -besides the Dutch Oven: hand thickened blueberries -not canned & used a gluten free cake mix instead of the yellow cake mix she uses.  This is really good stuff. Great work Kellene!

My Father-In-Law’s Menu:

• Chili topped with Cornbread – A home made recipe of his that filled the back yard with lovely smells.
• Blackberry Cobbler – So thick & yummy.

My Father’s Menu:

• Lasagna – This was amazing & was several layers thick. The dish was put together by Travis, a good friend. – Gluten Free
• Greek Olive Bread – Amazing bread that was moist & very tasty (Gluten Free).
• Broccoli covered in garlic infused Olive Oil – This is a family favorite since my childhood. Although it was the first time it was done in a DO.

So we ate, had left-overs, & dream of doing it again.  It seems that this Dutch Oven addiction is beginning to be a family thing.  Food, Folks, & Triple Bypasses here we come.

The “Kitchen”

I start my Chili & Mom shoots Photos

My Chili

Travis Makes the Lasagna

Layers of the Lasagna

Lasagna Ready to Go

Lasagna Cooking (Amazingly good)

Bubbles in the Lasagna

Final Lasagna

My In-Laws start their Chili

My Father-in-law’s chili (Before Cornbread topping)

Father-in-law’s final Chili & Cornbread

My Father-in-law’s Blackberry Cobbler is ready to bake

Final: Blackberry Cobbler

My First Try at Biscuits

I had 2 Biscuits left. They formed themselves into this shape.

Whoever this is, they’ve been tanning! he he

Senior Managment pours the batter into the thickened Blue Berries

Before Baking the Buckle

The Final Blueberry Buckle

The Final Blueberry Buckle: Up Close

My Dad’s Greek Olive Bread

Dad Checks his Broccoli

Roasted Garlic for the Broccoli

Dad mixes in the Olive oil & garlic

The final Broccoli & garlic dish

My Father-In-Law’s Pots

Dad’s Stack of Pots

The Final Product (not all dishes are pictured)