[a view from my morning walk]

So recently I’ve been excited about a few things.  They are pretty random but I wanted to share them with you.  I sat down to write them all in one blog post and it got really long so I broke them up into individual blog posts.

1.  As a birthday present to myself I bought myself a 9qt cast iron dutch oven.

As it’s been getting “cooler” here, (it’s 84 and there is a nice breeze, which means a light sweatshirt at night) I’ve been wanting some “wintery” meals.  I’m excited to be able to cook one meal and have it provide leftovers as well.  We share a kitchen with 2 other married couples, which means making meals is at times a traffic jam.

We got a slow cooker for our wedding, and we only used it once or twice.  I remember distinctly the meal tasting like the lining of the slow cooker which was a huge turn off that made me wonder what the heck kind of chemicals I was ingesting.    So since I really like the cast iron pan that we have, and cast iron is non toxic, I decided to go the dutch oven route.

I also am excited about it because I also have a turkey frier on the mainland, and Thanksgiving makes me want to fry a turkey.  I can’t justify bringing the giant turkey frier out here when we already have limited space.  I cant fit a whole turkey in my 9qt dutch oven, but I will definitely be frying up some cajun rubbed turkey breasts this Thanksgiving.

I got it in the mail and cleaned it and put a coat of oil on it and found a new home for it on one of our shelves.  It’s a lot wider than I thought it would be and not as deep, but I’m excited to cook some stuff up in it soon!  I think this Kalua Pig will be my maiden voyage with the dutch oven.  It looks easy enough and its in honor of my Hawaiian living

Do you have a dutch oven?  What are some of your go to dutch oven recipes?  Let us know in the comments