Pictures and posts!

I swear that before this day is over I will add the photoalbum feature and make a significant post!

Off to the campground.

We are going on a scout campout this weekend.  I will be working with group food prep, and we are making mountain man breakfast, shepards pie and I don't know what else.  If it dry enough, there will be bacon on a stick.  Look out!

Whoops! Forgot the picture...

dingalingalingalingaling (dinner bell...)

Improvised dinner recipe.  I had about 3 enormous chicken breasts.  That was it.  Wanted to cook a decent dinner, but had no plan.  Close my eyes... pasta, red sauce... CHEESE!  Check the pantry, old partially used boxes of pasta.  Off to the store.  Let the kid pick out some pasta.  Showed him four styles, he picked a fifth.  Redirect.  Ended up with a largish box of Barilla "Mini Fusilli".  Mental note, trust the kid and unknown option number five.  Need cheese.  Mozerella.  No wait!  Italian Five cheese...  Interesting, unusual, almost diabolical.  Loveley.  Home to the kitchen.
Cut the chicken in half to thin out the breasts a little.  Good move.  Used Panko to bread them, then skillet fried on the 12" over medium heat.  Coated with butter and I'm sizzlin'.  Browning.  Blackening... Wait!  I can still see pink in the mid-strata of the chicken, but the outside is too done.  Pulled them off.  Apologize to the dogs for the swearing.  Check the pinkness, they are close.  Stop cooking, head off to help Mr. Wizard with a house task.  Then, back to the kitchen.  Boil up the pasta.  Out of nowhere... I have an idea!  Pull out the 17" skillet.  Throw it in the oven and preheat to 350.  Pull it out and oil it lightly.  Dump in the cooked and rinsed pasta, with oregano mixed in it.  Pour on a can of tomato sauce.  Lay the chicken on top of the pasta.  Needs more.  Pour a jar of Ragu pizza sauce all over it.  Needs more red.  Pour on another can of tomato sauce to fill out the color.  Sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan.  Then, 2 cups of of some italian 5-cheese mix that is mostly mozerella.  Into the oven to cook at 350 for 30 minutes. 
Result: The chicken finished out, and stayed very moist, the cheese melted wonderfully.  The panko soaked in enough sauce to lose any taste of blackening.  I actually felt italian while eating both unnecessarily large helpings.  Mmmm.  Ciao'!
Love and iron, Del.

Taking a Break

I am off today, and working aroud the house.  I thought I would take a break for a few minutes and my mind wandered to cast iron.  I have everything stacked in a cupboard, but have to relenquish the space that I sort of just "claimed".  So without something decorative to display these beautiful pieces of iron in the dining room, I guess they are off to the workroom on the other side of the garage, also known as "the man room".  I suppose if I keep the doors closed, they will be okay.  Nothing else in the man room has ever fallen prey to humidity damage.  I feel sort of sad about doing this, though.  It takes everything out of the immediate area, which for some reason gives me the "out of sight, out of mind" feeling.  I guess I am emotionally attached to my cast iron.  Sad.  Weird.  Whatever.
I can't help but think, though, that it would be glorious to see a lovely wooden shelving unit in the corner of the dining room with a display of all the different sizes and shapes of iron.  Yummy!  While I have not started obsessing, I will admit to cruising retail sites looking at camp kitchens.  I am always looking at applications to outdoor life, especially campsite cooking.    These things are kind of cool, with the "folds up into a suitcase", and chinese puzzle fold up capability.  It seems like, though, the cooking surface is made to hold a propane stove, and not a sheet pan of charcoal and two dutch ovens.  Camp chef has some neat stuff, but when you don't feel like spending anything at all, everything is too expensive.  I am also looking at carts for the chuck box that is currently under construction.  I seem to be zeroing in on the portable table saw stand.  I know there is one out there that does not cost $300, but does everything I want.  We'll see.

Okay, break's over, back to work for me.  Doing the taxes...:(
Love and iron, Del

Okay, I screwed up. Whadayagonnado?

Last night I decided to make Little Brother Mark's pot pie.  Sounded simple enough.  I used my 8"2qt, 2 cans of chunky chicken corn chowder and some bisquick.  I poured the filling/soup into the dutch, mixed the bisquick with milk until it was a very thick paste.  I spackled this onto the top of the filling.  I should have been immediately suspicious when the weight of the bisquick caused large portions to start to sink like Atlantis.  I did my best to manipulate this into a covering, only to mild success.  I was expecting a cook time of around 30-35 minutes.  At 1 hour and 10 minutes, my ever-patient spouse started looking for dinner alternates for my son, who was starting to close in on his bed time.  The topping just never looked right.  It had some lovely browned peaks on it, but there was nothing that resembled breading on top of a pot pie.  My family was gracious, and managed to eat the filling out from under the topping.  I stubbornly consumed what I could.  In the words of Randy Jackson, "Yo, Dawg, it wasn't good."  I brought the leftovers to work for dinner the following evening, thinking it would somehow transform during refrigerated hypersleep.  Upon opening the tupperware for my meal break, I was reminded of some of the creature incarnations of John Carpenter's "The Thing".  I thought at first there was an entire chicken breast that had reformed.  But it was a giant dough lump, swimming in the remnants of some otherwise tasty chicken corn chowder.  I hoped that the liberal aplication of hot sauce would kick start the dish like a difribulator, but alas, it was truly unpalatable.  I am wallowing in my hunger now, using this moment to guide me as I discover, share and make up recipes.  But I can also use it as a reminder that I will make mistakes... and that it is okay.  I just can't share it while gleefully chanting "I meant to do that!"
Love and (gurgle... grumble... sorry, that's my stomach) Iron, Del

Oh, one more thing...

Now, if I could only figure out how to add a photo album...