Campfire Biscuits/Vacation

Yes, we are back but while I catch up around here, I will be doing short posts about our vacation.

While we were at Black Hawk Memorial Park, I cooked for the first time with my Lodge dutch oven.

While I can cook with propane while camping I have been concerned if we can't or don't have propane about putting meals on the table.

So this was my first attempt.

Biscuits ready to go on. 8 coals under the oven. 16 on top. In hind sight, I would have tried to elevate the pan more from the bottom of the oven perhaps inverting another pan under the biscuit pan

Cooking away. Took about 12 minutes for these to cook. Rather simple recipe as well.

1 tbsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water (dissolve these 2 together)

add
3/4 cup reconstitued powdered milk
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
3 cups flour
(I would add an egg to this recipe as well to make it better)

Allow to rise for a couple hours in a warm sunny place, covered.
Makes 10 -12 biscuits.

The bottoms were a tad over done, but they were tasty with some sausage gravy over them.

And now for the gratitous cute Bear photo.

His first swimming experience!

He loves swimming now! The leash is because he doesn't really come well yet but loves being in the water!

Chocolate Raspberry Jam To Die For!

Okay so its not pretty, but fruit and chocolate seriously? you can't go wrong!

Gather your materials.

6 cups raspberries (I threw some strawberries in there for good measure)

4 cups sugar

1 box low sugar pectin

5 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup Dark Chocolate cocoa powder

Mash your berries and start bringing them to a low boil. Mix the cocoa powder and pectin. *Cuss loudly because you spilled some on the counter*

Once the raspberries are at low boil, add the cocoa powder and pectin mixture.

Stir well.

*Stop to say aloud and to the dog and anyone randomly listening thru hidden mics (just kidding) Wow, that looks like baby....*

Bring back to a rolling boil for 20 min. Makes 3 pint jars or 6 half pint jars. Waterbath for 15 minutes. Make sure you taste it before you can it, it may not make it to the canning stage if you do!

While it is in the water bath, click the link on the side of this postK's Fajita Seasoning and gather the ingredients.

Be sure to duck as the spices come falling out of the 3 little cabinets that you have to store food in.

Sneeze several times from the peppers.

Place in a mason jar for later use!

By the way, did you know that the tops from parmesan containers screw on perfectly to mason jars?

Raspberry Pecan Jam

Ambitious this morning after finally getting a night's sleep. Bear has developed this new habit of wanting to go lay down outside in the middle of the night. He barks when he wants to go out. Night before, I didn't get to sleep til close to 430 am and up with him again at 630 am. The training collar seems to be helping though I still have to get up to tell him No and to go back to sleep but less times last night.

Anyway, made Raspberry Pecan Jam this morning. This is the first year that our bushes have really produced and I am picking a little over a quart a day with no end in sight. Still plenty of green berries on the bushes.

Recipe is your basic jam recipe.

Raspberry Pecan Jam
4 quarts of Raspberries (roughly 6 1/2 cups)
2 cups of sugar
1/2 package of powdered pectin
scant tbsp of water
tbsp of lemon juice
1 cup of ground pecans

Combine everything but the pecans in a pot. Bring to boil and allow to boil for 20 min. (220 on candy thermometer). Last 5 minutes add the ground pecans.

Process in hot sterilized canning jars (pints) for 15 minutes at a rolling boil. Makes 4 pints.

It's like a peanut butter jelly sandwhich in a jar! Makes a impressive Christmas gift as well.

Mozarella stuffed Meatballs (or Mock Applebees Dinner)

I have a confession, I enjoy eating out too much! But we end up disappointed every time we go out to eat. You would think we were food critics the way we tear apart the meal and talk about how much better we could do it at home and for alot less.

Last month Applebees had a special 2 for 20 on their mozarella stuffed meatballs with spaghetti. The taste was okay but I was disappointed with the meatballs, they just lacked that oozy cheeseyness. Last night I decided to see if I could make them better.

I started with my meatball mix.

Beth's meatloaf mix

2lbs of ground beef

2 healthy tbsp chopped garlic (more like 1/4 cup)

dash of powdered onion

handful  of dried oregano, sage and basil

3 whole eggs

3/4 cup of breadcrumbs.

Mix and leave to set in fridge for an hour or two. I find this enchances the seasonings, don't know why.

To make the mozarella stuffed meatballs, cube mozarella cheese. Start out with a small half meatball, like a mini patty. Press the cheese into the center of it then add another half meatball on top, and press closed.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and saute the meatballs on each side just to brown.

Add drained meatballs to a crock pot of sauce ( I used 2 batches of homemade spaghetti sauce this time) and allow to simmer on medium for 2 hours. This allows the meatballs to finish cooking since all you are doing with the oil is browning them.

Top cooked spaghetti with meatball sauce mixture and voila dinner!

From this batch, we got 2 healthy sized dinners, and 3 boxed lunches for later and enough meatballs leftover to do a meatball sub later on. These freeze well when partial cooked.

You can see the oozy melty cheese escaping from the meatball!

Beth and Bear! Who by the way loved his meatball plain!