Mountain Man Breakfasts

Mountain Man Breakfasts

Mountain man breakfast is a standard Dutch oven breakfast, and there are many different takes on it.  I will share a couple of my favorites and hope you will enjoy. These are easy enough to throw together on a weekend for breakfast for a group, and my forever reminder that if you can cook it in a 9x13 you can cook it in a 12” Dutch oven  - so these can be done at home or camping – enjoy….

Mountain Man Breakfast

 

Version #1

This was baked in a 16" Cast Iron Skillet

 2 C Croutons
1/2 Package frozen hash browns
1/2 lb. crisp cooked bacon
1/2 lb. browned sausage
1-2 C Shredded Cheese – your choice – we like Colby Jack
12-18 Eggs

Beat the eggs (optional you can add ½ Milk) and set aside. – this part is scientific – dump croutons, hash browns, sausage, and crumble the bacon into a lightly greased 12” Dutch Oven (or 9x13) pan. Mix up just a little to spread the love around. Sprinkle with cheese, and pour the eggs over the mixture and bake for 30-40 minutes @ 350° or 8 briquettes on the bottom 16 on top. Best test for doneness it to stick a toothpick in the center and if the eggs are set – it’s done.

Version #2

1 package frozen hash browns – I like the cubed or “Southern Style”

2 C cubed ham
½  C diced onion
8-12 eggs
2 C shredded cheese
 

Beat the eggs and set aside. Mix hash browns, ham and onion together and pour into a 12” Dutch Oven  top with eggs and bake 30-40 minutes @ 350° or 8 briquettes on the bottom 16 on top. About 10-minutes before it’s done top with the cheese and melt.  Best test for doneness it to stick a toothpick in the center and if the eggs are set – it’s done.

Version #3

8 slices of day old bread – I like the hearty farm breads or homemade bread – but you can use any…

24 link sausages browned and sliced into pieces (Kitchen scissors work best)
8 eggs
½ tsp salt
¾ tsp mustard powder
2 ½ C Milk divided
4 C shredded cheese
1 Can cream of mushroom soup

Spread the bread cubes into the 12” Dutch Oven (or 9x13 pan) sprinkle the browned sausage and cheese over the top. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until smooth; add the salt, mustard powder, and 2 cups of milk and whisk until evenly blended. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat an oven to 350°. Whisk together the cream of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup milk; pour over the casserole. Bake until firm and golden brown, about 1 1/2 hours.

Just a few examples, these are all very good hearty breakfasts for large groups of people, and fairly inexpensive too.  I like to serve mine with salsa and tortillas you can eat as a casserole or roll them up for a breakfast burrito.

Have fun cookin’

Cyndi

Mediterranean Chicken

So I really need to get a grip on my day to day aspects, so I can blog more than once a month... Sorry all.

So the other day while shopping, saw this new product and it sounded intriguing, Swanson’s ® Flavor boost – 100% natural concentrated broth - and I had a coupon so I thought I’d give it a try. I took the recipe on the back of the box and tweaked it Cyndi style – I hope you’ll like it. I sure did…

Mediterranean Chicken

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1 tablespoon butter
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite size pieces 
1 package (8 ounces) sliced fresh mushrooms (about 2 1/4 cups) 
1 clove garlic, minced – I used the bottled pre minced – It’s easier
1 pint grape tomatoes (about 2 1/2 cups) 
3 green onions, thinly sliced (about 1/3 cup) 

1 small green peppers

2 tablespoons fresh basil – thinly sliced
3 packets Swanson® Flavor Boost™ Concentrated Chicken Broth 
2 tablespoons water 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Feta cheese

Rigatoni pasta

Prepare pasta to package directions – drain and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch skillet (I like my cast iron) over medium-high heat, add the chicken and cook until well browned, stirring often.  Remove the chicken from the skillet.

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and cook until tender, stirring occasionally.

Add the garlic, tomatoes, peppers and onions to the skillet; cook and stir for 1 minute.  Return the chicken to the skillet, season with salt and pepper to taste , stir in 1 tablespoon of basil.  Stir in the Flavor Boost and water; toss with pasta. Serve; topped with feta and remaining basil.

I served this to my family with bread sticks, a very healthy dish; I can picture this with chopped zucchini and maybe some olives also.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Have fun cookin’

Cyndi

Fruit Leather

Fruit Leather - healthy, with no preservatives

Fresh fruit (apricots, peaches, berries, apples, pears,)

Water

Lemon juice or pineapple juice

(3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice or 1/4 C Pineapple Juice)

Wash the fruit. If you working with stone fruit take out the pits, chop the fruit. If working with apples or pears, peel and core them, then chop. Place the fruit in a blender or a food processor with the lemon juice or pineapple juice and puree. (Feel free to mix fruit – like peach/pear, raspberry/pear….etc) Note: when working with berries like strawberries and raspberries – strain the puree through a couple of layers of cheesecloth to remove some of the seeds.

Taste the fruit before proceeding. Note how sweet the fruit is. If very sweet you will not need to add any sugar. If still a little tart, you may need to add some sugar, honey or agave (another option is to use jam to sweeten).

The purée should be very smooth.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with sturdy plastic wrap (the kind that is microwave safe). Pour out the purée into the lined baking sheet to about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness.

Place the baking sheet in the oven; try to keep any plastic wrap from touch the sides of the oven or the oven racks. Also try to make sure that the plastic wrap hasn't folded back over on top of the purée. If this happens, the purée won't dry out. Heat the oven to a low 140°F. If you have a convection setting, use it, it will speed up the process and help dry out the purée. Let dry in the oven like this for as long as it takes for the purée to dry out and form fruit leather. We usually keep it in the oven overnight, so about 8-12 hours. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky, but has a smooth surface.

­ If you have a food dehydrator, follow the manufacturer’s directions. Some suggestions are to put the tray in a Barbeque grill, and leaving covered, in the sun all day. My Mom used to make it the traditional way of tenting the tray with a screen and leave it outside in the sun on a hot day.

When the fruit leather is ready, you can peel it up from the plastic wrap. To store it, roll it in its plastic wrap, put it in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator or freezer. My Mom used to cut them into 1” strips – the precursor to Fruit by the foot®

Yield: 3-4 cups of fruit yield about one baking sheet of fruit leather.

Have fun cookin'

Cyndi

Zucchini Orange (or Lemon) Bread

Zucchini Orange (or Lemon) Bread

As everyone knows zucchini's are easy to grow and one plant produces oodles of zucchinis and 1 zucchini can make lots of zucchini bread. Well Zucchini bread is yummy on it's own but I found this recipe via (you guessed it) Pinterest nancycreative.com - thought I'd give it a try - OH WOW, delish... 
Now the creative side of me thought Hmmmm Lemons - Oranges - why not spin it and try it with oranges - orange zest, orange juice - OH MY GOODNESS......

Here is my version - Check out the link for hers 

ORANGE-ZUCCHINI LOAF WITH ORANGE GLAZE

Makes one 9×5″ loaf

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

Juice of 1 Small Orange (or 2 Tablespoons Orange juice)

Zest of 1 Small Orange

1 cup grated zucchini (you don’t need to peel the zucchini before grating it unless you are trying to hide it.)

Preheat oven to 35o°. Grease and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan; set aside.

In large bowl, blend flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In your stand mixer bowl, beat 2 eggs well, then add canola oil and sugar, and blend well. Then add the buttermilk, orange juice, and orange zest and zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture. Add the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl slowly and on low (or you’ll have a mess to clean up) and blend everything together, but don’t over mix.

Pour batter into prepared 9×5″ loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely. While loaf is cooling, you can make the glaze…

ORANGE GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar

Juice of 1 Small Orange (or 2 Tablespoons Orange juice)

In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until well blended. Spoon the glaze over cooled loaf. Let glaze set, serve.

 Adapted from NancyCreative.com

Have fun Cookin'

Cyndi

Peach and White Chocolate Chip Scones

Peach and White Chocolate Chip Scones

Ok, so being from Utah these are not your normal "Utah" Scones.

While shopping a while back I stopped at our local bread store and they had "lemon scones" they were sampling, they were amazing. So last week when we peeled what was left of the peaches my in-laws had given us, I stuck them in the fridge, and all week all I have thought about what to make with them and this has been in the back of my mind, scones with peaches, and white chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour

½ cup Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

Zest from one Lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

4 tbsp Butter

¾ cup Milk

½ cup pureed Peaches

1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

½ cup chopped Dried Peaches

1/2 cup White Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest together it a mixer. Cut up the butter in small pieces and then add to the flour mix and mix it till it is in small pieces. In a blender  puree about ½ C canned peaches then add the milk, pour ½ of into the flour mix and mix together. Then add the rest and the cranberries, chopped peaches and chocolate chips and mix gently and only until it is all mixed, do not over mix it will make them tough.

Lightly flour a clean surface, split the mix in two and put the dough balls onto the floured surface. Flatten and mold them into two round discs, cut them into 8 slices.

Arrange on the baking sheet, you can get them close together, but make sure they are not touching. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until they are slightly golden. Take out of the oven, let cool on the baking sheet (this helps to keep them cooking) for 10 minutes then you can glaze them.

Glaze:

¾ cup Powdered Sugar

1-2 tbsp Lemon Juice- see below

Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl, add 1 tbsp lemon juice, add a little if it does not run well,  mix with a fork, drizzle the glaze on the scones.  Wait a few minutes and drizzle some more, and repeat. If you put it all on at once you will end up with a puddle of glaze below.

I'm pretty excited to snack on these this week for breakfast. 

Hope you have fun Cookin'

Cyndi

Salmon Dinner

My 1st attempt at cooking Salmon.

Wow sorry about the gap between posts.  Guess you can tell I've been busy, this new job really picks up in the summer. That plus all the work getting the Davis County Fair's Dutch Oven Cook-off pulled off. Well that's another post.....

Any way at the fair we had a gentleman doing Dutch-oven Demos, he recently took a trip to Alaska and brought back some salmon, which he cooked at the demo then let everyone sample it.  I was hooked (pun intended).

So grocery shopping the other day they had a managers special on salmon. (Reel me in) Now remember from previous posts, my husband does not like seafood, (his loss). I picked up some chicken for him. So here is how I prepared my melt in your mouth salmon....

1st I flexed each fillet to make sure they were free of bones, there was only one I had to pull, so not too bad. I placed the fillets in a bowl, sprinkled them with salt, pepper, lemon pepper, dill, a little minced garlic and a drizzle of olive oil. Then I let them sit while I prepare the rest of dinner.

Dilly potatoes, I took my mandolin slicer and sliced up about 6 potatoes, rinsed them, and placed them around an 8" cast iron skillet, seasoned them with a little salt and pepper, then some minced garlic and chopped onion. I melted 1/2 Cup of butter and drizzled over the top of the potatoes and put them into a 450 degree oven for about 45 minute to 1 hour. Pulled them out and topped them with a little Colby Jack cheese. If you have bacon, yep, you can add some crumbled on the top.

Then I prepared the hubby's portion of dinner, salt, pepper, lemon pepper, dill, sprinkled on top of 2 Chicken breasts that I pounded to 1/4" (even size means even cooking). In the bottom of a Cast Iron I heated up about 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 tablespoon chopped onion, once that started to sizzle I added the chicken breasts and cooked till the were golden brown over a medium high heat.

In another Cast Iron Skillet (yes I have 3 does that surprise you?) you could also use a Dutch Oven, heat about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium high heat and place the salmon in the oil, moving it around, to making sure it doesn't stick, cook for a minute or two in then flip and cook for another minute, turn at least twice.

 I stuck a thermometer in mine, cause I'm kinda picky like that, and it temped at 130 degrees, I pulled them from the pan and put them on a plate with a little pat of butter.

I served them with lemon wedges. They melted in your mouth. I will be making this again, maybe when the hubby is at the cabin. (wink).

Try something new, taste something new, expand your food views, you may be pleasingly surprised.
Have Fun Cookin'
Cyndi

Dutch Oven Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs

I have been toying with the idea of cream puff for a dessert for a while, I wanted to master them in the oven 1st, then try them in a Dutch Oven, so last week Andrew and Becka tried a couple different recipes - Becka had bragging rights on her recipe so she was coaching Andrew yesterday, "do this, now this" until he told her to "just go away." Well we learned that humidity does not play well with cream puffs. This picture does them no justice - when they were baking they looked perfect, so perfect in fact that we pulled them from the coals and set them on the table turned our backs to put the lid lifter and gloves down and a spectator, reached right in the pot and helped herself to one, before they were cooled or filled. It was very interesting to say the least. 


But while we were waiting for them to cool a nice little summer shower decided to move in and the humidity caused them to collapse, so in filling them we added additional filling to "puff" them up. This is a recipe in progress but it just shows that you really can make just about anything in a Dutch - Oven.

Cream Puffs

Puffs:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

Cream Filling:

16 oz heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 small vanilla pudding mix

Puffs:

Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add water and bring to a boil. Add flour and salt. Over medium-high heat, stir vigorously until a dough ball is formed. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Begin beating vigorously again while adding eggs one at a time. Beat until completely combined and smooth. Drop puff dough by rounded teaspoonfuls, 2-inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden puffs are formed. Cool on sheets on wire rack.

Cream Filling:

Beat whipping cream, vanilla and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Stir in dry pudding mix. Chill

Make Cream Puffs:

Insert Piping tip into puff and fill with 1 tablespoon cream filling. Serve immediately or freeze. ~~~OR~~~ Cut 1/4 off of top of each puff. Remove inner soft dough. Fill each bottom with 1 tablespoon cream filling. Cover with top. Serve immediately or freeze.

Garnish  ~  Dust with powdered sugar

Have fun Cookin'

Cyndi